Sunday, January 2, 2011

年の卯

Happy New Years, reader! It's the year of the rabbit, which means... Well, I don't really know. I don't pay a whole heck of a lot to the zodiac. I only did when I was in fifth grade, and really into Fruits Basket.

Anyway, did you make a New Years resolution? I know I did, I came up with four, in fact!
1. Take better care of my skin. It's not awful, but according the woman at the spa who gave me a facial the other day, I have, "Scattered breakouts due to dry skin, and then overproduction of oils." That just kind of sounds gross, and clear skin is always a nice thing to have, so I'm going to get into a better skin care routine this year.
2. Read the Bible front to back. It'll probably help understand Christianity a bit more, or at least I think it would.
3. Don't be stupid. What I do in high school counts, and the people in my life right now certainly have an impact on me, so any major mistake could turn me on a path for the worse.
4. Now this one I hadn't originally thought of, but I spent New Years Eve with a few of my friends, and well, girl will be girls. We spent most of the night gossiping about boys or prospecting couples. (To think we stayed up until four!) We all made a resolution that in 2011, we would get boyfriends!

Χρόνια πολα! I wish you many years to come!
~Larz

Monday, December 27, 2010

Album Review: Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchel

A folk-opera based on Greek mythology? Well gee, I'm automatically interested!

My cousin burned this album on to a CD for me when I was visiting on Christmas day. I trust her taste in music firmly, and was more then willing to give Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchel a listen.

Hadestown is a concept album, the plot being a variation of the myth 'Orpheus and Eurydice'. In the album, the two title characters are newlyweds, young and in love. But times are hard and gettin' harder, and they can't afford wedding bands or even a bed. Orpheus promises that with his voice, he can convince the birds and river to help them out, but promises such as that aren't enough for Eurydice. She's hungry, and she ends up getting lured into Hadestown by the king Hades himself, under the impression that Hadestown is some sort of paradise. Now it's to Orpheus to save his woman from the dark depths of Hadestown!

The album features orchestral arrangements by Michael Chorney. Orpheus is played by Justin Vernon, Eurydice by Anaïs Mitchel, Persephone by Ani DiFranco, and Hades by Greg Brown. Besides the great idea and wonderful cast of artists, the music itself is brilliant. Flowing, enticing, and ear-pleasing, Hadestown overall is a brilliant album. Publications such as Drowned in Sound and The Gaurdian gave it the highest rating possible, and NME gave it a 9/10.

I cannot recommend this album enough. GO BUY IT NOW, YOU FOOLS.

~Larz

The Christmas Post

Hey there, reader. How was your Christmas?

Mine was all right. I didn't get much, but there was nothing I didn't like a lot, which is better then just getting a ton of crap I'll never need/use. My mom was so kind to egg on my Anglophilia  by getting me a year's subsription to Q, my favorite British music mag which I would otherwise pay $10 in stores to get, not to mention, I'm now a baroness!

Ever heard of the micro-nation Sealand? Probably not. Well, it's this abandoned sea for of the coast of England that declared it's independence in 1967. It's pretty tiny, with only 60 or so residents and 275 meters of property. It's got its own government, passport stamp, and is an official principality. To spread the word of Sealand and gain economic support, it sells royalty titles for 29 pounds. (You can go here for more info on Sealand.) That's right, my main Christams gift was a baroness title. Unfortunately, the certificate is taking a little while longer to come across the pond then expected, so I don't have proof yet, but I'll be sure to put up a picture of the certificate when it comes.

I spend the day of Christmas with my mom's family. It was hectic, but that's to be expected with 8 people and 3 young boys scrambling about in my grandma's apartment.

So, what did you do for Christmas? How did you celebrate it and with whom?

~Larz

P.S. Sorry for not updating on Sunday like I'm supposed to. I'm still not used to this! To make up for it, I'll be putting up a second post later on today. Thanks for your patience!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

What A Bother

You know, having type 1 diabetes has never really impeded upon my life in any way. I've always done what I want to do, and diabetes just came along with it. Not to mention, for a teenager, my A1C is pretty good. Yet on occasion there are those times when something goes wrong, and it takes a long time to rule out all the other variables and figure out what the issue is, let alone actually fix it.

It all started on Monday, when I woke up nauseous and my blood sugar was 411. I regarded it as a random mishap, and wasn't surprised when the number came down to a reasonable level by lunch. Yet it spiked back up from there, and so began the increasing struggle to hold down my numbers. My mom and I decided to correct via syringe, change the infusion site, and hope for the best.

Other then those crazy numbers, I had a perfectly ordinary day. I didn't let the unsolved problem get in my way. I celebrated my mom's birthday and then in the evening we went out to see the Tourist, as she has a huge celebrity crush on Johnny Depp. At the movies I ran into some kids from my school, and that was fun, too. Except only my blood sugar spiked up again, but I didn't let it ruin the movie for me.

My blood sugar came down a few hours later, and I happily went to bed afterwords. My mom wanted me to check ketones, which is perfectly reasonable and could have been the reason why I was being so insulin resistant, but to be honest I couldn't urinate, and so we left it at that.

On Wednesday morning I woke to the upper 300's, and was finally, seriously concerned. My blood sugars hadn't been this consistently bad ever, not counting when I was first diagnosed. I checked ketones, and the little strip turned a dark pink, almost purplish color. Reading the key, apparently I had 'high ketones'. Now that was a major issue because it meant that my body was extremely insulin resistant, and if I didn't get a handle on that things could get bad. I'm talking, diabetic ketoacidodsis, you need to be hospitalized, kind of bad.

In the mean time, that afternoon I was supposed to spend the night at my friend's house. I was quite excited about this because we planned to spend the entire night playing Kingdom Hearts II. But of course, conditions had been set. I would have to cancel if I didn't get my ketones down to a nomral level by noon.

So I drank lots of water, didn't eat anything after breakfast, and hoped for the best. My nurse practitioner at Joslin Diabetes center in Boston called in a prescription for blood ketone strips, which I was extremely thankful for because it meant I no longer had to pee in a cup in order to check ketones.

At noon my ketones were 0.4, which was within the normal range of 0.1 to 0.6. Yet my blood sugar was 316. It was a paradox, but despite the high blood sugar my parents begrudgingly allowed to go over my friend's house.

On top of all the craziness, my dad was starting to get stressed out as he does when things don't flow in a smooth, unproblematic way. His way of exhibiting his stress level is by his OCD increasing exponentially. Usually it's not that bad, but it is when he's stressed. He double checked that I was reading the labels of carbs correctly (come on dad, I can read numbers), and also double checked my mental calculation of the total carbs in my lunch (come dad, I can add in my head). All the while he's yelling to no one in particular about he has no time to do anything, when it's really his OCD that's getting in the way of his efficiency. Simple questions with one word answers are asked a 3rd, time even when answered firmly twice.

I was thankful to leave my home. I just wanted to escape the craziness of my house, of everyone worrying over my blood sugars and ketone levels.

At my friend's house, things went fine for a while. My blood sugars crept downwards, though I was still showing a lot of insulin resistance, and of course after dinner my numbers spiked yet again. Waking up in the morning at 456, it was decided that I was to be taken home early, and so here I am now. After my mom had quite a few talks with the folks over at Joslin, we've come to the conclusion that the bottle of insulin we had been using had somehow 'gone bad'.  I don't really see how a man-made hormone could 'go bad', but it's the only thing left that it could be.

I have new insulin in my pump now, as well as an increased temporary basal rate so I get more insulin as time goes by. Hopefully this will all work, because now my ketones are at 2.8, and if we don't get a grip on it soon, I'm spending Christmas in the hospital. Well, I'll just have to wait and see. I check my blood sugar again at noon.

Through out all the craziness, I haven't once gotten stressed. I'm kind of beyond it at this point. (Besides, increased stress = increase blood sugar.) I figured that I shouldn't let it get me down, even if I am having some serious issues. I'll be upset if it gets to the point where I do have to go to the hospital, though of course I'll never show it in front of those guys.

So basically the past three days, for the first time, my diabetes has been quite the bother. Are there times in your life when something that's supposed to run smoothly suddenly break down? And if so you break down and get upset about it? How do you deal with the stress, or do you just push it away like I've somehow managed to do? I'd like to hear your thoughts. :)

~Larz

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Obligatory Intro Post Is Obligatory

Hi, there new reader. I thought it would be more professional if I told a little about myself before I started blogging, rather then putting out posts out of the blue.

I've had two blogs here before. They were both immature. The first was about strange happenings in my life, in a kind of down-to-earth-yet-funny David Sedaris style. (Before I knew who David Sedaris is, mind you.) The second was about my experiences in a Muse free world, where most people either hated the band or simply didn't know. That one made me sound like a whiner.

I hope to use this blog as my thinking space, so pardon if I say things that offend you on occasion. Expect anything from teenage-angst filled rants to philosophical ponderings to music reviews. Expect a post every Sunday, as it's my only day off and therefore the only time I'm guaranteed a good chunk of, well, time. However, if like now I'm on vacation, I'll update any time something good comes to mind.

I hope this blog doesn't sputter out quickly to nothingness like the other two did!
~Larz