Home A1C Test

If you have diabetes, then you have to regularly have your A1C tested. This is a blood test that measures the level of blood glucose (or blood sugar) you've had over the last three months. Up until this year I always had to depend on the local lab to give me the test, until I found a way online via a video by Beat Diabetes to test it myself using my blood glucose meter and some math.

First, some disclaimers: I have not worked in the medical profession since the 1980's, and I cannot give you medical advice; this is just something I do to stay on top of my diabetes. Also, this is an averaged A1C and should not be used as a substitute for a lab test ordered by your physician. Finally, you should compare your results to your lab-tested A1C to assure you're getting the right readings from your meter.

You do five glucose tests in one day to get your averaged A1C. Here's the schedule:

1. Just after waking up
2. One hour after lunch
3. Three hours after lunch
4. One hour after dinner
5. Just before you go to sleep

Once you have all five numbers, here's the formula to average your blood glucose: Add the five numbers together. Divide the total by 5. Add 46.7. Divide by 28.7, and the answer you get is your home A1C.

Here are the ranges for A1C results:

Normal level: 5.7 or below
Prediabetes: 5.7 to 6.4
Diabetes: 6.5 or above.

As my diabetes is controlled with diet and exercise as well as meds I perform my home A1C test about once a month. My results are almost always on target, but it's simply reasssuring to me to know I'm on track with controlling my blood glucose. Remember to keep a record of your home A1C tests to track how you're doing with managing your diabetes, and give a copy of your results to your physician when you go in for your checkup.

Image credit: Tesa Robbins from Pixabay

Pondering the Final Finish Line

I have been thinking about when I will stop writing for income, which I had planned to do at 67, the age I'm eligible for full social security benefits. Up until this year it seemed like a fuzzy, not very important deadline, but with my limitations increasing I probably need to adjust my finish line to 65, the age I qualify for Medicare. That's about a year and nine months from now.

Before I say anything else I'm pretty sure if I can I will keep on writing until the very end. I can't imagine a life where I don't write. I'll either post it online or leave it for my heirs along with all my other unpublished writing. That said, it is possible that I will not be able to do what I want to due to diabetes stage three: dementia, which also made my mom incapable of writing in her final years. Alzheimer's disease, a form of dementia, destroyed my dad's mind almost entirely before he died. There may be other conditions that prevent me from writing, too.

During my first pro career as a writer for various reasons I was not able to finish several series. Readers have often asked that I go back and write the books that were left behind and self-publish them. If it were a year or two past I probably could, but I am very different from the writer who 24 years ago had her first series shut down by NY (that one I was able to complete a few years later after they got some confidence in me.) Also, while I'm sympathetic to the readers, I have no interest in revisiting those universes. When they told me to stop and do something else, I dealt with the ego blow and did, so I've moved on. Honestly, if the series had been that popular, I never would have had to shut them down.

It's sad to think about this stuff, but I've written a lot of stories since the first one 55 years ago. Yes, I've been writing that long. :) For the last 25 years I've written pretty much daily. Writing is so much a part of my life I generally schedule everything else around it. My family does come first, but even when I'm working for them I'm thinking about the writing I need to do. Anyway, the point is that I have written enough to satisfy basically anyone's expectations of what a writer should produce. Anyone but me, I guess.

If I can, however, I will write until I take my last breath. If there is a heaven for me, it will be a place where I can write forever.

Nope

When Pantone announced Mocha Mousse as their color of the year for 2025, I was not just underwhelmed again, as you can see from my rename. Baby poop brown, okay. Guess calling it a dessert makes it more palatable. Kona will save me with their choice, right?

Nope. They picked Mom's favorite shade of purple for 2025.

So that I'm not always thinking about changing diapers or tearing up and missing my mom, I am picking my own color of the year: Beachcombing Magazine's sea foam.

Image credit: The third image in the post was copied from Beachcombing Magazine's article about sea foam colored sea glass, which is linked (and super interesting.)

Rethinking Breakfast

Over the spring and summer I tried intermittant fasting, but it just didn't work for me. I was hungry all morning (my most active time of day) and tired, which is never a good thing. It did help my blood glucose numbers, but not significantly. I also gained weight rather than losing it because I ate too much during the time I was allowed to eat, which I think is mainly why fasting didn't work for me. So I started tinkering on my diet plan again.

All diabetics have special concerns with foods, and since I'm trying to control my disease with diet and exercise I can't eat like most people do. I don't use sugar, and avoid products that have it added. I limit myself to a max of 25 grams of carbs per day, which eliminates most bread and other baked products. I also have to abstain from eating potatoes, which jack up my blood glucose like crazy. I don't have the same problem with rice, but I still limit that and other grains.

Some diabetic trivia: Did you know that corn is a grain, not a vegetable? It's used to make the much-dreaded high fructose corn syrup, which is 100% glucose. But boiled corn is just 52 on the glycemic index, so if you're fairly stable like me it's okay to have a little now and then (always check with your diabetes doctor or nutritionist to be sure.)

Since stopping intermittant fasting I try to eat smarter and get in three small meals a day versus skipping one and eating too much. Here's what I ate for breakfast this morning: scrambled egg beaters = 2 eggs, two links of chicken sausage, two slices of almond flour bread that I baked myself, and a small glass of low-sugar cranberry-grape juice. It looks like a lot of food, but it's only 422 calories, which I can work off when I walk my dogs. Here are the nutritional details for each ingredient:

Egg beaters: 6 tablespoons, 50 calories total, 5 grams protein, no carbs, no cholesterol, no sugar.
Chicken Sausage: 2 links, 50 calories total, 30 mg cholesterol (10% of RDR), 4 grams of protein, no carbs, no sugar.
Homemade almond bread (recipe here): 2 small slices, 262 calories total, 6 grams carbs, 5 grams protein, 12 grams unspecified fat, no sugar.
Cranberry-grape juice: 10 calories, 1 gram carb, 1 gram sugar.
Not pictured: 1 tablespoon of plant-based margarine that I put on the almond bread: 50 calories, no carbs, no sugar, no cholesterol.

The whole meal has just 7 grams of carbs and 1 gram of sugar, with 14 grams of protein (protein is really important for a healthy body, but for diabetics we need to stay in the 14 to 21 grams per meal range.) After I eat this breakfast my blood glucose level usually drops, too, so it's a very good breakfast option for me. I'm also full after eating it and not tempted to snack before lunch. That's half the battle with any diet, avoiding snacking.

Cheap Supplies

Back in November I came across a lot of art supplies with a set of paint I wanted, and won it for the minimum bid with no challengers. Let's see how I made out.

It's an eclectic mix of painting, sewing and stenciling items that are even more intriguing unboxed.

The project bin was full of painting and embroidery stencils, sports stickers and some miscellaneous things.

The 72 watercolor paints set was never used, as the tubes are still sealed. It retails for $20 to $30. It had a lot of colors, which is why I was okay bidding on this lot.

There's a Fons & Porter wool table rug kit with no instructions (evidently they were in an issue of their magazine) from 2002 marked $25.00.

It's completely intact, so if I can find the instructions online somewhere I'll make it.

I also got seven yards of this brand-new cotton cheater cloth.

Altogether the lot is easily worth $150.00 retail. I paid $20.00 for everything. Savings $130.00.

Choice

South Korea finally did something to get back in my good graces: they remade Go Ahead, one of the first Chinese dramas I ever watched (and loved) into their romantic drama Family By Choice, starring one of my favorite actors Hwang In-youp (who was brilliant as always), Jung Chae-yeon (a very luminous and talented young lady) and Bae Hyun-sung (another inspired choice) as the two brothers and sister who are not blood related but via tragedy are brought up together as siblings with two fathers (Choi Won-young, one of my favorite older male South Korean actors, and Choi Moo-sung, who stole every scene he was in.)

The drama stays faithful to the story for the most part, although it tidies it up and condenses it so that it can be told in 16 episodes. It's done beautifully, and the trio of actors who play the brothers and sister worked so well together and in their roles that they floored me. Hwang In-youp was absolutely perfect as San-ha, the tortured and abused son of an evil narcissistic controlling bitch of a woman who blames him for all her mistakes before she abandons him and his father. Bae Hyun-sung is a new-to-me actor, but he was so perfect Hae-jun I can't think of anyone else who could have portrayed a troubled, terrified little boy abandoned by his mother, who shortly thereafter goes to prison, forcing her son to be raised by strangers. Between the two boys is Ju-Won, the motherless little girl who just wants a brother and is everyone's ray of sunshine.

I cried through this drama so many times my eyes are still red. It's that good. I knew the story so there weren't any surprises for me and still I held my breath at the crises points. This is a wonderful, emotional, wildly romantic drama. but most of all it reminded me of how fortunate I am that I was able to rid myself of all the toxic narcissistic people who just used and abused me in the name of family. Building a new family and surrounding myself with people who genuinely love me is the best present I ever gave myself.

Family by Choice is, hands down, the best drama I've seen in a couple of years -- maybe since Happiness. Available on Viki.com.

Again with the Wannabuts

A friend asked me to source fifteen yards of thrifted fabric for a beginner textile art class she's teaching at her community center. Any type of fabric will do, she said, if I can stay within her tiny budget, which resulted in a new round of wannabuts (thrifts I want but only at the minimum price.) Whatever is left over will be gifted to the students.

Here's the first fabric lot, which includes what looks like some vintage embroidered pieces. It's 11 lbs., which is roughly 33 yards, so there should be plenty for her to work with in the class.

The second lot is more quilting cottons, with obviously new pieces judging by the tags. This lot is 6 lbs., or approximately 18 yards.

I already know I probably won't get this 12 lbs. box of quilting cottons, but I thought I'd give it a try. There are probably 36 yards of fabric in there. Stay tuned to the blog to find out if I win any!

All the images in this post came from the original auction listings at ShopGoodwill.com.