National Diabetes Blog Day!

Yeah I know. I'm a slacker. I can't seem to find the time to write these.
So much has happened since the last blog that I have no idea where to start so I will give some brief highlights.
* I am one of 12 runners up for Nick Jonas's simple inspirations contest which means I will have my picture out in a calendar that will be motivation for newly diagnosed kids. To read my words click here.
*I received a good bill of health from my doctor this weekend at my endocrinologist appointment. My blood sugars have been amazing the last couple of days ranging from 90-140 no highs and no lows! It is rare that this ever happens.
*I received an award from the American Legion Auxiliary in recognition of my community service.
*Speaking of service I have 160 of community service hours done to reach my goal of 300 by June of next year!
*I have started ACT classes through a local learning center.For 4 hours every Saturday for 6 weeks I get to spend my morning learning the tips and tools to take the ACT.
*The ACT approved my accommodations which means that whenever I need to use the restroom, test, or eat they will stop the clock which will be nice.

*I have recently gone on two college visits. One to Regis University in Denver which would be awesome to be so close to my diabetic support system and not to mention they have an outstanding school and nursing program. The other Visit was to the University of Iowa which followed my doctors appointment there. It was interesting seeing a large school.
* I finished my 3rd half marathon in Denver with my diabetic friend Zyler. He is 12 years old and had a lot of determination to finish.
*Last weekend I got to see my diabetic friend Karlee, who plays volleyball for Michigan, play against Nebraska and Iowa. She has taught me a great deal about life and I couldn't thank her enough for being a positive role model to me.
*Cross country is over. I had a fantastic season filled full of fun times spent with friends. My teammates and coaches where supportive and so helpful when it came to my diabetes. My coaches stationed themselves along the race course with kits in case I went low.

Well I'm sure I missed some events but those are the main ones, now on to my actual blog.

A big theme in my life lately has been stress and nerves with and around diabetes. Like I said before we have been on the topic of college and with that comes stress on how to manage my diabetes alone at night. I have never been one to wake up with a low blood sugar and if I do it is once in a blue moon. What do we do when I am on my own possibly hundreds of miles away from my parents? I have such tight control with my diabetes that lows are quite commons and especially at night time. This is something we will have to work to find a solution to whether it be setting alarms and training myself to wake up or maybe new technology will be coming out! This school year has been challenging for the fact that it has been hard to focus and learn in school when I have a bad bg. I am taking strides to prevent this from happening but we all know that bgs arent perfect 24/7. I have to face this issue like any other and work with my teachers to find solutions to this. If it is during a test I find a later time to take it, if it notes in a class I work with my teacher or a tutor. Everyone is very understanding and I am blessed to have teachers that will put sticky notes on the top of tests or on their computers to remind me to check my bg before a test.
I hope that these issues I face can help others in their life with diabetes and that when younger kids get to this point they will be prepared or at least now what battles lie ahead.

Nearly my whole summer in one blog?!

As I sit here I think of how I can possibly nearly my whole summer into a blog but I will try.

1. Mountain Climb.

At the top of the 14er

Brian, Me, Zyler, and Erin

~For the second summer in a row I climbed a 14er. It was an great time climbing with 3 of my closest diabetic friends and their families they are just simple
awesome and I love them!

2. Diabetes Camp.

~ Another awesome year at camp. I got to go on an overnight backpacking trip with 3 other teen diabetic boys, 3 med staff, and 2 eagle lake counselors. The hike lead us down into a canyon that was absolutely gorgeous! We found many streams and waterfalls which by the way are my favorite things in the world. Then to top it all of we slept out under the stars and yes that means no tents, just our sleeping bags and the great outdoors! I also conquered my fear of scrambling which can be defined as climbing over a lot of lose rocks. The whole teen camp went white water rafting again this year and I enjoyed it a whole lot more this time. Even though the water was high I felt a lot safer and didn't find it that bad at all. This was my 7th year in a row going to diabetes camp and I can't believe that I only have one year left. Its going to be sad but then I will get to be on med staff so yay for that! Going to camp for me is like being with my second family we are all in the same boat and for a short time we are the majority instead of the minority.

3. Diabetic Hangout

Zylers hand :)

Best Friends :)

~The week after camp was set aside to spend time with Zyler, Erin, and Brian along with their families. I think I was just as excited for this as I was for camp. It started off with a fishing trip with Brian, his friend Mark, Zyler, Brian's two dogs, and me.  We left Brian's at the weeeee hours of the morning and headed to a lake up in the mountains a couple of hours away. When we got to the lake it was covered in fog which I personally though was beautiful. It was a fun relaxing day out on the water.
Erin is a big fan of Harry Potter I mean big. She was looking forward to going to the midnight showing of the newest Harry movie. Her mom and I were going to go to a different showing while she saw it at midnight. In preparation for this I had to catch upon my harry potter by watching multiple movies and asking Erin a lot of questions but by the end I knew what was going on. I loved Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
My last night in Denver was spent at Zyler's house celebrating his mom Melissa's birthday. All in all it was an outstanding week.
 
 4. Medical Camp
~I was privileged enough to be able to attend medical camp at one of our local hospitals college. We had so much hands on learning. We learned how to intubate, put a catheter in, start an IV, see the ICU, give ultrasounds, write college applications, conduct interviews, and give someone anesthesia. At the end of the week Coach John Cook came and spoke to us. The funny thing about the group was that out of 40 kids we had 4 diabetics. CRAZY!

 5. MY FAVORITE! HOBY!

My small group- B5
We represent Hong Kong, Taiwan, South
Korea, Canada, and the US

HOBY on the Bean

~No matter what I write here you will not understand how amazing of an experience I had. I have 402 best friends from 10 countries around the world now after attending the Hugh O'Brien World Leadership Congress in Chicago for 8 days. These kids taught me so much about what life has to offer. They showed more hope, excitement, and determination than I have ever seen before. The kids from South Korea see peace and unity between North Korea and them in the next couple of years and they are fighting for it. Ambassadors from Mexico are working to see their country grow and becoming safer.  These are not  your normal kids. They have been selected from millions of teens in their countries including our own to represent where they are from. It was (and still is as we all talk to each other every day) a special group of people.

We stayed at Loyola University right next to downtown Chicago. Everyday we had panels of speakers that would talk about topics ranging from volunteerism, religion, goal planning, team work, bullying and so so so much more. We had people who wrote books, started organizations, owned TV shows, and even work for the CSI . We met some famous people along the way including Tererai Trent and Jesse Jackson. The moment I heard we were hearing Tererai Trent speak I FREAKED OUT! I could not believe it. A couple months ago I saw Tererai on Oprah. I never ever ever watch her show but for some reason on this day I did. I was amazed by Tererai and her dreams, she made something that seemed impossible become a reality. I am now one of her 300 facebook friends. Yes she only has 300 when she could have 300,000. She is one of the most sincere and loving ladies in the world.
Here is a video of her story http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Tererai-Trents-Story-Video
and her is a video of what she is doing now and how oprah helped http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Oprahs-Surprise-For-Tererai-Video
Please watch these they are simply amazing!
The neat thing is that she has never spoken to anyone before except on Oprah so we were some pretty dang lucky kids.

Working on our Night the Light project

One of the days that we were there  we got to split up and volunteer around Chicago. Some kids set up an Alex Lemonade Stand  downtown, others volunteered at retirement homes, homeless shelters, and other various locations. My group stayed at Loyola and worked with an organization called Light The Night their work is simply amazing and it has grown close to my heart. PLEASE PLEASE check them out!
Here is a youtube video sharing some of their story http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN9x2nKwN2M&feature=related

At the banquet and dance

I can't even describe how World Leadership Congress changed my life. I learned so many lessons like every time I look at someone I tell myself to find something good about them to prevent me from judging and instead of asking a person "how are you?" I say "tell me something good?" then you get more than a one word response. The spirit I felt there is what impacted me the most. I feel closer to those 402 kids than I do most of my classmates. The kids at HOBY were OUTSTANDING (hoby word :) and yes it even has a cheer) they are making organizations such as this one my friend from Texas is working on http://www.facebook.com/DontLoseHopeOrganization or this one http://www.facebook.com/DontLoseHopeOrganization#!/pages/heARTS/235156706525937 they aren't just organizations that are being made and nothing done with them, they are actually reaching out into the community and making an impact.

Our pizza at the orchestra

Eating at Soilder Field

Some of the extra fun things we got to do were watch an orchestra downtown next to the Bean and eat Chicago's most famous pizza, have a banquet and dance at the end of Navy Pier, watch fireworks downtown, and eat lunch at Soilder Stadium. There is so much more to the trip but this blog will never end so I must stop myself.

At least once a week I skype my HOBY friends. One night I had Canada, Mexico, and the UAE all going at once.
No foreigners, Just neighbors....these are the words Jessie Jackson spoke to us.

This brings me to now. I am on my 3rd week of school and cross country. My memories haven't faded a bit but I wish I was still back at all of these places. I thank everyone who made my trips so special.

Hopefully my blogs won't be this long anymore.

I'm not perfect....

I would call it a slight  case of diabetes depression. Last week I got my A1c results back. I thought it might be higher because in the beginning of summer I had a week where I upper 200's for whatever reason. I also hadn't been running because of my surgery. These though are not excuses, I could have taken more initiative and made changes instead of waiting them out. The results of this was a A1c of 7.0, one of my highest ever. I have never rebelled against my diabetes or full on not taken care of it. I have to think on the positive side and remember that I have eliminated a lot of my lows which doesn't balance out that A1c as much but I am still mad. I have gotten back to my normal activity level the last couple of days and have even cut back my basal. Yesterday I ran between 70-80 most of the day but I forgot to dose for dinner and shot up to 330. I get stressed and everyone gets mad that I forgot but these things happen, I am not perfect and I make mistakes. It becomes a problem if I did this every day or if I did it on purpose. I don't and all I can do is try harder.

Back in the swing of things...

To start off with our donation drive for Joplin was a hug success! We received over $10,000 in donations that we delivered to the ADA chapter in Joplin. After we delivered the supplies I got to spend some time with Bethany who will be doing a half Ironman next year with Insulindependence. Bethany and her husband lost their house in the tornado but have handled it amazingly. I can not wait to see Bethany finish that Ironman!
A couple weeks ago I spent 9 days in California. I had an awesome time hanging out my favorite diabetics. Each one of them teaches  me lessons that I don't think they even realize. While I was out there I got to walk by the cliffs along the ocean  with Katie, go on a hike with Ashley and Katie, have dinner with the Insulindependence crew, go to Julian and the Padres game Michelle, take a tour of the largest hospital under construction in the U. S. with Ashley, and many many more things that you can view in this Video! I hate saying goodbye to them. They are the people that understand what I am going through the best. I realized the other day that a majority of the people in my life will never understand what a high or low feels like. I find this crazy since I seem to always be feeling one of those.
Two weekends ago I went to HOBY Nebraska with two of my classmates. We had an awesome time meeting representatives from schools across the state. We got to listen to some wonderful speakers. A point one of the speakers made was that if we have potential we should get ride of it. He said when he died he did not want his gravestone to read "had potential" but instead "all used up". I need to use all the God given gifts I have because not using them does no one good. The speaker went on to say that there is no point in asking why because you cant change the past, you can only better the future. I have never asked why I was given diabetes there really isn't any point. It will not take it away, and why wouldn't it be me? Instead I can better my future by using diabetes to my advantage and strive to be a role model for others. There was also an amazing video that was shown to us. Watch the whole thing :) Here is the Video
HOBY adopted my Joplin Drive as one of the service projects that we did during the weekend. In one hour we collected over $100 in cash and received more diabetes supplies as well. HOBY challenged us to do a 100 service hours by next year. In two weeks I have a little over 20 done and coming up this next week I am volunteering as an assistant for Bright Lights along with Vacation Bible School so that should give me another 30.
I am  also back to running! I did a 2 mile race last weekend that went extremely well. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I had cross country camp where we worked on technique. Then today I did a gorgeous 5k run out a Pioneers Park that got me pretty soaking wet from all of the rain.
I planted my annual garden last week which is one of my favorite activities of Summer :)

This post has been in my draft box for about a month now. I never seemed to find time to finish all of it and now the list of things to talk about keeps getting longer so I am finally going to finish this blog! Please bear with me as it may be long! :)

So yeah you know about that half marathon 4 weeks ago. The one that I was really nervous about. Yeah it didn't go quite as "good" as I thought it would. I mean I thought I would just have some bad cramping and still  finish. What happened was not something I could have ever expected. Chelsea and I were making good time. We were on pace to finish around 2:30. For some of you that is slow but for me that is pretty dang good. We were running along, got past the hills and the boring parts. We passed our friend Hannah's house where our friends were waiting for us. We stopped for a quick second. About a minute later we passed the 10k mark and in my mind I'm thinking this is my favorite part. We are on the count DOWN. This is where I pick up the pace and finish on the 50 yard line in Memorial Stadium (COOL RIGHT?!). About 20 yards past that 10k mark I knew something was wrong. My foot dropped and felt like it was being pushed down by cement. My calf muscles were rolling in my leg. I couldn't move my foot, I couldn't move my leg I knew this was bad. I was in a load of pain and it wasn't going away. I somehow fell to the ground and began screaming. Some runners stopped to help me. Chelsea went looking for help. Since we were so close to my friend Hannah's house we got in contact with them and they ran over to help. Since I couldn't move they had the ambulance come get me and take me to St. Elizabetes were they gave me pain meds and told me that I had compartment syndrome (DUH). They called one of my orthopedics and he said to go on crutches. This also meant that I get to have surgery this coming Thursday and I am NOT happy ( I actually got it 2 weeks ago) . This brings us to now. I got the surgery and have three scars on the lower part of my leg. My leg and foot were HUGE for about a week. I couldn't do the motion of walking

for quite awhile which frustrated me. They told me that I would still be on crutches till the middle of this week but Saturday I ditched them :). My perseverance worked and now I am walking normally even though my calf is still bruised and swollen. Today was also the first day that my foot didn't look like the size of Texas, it actually looks normal! No running for probably another 4 weeks! UGH ...

 Now to the exciting stuff !  Three weekends ago my parents and I went to St.George Utah to watch 10 of the Triabetes Captains in the Ironman. This weekend was amazing! We got into St. George around 3:30 after driving from Las Vegas where we flew in from (we didn't know there was a hour time difference between the two places). So we got there and got ready to eat with the captains and their triabuddies and all the family and friends that came! The dinner was filled with both happy and sad emotions. It wrapped up early so the athletes could get to bed as the next morning was going to be EARLY. I went 3 days in a row waking up around 4! This didn't mean I had to go to bed early though so I stayed up with the triabuddies and went swimming with them in the pool OUTSIDE yes it was warm outside a perfect temp none the less and I was not jealous of the weather my friends were having here in Nebraska! The parents talked while we played in the pool so it was a win win for all. The next morning we got up bright and early so that we could drive to a parking lot where there would be shuttles that would take us to the swimming portion of the Ironman. The lake that it was at was gorgeous as we saw the sun rise while we waited. The cut off for the swim was 2 hours and 20 minutes so we waited for everyone to come out of the water before we could be shuttled back. We went back to the hotel and ate lunch. While we were relaxing the athletes were biking 112 miles! Crazy! We all then got in a van and drove to the tent were we cheered on the racers as they did the full marathon run (26.2)  and passed by us 8 times! A lot of running, cheering, and clapping went on but before we saw the triabetes athletes Josiah one of the adult type 1's took 3 other kids and me up on a hike up some of the rocks that were nearby. The view was awesome and we got to see the first runners come through. We spent most of the day at the triabetes tent listening to music and cheering on the runners. At the end of the run it was hard to see the runners go through pain and start to hallucinate. I hate seeing people in pain. I found one runner siting on the side of the road oblivious as to what was going on. He was so close to the finish line but he couldn't go any farther, I stopped and gave him my glucose tabs and I think they ended up carting him to the medical tent. Only five of the triabetes captains made it to the run. Each one would come buy with people cheering them on, standing there helping them test their blood sugars, and continue running along the side with them.  Towards the end of the night when most of the fans had left and it had gotten dark I went up the course a was to a spot where nobody was. It was pitch black and I stood there in the dark cheering them on in a spot that seemed like it would suck to run through alone. I was waiting to see Brian. Brian hates running.  He had an awesome swim and bike but the run just isn't his thing. The amazing  thing is that Brian doesn't let this stop him he pushes through even when it sucks. I don't think I have ever prayed as much as I did when I was waiting for him to come by. Brian came by and he finished the Ironman with 10 minutes to spare. Everyone has to be done by midnight which gives you 17 hours to finish. The weekend was amazing and I truly learned that diabetes puts no limits on what you can achieve in life.

The next day after the Ironman we made a trip to the Hoover Dam which eventually lead



Bg at Hoover Dam!

 us the Grand Canyon (I wanted to see it and begged my parents) which we thought was a lot closer to the Hoover Dam than it was....oooppsss. The trip to the GC lead us on gravel roads through Indian reservations, there were also cows that roamed freely and would be in the middle of the street while you were going 60! It was cool to see though even if it was an hour and a half hours farther than we thought.

  

Other new developments-

School is out!  Monday and Tuesday consisted of four 90 min

ute classes each day so we could take finals, let me tell you every final I took I was using all 90 minutes! I normally have eight 45 minute classes in a day so it was a bit of a change but the day did seem to go faster. We had awards night where I received All Conference Academic Excellence, Academic Letter Award, and my National Honor Society award.

There was a time not that long ago when I thought that people that did cross country were crazy! I never ever thought I would ever do it! Well I am officially signed up to run cross country this fall and not play volleyball (GASP). This is a huge life style change. I have played volleyball since 3rd grade and have only run for like 9 months. Our CC team at our school is good they work hard and are one of the most successful sports at our school. I have decided to make this change because I see running as something I can greatly improve on and something I can do for the rest of my life. I am nervous and excited at the same time.Everyone on the team is really supportive and they seem to always be having fun. I hope I made the right decision.

There have been some huge natural disasters lately and decided I want to do something to help these people. I, schedule wise, cannot go out and personally help so after having a diabetic friend lose her house in Joplin MO I  made the decision to collect diabetes supplies and ship them to the people who need them the most. We are asking for any supplies weather it be money, batteries, testers, syringes, pump supplies, alcohol wipes, anything...

If you are interested in donating you can send items to 8111 Leighton Ave. Lincoln NE 68507... We would love and appreciate everyones help!

I am sure I have missed many things! I will keep you posted on my activities as summer gets into full swing!

Thanks for reading ~ Ash



Picture I took while leaving the GC...Pretty Gorgeous!



Diaversary and a new diagnosis...it is my time of the year!

For most people April is a happy month filled with the excitement of spring and a fresh start for years mine has been something quite contrary. It all began on April 29th 2004 ( yes I am writing about my diaversary early) when I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. In April of 2006 I had my tonsils taken out. In April 2007 was when I trashed out my knee and had my femoral-patellar tendon reconstruction. Skip a few years..... Now yet another! Which I will talk about later. It was funny when my mom and I went through and noticed this trend how crazy!

#1. 7 years WOW! To me it seems like yesterday and yet at the same tine 100 years ago. I observe, learn from, and question everything that happens in my life. Weird I know! It's something that I don't share with people normally. I just make mental notes of things and kind of go "oh that's interesting", but for this special occasion I thought I would share what I have observed, learned, and questioned about this disease that has affected my life so drastically. What have I learned and observed? Well to start off with I learned everything about what type one diabetes is (duhhh). I have learned that a common challenge or adversity can bring people of all locations (shout out to all my diabetics in California, Maryland, Michigan, Kansas, Minnesota, Florida, Colorado, Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, Washington D.C., Arizona, Hawaii and Washington...I am so lucky to know all of you!), personalities, races, sexes, and backgrounds together to become each others support system and even friends!  My Facebook "friend" list proves this fact. I remember talking at camp about what we all liked about diabetes camp. One of my friends responded with "I would have never expected to be friends with these people around me but I feel that my diabetes has opened up my eyes to being non judgmental about others because really we are all the same. We go through the same difficulties and struggles everyday and the rest doesn't really matter. We are a family." Second observation is that everything in life will work out in the end. If it doesn't seem like that things aren't working out then it isn't a over yet. Three, you are stronger than you think.  Four, accept the help of others. Five, you can do anything with the help of God for he will never give you more than you can handle if you put your trust in him. Six, I am learning everyday new reasons and purposes on why God blessed me with diabetes. Seven, you get out of life what you put into it! Seven perfect. Now the things I question. One, does God want us to really find a cure? Two, what would my life be like without diabetes? Three, how can people not control this disease and try to ignore it? Four, What caused my diabetes? Five, What will my future with diabetes be?
Next the question I get asked the most about...Aren't you afraid of dead in bed? My answer: I am not. I now know three people who have had this as their ending. I am not afraid of this because I know that EVERYTHING in my life is a part of God's plan. My diabetes-part of his plan. My future-part of his plan. I know the day I go to be with my father in heaven will be the best day of my life. That will be the day I will be free from pain, free from stress, free from diabetes. Don't let this scare you I'm not planning on this happening. I stay up some nights until 12 or 1 o'clock in the morning treating those low blood sugars refusing to go to bed anywhere close to low. Yes I know that we don't know the exact cause of it but this is my theory.
I asked the researcher that I followed around last week a question. I knew the answer too a long time ago but I felt that I needed to be sure of it. We were on the topic of Cure. I looked her dead in the eye and said "I will never be cured of diabetes will I?". She hesitated for a moment and confidently answered me back and said "I am nearly certain you will not". I had to hold back the tears at that time trying not to let them out so that she wouldn't feel bad for giving me the truth, but now that I sit her and write this I am crying. Why? I can't really answer that. I feel that a cure was something that was always promised to me. Doing the JDRF walks year after year reviving the excitement and hope for a cure. I have realized that's never going to be something that I will experience. I have and still will raise money for JDRF though because I know that if a cure is possible it will prevent diabetes from ever giving someone a diagnosis date. I don't want my friends or children to ever go through what I have.
Way up in the top part I talked about how April is my problematic month. On April 27, 2011 I was diagnosed with chronic exertion compartment syndrome. I am nearly positive that my first signs were in Carlsbad or a little before when I was experiencing cramping when I ran. Since then the pain has gotten worse and stays with me well after I run. It got to the point where my calf swelled up and wouldn't come down so my athletic trainer sent me to orthopedic and I got my diagnosis. I ran like 2 miles 4 hours ago and my calf feels like it is being squeezed together and about to explode haha... all joking aside it has made me pretty bumbed because it is another obstacle that I have to face. One more problem to deal with. And most likely another surgery to have. Yeah the sucky part is that the only treatment is surgery. It is not urgent nor life threatening but something that if I want to keep doing halfs will most likely have to be done. So yet another scar to add to my leg already filled with three from my knee surgery, I didn't care then about the scars but this one will be along the outer part of my leg and I'm def not to thrilled about how noticeable it will be but that is if I decide to get surgery (the half this weekend will most likely determine this). So we handle it just like we have handled all the ones before... We face it, Deal with it, and move on...

Thanks Diabetes for our seven years together it has been a wild ride :) can't wait to see what the future brings!
love~ ashlee

A Breath



My friend Zach wanted to be on my blog so we took a picture with our blue sheets (what we fill out when we are going to miss school) for the National Qualifier and Youth Leadership Lincoln which for the both of those we missed Monday and Tuesday.



Wow what a week it has been! It all started last Friday when my club volleyball team and I headed down to Kansas City to play in the Show Me National Qualifier. We had a lot of fun and I will miss my coaches and team as the season has wrapped up. I cant believe club started 5 months ago. It is possible that I may never play volleyball again but we will see what the future holds. We played three games Saturday, three games Sunday and one on Monday then we headed home.

Tuesday I had Youth Leadership Lincoln all day and our focus was on community non profit services such as the Lighthouse, The Arc, and Clinic With a Heart. All these are wonderful organizations and have each had a huge impact on our community. I met a philanthropist who is a volunteer that fundraises money for various groups. As he talked about his projects one being raising 1 million dollars to bring the Special Olympics to Lincoln he also mentioned how felt one day that he should do something for JDRF so he signed up to do the walk independently. After the walk he wanted to know what the most a single person had raised for JDRF and if I recall it was something like $6,000 he wanted to set a new record and raised over $22,000 just because he felt like it. haha. Amazing! He now has an award named after him that is given to the highest individual raiser in the Lincoln JDRF Chapter. 

Wednesday I went out running in my neighborhood and met a nice man. He asked me how old I was and I said 16 (for those of you flipping out right now that I was talking to a total stranger...It isn't that uncommon here and I was totally safe) he was probably young 30's. I am really bad at guessing ages. Anyways he told me about how when he was my age he could do 5 minute miles and now he was required to work out cause he is in the military. He said that he wished he would have kept exercising like he did when he was my age so that he would have it a little easier now. I hope I still have the will power to get out and run when I am his age. Around this time it hit me that I have my 3rd half marathon the 1st of the month. SCARY! I feel that I have been more focused on volleyball than running. But we cant go back so I am going to face this one the best I can. The one thing that scares me most about running here in Lincoln is that I know how far things are and its scary when we drive out the course cause it seems to be so lonnnngggg. This is something that I haven't faced with my other halfs since they were in places I didn't know anything about so everything was new. Please pray for me this week that this half goes well :)

Thursday. Well Thursday was the day we left to go to Iowa city for my endocrinologist appointment. Before we left though I got a letter in the mail that said I had been accepted into National Honor Society. So that was exciting. We left for Iowa City around 5 and got there at 9:30 ish so a good long boring drive that provided me with some much needed sleep. Friday we got up and went to my doctors appointment at the University of Iowa. Nothing special happened they said I had a good A1c and that was about it. The best part of the day was when I got to follow around one of my doctors research partners. She was doing research on what causes birth defects in people with diabetes children. What was being transferred through the placenta was it the glucose, amino acids ect.  She had found that it was the glucose and she made rats pregnant and since they have two different ovaries that their babies grow in they also have two different blood supplies going to each ovary. So on one side she would infuse glucose and make its bloodsugar 400 and it would not transfer to the babies on the other side which is fascinating. This allowed them to see what caused the birth defects. The next step is for her to test her theory on how to prevent this which happens to be taking fish oils and seeing if this has an affect on stopping the birth defects. This was much more in depth and a lot more fascinating when she explained it but what they are doing in the research lab was amazing. This was only one little experiment in my doctors lab with about 6 more going on in his. Along with his lab there were about 3 more doctors with there own labs all doing research on DIABETES. I could go on and on about different studies that they were doing but like this one it would probably bore you. The doctor I shadowed showed me some other very cool things that I don't think most are allowed to see. She was also a NICU doc and took me up to the level 3 NICU. The babies there were the size of my hand and I was allowed in to see one of the little boys who was born so early that most hospitals wouldn't have tried to save him. When you see pictures of babies in the NICU you say oh they are tiny but when you see them in real life its incredible how small they are. I started to tear up a little. Right after we walked out of the room we found out that he was getting open heart surgery done. I think this was God's calling to me that I may work as a nurse practitioner in the NICU. I also received a letter in the mail that I had been selected to attend a 10 day camp at John Hopkins next summer the price was a little much but still awesome that I was nominated by someone.

If you survived this atrociously long and somewhat boring blog props to you :)

How crazy is it that something that is 6 inches long and made out of tissue could change my life so drastically. I was thinking about that the other day. I mean really! This thing called my pancreas that doesn't work has brought me to meet some of the most amazing and inspirational people in the world, because of it I have ran half marathons, climbed mountains all of these things just because of my pancreas. Crazy huh!
In less than a month I will be heading to St.George Utah to watch some of those amazing people whose pancreases happen to not work either doing one of the hardest things in the world. They are doing Ironman St. George. Their stories are incredible. I cant wait to watch and cheer them on.
A week before St. George I will be doing my 3rd (which happens to be my favorite number) half marathon here in Lincoln and a month later I will be hopefully conquering my 4th in San Diego!
The weather here in good old Lincoln has been absolutely wonderful. I love all the runners that are outside! I love the gorgeous skies with golden sunsets and fluffy white clouds! I love how everyone seems to be happier! I love how we can open our windows and let the breeze flow through the house! I love it all!
This Friday we leave for kansas city where my club volleyball team will be playing in a national qualifier for 3 days! We are all very excited and cant wait to run through the fountains in down town. Ill keep you all posted on how it goes :)

Salvador de Vidas

Nothing new or exciting in my life. I have noticed how much changes when you hit the age I'm at. I have to schedule my own life, make my own decisions, relationships with people change, and other things in your life start to become more important than others. I have been pretty busy lately with running, I ran in a 5K race yesterday with my friend Chelsea. She is naturally a runner and I about died running with her, but we finished with snow falling around us. Today I got a new best friend today he or she I'm not sure with one yet is awesome they listen to me even when I'm wrong. They guard me and warn me of danger. They are always attached to me and never leave my side. I love my new friend its name is Salvador de Vidas which in English means life saver.If you haven't guessed yet i got a new pump and for the first time in like ever I gave it a name and I love it. This week I have another Youth Leadership Lincoln  meeting. Every meeting students are assigned presenters to introduce. I found out I get to introduce Chief of Police Tom Casady. He is a very nice person and I am happy to get to introduce him Tuesday.

Inspiration....

In my English class we are reading a book on Erik Weihenmayer he is a blind man who has climbed the 7 biggest peaks in the world. The title of his book is Touch The Top Of The World. It goes through his his life becoming blind, defiantly one of the best books I have ever read. In the book there is one part that really stood out to me and I thought I would share it. He is at this point preparing to climb Mt. Everest. " Not all of my time leading up to the climb was spent on the mountain; as part of their public education the AFB (American Foundation for the Blind and also one of his sponsors) asked me to do some TV interviews. One was a cheesy daytime talk show, on which I was showcased among a group of blind people deemed "amazing and inspirational". All the blind people were led onto the stage, canes tapping and dogs' tails wagging, and seated in a row in front of the crowd. I was featured first, and the host opened with,"A blind mountain climber. Isn't that incredible? Even I, who can see just fine, wouldn't think of climbing a mountain." this wasn't the first time I had heard the "Even I" statement. It was always meant as a compliment, but it never failed to annoy me. There might be a dozen other factors that prevent the host from excelling in the sport of mountain climbing. She might be 50 pounds overweight, wheezing with every breath, and might never have even set foot on a mountain, but in her mind, success or failure was automatically attributed to one factor: sight or no sight." I was thinking about this and the last sentence really stood out to me. People always tell me that they couldn't do something and they have a working pancreas they say. Working or not I don't think it determines weather you can do something or not. I find that this book relates a lot to living with diabetes. I highly recommend the book its awesome! Here is a video on him  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrSLb7hWSMc 

and life goes on...

One of the dress up days for national Lutheran schools week was multiples day and my friends decided to wear my walk shirts :) I love them! 

There is nothing newly exciting in my life. I have been sick (sinus infection) for over a week now and managed to sprain my ankle playing volleyball this weekend at our tournament. We have been adjusting a lot lately in the realm of diabetes things...basals, insulin to carb.....they are all getting an overhaul! I have already cut off 8 units of my basal for a day! woohooo I also feel a lot better fixing some of the lows I have been consistently having ....but there is still some fine tuning to do! I have little motivation to run lately with being sick and having volleyball practices and conditioning....I guess I am feeling the summer coming on and all i want to do is be lazy. I better get over this quickly! I got my first muscle massage...It felt sooooooo good! Sh split my calf muscle and went down to the flat muscle underneath and massaged it....let me tell you it hurt soooo bad because it was so tender but it felt so good!! This lady is a genius! She really knows her stuff. I guess that's it for now!

Diabetes Weekend!

I am writing this on the plane back from Denver! This trip was kind of a surprise! I hitched a ride with one of my moms coworkers who was moving out her with her husband who is in seminary and there precious little boy! It was just her and the her son since her husband is in school already. My mom and her planned it on Monday and we left on Friday. I got into Denver around 11pm on Friday and spent the night with my friend Erin ad her mom Cheryl. I love them so much and they are so awesome! The next morning we got up and went ice fishing with Brian who is doing an Iornman in May which I will be attending and rooting him on! It is amazing to see his dedication to his training and diabetes it's something to envy! After ice fishing we went to his house and relaxed for the night. Zyler (who is another type 1 diabetic) and I spent the night at Brians house. That night was so much fun Brian's daughte Megan and I made a cake which we had some problems with but in the end turned out to be amazing! The next morning we all went to church and in the afternoon Zyler and I went over to John's house. It was awesome to see him and his wife again they are the nicest people on the planet I swear! Brian, his wife, and Zyler dropped me off at the airport. Brian's wife Pam was so kind she walked me to my gate which made me a lot less nervous. Which brings me to now where I sit on the plane thinking about how much fun I had this weekend. Any time I get around my "diabetic" friends it is always hard to leave! I miss them so much already! I learned a lot over this weekend.... 1. Absorb every minute of every day because time is ticking and who knows when you will get to see them again! 2. My blood sugars seem to be better when I am with my betic friends. I just think it likes to be around other none working pancreases! Maybe it wants to look better than the other none working pancreases....haha. 3.I have been blessed with parents that have allowed me to do and meet all these amazing people and experience all these awesome things! 4. I appreciate all the things God has blessed me with 5. I know some of the most amazing people in the world. As for now as the pilot just announced that we are about in Omaha I have to gou back to my "normal" live and wait till I can see my diabetic friends again! 

Diabetes in a few words....

Diabetes
Stress
Triumph
Care
Need
Love
Identity
Understanding
Scars
Deteriorating
Separation
Judgment
Watching
Questioning
Comfort
Waiting
Fun
Fighting
Carrying
Hurt
Friendship
Ever changing
Peace
Addition
Information
Excitement
Understanding
Relief
Sympathy
Strength
           I wrote these words down during school one day. The first thing that may come to your mind when you read these words may not be the same as mine. For example scars, even though I have scars from where my old sits and sensors have been I meant a different kind of scar. This is the emotional scar rather then the physical. I challenge all of you to write down or even share what words mean diabetes to you because when I did there were a lot more words it meant to me than I realized before.

A goal reached....

On our second night at the 14er mountain climb we were having our first night camping in the woods. For some reason I remember this night perfectly. That night was what made me fall in love with that trip. We were all sitting around a campfire talking about things related to diabetes. I had my arms crossed on my knees in front of me. I remember I was facing southeast hahaha I love directions, my face was resting on my arms and I was looking up at the moon. There was no clouds in the sky with the moon as full as it could be. The question was then asked why did you want to come on the trip.  It came time for me to answer and my response was " I want to be a role model to younger kids with diabetes and inspire them to reach goals just like people inspired me".The point to this...I just had my Youth Leadership Lincoln retreat...On the retreat we met people from all over the city, we talked to each other and really got to know the people that we would be spending the rest of the school year with. In one of the group discussions a question was a raised on if anyone in the group has impressed or inspired you? A girl that I had just met that morning raised her hand...she was sitting in a rocking chair in front of me and she turned around and said "Ashlee because she has done all these things and she is diabetic". This is a girl that I would look up to and for her to say that gave me chills. I thought back to the moment on the mountain climb. I felt like I had started to reach that goal. This past Tuesday we went to a local diabetic support group. There were these two little girls one of them was diabetic and the other was her sister. They were so excited to have me teach them about my pump and both girls fearlessly put in pump sights for the first time. Which when I first did that I was hidding under tables with fear. It was so cute to see, they gave me their valentines day crafts they made during the kids class and kept asking there mom when they could see me again. It made me realize that this is what I want to do. I want to hang out with these kids so that they can grow up and embrace diabetes and not think of it as something to hate. I want them to be healthy and happy and even inspire other kids. That is what I dream and that's what I'm going to work for.....

It's your life what you gonna do...the world is watching you...

So California...It was so much fun. The whole trip started with me going to school in the morning and leaving after two class periods to head to Omaha. The flight was a little late because of the weather so I ended up getting to San Diego around 5:30 instead of 5. Ashley picked me up at the airport and we went right to the Heros of the Marathon dinner. We met some amazing people there including Zyler who is also a hero of the marathon as well. He is an awesome kid. The next day we got up and went to the beach where everyone met for breakfast, talking, and surfing. Yeah I pretty much failed at the surfing bit but it was fun. My FAVORITE part of the day was seeing Katie. I hadn't seen her since the mountain climb which was 6 months ago. I literally flipped out when I saw her on the beach. She is awesome and the next day she ran a marathon which is amazing. After the beach we went to the expo to check in for the marathon. That's where I saw Erin she is so cool and we love getting together. After the Expo we went and got cleaned up and went to a dinner with insulindependence...that is where I got to see Eden for the first time also since the trip.  We got to take a picture together of everyone from the climb that was there at the race we were only missing a few people. The next morning we got up bright and early and headed of to the half marathon. I learned a lot from this race. One...God is always teaching me lessons. This time it was that he is in control and that not everything in your life is going to turn out the way you plan. For example this time I trained more for this run than my first and was expecting to PR. That didn't happen. I was 17 minutes slower. Somewhere around mile 4 1/2 after running at a good pace with Eden I stopped for water and felt my knee starting to cramp. At that moment I knew this race wasn't going to go the way I had planned but instead the way God had planned. The cramping got worse and spread down my leg. It was probably from a high blood sugar and not enough salt. But me and Eden kept going and actually at a point when we were walking we saw three dolphins. I then realized that if I had been so self consumed with trying to PR that I would have missed that moment and many others like it. It was awesome being able to run/ walk :) with Eden she is awesome and we had fun talking about life. We finished the race and I got to watch Ashley finish the half and Katie the full ....I could never imagine doing a full even though its a future goal of mine I have so much respect for Katie for doing it. She truly doesn't let her diabetes stop her. After the race we went to a bbq where I had to say bye to too many people. I would not see either Ashley or Erin again on this trip. I did however get to go drive around and look at some colleges with Michelle. This was probably a highlight of this trip as I laughed so much in just those few hours...she is also another important person in my life. She then dropped me of back at the bbq and I also had to say good bye too her too :( That night though was fun as I got to spend the night with Katie. I cherished that time with her and was soooooo sad when I had to leave her and the rest of the insulindependence crew the next morning. The truth about me is that I don't really cry ever but it seems like every time I'm with this group of people at some point I cry. I safely got home and navigated my way through the airports by myself. On the flight from denver to lincoln I sat looking out the window the whole flight. I thought about my life and I the amazing experiences I have been able to do. I thought about what I wanted to do and become when I got older and I thought about how hard it was going to be to go back to my normal life and wait until I could see those people that play such a big role in my life again. I feel that the age that I'm at and the circumstances under which I live my life have people watching me and the decisions I make everyday. But I challenge everyone including me to look at there lives and live it to the fullest and push yourselves to do things that at the moment seem so far fetched and to work at reaching them. Whether it is as simple as getting a certain grade in a class or reaching a fitness goal. Live your life like the world is watching you....Live with Fulfillment, Serve with Passion so in this Lifetime you will have the ability to Die with NO Regrets-Randy Gonzales

16 & a New Year

Wow! So much has happened since I last blogged. As many of you know I am running another half marathon in a week. I will be heading down to Carlsbad California this Friday. I will be going by myself and even though it will be sad to leave my family I am excited for it. I found out some great news though. The Carlsbad Marathon picked me to be 1 of 10 people selected for Hero of the Marathon. I am blessed to have been chosen and know that there are many other people that are just as deserving. I also found out that I have been selected to be part of  Youth Leadership Lincoln. They are a group that promotes people of all ages to become leaders in their communities. My group is second semester 10th graders so everyone will be my age and it will be exciting to get to know kids from across the city. I got my drivers license in the mail a couple of days ago. I haven't driven a lot but it is still fun to be able to go places by yourself. The weather has been bad so right now driving is on a hold. Because of all the bad weather we had two snow days which gave us a much needed 5 day weekend. Before all of these snow days though we had finals and I ended the first semester with a 3.95 missing a 4.0 by one percent on one grade. The snow days brought some much needed fun also. My friend Chelsea and I went and played in the snow the first snow day and the second day my friend Hannah and I hung out inside relaxing all day. I will keep you all posted on how next weekend goes!