The dreaded "poke 'em doctor" visits

I have been using a pump for the past year after MDI (multiple dosage injecting aka “poor man's pump”) method.  The pump has proven itself to be a valuable tool in controlling my diabetes – and I find I am in more control of my life now.  No  more being the regimental soldier eating every “x” amount of hours.  Also, I have very few hypos now. Pumping is the best thing since sliced bread IMHO (and I make my own bread here at home – I am quite the Domestic Engineer since becoming semi-retired).  

The good news with my first “poke ‘em doctor” – my A1C instead of being the usual prepump 7.0ish reading was 5.9 (6 months ago my A1C was 6.1).  I was really amazed at the latest result with having just come off a 3 week sailing holiday. A wee bit of stress with some of the 3 tropical storms (Gustav, Hannah, Ike ... hmmm where's Tina?) that came up north hitting our little 25’ sailboat called the Fat Cat (oh and my marriage held together - swearing at my hubby that we're going to die in Lake Ontario while the boat feels like it's in a  washing cycle for heavy duty clothing - joy!).  Along with eating foods I don’t normally eat – I actually used less insulin and also my blood sugars remained very level during that time (I try to attain 4.5 – 6).

The other good news – I am not losing my eyesight!  A few years ago my ophthalmologist started to get worried about my eyes.  After that I was seeing her every 6 months instead of once a year (field vision test, dilation of pupil, yadda, yadda, yadda – you know the drill).  This time I “poised for the camera” (had an optic nerve test – where they take pictures of your sexy eyeball). Not covered by Quebec Medicare but it was done.  The results from all these tests – she is amazed at the quality of my eyes due to my length of having diabetes!  Losing my eyesight has been always a nagging thing with me – as I’m sure it is with others.