I had my appointment in Iowa City almost two weeks ago and first of all I just want to say to all of you nurses out there….you matter!! There is a story behind this picture…

…but all I am going to say about it is that I am so extremely thankful to still have one nurse on my team that has been with me from the very beginning of my health journey and it is nurses like her that make these really hard circumstances…a little more bearable! A cute husband helps too😉

As usual, I was prepped for surgery…

…and as suspected, my stents were closed so the doctor did do angioplasty to open them back up. It sounds like he used a couple of different sizes of balloons and was able to open all of my stents back up anywhere from 60-90% so we were thrilled with the results and will try to push my next procedure back to six months instead of two or three months!!

Recovery seems to be going well and I have had several people point out what a difference they have noticed in me this time around compared to my angioplasty two months ago that didn’t seem to help my symptoms at all. And after a few months of not being able to wear my wedding ring, I was finally able to slide it back on my finger again!

The last few months have been extremely stressful emotionally and physically with all of my fm symptoms which also makes it harder to manage my blood sugars…so on top of another angioplasty, I also got a new insulin pump along with a continued glucose monitor…

I have been very hesitant to try something new but I figured now that my stents are open again, why not get a fresh start on my blood sugars as well?! I have been a type 1 diabetic since I was 17 and for those of you who do not know much about diabetes or all of the technology, that means my body does not produce insulin but now I insert a monitor in to my stomach that constantly reads my blood sugars and communicates with my insulin pump…

If my sugars start to go higher than my set blood sugar levels then the pump will kick in and deliver more insulin. If my blood sugar starts to drop too low, the insulin pump will stop delivering insulin. I was ecstatic to see an instant improvement from switching. I mean this thing is amazing and works like a real pancreas! I went from sugars in the 200-300’s the last few months which is really bad…

…to being in my target range 89% of the time within a 24 hour period…

With it being just under two weeks since my angioplasty and getting on this new insulin pump, I am feeling pretty good! I have been able to keep up with my kids as far as our school schedule goes and I even started back up on my morning exercise routine. I still get tired and need to rest throughout the day or still battle some puffiness and chest pressure on occasion but overall I am so thankful to have minimized some of the fm symptoms along with healthier blood sugar levels again! Yes I have more devices and tubing all over my body but dang!! I forgot how good it feels…to feel healthy!!

While I consider this all to be great news, I still have so many family and friends shake their heads and look at me asking how do I keep doing this especially with a smile on my face? How do I consider this good news when I know it’s not a cure and I will have to have this procedure all over again? Well, first off, I am not always smiling but I do always keep pushing forward because that’s the only option I choose to have…

The Lord has used my health as an opportunity not only for me to know Him better but for my kids to know Him too. I wasn’t making Him a priority in my life so I definitely wasn’t making Him a priority in their lives…but when you finally realize God’s got a hold of you and your kids then you can always find something good in every day!