A Hopeful Breakthrough

So guys, it has been awhile since I have written on here and I am very sorry for that. Life got a little busy and demanded much of my time. But now that I have some more free time I felt the need to post something again!

So I was surfing through the news section on Google and decided to look up the latest diabetes news..... I was surprised to find an article about a test done at Boston's Children's Hospital. The study says that researchers at the hospital have identified the root cause of diabetes. The doctors were able to identify a pathway that makes T cells attack the pancreas. Diabetes is caused when certain cells in the pancreas are attacked by a person's white blood cells. These cells in the pancreas emit a hormone called insulin that helps turn our food into glucose. Glucose is our body's fuel. Before this discovery no one knew what caused the body to attack itself. The article goes on to explain that this discovery can lead to new treatments and the possibility of a cure but it could take years to start treatment on humans. To read the article click here. I will post more about this once more information is available. Hopefully this is a step in the right direction towards a cure. Have faith and stay strong.

Sweet Kate

For our English class we were asked to review one of our classmate's blogs, I chose to review Kate's blog. Her blog is entitled Mauwakate. I love the look and feel of her blog, the raindrops in the background are so relaxing and refreshing. I also like that her blogs has a variety of topics that are organized into categories on the sidebar. She ranges from topics like ballet to college life. The way she incorporated her assignments from other classes into her blog is genius, it is a great way to get er work out there and show what talent she has.
One thing I do not like about this blog is that the background is nearly black and the writing is white, for me that is hard to read. I prefer black writing on a light background, but Kate might prefer the way she has it now.  I would have liked to see more pictures on her page or in her posts as well.
Overall her writing style is very neat and fairly well written. I really love the way she just jumps from topic to topic, depending on what she is feeling at the moment or what interests her at that time. I like the cute video about the French cats!
If Kate continues to use her blog (Which I hope she does!) I would really enjoy reading it! I feel bad that I have not looked at any of my classmates' blogs before this but I hope to look at all of them once finals are over. Kate's blog gave me a new perspective on her and her interests and now I am curious about my fellow classmates.

Expanding My Horizons

In my English Composition II class we have been working on a researched argument essay and our final portfolios. Our class has focused on social media and using the Internet. We have created blogs, Word Press pages, joined Second Life, and learned a lot about how technology is being used everyday. One of the activities that I liked the most was creating our Word Press pages. I am not very good with computers; I can type an essay, make a PowerPoint and get on the Internet but that is all of my computer capabilities.

Learning how to create my own web page and set everything up was amazing and really helped me to learn more about computers and how to use them to help me prepare for my future. Our professor would like us to be able to use our Word Press pages as an online resume for future references and job interviews. My favorite part of setting up this page was learning how to change the appearance and set up how my page was going to look. There were so many themes and widgets to use for my page. After I figured out how to use all of these tools, with a little help from my classmates and my friends, I was able to start adding pages and putting my work online. So far my page only has my essays from my English class, but I hope to continue to add my work from the classes I will eventually take in college. My page also has a post about the meteor that hit in Russia, a writing assignment for my English class but still very interesting. 

Right now I am trying to put all of my essays and research from my final paper onto my Word Press page. By the time I am finished I hope to have a complete portfolio of my work from this semester, an information or About Me page, and a mini resume. Maybe someday someone will be able to use my essays as a source in their own writing or use them to create an idea for their own paper. 

Please feel free to check out my page here!

Chameleon Anyone?

So the other day my friend Brian and I were bored and decided to look up videos about Grumpy Cat on YouTube. This was very entertaining and made us laugh so hard we cried. As we continued to scroll through videos we came across this video of a chameleon. 

This is one of the coolest things I have seen in a very long time. It changes colors to match sunglasses!! But how does it change to those colors? I thought chameleons could only change to match the forests it is naturally found in. So I decided to do some research about these unique little creatures.

According to Bioexpedition.com, "The Chameleon is a very popular type of lizard due to the fact that it has the ability to change colors based on their mood. This also allows them to blend into the surroundings for safety. Other factors influence color too including mating season and even the temperature around them". So a chameleon is basically a giant mood ring that may temp as a ninja. These animals are so cool!! But are there only certain colors these animals can change to? I doubt that a chameleon could change to hot pink or bright blue. The owner of this chameleon could have photo shopped the video.  Todayifoundout.com says, "Now, not all kinds of chameleons have the ability to change color and some only have limited ability for color changing; for instance, many types of chameleons can only turn, green, brown, or gray. Others have the ability to change to a variety of different colors including: pink, blue, red, orange, green, black, brown, blue, yellow, turquoise, and purple".

These animals are so amazing! I had no idea that they could change into all of these awesome colors! I am highly considering going out and buying one of these cuties! Then going to Walmart to buy as many different colored items as I can! I think I'll name him Charlie the Chameleon. Brian, on the other hand, thinks I should get a hedgehog, but those things are pointy and kind of freak me out. They are just a little ball of spikes waiting to attack. I meant they are cute and all (sometimes) but I have heard that they can be very mean. So in the Chameleon vs. Hedgehog battle, I definitely win.

                                                               (Evil Hedgehog)









I hope you all enjoyed this little blog about my new favorite animal! Stay tuned for more posts!

What Social Media Do You Use?

Hey guys! This post will be a little different than my latest posts, I have to do a specific blog post for my English class.
In my English Composition II class we are researching what different social medias our friends use. I decided to make a spreadsheet and record what social media(s) they used based on age and gender. The hardest parts of coming up with the spreadsheet and organizing the information I gathered was trying to list every social media, adding ones I have not heart of before and finding a lot of people to interview. So I sat down and drew out different spreadsheets and charts until I found one that I liked. it took a while and I went through about ten different designs. Then I just walked around my dorm until I found people and asked them to help me out on my project. I was surprised to meet a few new people I did not know lived on my floor. I am considering going to another floor and seeing if I can find some other people but I have quite a few already and I am not sure I will have time.
In doing this project I found out about a lot of other social media forms that I have never heard of. Such as;

Snapchat

Stumbleupon

and Steam

Be sure to check these sites out! I am now addicted to Snapchat. I love being able to send goofy pictures to my sister back home or to my friends when I am bored. I will post my results when I am finished so you guys can see what social medias are popular here at the University of Akron!

Rough Waters

Well guys and gals, the past few days have been pretty rough for me. My blood sugar (blood glucose level) has been all over the place. It been up in the three hundreds and then tumbles into the fifties. Why, you may ask? I have no idea whatsoever. I am not currently under the weather, I not overly stressed (I've been worse) and thankfully it is not that time of the month. So why is this happening? Over the years I have just kind of accepted that sometimes there might not be a reason. You just deal with it and get everything back on track. But now that I am out on my own, I am realizing how scary it is and I want to know what I can do to prevent these random changes in my glucose levels.
So I decided to do some research...

I was genuinely surprised how hard it was to find any information. But low and behold I found something!
The article I found was on Diabetes.WebMD.com. This article explains different reasons for high and low blood glucose levels. Here are some examples:
 Reasons for a random high reading-

• Severe stress
• Heart attack
• Stroke
• Medicines such as corticosteroids.
• Excess production of growth hormone

Reasons for a random low reading-

• Decreased thyroid hormone levels (hypothyroidism).
• A tumor in the pituitary gland.
• Malnutrition or an eating disorder, such as anorexia.
• Medicines used to treat diabetes.

I knew that stress could cause a variance in blood glucose readings but I never thought medicines like corticosteroids could affect it. Although I am not taking any such medicine so that is not the reason. Well, at least not for me. But I could have to in the future so I will definitely remember this if I ever have to!
I have decided that it was just some stress and lack of sleep (I am a college student).  Although I'm still not sure that's the whole reason, but I'm going with it. The body is an amazingly complex thing and I do not have the mental capacity to try and figure it out. So farewell until next time whoever is out there reading this!

The Amazing Insulin Pump

Treating Diabetes was always done with insulin and shots. These shots were either taken before or after each meal and any other time a diabetic ate. For me, it started out as a shot before every meal. I could only eat a certain amount, no more no less. For a three year old, that it hard to do sometimes. I was taking at least four shots a day. It was starting to hurt my arms and legs and I need to find a different option.
My freshman year of high school I started seeing a new doctor. She suggested getting an insulin pump. So I started looking into it. It seemed like a great option for me at the time.
Now to explain this amazing little device. An insulin pump delivers constant insulin all day and night. This is called a basal. You get this insulin whether you eat anything or not. In people without diabetes your pancreas does this on its own to regulate glucose levels. The insulin is administered through a port that connects to your body.

Usually you leave this on for three days and then change the injection site to another location on your body. These areas include; stomach, legs, back and your butt. You can change the basal settings depending on the time of day. You may need more insulin in the morning but less around lunch time. It all depends on the person and how their body works.
The next, and most amazing part, is called the bolus insulin. This is the insulin that your pancreas, or in a diabetic's case their insulin pump, administers after you eat something. Before you eat you should always use a blood glucose monitor to check what your blood glucose level is. The normal target range is a reading of 70 to 120. If it is too high you adjust your insulin dose a little higher to bring the level back down to a normal range. Most people believe that diabetics have to track all of the sugar they eat, while everyone should monitor their sugar intake, diabetics count carbohydrates. For every certain amount of carbohydrates you ingest you take one unit of insulin, my ratio is 11 to 1. With the insulin pump it calculates how much insulin you need for your blood sugar and the amount of carbohydrates you eat, by simply entering the numbers into the device.

I recently started using the Contour Next Link meter (seen above). This my device actually sends my blood glucose level directly to my Medtronic Minimed PARADIGM insulin pump(seen below).

I find it absolutely amazing how much the technology has change the treatment of diabetes. If you have any questions please comment below!