ZPomeroy's antics

[ZPomeroy]

Ok i'm game 

WHOO!! dancing in less than an hour till about 9:30pm (it's now 3:15  ). have an hours+ woth of lessons in standard and latin and then helping teach in a social environment, which should be fun - though i ahve lately learnt that when your teaching (espically when i'm on 17  ) you have to be very delicate with the customers ego, it seems that even though they are paying for lessons to understand what they are doing wrong no one actually wants to hear it, espically from someone my age (i end up being associated with arrogance  )

Have another competition in about a month or so which i'm really looking forward to, i might actually be able to meet SW finally . We're dancing quickstep, waltz, cha cha, samba, and a couple of new vogue dances. From what i remember from this comp last year the floor isn't so great but i'll just have to deal with it (i found out that apparantly you can get disqualified for putting objects/liquid on your shoes  ) anyway can't wait for the end of july to arrive! 

Zac

[elisedance]

Boy that was quick!  I think you beat me to it...

I think you learned a life lesson above - what people want is not necessarily at all what they ask for.  Exactly the same in conversations - the last thing a converser wants is the actual answer to their question

Now there are two bloggers - lets hope everyone gets in on it

[ZPomeroy]

Well i had my 5 hours of exercise last night and i think it nearly killed me. Some of you may know that i'm a type 1 diabetic, which means that when i do extended practices (such as last night) i have to be very careful not to get a low blood sugar level - resulting in headaches, sweating, dissyness ect. (if not treated with sugar, this can lead to a coma). Before last night i hadn't actually tried more than 3 hours on a dance floor continually so it was an interesting experience. Have to go to a lesson now so will continue this later

Zac

[elisedance]

I have a friend who's also type I - she manages her levels very carefully - and also goes mountain biking or climbing.  Is there a diabetics expert in sports medicine in your neck of the woods to get some advice from?

[MusicChica]

FWIW, I found this on DF today, Zac, and thought about you: http://www.dance-forums.com/showthread.php?t=33146 Might be interesting to check up on it as the thread progresses.

The website by Natalka mentioned on that thread is: http://www.artrhythms.com

Hope that helps!

[elisedance]

I'm not sure that the DF link is much use, even if it is right on point (though you might contact Natalka and see if she has any tips).

I did find this nice page on foot care and diabetes - http://www.diabetesmonitor.com/foot-02.htm
ee

[ZPomeroy]

I have a friend who's also type I - she manages her levels very carefully - and also goes mountain biking or climbing.  Is there a diabetics expert in sports medicine in your neck of the woods to get some advice from?

I go to see a renound expert in the care of type 1 diabetes every 3 - 4 months, but the main thing is you really have to learn to take care of it yourself and learn to be able to control your levels in different circumstances, which because i hadn't done a continuous stream of exercise like that i was unsure what to expect. But it all worked out fine It's interesting, from all the sports i have done (i've tried almost everything ) danceing seems to be the most strenous on the body in terms of my diabetes, i guess that just shows how much dancing really takes.

Zac

[elisedance]

I think its what you hinted at - dancing involves a lot of changes of pace and energy so its more like playing squash than say sprinting.  This must be very hard to guage for sugar consumption etc.  I think we all notice that a lesson can exhaust you or it can feel like all you did was talk - for most thats just an observation but for you that is a real management issue.

[ZPomeroy]

FWIW, I found this on DF today, Zac, and thought about you: http://www.dance-forums.com/showthread.php?t=33146 Might be interesting to check up on it as the thread progresses.

The website by Natalka mentioned on that thread is: http://www.artrhythms.com

Hope that helps!

Thanks for that MC, it will be interesting to see whether any of the DF members have Type 1 diabetes as there is quite a big discrepancy between management and treatment between the 2 types. Type 2 diabetes is caused when the body becomes immune to the insulin made by the pancreatic cells, this is quite common in overweight and elderly people. Type 1 diabetes or juvinile diabetes is where the pancreatic cells that create insulin start dying off and create little or no insulin, researchers seem to believe this is either due to a viral infection that sets off the chain of events or stress. Type 2 is controlled by diet and leads to artery issues which can lead to the use on amputation, this is less likely for type 1 diabetics, if they don't look after themselves they are more likely to suffer kidney and other major organ damage before they must lose a limb. Oh almost forgot Type 1 diabetes is treated through a series of insulin injections every day, personally i take 4 injections a day, 1 before every major meal and 1 before bed

Zac

[elisedance]

Type 1 CAN however be managed very well - my friend is in her early 60s and has no untoward effects.  You just have to be very careful...

[ZPomeroy]

Type 1 CAN however be managed very well - my friend is in her early 60s and has no untoward effects.  You just have to be very careful...

It's possible to have such good control over type 1 that there is no effects at all to the body, though is very hard to achieve

Zac

[elisedance]

I think it may help that she is a professor of physiology   Do you have a way to meet other T1s?  From what I gleanded from my friend management is quite an art and maybe a you could learn from a successful veteran...

[ZPomeroy]

Had a fantastic lesson today, we were working on my gold routines which i only started a week ago, I'm not entirally sure how other coutries/studios do their medals so i'll explain how we do them. For a gold routine we choreograph our own openings and endings to the routines, you are given a specific routine on which to base this. Because of the extra work of choreographing and that the whole routine must be absoloutly perfect most dancers only do one dance at a time, in gold there are the five (Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango, Quickstep and V.Waltz). It also mus be in costume and you get to choose the music to which you wish to dance to. So far i've learnt 3 of the routines and choreographed an opening to the V.Waltz, an ending to the Quickstep and am working of an opening to the Waltz. The achievement day is on September 5th so approx. 10 weeks away, so we'll see how many routines i actually finish before the date, i'm hoping to knock off at least 2 so that i'm able to get onto my gold star achievement (this is where you choreograph you own entire routines). Anyway back to why it was such a fantastic lesson , we were working on the fact that my butt sticks out when i dance, my other competition pro pretty much did not explain why this was happening but rather just said "get that ass in or i'm taking you to surgery" which really wasn't much help in the scheme of things, , the pro that i was having the lesson with was explaining that it was because my pelvis gave way as i moved, resulting in everything not moving at once, so i should move the pelvis and legs at the same time and everytime will follow along, almost rolling everything forward. Well from what i tried it seems to have worked, i know it will need to be worked on much more to get it to work naturally and look much more natural but its a breakthrough .

Zac

[ZPomeroy]

I think it may help that she is a professor of physiology   Do you have a way to meet other T1s?  From what I gleanded from my friend management is quite an art and maybe a you could learn from a successful veteran...

No way to meet other more experienced T1's, but i do get to meet others my age with the same problems (it's hard to find anoyone my age who has had it longer than i have as i was diagnosed at the age of 3). My doctor helps considerably with my management though

Zac

[dancingfool]

My sister is a Type 1 and about 2 years ago she was switched to an insulin pump by her specialist.

She told me that she now feels normal for the first time in 15 years (diagnosed at 23 yrs old). 

I see that you are in Australia.  Is the pump available there?
 
My sister tells me that you still have to manage the diet very carefully but that the pump is on timers and gives her a lot more freedom than she had when injecting, like you, 4 times a day. 

I can ask her for more info if you like.

: )