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I'm somewhere in the middle. I certainly don't accept my size, and am desperately trying to do something about it.
However, I'm getting sick and tired of seeing doctors who see fat, and not the other medical problems that are causing the fat to be more difficult to deal with.
I still don't think he is getting it
I'm not cinvinced its genetics either. I think the problems behind morbid obesity are STILL undiagnosed or untreated medical issues that the doctors are missing due to their prejudices.
I've been going through a period of stress, worried about my husband, and I've stopped sleeping. As a result of the not sleeping, I'm finding it almost impossible to go to the gym and am eating more because I'm trying to stay awake.
Now that I am feeling better about his situation, I'm sleeping better, and feel the other issues will resolve again.
Dia Care -- Table of Contents (January 2003, 26 [90001])
Standard in Diabetes Care.
Yeah! It's the fifth week anniversary of my pump!
I would not have survived my husband's medical ordeal without it. Oh, that's not over yet. But at least the first (and hopefully only) surgery is over.
I would not have survived my mother helping my husband while I was at a teacher worhshop without it.
I would not have survived the teacher workshop without it.
FYI: Teaching AP Computer Science is FUN. Right now, no one can find the case study files, but the laugh is on the college board, I grabbed them this summer and put them on my website and HID them where my kids and I can find them. Wonder if I can charge people for access?
Would be evil, but then the College Board web designers are more evil. Wonder if they are charging people for access?
I love my pump.
I have had my share of problems. Someone really needs to work on the insertation set thing. They fail too often. In 5 weeks, I've had three failures.
This is an excellent article on the side effects of weight loss surgery.
I don't know about the rest of the world, but I want to get well some day and be normal.
If I'm still "here" in 10 years, maybe.
I still think fixing the insulin delivery system and sleeping will help.
I've got a really good friend who is morbidly obese and desperately wants weight loss surgery.
She hasn't been able to get it.
She needs a new knee joint too but the surgeon won't touch it because she's too overweight.
She can't exercise because she has too much knee pain.
She's in this huge catch 20/20 situation because of insurance and because of the doctors.
I worry about her a lot.
I'm not sure what should be done for her.
I'm really glad that DB brought up the morbidly obese thing. Yeah, I am morbidly obese.
Yes, I have had a horrible time with my weight loss struggles.
Here's the deal. When my medical issues are taken care of, I lose weight. When my medical issues aren't taken care of, I gain weight. I also never seem to have weight stay the same.
Maybe DB and other doctors would have more success with the morbidly obese patients, if they would stop assuming the problem is patient behavior and look further into the patient's health and lifestyle.
The hard part is getting help. Especially with doctors that don't know me and don't try to find out more about me.
As those who have been keeping up with this know, I got a new doctor this year.
He means well, but he really makes some irritating statements sometimes. One included -- "maybe you should work out". That got him the teacher look, as I have been going to the gym pretty close to every day since before January 1. The correct way to handle that, is, what kind of work out are you doing, maybe you need to change it. In my case, the problem was how we were delivering insulin, and he DID get that one right.
When a patient IS doing the right things, then maybe there is an underlieing medical problem. My primary care doctors have NEVER asked me how much I sleep. The allergists have, and tried and tried to send me to a sleep study, but for 5 years, I went to a primary care physician who was doing everything he could to save money, and I have no idea why I didn't insist.
Fixing the sleep would have probably kept me from becoming morbidly obese.
Even when the patient is having some eating issues, maybe fixing some of the medical issues will stop the eating issues. Changing the insulin delivery method did that.
Believe me, I'll be ranting more on this, because I'm a very frustrated patient!
Thankfully he's decided that driving isn't a good idea. I'm taking Friday off to take him to the doctor and deal with some other things.
He is better though, says the hip doesn't hurt as much. He's behaving himself at the house. He goes upstairs, lets me bring him food, and stays there each evening.
Boy, do I need the sleeping time. I'm starting to catch up on sleep, but getting enough to make me cranky, not rested. Did stay in the bed all night though.
I'm glad he confessed...
I'm also glad I'm not his patient. Though I might be someone's patient with the same or similar blinders.
Read my comment.
My husband broke his hip, riding his bicycle. He weighs 160 pounds and is 6' tall. I'm not sure how he feel and I'm not sure I want to know.
Paramedics on the scene felt there were no bones broken. He didn't want to deal with the ER I guess, I wasn't there, I don't know the story and I am not sure I want to know, but he got home, and I didn't push the issue, not knowing much.
One week later, he went to his primary care physician who said "I'm sure nothing's broken but let's xray just in case". Yeah, just is case was wise....
Now I LOVE this doctor. I really do. Before insurance stunts in our area, he was my primary care physician and he got me to the right specialists for my allergy, my sleep apnea and the gastric reflux disease and got me good treatment. I'd lost 100 pounds when he was my doctor. So I trust him. I miss him, to tell you the truth, and am debating going back to him. It's just that I doubt he'll be on this earth much longer and don't want to deal with switching any more than I have to.
Anyway back to husband. So on Thursday morning he had surgery. After the surgery, surgeon told me surgery was a success, but was worried about blood flow to the hip, and isn't sure that is going to be resolved. That means a hip replacement, and we won't know for a year or so.
He's on crutches for the next 8 weeks.
Yesterday ended week 4 of my time with the pump. I really am happy I made this decision.
My husband is too! He says I've been happiest this four weeks than I have been in a long time.
I have lost 11 pounds "officially" according to my doctors scales. My blood pressure is lower. My doctor is very pleased.
Oh, and I think I've lost over 20 pounds from my heaviest, but not sure what the heaviest was.
I am not sure how I feel about the weight loss. I have not been super excited because I think I'm afraid it will come back. Or maybe it isn't enough yet.
BUT I feel better. Yesterday I did 45 minutes on the ellipetical trainer and 15 on the treadmill and felt good about it when it got done.
I took advantage of an Animas deal and got a One Touch Ultra Smart
Frankly I don't know why they did that, as EzManager is so cool....
Here's what I wrote in the feedback at the Lifescan site:
I just received your One Touch Ultra Smart meter from Animas Pump Corporation and I can sum up my experience with one computer science term, at the bottom of this message.
First, I am an insulin pumper and an experienced alternative site tester.
First, on on my first three tries I was unable to get a valid reading. Each time I got an error code 5. I did read the manual before attempting the first test.
I then called your 1-800 number and was on hold for over 5 minutes. Unfortunately I did not connect with anyone because I received a phone call.
I then called after the phone call and after going through your voice directed hell, after about 2 minutes got connected with help.
She was EXTREMELY PLEASANT and ID A VERY NICE JOB. She is the only pleasant part of my On Touch Ultra Smart Experience.
I do not like the user interface for the meter at all. It is awkward to have to enter the carbs/calories of food, and not useful at all not to have a ready made database of foods.
I haven't done much else to the meter, but I will probably be shipping it back instead of the old Freestyle.
I'm very sorry to have to tell you this, but your meter SUCKS. Your desktop software doesn't seem bad, but I won't spend much time with it.
Insulin Pump Is As Effective As Multiple Insulin Injections
FYI: No maybe about it. Pump is MUCH perferable than injections.
I've been on my pump for 3 weeks now. I've spent the entire week with very close to normal blood sugars. The most I've been 193 and this has been a stressful week.
Parent night on Wednesday, teacher workshop on Thursday. Went through a slew of insulin to get through the three days, but did it! -- was WHIPED out today.
Today is my third week on the pump. I still love it!
I keep learning things. Came close to running out of insulin today. I have now repacked by day bag, and have spare of everything.
Also repacked my insulin bag and no longer carry just a pen unit and needles as I sure don't want to use them unless I have to.
Getting smarter.
Kids With Type 1 Diabetes Like Insulin Pump
Well, it was at least Isreali money they were wasting but has anyone considered filing child abuse charges on the people running the study.
Let's see, would you rather get a shot every few hours, or would you rather get one every three days.
Let's see, do you want to eat 6 meals a day, a certain number of carbs every meal, or do you want to eat when you are hungry.
Okay, so you have to carry a few ounce box, and if you are unlucky to do Minimed, you can't get it wet, but then again that's still better than several shots a day.
We've got the numbers pretty close! I had 78 carbs in my lunch today, plus ate chocolate birthday cake. The REAL kind. It was great.
2 hours later my blood sugar was 143. That's NORMAL.
I feel good. I'm learning to eat right again. I'm learning to listen to my body and eat what I'm hungry for, and eat when I'm hungry. It's great!
The insulin pump is cool
There are some good articles on how the pump works today. Minimed had to own up that they screwed up and that their pump isn't truly water proof. They are trying to claim now that no one's is. Oh well...
I have an Animas. They are great!
Yahoo! News - Report: Diabetes Drugs May Cause Heart Failure
The drug that I thought worked the best -- Propulsid was pulled off the market. And here go some more drugs.
Prevalence of Diabetes in U.S. Unchanged During 1990s
U.S. diabetes rate surprises officials
Very interesting.
The EzManager software is pretty cool. I decided today it would be interesting to see how my blood glucose values compared on and off the pump.
Oddly enough I've had two conversations lately with medical professions about food cravings and diabetes.
The first was with my pump trainer. She was going over my logs and noticed that I wasn't eating as much, EVEN on my bad days.
I said, it drives me nuts, but when my blood sugar is high, I crave sugar. I've finally learned that fat and protein makes the craving stop, and don't go into to this massive blood sugar highs.
The yesterday, the sleep doctor was telling me that she was worried about a diabetic friend who claims that she is controlling her diabetes, but is eating sugar and has diabetic neuropathy.
I told her about the uncontrollable sugar cravings.
It's horrible -- pump trainer said it was normal, and that normal people don't have them. That's sad in a way because they don't have a clue how we feel. And worse yet, we can't explain it, and people dump on us because we have to give in.
Diabetes sucks, if you didn't now that already.
Today is my two week aniversary on the pump.
I have an Animas pump and they have assigned a fabulous pump trainer.
I feel healthier since I got my pump. I can work out longer, I'm not as tired at the gym. I'm also not as tired at work. I'm in a better mood and I'm sleeping better.
I went to see a doctor yesterday and my blood pressure and weight are both substantially lower than pre pump -- about a month ago.
I'm developing a healthier relationship to food. I don't have as many cravings (but still have some but that is still related to high blood sugar).
We're still doing basal checks (doing one today), and we've upped my carb/insulin ratio. I think we need to make some other adjustments.
Few people notice the pump -- I've found wearing it in my bra works best for me (everyone's milage varies).
In other words, even though I paid for the pump out of pocket, it's been worth every penny and I'm looking forward to better things.
Went to the sleep doctor (PhD) today, and REALLY impressed her. Blood pressure was down, weight was down (11 pounds), I attribute some to better sleep but MOST to the pump.
I did have to explain it to her.
No, they can't read blood sugar -- we all wish they did. No, all it really does is deliver insulin more efficiently.
Yes, it lets me eat what I want, when I want, no more 6 meals a day.
New Message Emerges in Treating Diabetes
Oddly enough, with better blood sugar control, I'm actually SEEING better blood pressure.