And I'm not sure you can get insurance companies to go for it.
Diabetes prevention efforts worth every penny
Diabetes prevention efforts worth every penny
« January 2005 | Main | March 2005 »
Diabetes prevention efforts worth every penny
Diabetes prevention efforts worth every penny
I'm going back to the dentist on Wednesday. He's been keeping an eye on a bottom tooth, and it just started screaming at me this weekend. I don't know if that's why I choose the wrong foods last night, or if the wrong food aggravated it, but I'm glad I'm getting it fixed before we go off to Monte Carlo.
By the way, that's in 1 week and 5 days. I'm not counting or anything yet.
See, another one complaining about food in relation to blood sugars.
Blood Sugars, Highs & Lows
I have heard from several people on the insulin pumper's list that their 1250's have arrived, so Animas is definately shipping.
Also emailed the guy I ordered from and he said it was still on, but email tomorrow to verify (and I hope get a tracking number).
I'm very VERY excited, as the new pump has the alarm features I'm wanting -- mainly the capability to alarm after a meal.
So, in less than 2 days I should be wearing it.
Here's another pumper -- not sure who she is -- wonder if she's on insulin pumpers.
Not sure of what type, etc. but here is another diabetes blogger.
New & Exciting! The Patient-Pundit Goes Live
The search for sleep
Newswise | Twenty Somethings with Sleep Apnea Most Likely to Die
Twenty Somethings with Sleep Apnea Most Likely to Die
It's happening! Called Animas, and yes, the letter I got Saturday was the letter we were looking for.
I'm set for a March 2 delivery, and this trip, it's going to cost around $83.00 because it is covered by the insurance.
I've ordered a Black pump. I'm very excited about the new features, especially the food database on board.
I suspect I'll be better about recording everything now, since the pump does the work.
Ran into a lady I've met at insulin user groups meetings before at the doctor's office. She's waiting for the 1250, and currently has a 1200 as a loaner. She's expecting to receive her 1250 on March 1.
Interesting, she has the same first name, is retired from the same school district, but I think she's Type 1 and has had diabetes for a while. Not sure.
I'm not sure what I expected, as my numbers have been almost perfect, and I know why and when I've gotten weird blood sugar readings ...
Endo's visit went well. A1C is back to 6.2, which is SUPER! I've been exercising well, and most of the time have been able to control my food intake.
Basically we're just working on my losing weight. I was disappointed to show only a 1 pound weight loss on their scales, but last time I went earlire in the day and had not eaten anything.
So I'm scheduled again in about 6 months -- I set it up so it should be the week before school starts.
Well, not really. I emailed the Animas guy on Saturday and sent him a copy of the letter. I assumed that Animas would be closed today and was right.
Besides, I'm off myself.
I don't wait well.
I really hate it when people say I have a worse case of diabetes than other people. For one thing, thinking that, lets the other guy off the hook if they are not managing their diabetes.
That said ...
I've looked at what was posted at QUALITY: Alternative approaches to diabetes, by Pamela E. Mack and I've been keeping up with Alwin at code:theWebSocket
Pam appears to be managing her diabetes by diet, exercise and doing a lot of testing.
Alwin appears to be using oral medications and testing.
Pam was lucky, she expected diabetes and was keeping on top of things, so she probably can control it with diet and exercise. I knew diabetes was coming, but was never given enough tools to prevent it. I think my primary care physician should have sent me to diabetes education and should have had me testing when he first told me he was watching it.
I had already been working on diet and exercise, but not very successfully at it. I've also got a lot more than 60 pounds to lose.
According to this post, Alwin got hit in a crisis too. Mine wasn't as alarming, but a crisis none the less.
For those who haven't kept up, haven't explored the site, here's what when on with me.
My primary care physician was watching my blood sugar for a while while treating lipids. My fasting blood sugar was in the 120's. I don't know why he didn't just treat the diabetes, but he decided to do a glucose tolerance test, which I failed spectatularly.
Within 10 minutes of drinking the glucose, my vision blurred and I got into a really lousy mood. At the time, I thought the reason I was so down was two factors:
The lab where I was getting the test was jerking me around.
and
I was a couple of miles away from where my best friend got killed -- and both the fact I was near there, and the fact that he'd gotten killed was unexpected. In fact, between blood draws, I went and visited the site where he died.
The nasty mood never left. In fact, I felt really really lousy, really really angry, and I kept the vision blur.
I had the test done on Friday, and was still feeling awful on Monday morning. It was so bad, that when I got to school, I immediately asked for a sub and started trying to get a hold of the doctor's office.
About the time they got me a sub, I got a hold of the doctor's office and the reason the phone line at the doctor's office was busy, was because they were trying to call me. They had gotten a fax from the lab company telling them to get ahold of me immediately.
My blood sugar was over 500 when I was tested, and was still over 500 when the doctor tested me. He immediately threw glucophlage at me, and scheduled me for diabetic education.
I arranged the first class available, that Thursday and Friday.
FYI: The educational experience was the most painful part of being diabetic!
Anyway, my blood sugar was still over 500 when I got to diabetes education, my first time to get a blood sugar monitor. At one point that weekend, my blood sugar hit over 600, and the CDE urged me to get ahold of my doctor.
He'd just left for a conference, so I ended up at an urgent care center. That doctor also found my blood sugar over 600, and sent me home to take double glucophlage.
I saw my own doctor the next week, but my blood sugar was still in the 400's. In fact, no matter what I ate, what I did, my blood sugar was staying before 400, even fasting. And he was furious that the doctor had not given me any insulin or any other treatment other than increasing the glucophlage.
I talked to my cousin, a CDE who is a pharmacy PHD, and she suggested adding insulin to pull my blood sugar down fast. When I asked the doctor about that, he gave a huge sigh of relief, wrote me a script for it, and sent me to more diabetes education to learn about insulin.
It took a while, but I finally got my blood sugar down to a reasonable level.
However, I ran into major problems with the long acting insulin -- I was one it for 6 months, kept gaining weight, and kept having problems with hypoglycia episodes, especially when trying to exercise.
Nothing like spending an hour on the treadmill than having to drink a sports bottle of gatorade, and then going into roller coaster mode. That will guarantee you gain weight.
To shorten a long story ... after about 6 months on shots and changing doctors (not my choice), and coming in every month and complaining ... my primary care physician said on the way out the door -- why don't you look into insulin pumps.
Man, best parting shot I'd ever heard. I went to an insulin pump user's group, did hours of research on the internet -- even going so far as to looking up pumps on the FDA's Maude database. Read back months of conversation of the insulin's pumpers mailing list. Decided to take the plunge and go with the pump.
Since being on the pump, I haven't suffered from a real hypoglymic episode. I've lost weight -- about 35 pounds since last year's spring break. My lipid levels are finally normal, as is my blood pressure.
I'm probably the healthiest I've ever been.
I just got a letter from Blue Cross Blue Shield stating that they will cover my insulin pump.
Here's the weird part, we're precertifying and the letter says -- Also, please note that some services require precertification.
So I don't know if the pump has been precertified or not.
I think, she's taken an opposite approach, but my blood sugar has been harder to control. Need to read again.
QUALITY: Alternative approaches to diabetes, by Pamela E. Mack
code: theWebSocket; : code: theWebSocket;
Before I can comment intelligently on Alvin's and Pam's posts, I need to take some time to digest and make sure I'm reading what she is doing correctly.
I'm a huge avocate of tight control. I feel lously if my control isn't good. I hate that.
Animas (PUMP ), a little-known maker of small glucose pumps -- to let diabetics constantly monitor the sugar in their blood -- could take a big share of the insulin-measurement market. So say two New York hedge-fund managers, who have bought shares. Animas pumped up from 12 in August to 19.31 in early February, before easing to 18.74.
And how can anyone dream of a closed loop system if we can't draw blood and guarantee that we have an accurate reading?
Welcome To Diabetes In Control - Glucose Meter Problems Reported to FDA
CNN.com - Hospital sued over wrong surgeries - Feb 10, 2005
A doctor may have performed the wrong type of gastric bypass surgery on more than 50 patients at a Wilmington hospital, officials said.
If anyone doubts I have diabetes ... and yes, sometimes I do, because I can keep my blood sugar so stable with the pump,
my blood sugar spiked to 355 on Saturday and to 250 on Sunday evening.
I'm not sure why, but the dogs not behaving well at all on Saturday at an agility probably had something to do with it. I need to download everything and review logs, but it's possible I missed a bolus.
As it was, the blood sugar was down to 155 Sunday morning and down to 116 this morning. I like fasting blood sugar lower, but not bad considering where it came from.
Here's the latest.
I want an IR1250 from Animas. Why, the carb counter for 500 foods you most often eat is built into the pump. Having to carry around a Palm pilot all the time to do the calculations has gotten to be a pain. So, I want one.
I'm now on Blue Cross Blue Shield, and I contacted my sales rep, who had me contact someone who is expert on pursuing denials and she told me since I was on a PPO, they had to ship the pump, then get approval and they ate the cost if it was denied. Okay, I can deal with that. Oh, man, can I deal with that, after the HMO thing, of waiting forever for the denial, getting the pump and waiting months for more denial.
So I sent in all the paperwork, got shifted to a different person than before, which might be a good thing, and get an email that he sent the pre-certification paperwork on Feb 04. I'm like what, I thought they said it didn't grow through that.
So I emailed the person I emailed about this first, and said since it had been less than 2 years, it was "inside Animas" and had to be pre-certified, but just because it got pre-certified doesn't mean they will pay for it.
Well, now I'm waiting on that -- though I don't think the 1250 is shipping yet. I'd love to have it before we go to Monte Carlo, but that all depends on insurance and when they are shipping.
The weirdest thing, is though they have issued press releases there is still nothing on the website about the 1250.
See, someone else with the SAME problem.
When I have my blood sugar under control, NO problem with food, but man, when it spikes and for me a spike is anything over 180, I start looking for more food.
One of the symptoms of diabetes is polyphagia - eating lots and lots of food.
I haven't said much in the blog, but my husband and I are traveling to Monte Carlo in March. He's going to play in the European Series of Poker.
We've been slowing gathering things we might need -- I've got a battery for the CPAP so I can sleep on the airplane.
I've got a few none health related things on my list, but the biggest thing is making sure I have a legal carry on bag so I can have everything with me.
Clean Eating 11/25
Cardio Session 18/35
Strength Session 16/28
Weird, but I can't seem to access the forum portion of iShape.
Clean Eating 11/25
Cardio Session 17/35
Strength Session 15/28
iShape has me on too few calories which is bugging me. I'm going to 2300 calories for a while and see if that helps.
They had me as low as 1800, which really bothers me in lots of ways. First, I want more food than that. I would rather walk more than eat less. Second, I'm afraid it will put me in starvation mode, especially since I wasn't sleeping well last week.
The blog might be mentioned in an Voice of America article and if so, and any readers came from the article welcome.
I got a call from the writer of the article today, which was a bit odd after I thought about it, but it's okay.
There are several reasons why I've put up this blog, and I haven't mentioned them in a time. Hmmm, and come to think of it, I'm approaching an anniversary.
One reason I started the blog, was I needed a writing exercise. One of the things I want to do when I "grow up", is to write teaching materials for my students. I do some already but I'm not real happy with it yet. I think of this blog as a "child" of the Medrants blog (www.medrants.com), because I had been reading his blog for a while and he mentioned the same reason for writing his, which gave me the impedious.
The reason I've focused on diabetes, is that this blog has seemed to be a good respository for the information I've gathered about diabetes on the internet. That's why many of the entries ARE news articles. I have gotten more and more selective over the years, I do reference EVERY THING, just the useful stuff.
Since my diagnosis, I spent a great deal of time dealing with the issue on the internet. My tendency, since I teach this stuff, is to use the internet to solve as many problems as possible. I guess I keep hoping I'll find a short cut or even a cure on the web, and I'm sure I have.
Finally, I do spend a great deal of my time on the internet itself. I have a classroom website where I keep my classroom assignments, have my students turn in their work, etc. I keep my dog photos on line (and on my palm), and I even use iShape for workshops.
Definately an internet person. Interesting bit of trivia -- I had the second personal internet account in the DFW area.
Finally, if I can help anyone following this path, I'm glad to do so.
Clean Eating 11/25
Cardio Session 15/35
Strength Session 13/28
I think I'm going to meet most of my goals. I think Saturday is the end of the third week on this challenge, and I'm definally going to get the strength one done. Should be able to do the cardio too.
Cleaning Eating has been hard, because iShape dropped both my cardio level and calorie level -- they do something called periodization. I've finally gotten myself to do 20 minutes on their off days. However, that puts me at a very big deficit so I'm trying to come up with a compromise on the calorie level. Today, I did 228 calories of cardio and ate an extra 100 calories.
I've never been able to stick to a diet of 1400 calories. And in fact, if I did that right now, I'd be in starvation mode.
According to iShape's calculations, without exercise, I burn 2525 calories. At 1400 calories, I'd be in deficiet by 1125 calories.
That should make me lose a pound every 3-4 days, way too fast.
Diabetes Health - Tips for Successful Weight Loss
Participants consumed an average of 1,400 calories per day
Their daily food intake was very similar—approximately 24 percent of their calories came from fat, 19 percent from protein and 56 percent from carbohydrates.
I feel the need to explain my not holding my breath.
Shortly after I was diagnosed, I realized that hypoglymcia was a real problem when you were dealing with tight control and saw that Therasense was coming out with a continous glucose monitor.
That was two years ago.
Last year, Therasense submitted a PreMarket application to the FDA. Yes, LAST YEAR. They were bought by Abbott, and while we hear things about their technology through doctor's conventions no other news has been out.
Minimed has a continous glucose monitor that your doctor can put on you and retrieve the information about 3 days later. On their website they mention the soon availablity of the Guardian system. That's been on their website for almost a year. We still haven't seen the Guardian, and we also know that it will not actually display the information realtime. It will have alarms and you'll have to down load it.
So I am no longer expecting a CGMS any time soon.
There are lots of issues with CGMS, I guessing one of the big ones is the sensor since the infusion set is the biggest issue when it comes to pump reliablility.
It's about how diabetes and the insulin pump have affected him as a professional athlete.
SI.com - SI Players - My Body: Sweet Success - Tuesday February 1, 2005 12:49PM
I've just hit a place that I have only seen once before since I've been diagnosed with diabetes. I hit this weight in October, freaked, gained about 10 pounds, and than have struggled to get it back off.
I don't know why it bothered me before, it isn't now.
Clean Eating 10/25
Cardio Session 13/35
Strength Session 12/28
I haven't posted this here in a few days, but have been doing it at iShape. Today was a personal best, did my cardio at 2.8 mph -- okay, I broke it up a LOT, but it was still that fast and still 30 minutes.