Living With Diabetes

Can you tell I really like the Diabetes in Control newsletter? Very factual and rarely judgemental.

Diabetes In Control - High Drop Out Rate for Rimonabant Diet

High Drop Out Rate for Rimonabant Diet

Posted by at 9:51 PM | Permalink

This doctor brings up some interesting points on Exubra -- I'm not rushing to go to Exubra myself as I don't mind the regimen I'm doing now, and I can have the lifestyle I want -- I expect the writer would accuse me of "abusing insulin". Oh well.

Diabetes In Control - Exuberance Over Exubera: Some Cautionary Notes

Exuberance Over Exubera:
Some Cautionary Notes

Posted by at 9:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I moved my Algebra I students into the lab and I am in the process of automating the class. Not major automation as these kiddos aren't the brightest crayons in the box. Some of them are midnight blue, but very few of them are yellow. They are all definately rescues -- All have taken Algebra I at least once before.

We have a very cool copier which I absolutely adore. I drop the worksheets that the Math coach gives me into the copier, put my email address in the control panel and hit send. All my orginals run through the scanner and I get an email with a PDF attached. I also have Acrobat, so I can pull out the individual pages and put them in seperate files.

So my kids are getting a packet of paper approximately every day (instead of a textbook) and they can go to the website where I have the same packet organized. I've been putting notes and answers on the pages with Acrobat. They don't like that I control their computer when I teach class, but they are stating to get over it. The same kids aren't paying attention as before, but at least the kids that were hitting other kids who WERE paying attention are now in training to race cars or kill aliens (playing computer games), after I finish.

I keep hoping they will wake up and start taking school seriously. Let's see, today, 3 of my darlings were in In School Suspension, and I only put one of them there.

---

But as to me. My blood sugars have been stable so far this week. The first time since the teaching change. My insulin usage is still high -- yesterday it was 50, and right now, I'm just under 35. I probably need to eat something since my blood sugar was 120 at 8:00. I don't have enough guts to do that yet especially since I'm not already not sleeping all night. I've managed to stay in bed all night, though I was pushing it last night.

I have started exercising regularly again, since I don't have PT for my knee. It burned some blood sugar but not enough. The knee is loads better, and probably at 90%.

Posted by at 8:43 PM | Permalink

By the way, if you own a business train your employees not to be rude.

I saw this deal at Fry's in Plano on Saturday, but waited and bought it in Irving tonight.

I got a Mac-Mini + 17" LCD Monitor for $599. Well, I had to pay taxes on $907.00

They had an instant rebate for $199, and then mail in rebates for $50 and $30 on each item.

Here's the cool part, I didn't realize it was a 17" monitor until I got it home. I expected a 14", and wouldn't have been a bit surprised if it had been a 13" or smaller. Actually I was happy as long as it wasn't as small as a Treo screen

Posted by at 8:07 PM | Permalink

Yes -- 3 years from today is my first entry.

Also Happy Birthday to Marcie (like she reads this).

Posted by at 6:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My third blog anniversary is tomorrow -- and so is Marcie's 8th birthday.

I tend not to celebrate too much. Marcie's only had one birthday party, and it really was just an excuse to get some friend over. None of my other dogs ever did have a birthday party...

I do want to take a few minutes to reflect on three years of blogging. My blog has never been about changing the world, it's just been about changing me, hopefully for the better. It's just about me and finding a way to deal with diabetes the best I can. If I help someone else, so be it. In fact, that's a super bonus.

I do recommend some type of record keeping and reflecting. It doesn't have to be a blog -- but it is sure nice to be able to look back and see what you have accomplished, and even better yet, what has gotten you off track.

So happy anniversary to my blog, and to my blog readers. And better yet, Happy Birthday to Marcie.

Posted by at 9:33 PM | Permalink

She is now Maggie NA, OAJ (not a very fancy name). She finished her Open Agility JWW title. She took two 2nd places and a 3rd place also. I have moved her to Excellent JWW A for our next two shows. She needs only 1 Open agility leg.

I was able to run all 8 runs this weekend though I did have some pain. The weather was cold and damp all weekend though today was drier but colder.

My blood sugar was a bit lower than usual especially right before runs which was odd. The adreneline rush I get just before the ring was actually worse.

Overall the blood sugar was pretty good all weekend, so I am really pleased with the Agility basal rate I'm using.

Posted by at 4:49 PM | Permalink

Got to bed when I wanted but we had bad thunderstorms and poor Maggie woke me up. Plus I'd had pizza and so was having some GERD problems.

Did get my lesson plans done, at 2:00 am. but at least they are done.

Got up early, did some prep work for my :Algebra kids. I can't deal with the stress of being responsible for a room I can't control.

We have a new copier which I love because you can toss paper in it and it scans the image and emails it to me. I'm putting each day's lesson on my class web site.

Posted by at 10:05 PM | Permalink

Here's the latest. Got a package in the mail for Protonix, but only got 90 tables, not the 180 I need for twice day
dosage. They requested the doctor to call for a coverage review (which I asked him to do a month ago, and he decided not to.

So I've spent the last 1 1/2 scanning the letter from Medco, finding out that the fax software didn't work on this computer and looking for my fax software to install on the other machine which has a working modem. My dumb, but that's okay. I've got the software back on a hard drive so it's more easily acessible.

I did look harder at the letter I got from Medco about no longer being able to get Protonix and apparently we can do a coverage review on that too.

Posted by at 12:26 AM | Permalink

Congratulations!Diabetes Mine: One-Year Blogiversary

And one reason I can keep going as long as I have, is that I have a different goal than you do when it comes to blogging.

It's one of my major management tools.

Posted by at 5:53 PM | Permalink

I'm trying to get back on track, and I've found that making lots of short entries about the things I'm trying to change helps.

So last night I got to bed at 10:30, which is much earlier than I have been getting to bed but later than I wanted. I did stay in bed all night even though I woke up twice.

Unfortunately I weighed this morning, and unfortunately my suspicious are true, I have started gaining weight again. I had other clues, my clothing is too tight, and my insulin usage is up.

Tonight I'll probably be up late since it's dog training, but I do plan to stay in bed all night.

Posted by at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I bit the bullet on Monday, and ordered 3 months worth of OneTouch Ultra test strips. Yeah, it's bigger, yeah, it doesn't have the cute little flashlight, BUT it does have graphs, which is helping me.

Sticking to one meter isn't bad, I'll have to start finding and shifting emergency meters.

Someone asked if was using the OneTouch software -- I like EzManager much better and it not only downloads all of the UltraSmart data, but also the pump data -- it's an Animas product.

Posted by at 9:39 PM | Permalink

I had a better day, but the kiddos were really wound up after yesterday's forced sitting still all day (also known as TAKS testing).

I think that not waking up helped, but I do need more hours. I'm going to try to go to bed around 9:30. Notice I said try.

The knee has been stiff all day, partly because the elevator isn't working. I managed to get 15 minutes in on the treadmill not much but it's the most I've been able to do all week.

Posted by at 7:45 PM | Permalink

Right now, before I can get anything else on track, I have to sleep all night. Which I managed last night, though I didn't make it to bed until 11:30.

Knee is still incredibly stiff. I can't decide what to do about physical therapy.

Posted by at 6:40 AM | Permalink

Students this time. I expected a disaster, first because the walk-through didn't work, second because I found out shortly after I arrived, that the person who was supposed to relieve me had a car accident and wasn't at school. I lucked out because a counselor brought me an extra student and I was smart enough to talk her into watching my student while I went to the restroom. I finally gave up on being relieved about 10:30, called the office and begged for someone to watch my room. The good news, is that I was assigned a new relief. He had other duties, so I didn't get much time.

The other part that was nice was that I had only 12 students. A 13th was assigned, but he didn't show and was withdrawn from school a few weeks ago since he was 18 and hadn't shown up in weeks.

I eat with my students, which was actually pretty enjoyable. One of my students, a late arrival, took until about 2:30 to finish the test, most were done about a half hour before that. I did manage to get the students who finished early a couple of computers to play with which kept them busy. And I had plenty to do also.

We had another change in weather which is really giving me knee trouble. I did some of my physical therapy exercises, but sitting here in front of the computer isn't helping much, but I just can't bring myself to do more.

I may yet break down and get a stationary bicyle, but man, I love my treadmill, and don't enjoy stationary bikes much. My biggest problem, is that I've never been able to find one that fits me.

Posted by at 8:30 PM | Permalink

Sleeping isn't though. Just couldn't get to bed before 11:30. I always have trouble going to bed after a bad night. Then I woke up around 5:00 am. Piddled around a bit on the computer, got a few things actually done, and then went back to bed to get warm and listen to the news.

I went back on the anti-inflammatory last night -- and the knee is better. How much of that is due to the warmer weather though?

I am dreading today. We're testing our 1st period class ALL day. They should finish around 11:00 am. I've got 3 DVD's, hopefully that will keep them entertained.

Posted by at 6:56 AM | Permalink

I'm not going to say a whole lot about this, but part of the stress I've been experiencing this year is due to the fact that I cannot trust the students in my portable. I want to move them to my computer classroom, but they just cannot be trusted. At all....

I've taught for 14 years, and I have never witnessed the theft that I've seen out of these students. Anything that cannot be stolen is destroyed. I have no idea if it is one student or more than one student. I am not even sure if it is a current student.

It's never happened while I was in the room. One time it happened when I went into the building into the restroom, but I'm pretty sure who did it. Fortunately that student is no longer enrolled in my classes, as I've caught him three different times, wrote him up and nothing happened.

Posted by at 11:19 PM | Permalink

Mostly I've been going through physical therapy.  I have been getting home from school around 5:00 pm on Monday and Friday, eating, and then going to physical therapy and then getting back home between 7:30 - 8:00.  On Wednesday's I tutor, eat and go to physical therapy
and get home between 8:00 and 8:30.  On Thursday's I train dogs all evening.  Also, every other weekend has been a major agility trial.

Plus I'm now responsible for planning 6 preps and teaching 5 of them. 

There hasn't been ANY free time, especially for writing.

Life has just been very difficult.

The knee was better until Friday.  I don't know if it was the physical therapy session, the lack of anti-inflammatory, or the horrible cold front, but I've been aching since Friday evening.  A few times to the point I didn't want to walk at all.  In fact, it's throbbing now. 

Posted by at 8:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My insurance plan uses Medco (which I've blogged about in the past), to manage our prescriptions and their costs.  I've also blogged some about my problems with gastric reflux disease.

Basically, my gastric reflux is out of control, and the only medication that comes close to solving the problem is Protonix.  In December, I got a letter telling me that Protonix was no longer in our formulary.  Well, Friday I got a letter telling me that they would no longer cover Protonix AT all, and that they would only covered omeprazole or Nexxium. 

How do I go about fighting this?  Right now, I'm double dosing on Protonix and last night I was up with GERD.  I've tried double dosing Nexxium and it almost but not quite does the job.

I know I need to control my food better in the evenings, but it is flat out difficult between the diabetes and the stress I keep going though.

I'm hoping someone reading this can give some help.

Posted by at 8:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Stem Cells May Be Key to Cancer - New York Times

One day, perhaps in the distant future, stem cells may help repair diseased tissues. But there is a far more pressing reason to study them: stem cells are the source of at least some, and perhaps all, cancers.

Posted by at 8:01 PM | Permalink

Yeah, I DID hate this meter, and I still am not real happy with it.

The Freestyle Flash is smaller and has the cute little flashlight for the test strip. Also I personally think it is easier to use. For one thing, if you don't get enough blood on the first try, you can give it more and it will eventually read. Not so the Ultrasmart.

However, the copay on the Ultrasmart is quite a bit cheaper than the Freestyle. Plus I like having the graph in my hand. It makes it easier to see trends, both good and bad. If the Freestyle/Palm combo, I have to wait till I get to the big computer and run EzManager.

I think that the Lifescan tech support sucks, but the last couple of times the Freestyle sucked too. You should not have to wait seven minutes to talk to a tech when you are dealing with blood sugar readings. Yeah, I time these things.

However, they did send me a bottle of 25 test strips, which pretty much takes care of the strips I've wasted, and I've gone from wasting 3 strips a day to one yesterday and so far, knock on wood, none today. So maybe I'll have figured it out.

Posted by at 5:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I've been using it for a week.

Using the test strips is enough different from the Freestyle, that I frequently screw up the procedure, thus wasting the strip. In fact, Wednesday morning, I wasted 3, then called the company and had them walk me through the procedure. Did it again Saturday and asked for some free test strips to make up for the ones I was screwing up.

I will probably be sticking with it. For a pumper, having a graph of your blood sugars by meal is invaluable. Also, having all the log book information in my hand and organized in different ways is also invaluable. The UltraSmart does a bunch of stuff EzManager doesn't do, both the Palm and PC version.

However, you can't transfer data back and forth between the three, which is sad.

I did see that the FDA issued an approval on something Lifescan called an ONETOUCH ULTRA 2 BLOOD GLUCOSE MONITORING SYSTEM. I am wondering if that is going to communicate with the Animas pump.

Posted by at 1:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I've been taking insulin almost from the start.  Amy writes about the discussion at the ADA meeting at the following link.

Diabetes Monitor - ADA report: February, 2006

I personally prefer the control insulin gives me.  My only problem was with long lasting insulins because they don't release smoothly -- at least for me.  I will admit that I haven't been on Lantus and it is supposed to be smoother. 

Of course, I went even further and went to the pump.  Makes it even easier to control.

Posted by at 7:52 PM | Permalink

Marcie finished another agility title. We took a first place today and she is now: Bettner's Byte of Magic, AX, OAJ, AXP, AJP, CGC

I'm very proud of her.

Made some minor mistakes, mostly because I was cold and tired that kept us from qualifying the rest of the day. Learned a lot about running Maggie today, but also keep making the same mistakes with her.

This is such a major accomplishmnet for me. When I first started with Marcie in dog agility, I had trouble actually completing a Novice course. To be able to run 2 Excellent courses and 2 Open courses in one day is a very big deal.

My blood sugar was really low most of the day, never topping over 170 and hitting the 90's several times. I think it's time to start titrating my bolus rates lower, now that the stress and stress eating seems to have calmed down. I've been constantly using around 40 units on insulin on school days.

The new philosophy on insulin dosage during agility trials is really working.

Posted by at 5:52 PM | Permalink

ESPN.com - NCB - Katz: Morrison sending message about his diabetes

Posted by at 8:39 PM | Permalink

Even though we didn't Q, I think we had 4 of our best runs. Sounds weird, but I wasn't hurting and my blood sugar was in the best control I've ever had at a trial.

Marcie's first run was very good -- we missed clean by one weave pole, one of us wasn't concentrating on what we were doing. Since we blew that, I was wiling to try some distance work like we do in class, and the end of the run was not only pretty but caused almost no stress on the knee. She was 3 seconds under time.

We were also clean until about jump 15 on the JWW course, but I got tired and pushed a little too hard and pushed her off a jump, we lost time as she circled it. We did nail the weaves, but I pushed too hard again, pushing her into an extra jump. My instructor and I both think that the 5 seconds over time were caused by the mistakes, and that she'd had made time.

Maggie is still extremely random. I couldn't get good stays at the start on either run, but we still managed good work. Her JWW run was first, and she went into the wrong end of the tunnel, she also took an extra jump. I almost lost her at the weaves, but she did come when I called hard. She also bellowed less. One of fellows who has trained in most of Maggie's class said -- yeah, Kathleen, she doesn't bellow as much if you keep up with her. She also did very nice weaves and only bellowed at the beginning and end.

I pulled her out of the tunnel on the opening -- forgot I didn't have perfect Marcie, and then she just couldn't down on the table, and I don't blame her, I wouldn't have wanted it to either. Man it was cold. She also blew the weaves, which was weird, as there were only 6 poles.

Both dogs were with me most of the runs, I just lost Maggie for a few seconds, and both did what I told them to, most of the time. All of Marcie's problems were handler caused.

It's nice being tired because you had a long day, and not because you are sick from too much blood sugar.

Posted by at 8:29 PM | Permalink

The trustee who came up with the illegal alien idea died last night.

Posted by at 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Between the new schedule, tutoring and physical therapy, I just don't get much spare time. The knee is much better, the PT thinks 4 more sessions maybe. It will be nice to get my evenings back.

Today is good example. Left at 7:00, picked up breakfast on way to school, staff meeting at 8:00, school starts at 8:40, first break 3rd period, but had to hunt people down. Rest of the day, go go, though had some time to grade, read, etc. since the kids were doing a writing assignment (mandatory).

Picked up food, picked up a heater for the agility trial this weekend -- reminds me, need to double check and make sure they are not on a prohibited item list.... Got home, ate, and had 1/2 hour to play with the heater and a bit of down time. Went to PT, got gas on the way home and snacks for the trial. Got home about 7:30. This is the first down time I've had all day.

I am ready to be done with physical therapy, and the good news, is that after a really bad day last Monday, the rest of the week has been good, even with the cold fronts that have come in. The most important thing is that I've learned to NOT sit down and wait out the pain, but to do my PT exercises so it will get better faster.

Posted by at 9:04 PM | Permalink

... and I think I know why.

One of our trustees came up with the "bright" idea of investigating to see if there is a way to hire illegal immigrants to teach bilingual education.

In the same week....

We had a student die on campus of unknown causes.
We had a teacher leave sick on Friday and die on Saturday of bacterial menigitis
We had a teacher arrested because she was in a locked room with a student that she admitted to having a sexual relationship with.

Okay, we have 15 comprehensive high schools of 1000 - 5000 students each. Things like this happen, but all in one week?

I think it's the illegal alien thoughts that sent everything else out of controll....

Posted by at 10:02 AM | Permalink

Four Jobs I've Had
Kelly Girl -- as a teenager, loved it
Police Dispatcher
Dog Bather
Pet Sitter

The last three are things I've done summers as an adult.

Four movies
You've got Mail
True Lies
Great Escape (the first one)
Full Monty

Four TV Shows
MASH
Cosby
Amazing Race
NCIS

I picked two old and two new

Four Places I've Been on Vacation
I've never really gone on a big vacation

Las Vegas
Jackson Mississippi
Monroe, Lousiana (twice for agility trials)
Round Rock Texas, but I don't like that site much

Four of my favorite foods
Texas BBQ especially Marshall's
El Chico's Chicken Fajita Chimichanga
Anything with Chocolate, love the Sonic Browner Blaster
Greek Salads

Four Websites I visit daily
Dallas Morning News
especially for the latest DISD scandal
Google, especially Gmail
Slate
Anything on my RSS feed

Four places I would rather be
No where. It's extremely difficult to get me out of Dallas and out of my house.

Posted by at 6:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I finally bit the bullet and am trying a different meter -- Lifescan's UltraSmart. My PBM (Medco), doesn't have Freestyle on the formulary, although I really like that meter. It's a difference of over $100 a year on the copay, so I'm giving the UltraSmart a try.

I really think I'll go for it, as it J&M who owns LifeScan is buying Animas, meaning that there will a tighter pairing between the products. I'm quite sure one of the next upgrades of the Animas pump is going to be talking to the meter, as that is the only thing the competitors do that the Animas doesn't. The only thing holding that back is that the Ultra line connects with a serial port, not IR. However, Lifescan just went through a preMarket approval (501K) on a new Ultra meter, so that might be coming up.

The biggest negative on the ultrasmart is the size, the biggest positive is the log on the meter. I really like the idea of seeing the trends on a portable graph, which you don't get from EzManager. You get graphs on the PC side, but not on the PDA side. I tend to want to make adjustments on the fly, probably not a good thing, and being able to see what is going on while it is happening, rather than waiting until I get to the big computer is desirable.

I've had some trouble using their test strips. The samples I used worked fine, but when I opened a new bottle this morning, I had 3 bad readings in a row, while I was at school and couldn't get a good reading. So I picked up the phone and called Lifescan in front of my students (I think hearing someone deal with tech support is a good thing, and they were doing an assignment). Of course, they had to talk loudly when I was on the phone ... Anyhow, I was not impressed. I accidently dialed the Spanish line instead of the English but it still should not take 6 minutes to get to a person on Wednesday morning. I find it irritating to have to listen to a survey request before I get tech support, and in fact, I told their system to shut up and answer the phone more than once.

After the tech walked me through the procedure, I didn't have another problem, though I find holding the stupid meter on the blood drop during the countdown to be extremely annoying.

Posted by at 8:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Apparently Lifescan has modified the One Touch system, according to the 501K updates, but I can't find the changes. I am hoping it's a device that will communicate with the Animas pump. That IS the next step.

Posted by at 8:26 PM | Permalink

My aboslute favorite commercial of all time is the Joe Green Pepsi commercial. It's great because you remember the product.

Well, I just saw a remake of the commercial, with some important changes. It's a young football player who gets to meet Bettis (sp), another football player who has asthma. It's for GSK Asthma Control program. The cool part is how it ends, the young player tosses HIS jersey to the pro.

I like the focus -- living with asthma and being successful. I get SO tired of the "looking for the cure diabetes" commercial, probably mostly because I don't think it's happening soon. I personally focus on getting through the day with the tools I have.

If you want to see the ad, it's on the Asthma Control Test website.

Posted by at 8:04 PM | Permalink

Diabetes sucks....

All last week, including this weekend I've been struggling with carb cravings and high blood sugars. Woke up every day between 110 and 120.

Today, I woke up at 90, and after every meal have been a bit low. In fact, I've had to eat about 3 pieces candy to avoid crashing.

I did make one change -- carb to insulin ratio in the morning, but I didn't do that until last night.

Posted by at 7:59 PM | Permalink

Someone at school asked me if I had blogged the details of my recent changes. I told her I had as much as it affected my diabetes.

I'm real careful not to post much about school. In fact, for most of the almost three years of blogging, I've kept this about diabetes. I have been posting about my dogs and agility lately, though those also affect the diabetes, and the diabetes affect it. It's not hard to track me down and I don't need any more controversy in my life, thanks.

School gets better every day. I do feel the need to comment on my students comments, as that has been the coolest part of this year. Even today, I saw one of my students who had transferred from my class back in September, and he complimented me. He said I explain things better than teacher he has now. When I pinned him down, he said it was more about the tone of my voice, that she "yells and seems mad" when she has to explain something. That's something I don't get.

Not everyone gets every thing the same way. One thing I ALWAYS do when a student asks a questions, I repeat the question for the whole class and answer the question for everyone. I feel that it opens up things for the other students, and if one kiddo doesn't get it, at least 3 others don't.

I've always taught a wide variety of kids who have differing ability levels. I always try to cover the lesson as fast as possible for those kids that get it and want to get the assignment done and gone on with the next thing. Then I go over the assignment in detail. Then I wait for kids to ask questions and repeat them for the group. I also wait for the kid that just doesn't get it and if we have time, go over it once just for them. We don't always get that time.

I've got a kiddo in regular CS that is that way. He dives into class, does the assignment as quick as possible and then goes and does what he wants to do on the internet. I don't have a real problem with that, though that does challenge me to find things that will get him to spend more time on my work. In the same class, I have one or two students who have to see me go through the whole assignment before they "get it".

Anyway, I'm having one of my best years ever. I may not always do things the way the administration wants them done (meaning high passing rates on the AP CS tests), but I've always been good at giving my students what they want and need.

Posted by at 2:34 PM | Permalink

Looks interesting.

I'm not sure how and when I'll use it, but it looks interesting. Supposedly you can textmail someone a payment instantly. I've referred my sister, and I think it would be handy to be able to send her money -- like for her birthday -- rather than dealing with a gift card, which by the way, is still sitting on my desk. I am thinking sending it to my mom will be the safest thing to do with it.

Posted by at 2:25 PM | Permalink

Had to do it today. Site change. I'd changed a site this morning and at noon, had a high blood sugar even after a correction. No place to hide. Called fora security guard, waited and waited, none came. Finally figured out that I could lift my shirt and do it without disturbing the students. Wouldn't work if I was wearing a dress, but this one did.

Blood sugar is lower, though I think the heat in this room is part of the problem, it's over 100 degrees, and approaching hotter.

Posted by at 2:03 PM | Permalink

It's actually amazing to me, but my weight has been very stable since about the end of November, even though my eating hasn't been great and my insulin usage has been considerably higher.

In fact, right now, I'm at my lowest ever weight, even after the class schedule switch. Every day is getting better with that, by the way, just got the software inslalled I need for my Visual Basic students (well, I will by 2nd period -- I still have a couple of computers to go.

Posted by at 6:56 AM | Permalink