Living With Diabetes

Bit behind on blogging.

First on Tuesday our kids did go to the protest and probably a few today. I over heard a bunch of them talking about walking part way, realizing they weren't going to get downtown and playing hookie instead. I knew about one who had called his mom and asked for a ride back.

Protonix. Got 90 pills -- the remainder of the prescribtion they didn't send me in February. So it does look like that's a go.

Exercise. Definately a need. I had to do an off day on Monday and blood sugar was a mess the next day, but it's much better now, in fact, I have 7 minutes to go on a 35 minute cardio session and two more weight exercises.

I wish I could get to the point that I could at least do 20 minutes every morning but I'm still waking up extremely groggy.

Posted by at 8:44 PM | Permalink

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Local News

Students abandoned classes at Sunset and Molina high schools and the Townview Magnet Center. Many assembled around 11 a.m. at Kiest Park to rally against the legislation.

And I'm thrilled as he as come up with a way the students can participate in an approved way. We're going to show them how to write letters to their congressman (we can have a debate instead), and give them time to get it started.

Posted by at 8:09 PM | Permalink

Diabetes Advocacy: Call for Action from the Diabetes Bloggers

First, my coverage is through an ERISTA insurance. I'm very fortunate that the current insurance does cover everything I need for my medical care, though it is expensive.

First, I don't like the way insurance is being done in this country now. I'm pretty locked into my current employer. Other school districts in our area who do not have the state insurance do not have as good as coverage. In fact, if I went to work for the school district I live it, I would be without coverage for about 6 months for any pre-existing condition (remember the ERISTA thing?)

Let's face it, we're stuck working for a partcular group of employers once we get diagnosed for diabetes and I'm not sure that is right.

I really think that insurance should be more assessible, and I'm not sure this law is going to help it.

But I will pass the information along, and let you make your own decision.

Posted by at 6:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This morning's change worked. I ate breakfast, hit the temporary basal about the same time, and then did the workout. I took awhile to do my workout since I am doing laundry and housework at the same time, plus some computer work (the puppy stuff), but now my blood sugar is 114! No low!

Posted by at 11:14 AM | Permalink

I've started a puppy blog at http://www.kweaver.org/puppy in case any one is interested.

Yes I think it's time to get another dog. Both Marcie and Maggie will probably be retiring from agility in 2-3 years. I want a puppy so I can do the agility thing "right".

Posted by at 10:26 AM | Permalink

I've finally gotten back on schedule when it comes to working out. Between the PT taking up two hours of my day and the new schedule, it took a while. My blood sugar was higher than it should be and I was doing a lot of corrections. I've been exercising pretty steadily for the last 3 weeks, so today I made a bit of change.

Before I was eating if I was low after exercise and this week found I was almost every day I exercised.

So today, I turned on my temporary basal just as soon as I thought about working out. Especially since I also do Sunday's exercise in sets, alternating working out with housework.

This week I plan on going to the temporary basal as soon as I get off work. I did have to shift Monday's cardio session to Wednesday as I have to take some kids to a tutoring session and will be getting home to late to work out.

Planning and writing things down really does help.

Posted by at 9:25 AM | Permalink

Someone just commented on the blog and asked about diabetes dogs, and I want to give my thoughts on this. There are several issues.

The first is selling of dogs to assist people with medical issues. I know of no reputable organization that sells dogs to the handicapped. By reputable, I mean Seeing Eye Dogs, Guide Dogs of America and Canine Companions for Independence. There are lots of other organizations with similar goals, missions, and funding. What all of these organizations have in common, is that they are able to gain enough volunteer and monetary support to run their programs and service their users. The users of these dogs do not have an income that will warrant the purchase of such a dog.

Back when I was training K-9 police dogs, they went for $10,000 to $20,000. There are several reasons for that cost. First, training dogs is extremely labor intensive, as is training their handler. In addition, the police department is paying for future expertise as needed, both to update training AND for expert witnesses to go to court and testify in the team's behalf. If you priced out the labor to train a guide dog or other assistance dog, it would probably exceed that cost. Thus the average family would never be able to afford it. That's the reason for the volunteer and monetary support.

I've trained drug dogs, taught others to train dog dogs and certified dogs for drug detection. Here's what it takes to train a detection dog -- a repeatable circumstance that can be documented and trained for. I'm do not believe that a dog can be trained using Person's A symthoms and be reliable for Person's B sympthoms.

As a diabetic, I am not willing to be my life in the paws of other of my dogs. I have started to see that little Maggie sometimes reacts differently to me when I am low, but I think it is due to too factors: I'm searching for food, and I tend to fumble around more, so she sees it as an opportunity to get food. So here's how I feel about the situation...

If your family wants a dog, get one. If you are lucky enough that the dog is observent enough to pick up on your sympthoms use that as another sign in your environment that you need to deal with your diabetes, BUT I don't believe that you should rely on it 100%.

I also believe if your son is as poorly controlled as you say, your medical team should be using continuous monitoring and find out why your son is poorly controlled. I am not blaming you, I'm blaming your medical team. There is currently a 3-day sensor available (the precursors to the Guardian). I would also be bugging Medtronic and see if the guardian is a legimate answer for you. Frankly, I think a Guardian would be cheaper, even at its current price. Remember, you have to buy the dog, feed it and maintain its training.

Oh, and remember that maintaining the training is duplicating the exact conditions the dog needs to observe. And that's the primary reason I won't be involved in that kind of training for myself or others. I don't want to go into that condition unless I have to.

Posted by at 7:37 PM | Permalink

My endo was worried about my kidney values, in January they indicated that I might be dehydrated but they are better now.

Also, my A1C is better than it was -- 6.6, but it has been better.

Posted by at 3:01 PM | Permalink

I called Animas before lunch and they talked me into changing my site, and now, two hours after lunch, my blood sugar is back to 140, where it should be AND where it was.

Whew!!

I need to remember, when things are consistantly weird, change the set!

Posted by at 2:32 PM | Permalink

My blood sugar was 201, 2 hours after eating. I've called my Endo's office to ask for assistance.

Posted by at 10:51 AM | Permalink

Something very strange is going on.

I had the pump failure this morning and rebooted the pump.

Did a site change.

Ate breakfast, blood sugar was in the 230's, 2 hours after. Corrected and by noon was 90.

Ate lunch, blood sugar was in the 250's, 2 hours after. Corrected and by noon was 107.

Ate supper, and blood sugar was 180, 1 1/2 hours after, ate a pre-agility class snack, and was 130 after two hours (and two dogs) of class. Now I'm 260.

I changed my correction factor, increased it by 1, as the correction factor seems a bit overkill, and has for days.

But I'm wondering what's going on with the bolus. It was fine the rest of the week.

Think I'll call the endo's office tomorrow -- BUT I don't have a duty period tomorrow.

--- Added later

The blood sugar IS going down. Man, I hate to sleep when things like this are going on.

And the good news is that my TDD is slowly going down.

For a second I thought I figured it out, but maybe not. I used the same bottle of Symlin this morning and lunch, but different bottle for dinner and agility snack. So I don't think it is bad Symlin. And the insulin I used in the set change was the last in a vial. BUT the corrections are working.

---- Later

Just woke up sick to my stomach and sure that I was too low but at 165.

Posted by at 11:45 PM | Permalink

This school year.

I shouldn't jinx it, but we've only got a short day tomorrow (and teacher torture in the afternoon -- it's called early release), and I've got a tutoring session on Saturday.

But man did I need that spring break. I've finally been able to enjoy my CS students. I didn't realize how overwhelmed I felt. Imagine going from 2 preps to 5 preps (for the non-teacher, a prep is a subject you teach). Imagine getting a whole new set of faces and behavior to learn in the middle of the year.

The AP kids are the most fun. We have the most outrageous conversations. Most generated by them == a bit of avoidance behavior, but I love the way they think. The key to teaching AP is to point them in the right direction, stay out of their way, and dig them out of their holes they did. (Remember, they were supposed to have PreAP the year before ... and I did at least teach 4 of them PreAP and one of them Webmastering -- only 3 are new to programming and they are good).

I do have to teach PreAP and regular Computer Science. That involves introducing each concept (I've been doing that on computer-less Friday), assign them programs and give them a chance to solve them on their own, and then on the day they are due showing them how to do it. The really good kiddos -- the ones that will go on to AP, will have solved the problem the day before it is due. The normal kids will take notes and figure it out about the day after it's due, and the ones who don't care never will. That's the fun thing about teaching CS, you have three bell curves, not one.

My philosophy, which I shared with them this week when I told almost everyone they were getting a failure notice, is that they can come and ask for help anytime and I promise I won't make them feel stupid. And if I do, they have my permission to head me upside the head. I watched their formal teacher in action for a year, and his favorite thing to do was to make people feel stupid so they are afraid to ask me.

The worst I ever say is -- "gee, you can't spell, but then I can't either, but at least I spell it the same wrong way every time". Or "Gee, don't you hate that I saw that within two seconds of glancing at your screen? Don't feel bad, it would have taken me hours if it were my program. I often make mistakes when I do solve a problem in class, a few times on purpose to show them how to dig themselves out of that particular hole. But most of the time, they are truly honest mistakes, and I think it helps them to see me make them AND for them to catch them before I do.

My Algebra I kiddos are getting better. My 1st period group rarely gives me any guff anymore. I am still having problems with the 7th.

Their favorite thing to do to torture everyone in the computer lab and every room on our hall is to turn up the sound as loud as possible. Well, I found a little program called Wizmo and it has an option to turn off sound. So I installed it on their computers and used Lanschool to set it up. I can actually turn off the sound on every computer with two mouse clicks.

It was so cool. Had the math coach with me who feels the same way about this group as I do, and I just started laughing hysterically. They would blast the room with sound, I'd hit two mouse clicks as she was watching, and shut off every speaker in the room. They blast again after a minute or two (fumbling to turn on the volume), I'd hit two more mouse clicks, and shut off the sound again. That went on for 5 more minutes, I showed them how I did it even, and reminded them to BRING HEADPHONES! I also reminded them, it might take a few days, but I always win. Besides, I have the power of the gradebook on my side and they are NOT passing.

This are the same little darlings that spent two weeks of flashing laser pointers in every one's eyes including mine while I was teaching -- they didn't realize that laser pointers have nothing on the light from an overhead ... and got that the #$#$# that had it and turned him in. Of course, the administrator didn't do anything to him, but I got the laser pointer.

Lovely children. Everyone should be blessed to have a classroom full of them. Do realize that I like most of the students in the class, it's just about 6 of them who have to torture everyone around them. And I despise people who keep others from learning.

Posted by at 11:04 PM | Permalink

Just checked Medco again. They are shipping the 90 pills they owe me from the last prescription (and probably charging me full copay, but oh well, and shipping me the 180 pills for the next time I can refill at the end of April.

Man it was an uphill battle.

Of course, now it will get lost in the mail.

Posted by at 11:02 PM | Permalink

it's sad when paying 2.43 a gallon feels like a victory.

-- added later

And it was 2.59 at the station closest to the house (not that I will buy there).

Posted by at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Medco is shipping 180 tabs of Protonix next month. YEAH!!!!!!!

Posted by at 5:56 PM | Permalink

At 5:40, my pump issued a "Call Service" alarm.

It was weird, because I woke up about that time dreaming that my pump had failed. It kept vibrating, but it didn't register to me that it was anything different than a check glucose alarm until I got out of bed and looked at the pump and saw the message.

It said to disconnect the battery to silence the alarm but I put it back in and downloaded everything, because a) I wanted the data, b) wanted to see the error message in print, and c) because I'm anal about downloading everything and had not in a few days.

The good news is that my blood sugar is 107 and it was a set change day anyway, and that was one reason I hadn't downloaded data.

Well, Animas just called, a nice lady named Frances and she said we had to do a full reboot, and call if I get more than 3 of those messages in a 30 day period and they will replace the pump.

She thought it was a hoot that I'd dreamed the pump had failed.

Posted by at 6:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Bloglines | My Feeds (342) (1)

A lot of my health issues stem from untreated sleep problems for decades...

And I really have problems getting those 8 hours of sleep.

Posted by at 8:15 PM | Permalink

As I told my husband, this week is the week that I realized just how much I missed teaching computer science. I think it's because it's the first time since it's happened that I've had time to just enjoy those students.

My 1st period Algebra Repeaters are doing good. I never have to yell at them, and their passing rate is higher. My 7th period is still VERY VERY tough. They constantly play music on the computers and while I have headphones I don't trust them with them. Heck, I won't leave the room for a second with them.

Here's how bad it is. I have a young man who has an 8 average. He also has over 10 absenses THIS six weeks. He wanted me to take the time to pull out the make up work for him. Well, I've spent hours creating a web page that has exactly what he needs to do on it, and I have all the handouts in a pile. Everytime I spent a moment dealing with him, the other kids were off doing things they shouldn't, mostly playing music. I could deal with it if were in the room by ourselves, but we only have a divider seperating my class from the rest of the room.

Thankfully I have my AP kids right before them. They are SO cool. Best group of AP kids I've ever had as they ALL want to work they all want to pass the class and pass the test and THEY ask me for help. I feel like it's all student driven. I really think they were the only group that the old teacher taught, but these kids were special before him. I had 5 of them before, three I really don't know.

The other fun thing is that each week I seem to get something "back". The week before spring break I got my AP contract. Today I found my little file cabinet. I am still looking for my desk and my rolling chair. I think the teacher in the other half has it. I wish I could get my closet back...

So it's better.

I've also been able to do my iShape exercises every day. My insulin usage is dropping as much as I would like, and I'm having to eat things when I don't really want to. Part of it that I need to be a bit more organized. Next Prime Time day, I need to make sure I eat a salad from the cafeteria during my planning period.

Posted by at 8:02 PM | Permalink

As I told my husband, this week is the week that I realized just how much I missed teaching computer science. I think it's because it's the first time since it's happened that I've had time to just enjoy those students.

My 1st period Algebra Repeaters are doing good. I never have to yell at them, and their passing rate is higher. My 7th period is still VERY VERY tough. They constantly play music on the computers and while I have headphones I don't trust them with them. Heck, I won't leave the room for a second with them.

Here's how bad it is. I have a young man who has an 8 average. He also has over 10 absenses THIS six weeks. He wanted me to take the time to pull out the make up work for him. Well, I've spent hours creating a web page that has exactly what he needs to do on it, and I have all the handouts in a pile. Everytime I spent a moment dealing with him, the other kids were off doing things they shouldn't, mostly playing music. I could deal with it if were in the room by ourselves, but we only have a divider seperating my class from the rest of the room.

Thankfully I have my AP kids right before them. They are SO cool. Best group of AP kids I've ever had as they ALL want to work they all want to pass the class and pass the test and THEY ask me for help. I feel like it's all student driven. I really think they were the only group that the old teacher taught, but these kids were special before him. I had 5 of them before, three I really don't know.

The other fun thing is that each week I seem to get something "back". The week before spring break I got my AP contract. Today I found my little file cabinet. I am still looking for my desk and my rolling chair. I think the teacher in the other half has it. I wish I could get my closet back...

So it's better.

Posted by at 8:02 PM | Permalink

Well, it's being processed and it looks like I'm getting 90 pills again. Oh well....

And I wish I knew how to prevent bad attacks. My blood sugar was too low at 9:30, so I ate 15 club crackers and some cheese to slow it down -- don't know exactly how much but was sharing it with the dogs.

Woke up at 4:00 am freezing as I had not turn on my CPAP heated humidifer and then immediately had the worst reflux attack in a while. Was able to go back to sleep, but woke up coughing and been coughing and refluxing all day.

I'm not as cranky as I expected, at least.

Posted by at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Diabetes In Control - Stable Glucose Improves Classroom Attention in Diabetes

I can say with a bit of confidence that it will help Type 2 diabetics children too.....

Okay, my sample size is small, but I know unstable blood glucose in me not only affects my classroom attention but my classroom performance too.

Oh, I forgot, I'm the teacher -- does it still count?

Posted by at 8:38 PM | Permalink

Diabetes In Control - Implantable gastric stimulation (IGS)

You guys KNOW I'm in to technolgy. I think I want a few more guinea pigs before I go for it (but then I feel the same way about the continous monitors).

And does it have to be Minimed? (Microsoft of medical equipment).

Posted by at 8:33 PM | Permalink

Yeah, today people have been trying to make me get the "big head.".

One of the most annoying thing about my parents is that they rarely praised me because they thought I might quite trying....

Anyway, I just have to tell these two stories ....

One of my coworkers interrupted another teacher and I trying to solve a problem ... but oh well, here's what the other teacher had to say:

"Do you remember x? I'm teaching her now (she home schools our students who can't attend school). She says that you are an awesome teacher" (Note: I am quoting here.

Yes, I did remember her. The other teacher told me that she said that she had been passing my class and was actually getting Algebra until they transferred her to another teacher (they did that with almost all the kids that I got to pass Algebra last semester, long story, I'm not telling it again today). Ever since then she wasn't getting it and wasn't passing.

Well, it makes you both happy and sad. Happy that your work is being recognized, happy that you could turn a kid around, but very sad you couldn't make it continue past you.

===

But it gets better. I have been having a weird network problem in my lab. Couldn't figure it out, so I had asked a guy that wrote some of the network software I use if he could shed any light. I'm only SO good at networking. He volunteered to troubleshoot the network and did today and pinpointed our problem.

While I had him on the phone I told him the story I haven't told here, and when I finished, I heard dumbfounded on the line (yeah, you can hear it if you listen hard). His response? I've been in lots of computer classrooms over the yeras and you are one the 10 best computer science teachers I've ever seen.

So yeah, I'm getting the big head.

Hey, it's my blog, I can post what I want.

Posted by at 7:35 PM | Permalink

My response to this study is "duh!"

CNN.com - Study: Treating mom can prevent kids' depression - Mar 21, 2006

Researchers say they've shown for the first time that treating a mother's depression can help prevent depression and anxiety disorders in her child, a provocative finding with potentially big public health implications.

By the way, man that is scary but at 14 years, I'm a veteran teacher.

Posted by at 7:32 PM | Permalink

I have to blog about this, as it irritates the heck out of me, but part of the school schedule change has involved lunch times.

My schedule at the beginning of the year -- first through third periods straight, then A Lunch, then off fifth period (about two hours after lunch), and then two classes periods at the end of the day, was just about perfect for controlling blood sugar.

The schedule I have now is more difficult. I have third period off, then C lunch, and then work through the rest of the day. The smart thing to do is to eat something small during my planning period. However, I'm not always smart.

Today is one of those day's that it doesn't work. This is a kink in the works called prime time. It pushes our lunch period back by 15 minutes. No big deal right? Well, at our normal lunch time, my blood sugar was at 80. Yeah, 80. So I ate some sugar. I hate eating sugar when I'm low. Bolused too because if I don't I'm going to be too high during AP Computer Science. Trust me, you don't want to have brain sludge with AP CS students. You and they will be crazy.

Right now I'm waiting for the sugar to kick in. My hands shake, and I'm a bit on the bitchy side. By the way, being on the bitchy side doesn't work with teenagers.

Posted by at 12:37 PM | Permalink

Here's the story behind grapefruit.

Experts Reveal the Secret Powers of Grapefruit Juice - New York Times

In 1989, a group of Canadian researchers studying a blood pressure drug were astonished to discover that drinking a glass of grapefruit juice dangerously increased the drug's potency.

I haven't touched grapefruit in years.

Posted by at 11:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I've been fighting a knee injury since about the 1st week of January. Went through PT and the whole bit.

Well, made a major milestone for me -- the first time since the injury, I've managed to do a 30 minute walking workout in one session!

I've been working up from 2.5 minute sessions to 10, and tonight just bit the bullet, went slow, but did the full 30 minutes in one session without a break.

Posted by at 8:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

They have driven me over the edge .... I'm going to try to double up on Protonix as long as I can -- but I've surrendered and am letting Medco call the terms.

First, the Case Authorization I've been checking on all week was for the wrong medication. ARGH! They did however, authorize Protonix through June, but my doctor has to write a new prescription if we want twice a day. I can't go through this anymore, so I just requested the regular one a day amount and will go to one a day. I need to be a bit more careful about what I eat in the evenings anyway.

I rethought this and decided to go for one more try -- left a message on my doctor's patient line telling them that they need to change the prescription so I will get two a day. Hopefully that will work, but if it doesn't, at least I've got another 3 months of Prontonix coming.

Posted by at 7:02 PM | Permalink

Got up this morning, blood sugar was at 124 -- I'd like it to be lower, corrected and later ate breakfast. Tested two hours after breakfast bolus and was at 154, tested two hours later, and was at 233.

Site feels fine, so I have no idea why it is higher, but I am experiencing symthoms of higher blood sugar, tired, blurred vision, etc.

ARGH!

Good news though -- it is going back down.

Even better news -- my blood sugar has been lower all day.

I think I'm just adjusting back to the work week basal levels and schedule. I hate that too high sluggish feeling though.

Posted by at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Got a message from my doctor's office that they had received notification that my Protonix prescription had been approved.

I was needlessly panicing. I thought I had less than a week's worth of Protonix, maybe two, but still had a bottle of 45 on the shelf.

Posted by at 6:30 PM | Permalink

One of the things that helps me when I don't meet my goals, is to sit down and figure out why. I know why, but I feel the need to list things.

The primary reason why I haven't met my weight goals, is that my life got completely disrupted in January. I went from 2 preps to 6 -- and lately back to 5 preps. Also 4 of the preps are infinity harder to deal with than the other two.

The other reason is my knee injury. A couple of weeks before the schedule change I injured my knee to the point I couldn't walk and needed physical therapy. That's gone well, but took up 2 hours a day.

It's just been in the past few weeks that I've been able to exercise again on a regular basis. It's also been just in the past few weeks that my sleep schedule has gotten back to normal.

The good news is that I haven't lost too much ground and things are getting back to normal.

Posted by at 12:59 PM | Permalink

Sad for me, but happy for her, my CDE left my endo's practice to become a rep for a pump company. I'm happy for her, but disappointed I don't have a CDE. The good news is that there were some issues that need to be resolved that I hadn't dealt with. Basically I needed to have some lab tests redone.

They gave me several weeks worth of Protonix, so I think I'll go back on 2 a day tonight. I was refluxing badly this morning, lots of coughing even though I had not eaten.

Blood sugars are good, I'm just having to recover from the stress attacks. Hopefully things will calm down for the rest of the school year.

Posted by at 12:27 PM | Permalink

I'm definately on Spring Break mentally.

My blood sugar is doing well -- I've been on my weekend basal, and I did drop my boluses. I've been careful to do about 15 minutes on the treadmill after each meal since my activity level is a bit down from not teaching.

I'm going to see my endo today. The CDE wasn't available, and I haven't had someone else look at my logs for several months and I've made some interesting changes. I just want a trained medical professional to say I am on the right track.

I also want to start losing weight again.

I'm still waiting on the Protonix decision. It's "in progress". I am doing okay on one Protonix a day, but my coughing is pretty heavy in the evening. I am still waking up but not as early or as badly as I was at the beginning of the week.

Posted by at 8:38 AM | Permalink

BlogHer did a trackback to my site, in a post that made the following statement?

Diabetes: A Wake-up Call | BlogHer [beta]

In most cases, it can be prevented, so why aren't we doing more to combat it?

ARGH! In most cases, it can be prevented? When will people get it through their thick heads that in most cases it can not be prevented.

First, she links to a bunch of other diabetes sites -- those run by Type 1 diabetics, and we all know that Type 1 can't be prevented until we can order our genetics and our environment.

I believe that it can't be prevented in most Type 2 diabetics either. My genetics definately showed my doctors and I that Type 2 is coming, but I certainly wasn't able to prevent gettiing it, and I really believe that it is today's technologies that have kept me from cardio vascular complications so far, but that doesn't mean that I won't succumb too, just like my father and his parents.

There have even been some recent studies that seem to show that all we can really do is to delay the onset of Type 2 diabetecs, but not completely avoid it unless we die of something else first.

Posted by at 12:58 PM | Permalink

I sat down this weekend and wrote a letter to the doctor explaining exactly what I wanted and how I felt about him not complying with my requests but....

called Medco's 1-800 Case Review line first to make sure I knew exactly what was going on. They stated that the doctor had not called and started a case review but made a better offer. They faxed the doctor a case review form -- which the doctor's office has received. I'm watching Medco's site like a hawk to see what ends up happening with this.

Posted by at 8:40 PM | Permalink

We had a good agility day today. Marcie ran perfect, I made mistakes and learned something interesting -- I really DO need to move with her, especially on a hot day. Maggie wouldn't down on the table and is still having weave problems, but the rest of her runs were great.

The best news though, is that my blood sugar has been stable all weekend. I have kept the carb level down this run, as I'm trying to get my TDD down.

Posted by at 7:05 PM | Permalink

According to the Medco website, my doctor has YET to do the coverage review on my Prilosec. I expressed my disgust at this at the agility trial this afternoon and at first my friends were teasing me, and didn't realize just how spitting tacks mad I was.

So here's my rant ... I have a good medical team that gets paid well and on time. I have good insurance -- BCBS of Texas and I pay any of my charges within 30 days of being billed, usually faster. I expect return service.

First, I called my prescription service and determined exactly how to handle the request. I made a specific office visit to discuss the request. I am bothered, that rather than doing what I told him had to happen, he decided to ignore the request and just fax a prescription.

Thus, I got half the medication I need.

I then faxed a request, and verified that it was received (had problems with that), and left a message on the patient line again requested that the directions on the fax be followed. Doctor's response? He would have his girls fax the request. Well, guess what, that was NOT what was requested on the fax.

I don't understand. I would understand if I got a message on the patient line saying he did it and it wasn't approved.

Posted by at 7:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

For us it was good...

Marcie made half a mistake (well, I'm calling it half of one), as she got her head past the wrong weave pole, but corrected her mistake when I told her -- so we didn't Q in standard. She was also very slow because it was muggy and starting to get warm -- she's a Vermont beagle...

I completely screwed up the beginning of Maggie's run and she gave up in disgust. I had to promise a bribe but she was perfect after that. It was her first excellent run (the class excellent, not the style).

Then Marcie ran the exact same course, the way I wanted to run it, not the mucked up version and Qed, 5 seconds over time She is a Preferred dog for sure.

Then Maggie and I were not on the same wave length for Open Standard, I put her over a jump wrong, she wouldn't sit on the table, and she mucked up the weaves, but since we were already NQ, I decided not to push the issue.

I'm trying to get a specialist trainer to come to the house and help me set up some exercises to fix the girls weaves. We went to a workshop last week with her, and I figure having her come over and get me started right will help.

But for another handler and dog it was very very sad. I had just arrived when I heard a dog screaming. I was told later that the handler had crossed into the dog's path and stepped on the dog. We later found out it was a spiral compund fracture and will be repaired on Monday.

There is a good part. They immediately set up a donation jar, and at 1:00 pm it was looking very full. The giving club said they would match donations to pay for the dog's surgery and one of the vendors had a raffle set up and also pledged half the of the proceeds. I contributed and bought raffle tickets.

I hope the dog comes out okay and feel very badly for the handler.

Posted by at 7:49 PM | Permalink

I figured out why my doctor didn't get my fax ... I was sending it to the wrong number. Oddly, the automated lines don't tell you the fax number so I had to call the office.

Hopefully this was straighten things out, but if not, I'm on Spring Break next week and can do it in person.

Posted by at 5:26 PM | Permalink

My blood sugar has been extremely stable today, though I did have a quick dizzy spell in the afternoon. I ate 4 mini-Snickers and did insulin, just in case.

I've managed to get on the treadmill for 20-30 minutes a day, every day for the last 6 out of 7 days -- I always take dog agility as an off day. I'm sure that's helping tremedously.

The knee is still bothering me, but I figure the best way to handle that is to lose as much weight as I possibly can, thus I did my 20 minutes today in three stages, with a short knee workout session betewen each stage.

Posted by at 6:31 PM | Permalink

I'm getting a bit more than frustrated with my doctor. Those of you who read regularly willl recall that I made a special trip to my doctor's office to ask him to call Medco and tell them to give me 2 Protonix a day. He didn't, he just faxed the prescription, so they mailed me one a day, and sent me a letter rejecting his request. I faxed him that letter a week ago, and apparently he didn't get it, so I sent him another one Friday night. I still haven't heard back -- I think I'll try faxing him a new one after school tomorrow as they have evening hours if I haven't heard from him.

I'm still occasionally waking up at night, especially when I have to feed insulin in the evening. I'm trying to avoid that.

I'm also a bit put out by my PT, as he was supposed to order me a knee brace and that hasn't happened yet either. Supposedly he did order one and it will be in soon, I hope so, since I'm competing again next weekend.

Posted by at 2:31 PM | Permalink

I spent the day at an agility workshop -- kind of fun because the presenter is one of my former students. She took a dog obedience class from me when she was a teenager.

Agility Workshops are much better than teacher workshops because you get up and do agility once in a while. You aren't sitting around as much.

I spent a lot of the day feeding my insulin -- I was around 90 at lunch and not feeling real well for example. Had some wheat thins and that helped.

I also got some sun burn.

Posted by at 6:20 PM | Permalink

My blood sugar has been extremely stable all week, and in fact was low on Friday and I ended up feeding quite a bit of insulin.

I dropped my bolus rates by one last night -- all of them, just to avoid that. Today has gone very well so far, was 87 at breakfast, and at 146 two hours after. It's nice to be reducing insulin for a change rather than increasing it.

I'm even managed to get on the treadmill my regular workout days, but I haven't gotten back on the iShape schedule yet. I'm still nursing the knee, and am still doing my physical therapy exercises.

Posted by at 10:52 AM | Permalink