Living With Diabetes

It took all day.  First, for some dumb reason, I thought I had to be there at 8:00.  Nope, 8:30.  That's okay, because I got a really really good parking space.

It was a case I just couldn't serve on.  My husband thinks they probably already pulled me from the beginning since I'm a teacher.

Aggravated sexual assault of a minor under 14.  Two counts, one of oral and one of manual penetration. 

As it was, I was at the court house until 4:50.  Yeah, much longer day than I'm used to.

I was able to keep my blood sugar until control while there.  Poured the insulin on, with a 50% basal rate, just like I do for teacher workshops.

I did have to eat something in the afternoon, but I think that was more psychlogical than physical, but I was getting a headache.

The biggest impression I got?  None of the speakers would survive a high school classroom, but the defense lawyer was the worse.  He not only couldn't get to the point, he couldn't make a point.

Posted by at 8:57 PM | Permalink

The eye doctor I use has a web page at http://www.c-l-c.com/clc_services_opto_map.html describing the exam they do.  They link to http://www.optos.com/ which has more detail.

It removes a lot of the drawbacks of traditional exams, especially since it is easy to store and compare images.

According to the FAQs, it takes care of most of the eye exam needed by the diabetic.  The Optomap Retinal Exam will tell you if you have diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, hypertensive retinopathy, retinal holes, tears and detachments, macular degeneration, malignant melanomas and many other retinal disorders.

Posted by at 8:39 PM | Permalink

I am on Jury duty today. I was a bit stress as I was afraid my "friend" the Cingular 8125 woulfd not be allowed and also my Treo since both recordx and have built in cameras. My syringes aren't allowed but since I use the Accu-chek Multiclick that would be okay. Tossed my bag into the xray machine and walked through the metal detector without a peep.

However I ended up here in the Central Jury room about an hour early.

But some fun news - in the middle of this post I received an email telling me I'd won a $20 gift certificate from Amazon. That's one of my favorite places to shop!

Posted by at 7:56 AM | Permalink

Very good tips -- and having a modern pump like the Animas 1250 would also help.  It does alarming and calculates insulin on board for you. 

Here are some common and not-so-common tips that just might help you next time you’re trotting the globe.

Source: SugarStats - Easy Online Diabetic Blood Sugar Tracking, Monitoring and Management » Blog Archive » 10 Tips for Travelling with Diabetes

Posted by at 6:52 AM | Permalink

Commenting is back on.  I hope.

Posted by at 11:33 PM | Permalink

From my doctor -- a typical regimem is Lantus at night and Byetta with meals.

I have run into a few pumpers who are doing Byetta but he prefers Symlin with the pump. He also said my experience was typical -- dramatic results, and then slowly back to the previous state.

Posted by at 10:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've turned the commenting off -- the server has been hit by the spammers pretty hard. I'm researching how to get it fixed, but it might take several days.

Sorry. If you do have something you want me to see or put on the blog, send to kathleenw at gmail

Posted by at 10:41 PM | Permalink

A commenter wanted to know what pedometer. It's an Omron -- not sure which model but it is much nicer than any other I've seen.

Posted by at 9:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Marcie's ears had been bothering her yesterday -- so when I woke up tired and creaky, I decided to sleep in. Good thing, she threw up a chewie my husband had given the youngest dog.

I took my time -- even did my workout before I left, and only took Maggie. We got there literally just in time, they had already started walking her course. Plus since it was Novice and a small class, she was 4th dog in. I walked twice, got her, and watched the course from outside.

Never have I watched the cones so hard when I ran, but we ran clean and took a first. And we missed Qing by one point later in standard.

So not near as much walking, only 8211 steps today.

Posted by at 9:35 PM | Permalink

By the way, today was one of my hardest exercise days ever, BUT I'd already gotten in over 11000 steps.   Yep, 11000 before exercise, and I've got 16305 now.  I'm not kidding.

The pedometer was enlighting today.  I know why I go home so exhausted now.  I did about 2000 steps for each run. 

Here's a typical run.  Wait for the judges to let us walk the course.  Walk the course, twice.  Go to the restroom, walk the course one more time if there is time.  Watch the class before finish.  Go get the dog.  Walk the dog long enough to go to the restroom.  Good news, is both girls are usually fast.  Wander around a lot bit as I'm waiting.  Run the course with the dog.  Walk dog to treats and give them treats.  Walk them back to the crates -- lately in the car and then go back to ringside.

Yeah, it's a lot of walking.  Like I said, 2000 steps worth.

Today was weird.  I got up and it was 57 degrees.  Decided to leave new Landend underwear at home, along with propane heater.  It steadily got warmer.

Sometime around noon, my knee started aching.  A few minuutes later, I felt a little colder.  Then it got REAL cold.  We had some light rain, then some really hard rain.  Finally it stopped raining -- poor storm phobic dog was in the crate in the car the whole time and as a result she was very freaky.

Oh, and we didn't Q.  Poor Marcie has a horrible ear infection and her ear flaps are inflamed.  Got together with my friends and we decided on Neosporin with pain reliever.  I'm hoping she feels better tomorrow.  She had to stop and shake her head on almost every jump. 

Yes, I'm exhausted.

Posted by at 8:01 PM | Permalink

I managed just over 9000 steps today and it was a dog agility class day, not a treadmill walking day.

So I upped my goal from 8000 steps to 8500 steps a day. I managed to get the 8000 average no problem.

I think I'll continue using the pedometer.

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

The new show was interesting. Much calmer than the first shows. Only two hosts and there did not seem to be an audience.

Odd that the hosts are Type 1, yet the stories seemed to be focused mostly towards Type 2. Yeah, the doctor interview can go either way.

Of course, there are infinitely more revenues avaiable for Type 2 since that is the biggest segment and the biggest spender.

Posted by at 7:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Of course, it upset me at the time.  And in fact, I had a battle with agrophobia after my father died.  Of course, before cellphones I never went anywhere without someone knowing where I was going and when I was expected back.  Before cellphones I also didn't go anywhere without a handitalkie and without radio equipment in the car.

Now I don't go anywhere without a cell phone.  I still have the ham radio equipment but don't carry it as rabidly as I did.

It was very empowering though.  Even before I went through the police academy, I knew I could take on anyone, and am even worse after.  I will say, that I felt safest when I had my GSD, and really miss her.  I'd like to have another companion like her again someday though she did scare my husband a few times when he came in too late.  She was acceptally well trained -- I was very lucky as one of my police friends was working at a local university for a while and she and I used to go on patrol with him. 

I said something about it at school the other day, and now wish I hadn't because one of our other teachers told that she had been raped by an acquintance when she was about the same age.  My experience was empowering, hers was directly the opposite. 

Posted by at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm seeing my endo on Tuesday, and I've sent an email with a head's up.  I want to talk to him about switching to Byetta from Symlin for at least a short trial.  I'm not losing weight, and in fact am gaining weight.

It's been very frustrating, especially since I did have good results on the Symlin before.

Posted by at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I need to sit down and count weeks.

This week has been hard since we've had so much cold damp weather. My knees liked it better when we were in a drought.

Rescheduling exercise around my week has helped -- though my Spanish class was cancelled last week due to the weather.

Another thing that helped was having ishape rework my exercise schedule. I'm not up for 1 hour long cardio sessions yet.

Posted by at 7:04 PM | Permalink

This post has nothing to do with diabetes.  I've been very intrigued, as is everyone else, about the two boys who were recovered from a child abductor.  I am very happy for both families. 

I spent some time watching Oprah, and the retired FBI guy and author got me.  Why?  Because I too was almost abducted and never told my parents.

We were living in Detroit at the time between 7 mile and 8 mile road, on East Outer Drive (next to the Polish Century Club.  I went to Osborne High school and walked from our apartment complex to school and back each day.

An older guy joined me one day, and tried to get me to come with him.  When I wouldn't go, he grabbed me  and tried to drag me away.  I kicked him hard and ran, and didn't stop until I was at the complex and sure I had gotten away from him.

I didn't tell my parents because they were already upset and dismayed at where we were living.  This was supposed to be a better opportunity for my father, but the complex was just horrible.  The police did not respond when they were needed, so I knew that wasn't an option anyway.

So I went back to school the next day and told one my girlfriends.  She took me to some guys at the school she knew and had me tell them what happened.  I was walked home the rest of the school year.  They also told me that they would make sure the guy wasn't in the neighborhood anymore. 

Every since then, I'm not comfortable without a ready means on communication and I always let someone know where I am going.

So I certainly understand either of the boys not telling what happened, and especially not letting their parents know.  Hopefully the creep that abducted them can be proscuted without the boy's participation.  They've been through enough, and I'm not sure Oprah was a good idea.

Posted by at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've recorded 7 days of steps now, and I'm averaging 8,907.  Okay, I'll admit I've been walking my pink sheets (attendance) down to the attendance office almost every class period to help achieve that. 

But that's a good thing right?

Posted by at 10:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

 Yep -- for the past 4 years.  Wonder if it will ever happen?  Probably about the time I buy a Dexcom.

Abbott's new Navigator device, for continuous blood-glucose monitoring, is approaching approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Source: Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

Posted by at 10:55 PM | Permalink

Those who read this on a regular basis will remember me commenting on Dhealth.

They've got an interesting start.  It will be neat to see them grow and implement their plans.

But on to the step thing.

I've recorded 7 days of steps and .... I have been walking an average of 8,521 steps.  Of course, one of those was Sunday, when we were snow bound.

I like the pedometer -- I haven't really calibrated it, but that's okay, I think I just care about the steps.

It's an Omron, and looks pretty good.  I haven't decided if I'm going to try for the 10,000 step thing or not.

Posted by at 11:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Very interesting indeed.  I'm not entirely sure what it all means, but it is definately worth watching.

Link to Novo Nordisk Axes Med-Chem. In the Pipeline:

By the way, I'm a big fan -- their insulin doesn't make me itch (Humalog does).

Posted by at 10:46 PM | Permalink

I do think I'll mention the two lab incidents to the nurse next week. It's honestly the only rough patch in the office.

Posted by at 10:25 PM | Permalink

Actually it's just how things are redirected.  Right now, if you type in www.kweaver.org you'll get to my fairly inactive CS blog.  You have to type in www.kweaver.org/blog to get to the diabetes blog.  Sorry for the inconvenience, I'm having to play some games to make Websense happy (read the CS blog for the story).

Posted by at 5:02 PM | Permalink

So I get a call telling me that the doctor's office is closed until 1:00 pm today because of the weather, and I can come after to get my blood draw.

Went to the dentist (called first), and got my teeth cleaned which wasn't too bad.

I get there, she asks if I ate -- yeah, of course I did, I even had to go to the dentist first.  Well, they could have told me to skip it when they called in the morning!  I don't know why I let her get to me.

Anyway, I'm getting the lab work done the morning of the visit -- which I said while I was there -- it isn't like he hasn't seen a couple of years results anyway, and he saw last August's.

Again, I don't know why I let it all get to me!

Posted by at 4:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We're under a winter storm watch and the local stations ahve been showing roads with ice on them.  We've been lucky as we've gotten lots of rain -- in fact, we just had a heavy rain storm come through -- and no ice.  The weather people claim that the heavy rains means we've had a temperature rise -- I wouldn't know as we don't have an outdoor therometer, and I won't install weather bug or another type of invasive temperature service.

The bad part is that the weather people keep raving on about the worse things that could happen.  Of course, very few of the things that they rant about will happen, and they do point that out.  My problem, is the joy they take in reporting this stuff.

So I have some problems.  What IF the power goes out.  Well, I pulled out my emergency CPAP battery and am making sure it has a full charge.

My next problem is tomorrow morning.  I have an appointment for lab work tomorrow -- A1c, and the like and it really should be fasting.  The winter storm crap is supposed to be over at 6:00 am, but does that mean the people will be in the lab? 

Guess I have to wait and see.

Posted by at 1:46 PM | Permalink

Link to Bridling at Insulin’s Cost, States Push for Generics - New York Times

I am surprised that there are no generic insulins, too.  But then making insulin is a completely difference process than making regular drugs.

  Of course, long acting regular insulin is fairly cheap and can be obtained without a prescription, per Lanting's philosophy.  For example, if you go out to Walmart.com and find their mail order pharmacy, you can get regular insulin for 48.46 for 3 vials.

Now a pump user CAN use that insulin, but you have to remember that most modern pumps use a shorter acting insulin and are programmed to deal with it. 

The good news is that Walmart sells the more rapid activing insulin for the same price, and they also sell 70/30 for that same price.

Lower cost alternatives ARE needed.  Not everyone is as lucky as I have to have great insurance, and even I didn't at one time, and that could change again.

And I will admit there are times that needing my insurance have kept me from doing other things.  It's even kept me from other school districts.

Posted by at 1:29 PM | Permalink

Posted by at 10:57 AM | Permalink

Last weekend, I upped all my basals by .1 -- and then after a couple of days, analyzed my TDD and dropped my boluses by 1 and increased my correction factor.

I'm back to normal.

Blood sugar has been under 110 the past couple of morning, postprandials have been good, and I feel better.

The pedometer experiment has been interesting. I did just over 7000 steps yesterday and I'm currently at 7400 steps today. I know it will be higher tomorrow as I have a long workout scheduled.

All in all, life is better.

I did finally use the last of the Inset IIs. Still haven't seen a survey from them, but they may still be suffering from the holidays.

Posted by at 8:38 PM | Permalink

Well, I've figured out a method of emailing my food to myself using the phone and then adding my meals to EzManager later. I do have to have a working Palm set up if I need to delete any foods. I can add phones no problem to EzManager.

I may still carry both devices for a while, just because it's easy to only enter the data once.

Alternatively -- I was just checking this out -- I might copy carbs from Dhealth because I can enter them through the mobile phone.

Posted by at 1:11 PM | Permalink

But I really am now. I had one left in my Pump-Pak. I really do think they have improved the adhesive.

They've done a nice job!

Posted by at 1:06 PM | Permalink

Got another week of cardio and strength exercise in.

Posted by at 4:31 PM | Permalink

Though my blood sugar is better, I know what I need to do -- besides, I'm going into the doctor's office in a couple of weeks.

Yeah, log everything.

And while I could use Diabetes Pilot, I'm going to my Treo -- and carrying two devices, and logging with EzManager. It's the only software that I can find that gives the whole picture in one place.

I could move my Sim card back to the Treo, but man, I like the Cingular 8125 too much.

So I'm back to two devices, though I am kicking around the idea of using my old Zire.

Posted by at 1:44 PM | Permalink

I'm really impressed with Arthur at dHealth -- you'll see his comment below. We've been having a conversation off list which has resulted with me doing some playing with the mobile phone features of the website.

He's also going to send me a pedometer, so I'll give that a try again, though I'm not wild about dealing with gadgets, plus pedometers rarely work with my clothing.

Posted by at 10:41 PM | Permalink

My blood sugars have been screwed up for the past two weeks. About the time I started the Inset II trials so I was putting part of the blame on the short cannula. I might have been wrong on that.

Last night, I just finally got fed up with having too high blood sugars all the time, downloaded my pump data, and then set down and added .1 to each of my basal values. It seems to have done the trick even though I don't have carb counts on my Diet Gourmet meals, my blood sugar has gone to MY normal.

Of course, this means checking more often.

And I'm still on the Inset II.

Posted by at 10:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

124 blood sugar today.

Looks like we're getting there!

Posted by at 7:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Family "joke". My husband accidentally taught a border collie of ours to lay down with his frisbee when he said last one.

But it's the last one of the Inset II. I need the longer cannula but that's beside the point. The Inset II definitely improves the adhesive of the original Inset.

Can't wait until they come out for real!

Posted by at 10:17 PM | Permalink

She saw the "good" doctor today, the one smart enough to do a blood sugar test. They wrote her scripts for test strips and lancelets and wrote them the way I wanted -- test 4 times a day -- rather than only 1.

They got her hooked up with a diabetes educator. Sometime next week. I don't feel confident to help much with nutrition -- I do fine with my own, but I don't trust myself on hers, especially since I'm not there.

She brought in her blood sugar readings and her medications on separate index cards. They were VERY impressed, not just that she brought them in, but that she has been steadily lowering her blood sugar even with the small dose of amalyn that she is on.

So I think I've done a pretty good job as a long distance DE, but it will be nice to get her with a real one.

Posted by at 6:11 PM | Permalink

I need to start thinking about summer soon -- especially after this break and knowing that A1C sucks right now. My 14 day average sucks too.

However, my blood sugar went down substantially this afternoon. And I think it would have gone down sooner if I hadn't had to come home and deal with plumbing. We're not sure what is going on, but we've had a water leak problem in the kitchen ceiling before. Plumber says there is no leak, and I'm inclined to believe him.

But back to the break thing. I know I will definitely teach summer school if it is at my school. We do rotate that "duty" out though, and I'm not sure if I want to do it if it is at one of the other schools in the area.

Weighting for it, is my health. My blood sugar levels stay better if I keep a regular schedule. So I definitely have to see. There would also be the possibility of finding some other type of summer gig -- wonder if my endo would hire a temporary DE? Probably not a real good idea, but I have a bit more confidence in that. Except for the nutrition thing -- I've got mine down pretty good, but I'm not sure if I can help someone else. I've been keeping some hands off when it comes to my mom-- but have recommended that she stay away from juices and fruit -- too fast for right now.

Her blood sugar is in the 150's now, which is only slightly hirer than mine has been.

Posted by at 11:02 PM | Permalink

Diabetes - New dHealth Monitoring Tool

So far, I'm not impressed. My first item of dismay, is that if I want to track exercise, I have to do the "step" thing. I don't like pedometers, I don't like the step thing. I like my treadmill and want to enter the mileage from that.

Also, from what I can see, the blood glucose readings are all manual. Of course, it supports all blood sugar monitors, it doesn't read them.

I also don't see where I can do anything with my pump, not even put in TDD.

Interesting, and I think it would well for my mother. Not fore me though, so far, looking at it.

Posted by at 1:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Posted by at 12:19 PM | Permalink