Living with Diabetes and Lapband

Maybe not THAT horrible

While I've apparently left my blood sugar meter at home, I do have a spare OneTouch Mini from my doctor's office that I've been using -- I had it stashed in my emergency supplies and begged for two when I was at my doctor's office a few weeks ago.  One is downstairs in my kitchen, the other in my rolling box.

I've managed to test every two hours and correct which is better than the last few days.

I'm also making an effort to move my calories earlier in the day, guessing that I'm in starvation mode again.  I have a huge tax bill, insurance (both car and pet) coming up, so I'm trying to save some money.  Cutting out my McD's mochas, and subbing grocery store made mochas with the microwave in my room.  Also doing oatmeal in the afternoon, which I ought to get up and get started.

Staff development is not good for blood sugar

Started out with #BS of 159.  Hit 2xx sometime after breakfast mocha (I have that thing well under control and usually end up n the 140's).

Had #BS at 179 before lunch.  After throwing a couple of correction and a +50 basal.  Had a #BS at 179 two hours after lunch, which I patted myself on the back for.  Remember to turn off the workshop basal rate about two hours after.  Was in the 170's again at dinner so threw another +50 basal at it, ate 1/2 dinner, went to chiropractor.  Was at 100 at 7:00 so turned off  the basal and ate the rest of dinner.

Good lapband things I did today:

When I caught myself eating too fast, as everyone was eating like teachers, I pushed everything away, settled down and then ate right (slowly)

Hard habit to break.

At dinner, I started having trouble so I put my meal back in the refrigator to eat later.  Need to do that more often.

Still not 100%

I've still been feeling a touch queasy but haven't had any gastro intestinal problems other than the normal lap band effects.  In fact, my band feels a bit tighter than it did before, but not in a bad way.

I've had three days in a row with lower TDD so I dropped my basal insulin by 10%.  It might be a bad move, but I'd rather fix a high right now, rather than a low.  Nothing worse than having to eat when you don't feel like it or worse, when you can't, and I can always fix by doing a temp +10% basal.

But wanted to write it down as if it works, I need to do it to all my basal rates.

Sunday

Well, I actually gained a little bit yesterday so analyzing what I did, and stopping it.

Did walk 40 minutes yesterday and it did take less time to get it accomplished than Saturday.  Got all but one load of laundry fnished -- last one is still in the dryer, and I need to get things put away.

Morning blood sugar is 125.

Have a followup appointment with the gastric doctor today.  Will have to tell her, can't do a colon scope right now, as can't deal with the necessary diet.

I'm slowly putting "sleep in the bank".  I've been able to keep close to my "normal" hours of 10:00 pm - 6:00 pm, but was able to sleep a couple of extra hours yesterday in the middle of the day.  That can be a problem since I often have trouble going to sleep at the right time, but it wasn't yesterday.

My biggest problem with sleep right now, is getting over my Zune being destroyed.  Hopefully they will send the new one on it's way soon.

Today's my birthday

I turn 50 today. 

I've done lots of things to make 50 better, and am making progress towards them.  The lap band surgery is finally working, blood sugar is better than it's been, and I've been able to be active every day this week.  Hoping that I can keep it up.

The best thing, is that I'm off work until January 4th and only have a couple of small projects to work on. 

The worst thing, is that one of my students vandalized personal property and I'm trying to get over that.  Wish I had gotten a bit more sympathy from the PLN, but that's okay.

Going back in the right direction

Slowyly headed back in the right direction after a tough day on Monday.  Seeing a new support person and she had suggested I try going to a liquid diet for four days and that completely backfired between being tired, stress from in-laws, etc.

So my scale went back up 4 pounds in the one day -- yikes!  My blood sugar went up accordingly, etc.

Things are back down today, but not the 4 pounds, sadly.

Lesson learned, which unfortuantely I knew, but she didn't, and I didn't want to argue.

Day 4

I "cheating" starting tomorrow's entry today and setting it to publish after I've already arrived at school (barring some weird emergency).

And the cheating seems to have worked!  I'm up and blogging but have most of the hard work done.  Blood sugar was 159.  Better than yesterday at least.  

Got my teacher workstation up and running, I am pretty sure I have all the hardware drivers installed and when I left I had Ping running a backup.  So should be good.

My specialist arrived early in the morning, and was relieved I had the hard work done.  It didn't take him long to remove the student version of Deep Freeze and a bit longer to add the teacher version.  He also left me with our licensed copy of Norton Ghost, and a boot CD, but I'm not sure it works, I tried it first before I ran Ping (I'm going to write a review of Ping on the CS site when I get a chance).

Water didn't go as well, blood sugar testing went better today then probably any other day -- the Ameribag (extra small) is helping and I occasionally remember to take it with me when I go on "house calls", but didn't late in the day -- did at noon.

Personal trainer came by and I got in 15 minutes of walking before she got there, we alternate weights and treadmill, for an hour long workout, so I got 30 minutes of walking in.  Then crashed -- the time change is getting to me.

I'm still not sleeping well.  Waking up around 4:00 am and waking up a lot between then and 6:00, then having trouble getting out of bed. 

Overall my blood sugar levels was better, just need to work on the drinking thing.

Been avoiding scales

It's been rough since school started.  I usualy don't get to breakfast until the end of the day, but have made up for it a few times with a McD's Mocha.  Hey, at least I got liquid in.

I'm also not drinking enough.

However, last year at this time, I was gaining massive amounts of weight, and this year I"m maintaining my weight.

This is a good thing.

I think I need another fill, but I'm not ready for it.  I stll have a lot of meals where things get "stuck" and I've had a few meals where things come up.  I don't want to do anything until I"ve adjusted to this fill.

Agility is going MUCH better, though I am not making it through the whole two classes.  That's typical for this time of year.  I missed the first Monday with kids entirely, and then last Monday left after Maggie ran a full course.

I'm getting there and yes, things are already better than last year.

Eyesight

I literally haven't been able to see for weeks.  I was upset but thought it was my blood sugar control -- however, the weird part my eyesight was bad, even when my control was good.

I decided to go ahead and see my eyedoctor this weekend, rather than waiting until after labor day and I am really glad I did.  I've "lost" a whole unit of astimigatism and it was as if I was "wearing someone else's contacts".

However, then the doctor added that she'd only see that in patients who were developing cataracts.  However, she didn't see any problems with the retinal mapping machine.

So I've got the new prescription in, and it's amazing how much better it is to be able to see!  I really want to go  back to correcting both eyes though, if we can.  I just feel better though having the right eye corrected properly makes a huge difference.

Day 18 with the band

Sorry, there is a blog post missing, I’ll try to find it.  Have to figure out what computer it’s on.

Today is exactly why I wanted to do the band now – have been too busy to eat.  Literally.  I had my protein bullet after camp and on the way to a meeting.  Had my lunch around 1:00 scrambled eggs at the house, and am my car eating dinner while I am waiting for time for dog class.  Jason’s baked potato.  Still on mushies.  Probably have soup after dog class.

I am gaining a slight amount of weight and then immediately losing it.  Partly because of what I am eating.  Clear liquids about 500 calories a day, full liquids about 1000, and mushies close to 2000, I’m beating.  Starting tomorrow I’ll be on Diet Gourmet’s 1200 calorie a day diet, and should be doing better.

Every one says I am happier but I think part of that is some of the stress is gone.

I had major stress over campus technologist, minor stress over curriculum project, and major stress over the surgery itself.  I’m done with all of those problems.

I also no longer have the stress over feeling hungry all the time.  That’s a big thing.

Plus the blood sugar is better now that I figured out I needed my old rates.

So yes I feel better.