Living with Diabetes and Lapband

Scott asked in his podcast if doctors have improved. 

Fortunately, I have some of the best trained doctors in the Dallas, TX and I have not seen “improvement “ in my diabetes doctors. They always want me on the latest and greatest. 

I have seen improvement in my sleep apnea doctor. Before the CPAP recorded data, any issue I had was caused by my non-compliance. Now, he sees that I am compliant - or not and changes things based on the technology.

I did have the power supply burn out and I had compliance issues until we get the next generation of machine. So machine generation version 9 burned up, version 10 i had trouble using, was working fine but i couldnt use it
every day and I am 100% compliant with version 11.  

FYI. I had undiagnosed Sleep Apnea resulting from a head injury which caused a lot of bad things including Type 2 diabetes.

Kathleen Weaver

Went on Medicare in December.  It's been scary -- I have had almost the same insurance for the past 10 years.  

I did all kinds of calculations to see how it was going to change things financially, and was a bit disappointed as the out of pocket, especially drugs changed.

I figured that the out of pocket was going to be hard to reach.  I usually reach it between March and June each year and then don't have to pay anything else.

I was getting ready to see my endocrinologist on Wednesday and figure out what drug changes I wanted to make.  I saw every drug was only $9.95. Nothing on the mobile app showed what was going on and so I called.  The rep said I had almost met my $2000 out of pocket.  Now I was in shock to think I had spent that much on medications.  I was sure I hadn't.

I ended up doing a deep dive and found this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjJNTbuFu0o

So while I didn't spend $2000, it got calculated as $2000.  I finally found the breakdown on the Express Scripts website especially the EOBs.  And it still doesn't make sense, but I had a prescription that normally is $25.00 processed at the $9.95 and a second prescription was processed at $0.00

Very cool

Everything is in normal range except fasting glucose and A1C. 

My A1C is 6.6, down from 6.8.  I have had a few lower but not many.  Time in range is around 90. Weight is 30 pounds down.  

Have been on Mounjaro for 15 months and on Omnipod 5 for 12 months. 

Not bad for someone who has been doing this for 23 years.  

I have gone from Foundation to Arnold's Workout Advanced using Arnold's the Pump Club.  I have used the app and done strength training for more than a year (59 weeks to be accurate).

Since I have been on Monjaro, I stopped gaining weight -- I was on Ozempic but to be fair we couldn't get a therapeutic dose.  I have lost around 30 pounds.

I am using the Omnipod 5 pump, with the controller, and Dexcom G7.

I have been crocheting and I am good enough to give people the projects I have completed.  Especially a baby blanket -- the recipient resembles Linus.

My goals are to be as consistent training my dogs and playing the piano as I am at strength training -- or at least crocheting.

I know I said I would start blogging again but life has been a bit boring.  I have lost enough weight that I am wearing a smaller size but I am keeping the larger size since that is the weight my body seems to want me to be. 

I have been doing some shopping. Mostly in my closet. 

I have also been participating in some clinical trials.  One is a vaccine and two usability studies.  All will be game changers if they work and get approved. 

Saw my endo today.

Honestly, I wasn't happy with my A1C, had gone from 6.6 to 6.8, but he's happy as long as I stay under 7.0.

My time in range was 82% which he says means that 8 times out of 10, I'm made good decisions.

I asked to go up on Mounjaro, but he wants me to stay at the current dose for 60 months.  I'm losing about a pound of week which he is happy with.  I'm not BUT.

He also doesn't want me to come into the office for 6 months.  Once I turn 65, we have to meet every 3 months, but until then (9 weeks).

Saw my endo today.

Honestly, I wasn't happy with my A1C, had gone from 6.6 to 6.8, but he's happy as long as I stay under 7.0.

My time in range was 82% which he says means that 8 times out of 10, I'm made good decisions.

I asked to go up on Mounjaro, but he wants me to stay at the current dose for 60 months.  I'm losing about a pound of week which he is happy with.  I'm not BUT.

He also doesn't want me to come into the office for 6 months.  Once I turn 65, we have to meet every 3 months, but until then (9 weeks).

When I lost weight with the Lapband, it was pretty cut and dried.  When I followed the rules, I lost weight.  When I didn't, or couldn't, I didn't.

I'm trying to use the same rules with Moujaro -- eat protein first.  Avoid high carb foods and save them for last.

With Mounjaro, I seem to lose weight when I take a dose, and further days from the dose, I either don't lose or gain, slightly.

The other frustrating part, is that I don't seem to be changing clothing sizes even though I have lost about 20 pounds.  That is the most frustrating part.

It doesn't help with I read about research that says sleep causes Type 2 diabetes.

I have been dealing with sleep apnea for over 20 years.  Long before being diagnosed with diabetes.  One early theory was that when I broke my jaw in a car accident that caused my sleep apnea.  That means that it was untreated for about 20 years.  My doctor tends to forget that until I want to try something other than CPAP.  Otherwise, it get buried in the chart.

I have been struggling with my CPAP mask for a while.  We've tried several different ones.  The one I have is the best.

The worse part, is that when I have a bad night, it tends to make the next night even worse.  If I am too tired or not tired enough, I wake up a lot, and then the mask ends up off.  

I have been to sleep therapy, with two different people.  The last one had some good tools which I have been using, but she has also belittled the stress in my life.  I know I shouldn't be stressed about the things I stress about but is just how I am.

I've had a bad night just about every night this week.  If I go to sleep at a "reasonable" time, I wake up in the middle of the night.

As I said in my reintroduction post, I’ve been through a bunch of pumps.

2 different Animas

3 different Medtronics

Omnipod Dash - using both their mode and PDM and looping using my iPhone.

now Omnipod 5

Yes, I’m probably Type 2, maybe with a bunded out panacreas, but I also have a binge eathing disorder.  I haven’t talked about it much, mostly because of the guilt associated it with it.

But I’ve had an A1C under 7:0 most of my diabetic life, and I attribute that to pumping.  There is no medication — except maybe the new GLP-1s that could handle that.

Nothing satisfies what cause me to binge than high carb items.  I try protein but at those quantities, I still needed insulin.

Pumping was the easiest solution.  The key is to get the ratios correct so you aren’t eating to the insulin.  it does result in weight gain.  But binging does.

I went to the Omnipod 5 back in March, even though it wasn’t approved by the FDA —most of my pumps have not been approved for Type 2.  It is approved though as of end of August 2024.  There were two reasons I went to the Omnipod 5 — nighttime lows and fights between the looping developers.  Both my endocrinologist and I more comfortable with an FDA approved solultion.  

I left Medtronic, as I got a pump that was advised to be the first artificial pancreas but they woudn’t give me the model I purchased because I was a Type 2.  Before that, I had an endo who would prescribe off label, but he retired.  He probably would have fough for it.  

I had been hesitant to go to the Omnipod Dash, even though it was approved for Type 2, because I had heard so many issues with the adhesive.  I really haven’t had issues though, and it is actually easier to do the Omnipod than an insertion set.  I have a severa needle phobia and a lot of the insertions sets triggered that.

I am in the process of transitition from the Dexcom G6 to the Dexcom G7 — I had worn that G7 for about a year without issues, but had to go back to the Dexcom G6 when I went to the Omnipod 5.  I’m on my third pod and I do have a Dexcom G6 sensor and transmitter just in case.  The transmitter expires in two week, so there is that.

I did have some issues with the first box and three of the pods had to be replaced.  They weren’t connecting to the system.

I have been able to get Omnipod 5 G6/G7 pods from Amazon Pharmacy. 

I’m using Lyumjev with the Omnipod, which burns the first three or four boluses, but gets better pretty quickly.  I don’t notice it with basal doses.  I had the same issue with Fiasp.  I haven’t noticed any burning with Novolog, but my insurance doesn’t cover it, and I haven’t wanted to go to Humalog.