Living with Diabetes and Lapband

A commenter asked why don't I go to bed under 150?

If you are on insulin, there is something called "Dead in Bed" Syndrome that you have to worry about -- also you need to worry about hypoglycia -- which may be what causes "Dead in Bed".

Diabetics on insulin have been found "Dead in Bed" -- cause of death has not always been determined.

Therefore, most CDE's require their patients to eat a snack with 1 serving each of carb, protein, and fat. That is to keep the diabetic from becoming hypoglycmic. It is possible to sleep through a hypo.
Most parents of Type 1 diabetes test their children through the night as a result.

Since I has gastic reflux disease also, I often skip a snack, especially one with fat and protein. However, the few times I've been below 150 I have had some hypos, and I do need to start experimenting with that more. I suspect I could go a bit lower.

Marcie Q'd again today, with a 1st place! I have to go back and check, but 2 Qs and 1st places in a row is NOT BAD!

I'm going to move her back to preferred now, as she is more comfortable with that time.

Maggie had a clean run, but way over time. I ended up laying down in the dirt to get her to down. Oh well.... There were people there surprised I could get back up to finish the run that quick. Including the judge.

Of the concession choices, the best sounding was Pizza Hut Pan Pizza. It didn't go too bad, but I have to practice on the extended bolus thing. I was at 201 two hours after, using the suggested EzManager carb count. I had split the bolus, but probably not right. The good news, is that I was at 125 two hours after the correction.

I did a baked potato tonight, with steak and salad. Most carbs I've eaten in the evening all week, especially since they had rolls and peanuts. Though I was good with the peanuts. Unfortunately the salad was loaded, but the potato wasn't. I didn't know about the salad, I order the potato that way. But it was good. I was at 225 two hours after, so obvious was too conservative, but it's back down to 157. I am just not comfortable going to bed any lower than 150 yet. Especially in a hotel room in another city.

Maggie had a WEIRD panic attack in the room after which reinforces that I never never leave that dog outside of a crate when I'm not around. Which unfortunately I do on a regular basis at home. I am going to have to stop.

Tomorrow, I am definately going to take a break and get a salad for lunch since there hasn't seemed to be a prohibition from outside food -- many of the dog show venues will not allow that. I think it's a health department thing or a City Ordinance to support the concession companys.

Family is planning to come visit early Sunday. I'm trying hard not to think about it though.

Amy, you did a really good job on this interview, but I do want to do back to the source at some point. Has he published his suggestions on the internet?

In case anyone is wondering, one of my hobbies is "Behavior Analysis". Yep, dog agility is all about behavior analysis. I've even taken some basic graduate courses. Use it every day in my classroom and even tell my students how to use it.

So, from a behavior analysis standpoint, a lot of what he is saying makes sense, and is good concrete advice. It's the type of advice I give others:

His points in bold

Find Out Where You Are
Very important. You can't figure out where to do if you don't know where you are now!

Decide What to Focus On
That's Behavior Analysis 101 -- you can't change more than one behavior at a time. Actually we do that in dog training, but NOT in one training session. I always tell everyone pick one thing to do well, and do it real well. Once that thing is mastered pick the next one.

Also pick things that are measurable and that you can see progress in. I would also, in the beginning stages, pick something that you can see change. For example, I might not pick blood pressure to begin, because it will take a while for to see those changes. I might pick, testing and logging every morning, as that is something I can measure and see change immediately. Rewards come more immediately (an important part of behavior analysis). Blood pressure or even A1C are for people who have mastered the easy stuff.

Think of Your Diabetes as a Small Business, and Your Care Team as Your Consultants
Not a BA thing, but it is something we talk about on the insulin pumpers list. One thing I try to keep in mind is that the doctor is my employee, and if he doesn't do what I am paying him to do, it's time to fire him/her (In informal BA terms, it's called "Shooting the Dog")

Make Sure You See the Results
Again, a BA thing. If you to know if you are making progress.

By the way, if behavior analysis is of interest to you, the best source is Karen Pryor's "The New Art of Teaching and Training", subtitled as "Don't Shoot the Dog!" (If you get the Second edition, I'm quoted).

"Shooting the Dog" is an abbreviated term for the most final of training solutions. Her example is a barking dog in a neighbor's backyard and gives differing ways of solving the problem. The most extreme solution is of course, shooting the dog.

You can see the girls are tired.

Today was a better beagle day. We are 1 for 4, which is 25% better than yesterday!

Marcie Qed and took a first in the class I am most wanting her to do well in. That was Open JWW. We need to Q one more time and we'll finish that title.

Right now, her name is Bettner's Byte of Magic NAJ, OA, OAP, AJP and I would like to get rid of the Novice title -- that's the NAJ for those of you aren't into agility.

In Excellent Standard, we had a refusal at the table and she ran around last jump. The table is a weird thing with her. I am not sure what is happening with it. We would have been over time too. We're not quite ready for regular Standard.

Maggie and I did better today than we did yesterday. In Jumpers with Weaves, she had one refusal, and had a score of 83. You need an 85 to qualify, so we got caught on time. Novice standard was my fault, I came off the A-frame and turned in Marcie's direction instead of her courses direction, which pulled her off into the wrong jump. She cursed me out and we had it together until the chute. I lost her after the chute to a hole in the wall. Then I moved to fast for her, and pulled her off the dog walk.

Maggie's name is just Maggie? No titles yet, but she has Qed once for each type -- Standard and Jumpers.

I had a Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pepperoni Pizza today. I think the split bolus was off -- was 201, 2 hours after eating it. But was down to 126 after correcting it, 4 hours later.

I did pull off a set last night. Dumb, got tangled up in night gown, pump and sheets. Pays to bring plenty.

Slept okay, only waking up twice. Both nights, somewhere around 1 - 2 am, and again around 5:00 am.

Sleep is going fine, food is going fine and blood sugar is going fine.
Unfortunately my feet really hurt. And the dogs still aren't cooperating. Marcie has a hot spot behind her ear, and it isn't getting better. I can't decide if it's worse. Maggie is being Maggie, which can be frustrating.

So here's the plan. I'm going to try to run Marcie. Her first run is at 9:30. If her run goes well, we'll stay. If she is still running half heartedly, we're going to go home and find a vet.

I did make changes to avoid yesterday's frustrations. I am taking today as an off day for exercise. That may relieve my feet. I only feed the dog's 1/4 of what they usually get. That may help their energy level.

So wish us luck!

Feet are killing me right now, especially the left. It has been a long day.

Marcie has an ear infection, but oddly, her ears are clean, but she has a hot spot behind her ear, a certain sign. I'm putting ear junk in her ear, but so far, she is just miserable.

So she tried, but just couldn't do it.

Maggie on the other hand, just wasn't interested in doing things my way.

I'm sure I'm part of the problem, I didn't sleep well, but not as badly as I usually do in a hotel. I went to sleep fairly easily -- with the help of a Sonata. I woke up twice and was able to go back to sleep after doing the bathroom thing.

Morning didn't go well either. I learned a valuable lesson. Get up, get workout gear on, take the dogs and and then PUT THEM IN THE CAR! They did not want to be left in the room and pitched a fit. So I couldn't do a good workout. I finally did put them in the car but was feeling bad about it.

Food has been decent. I had a biscuit with gravy for breakfast, yeah, high carb, but I did do time on the treadmill and at least it was protein and fat laden carb.

I had jimbalya (sp) for lunch -- the choices were hot dog, pizza, or that. I might do pizza tomorrow though, we'll see.

Blood sugar was between 120-150 all morning -- and I had all the runs but one in that time frame. Maggie's run was in the late afternoon.

Had a couple of cookies at the hotel when I got back since I was going to try to finish my workout (I got 20 minutes done!), and hadn't turn down my temporary basal in time.

I'm going to a grill this evening with some Monroe people.

This is going to be an interesting 4 days because most of the time I eat prepackaged food. I use a service called Diet Gourmet in Dallas, and they list nuition information on every meal. This trip I decided not to take it, especially since we pick up on Friday.

I went out to a local restaurant, with a "local", and a couple of Dallas agility friends. It was a very Louisiana style place with lots of fried food. In fact, Hush puppies were on the table.

I had 3, and I had baked catfish with a cheese sauce which was out of this world. Probably as much fat as if I had fried, but at least I avoided the breading And I had no-carb veggies for the side and a salad. I ended up taking 4 units of insulin for the meal and was at 170 2 hours after the meal, which is fairly typical of evening meals, in fact a bit low -- with the carb counts, I had ended up at 220.

My TDD is going to be under 40, which has been typical of the past 5 or 6 days, so that again, shows I'm doing well.

iShape has upped my cardio -- they do something called periodization, and I'm up to 65 minutes of cardio most days. I can do it, but then I wear the boot the rest of the day.

In the morning, I'm going to try to get up, take the girls out to pee, leave them in the room in cages with breakfast and cheesy toys, and go to the fitness center and do my 65 minutes. They do have 3 different cardio machines, a treadmill, a bike (yeck) and an elliptical trainer -- I love them but they give me heel spurs.

Marcie and I are in the ring at about 9:30, and Maggie will be shortly after. Then we wait a while for Marcie's next run and then all day for Maggie's. It will be long.

I'm hoping that the concession will at least have hot dogs tomorrow.

If you are traveling and need a place to stay, so far Jameson Inns is good (or is that are good?).

I will have to see what their breakfast is like, it sounded pretty high in carbs, and mostly fast carbs but the high speed internet access is working well.

Have been running a bit lower than I like and also a bit sleepy, which worked out well, I ended up stopping about every 45 minutes. It's difficult to travel with dogs -- and that is the point -- this time of year, because you can't leave them in the car.

So it's, stop somewhere, run in and do what you have to do and get back out as quick as possible. Also, being diabetic, I need frequent bathroom breaks, so the 45 minutes was pretty reasonable.