Living with Diabetes and Lapband

I'm not big on looking back. But this has been a good year for me in a lot of respects.

Before this year, I was able to follow my doctor's directions and keep my blood sugar normal for normal days. However, I wasn't good at adjusting for abnormal days. While I don't feel I've mastered it, I do have confidence to try different things, and have the knowledge to be able to adjust. That's something I've just gotten good at the last few months.

While I haven't lost any weight recently, I haven't gained a massive amount over the holidays which is a good thing.

I'm really looking forward to getting through this school and deciding what I want to do next year. If I want to stay at my school (I've been here 14 years), I will probably have to teach Algebra and focus on non-English speaking kiddos.

I would like to teach a group of students who have 100% access to the internet. I've put the word out on that, and we'll have to see what happens.

I definately want to stay with my district IF I keep teaching, I'll be getting a longevity stipend starting next year.

With the master's and the experience, I could go into a different area. However, one thing I've found this year, is that I like teaching better than I like teaching with computers. I just wish I could do both.

Plucked From Africa, but Still Isolated in Their Classes - New York Times

I do think we do a better job. My job, half the day, is to teach nonEnglish speakers math. I've worked with a bunch of students -- started with 10, we've moved 50 thru, and have about 80 now. What we do, is test them. Mine are at the lowest level and they stay with me until they can speak and read some English. Then they are moved to sheltered classes. If they don't do well in those classes they come back -- so far, only 1 has.

Went to the doctor and he diagnosed patella-femoral syndrome, gave me Celebrex and sent me home with some exercises.

He wants me to slow down on the walking, but I need to do it both as exercise AND to maintain my classroom. I have been keeping off of it a lot the last two weeks, but I won't be able to do that.

I probably shouldn't do dog agility either, from the leaflet he gave me. The good news is that none is scheduled until next Thursday (class)

That's the name that Abbott labs gives their PC based Diabetes Data Management System. I just installed it, and while it isn't intuitive, the data can be exported, edited, and imported into Animas EzManager.

If anyone needs directions, let me know, and I'll provide.

It's free software, just call the 1-800 number on your Flash or Freestyle meter and ask for it.

This week is tough. I really want to get back to school and get this year done and over with.

I've cleaned house as much as want to. I do need to do laundry but would like to wait until Monday or at least the weekend.

I am spoiling myself at lunch. something my father taught me. the best restaurants have good lunch menus and the portions are smaller.

So I did Red Lobster yesterday and am doing Saltgrass today. May do Italian tomorrow.

After I ate lunch I got up and couldn't walk right for the first few steps. so I broke down and called my primary care physician for an appointment.

I kind of thing I know what is going on -- my biggest problem is that I miss my Diet Gourmet food! I think I'm having some side effects from Symlin due to the different food.

Also, my knee is still bothering me. My biggest clue that there is a problem is a bruise mark on my knee. I'm okay if I stay still, but when I start walking it gets worse.

So far I've been shoving my workouts to my off days. Especially the cardio ones.

I'm gotten off my normal schedule and I'm trying to get back to it. I especially need to be back on it for Thursday -- I've got labs first thing in the morning.

The good news is that my basal and boluses seem to be set correctly -- I'm waking up with a blood sugar in the 90's each day.

Here's some fun news -- We went to a credit card system for our Flexible spending plan. They said save receipts and they would ask for them. Well, November rolled around, no one asked for September, so I dumped them. Good news, the medication receipts are all online, so was the receipts for Animas. That left the dentist and my contact lens doctor, and SaveOn over at the grocery store, and no one gave me a bit of a problem with duplicating the reciepts. So I picked up everything, packed it up, and shipped it off.

Anyway, Diet Gourmet opens up again on Monday, and I'm counting the days.

I've been sick all through Christmas Eve and Christmas. I'm not sure why though. My stomach was upset all day Saturday, very sore and achy, and then had a sore throat and was achy on Sunday. Also very upset stomach on Sunday.

It's better today.

The weird part is that my blood sugar has been pretty low.

BD Diabetes - Educational Literature - Your Insulin Adjustment Workbook

Your Insulin Adjustment Workbook

I think I blogged about this before. One of my goals this December is to spruce up my home gym, make it more comfortable and usable.

For example, I started out by replacing the broken computer -- a home brew PC -- with a MacMini. It's smaller, cuter, and works. I actually did that in October.

My next goal on that front is to get it a better monitor, but for now, it's fine.

For my birthday, I got a bench and resistance bands. I actually like working weights MUCH more than I like cardio, and I need to get more different workouts going. I need to work with the iShape people to see what we can do to rotate the workouts and making them more interesting. I may need to just start using the Shape Magazine.

the latest project is to move the TV and upgrade the cable service on it. I took my husband's broken digital box that he doesn't use, and traded it for a DVR. That helps, as I am watching movies in pieces. One of the problems, is that the time period that I usually work out doesn't have great TV. Mostly news and commercials.

Well, we went to Ikea today, and bought a bookshelf that puts the TV up higher. Fun diabetic story here -- I decided NOT to take my emergency bag. And then also forgot my Treo. My two hours post-pranial alarm went off and I was 110. We hadn't got to Ikea yet, but I knew we wanted to look at the built bookshelves first, meaning we had to walk through a guarter of the store, and then find the actual boxes we wanted, walking another quarter. That did not feel like a good idea.

I told my husband that I wanted to find a convenience store before we found Ikea and stop for a minute, just as the Ikea store popped up. But I did remember they had hot dogs and figured that would do. I almost just grabbed a snack, but the hotdogs are only $.50. So I had a hotdog and then we went shopping.

My husband started to give me a hard time about assemblying my Christmas present before Christmas, but I finally broke down and put it together this evening at about 11:00 pm. After I got done, my pump buzzed for a 2 hour check, and I was at 106. Going to bed at 106 does not sound like a good idea to me, so I did stop for a snack.

By the way, the bookshelf looks great, I've taken some pictures of it, but man, it wasn't easy to build. I do really well with instructions, and but not all with pictures. It didn't help that we bought a corner unit so it wasn't exactly symetrical.

I really like it though.

I've also learned I need to carry my bag -- I had tuna fish and crackers, crackers, AND candy in it, but the hot dog was good.

The best news, is that we bought a height extension "just in case" -- my husband is 6'0 and I'm 5'4, and I knew that the 43" shelf would work fine, but he thought I'd need the extra 12" of the extension. I'll take it back in the middle of the week next week and buy some cool storage boxes.

Anyway, the home gym thing is working out. I think I might want to do something to beef up the weight training though. I'm thinking about a personal trainer once in a while.

I was telling one of my Type 2 friends, on the phone, about how I was testing different monitors and one of the things I really like about my endo's office, is that they are very free with "samples" from Reps.

I am however, having trouble putting this down on paper.

One of the primary care physicians I've had was also very open about giving patients "samples" from the drug reps. Whenever he started me on a new medication, I left with at least a months supply. He was also good about making sure you had a "cushion". His philosophy, one that my endo's office seems to share, is that if he could give you at least as much medication that would equal your copay.

The endo's office is even better, as it gives me an opportunity to try technology with out it affecting my pocket book. One thing that has ALWAYS irritated me about blood glucose monitors, is that they only give you 10 test strips (if that) in the box. I'm sorry, but you can't figure out if you like a meter with 10 test strips. Yeah, I know that represents 2 weeks of testing in the average Type 2 (rolling my eyes). However, I screw up at least 3 test strips when I try a new meter.

I encourage all health care professions to use the drug rep's sample medications to give something back to your patients. I personally find it a win - win. And a few times, I've tried the samples and they didn't work well for me (thinking of Provigil), which was great, because then I wasn't out a pharmacy co-pay.