Living with Diabetes and Lapband

I know that most people have insurance electives to deal with this time of year. We do our in May for August. (Remember, I'm a school teacher).

One of the best things you can do if you have a chronic illness, is to set up a Flexible Spending Account, if you can. Everything you spend out of it comes from pre-Tax dollars.

Our plan gives us a credit card. About once a year I have to send in a bunch of receipts, but that's the whole extent of the paper work.

It is definitely worth it.

We've had a good year here, even with some recent frustrations.

My husband is in good health, has a good he enjoys.

I of course, have a job I really enjoy and have students who make my days worthwhile.

We have the beagle girls, even the puppy, who can be frustrating.

We had a nice quiet day, went to Steak and Ale. Hope everyone else had a good Thanksgiving.

Had to call the vets to check on blood work -- everything they have gotten back looks good. We're still waiting on titers, and they might not be here until next week.

I really dislike having to call, when they said they would call.

I think I disappointed him -- I think he was ready to do the Symvist.

But my knees are bothering me less without the anti-flammatory, than they were before inserts. As I told him, they aren't perfect, and I'm sure there is still healing going on, but I am more active, and things are better.

When I got done, I went and bought two more pairs of inserts. Now I have one pair in my exercise shoes (dog remodeled), and two pairs to alternate on a daily basis.

To top things off, My oldest and best beagle had a seizure as we were going into the ring at an agility trial. It was not a grand mal seizure - in fact, I would have known what it was except for a vet at ringside who said it was a seizure. More to worry about. Right now we're waiting for a blood workup.

I finally made it to the cardiologist. Man, is that office tedious, you have to tell your story to three people. Had an EKG. Was finally told that insurance had denied the other test they wanted. They switched my blood pressure medication, agreed the chest pain was probably heartburn and will see me again in March. Fun! Of course, they did not have suggestions for the GERD.

I started this when I was actually in Houston. I did some really smart things hotel wise. I always have trouble sleeping at these things. First, just the stress of driving there -- I did not get to Houston until after 9:00 and it always takes me several hours to wind down after driving. Second, the stress of being there. This conference, every teacher in the room seems to be stressed out over the curriculum audit. I'm trying hard not to do that.

Anyway, the hotel I chose was Comfort Suites. It's not a real suite -- a real suite has a door between the living area and the sleeping area. One thing I find sleeping in a hotel is that I wake up anytime anyone walks down the hall. Having a bigger room, with some space between the bed and the door helped. Also, I ran the fan in the bathroom all night, adding some additional white noise. The CPAP white noise always helps too.

The first night, I got to bed really late, didn't get sleepy until after 1:00 pm and then woke up early, but laid in bed. And I even took a sleeping pill. The second night I was able to get to bed and sleepy by 10:30, but woke up once to go to the bathroom. Again, I woke up early -- it was normal time for me, but I didn't have to be up that early.

One of the reasons these workshops are so stressful, is that they just don't fit my learning style. My learning style is to go to class for an hour or so, then work on the topic in front of a computer for hours. Those workshops just aren't set up for that. You'd think after 14 years, I'd stop stressing over it, but there you go.

I'm home. Man, I'm glad to be at home. I hate traveling -- I think I said that before I left.

I did have a problem with eating on the way home -- I was tired, I was bored, I wanted to get HOME! So I ate. I tried to stick with okay stuff, but I broke down and had a horrible individual pizza during the last hour. Oh, well, my blood sugar was back down to 117 this morning so it wasn't too bad.

I am in Houston and not happy about. When I was growing up we moved a bunch of times. I went to three different high schools. Now I hate change with a passion. I lived in the same house for fifteen years. I kept my second real job for over ten years and I am proud of the fact I have been at the same school for fourteen years and have spent most of that time in the same room. Beside that I have never enyoyed Houston. Some major bad has happened ever single time. Once I had a flat tire while I was trying to get out of town before a hurricane came in. I left a few hours later than I wanted. So I am not a happy camper. Dealing with diabetes makes it worse. I have to bring at least one extra bag of stuff and of course have the constant worry. I email my husband at every stop nd tell him where I am, just in case. Last summer I posted abojt how a diabetic friend went lo and froze for over 5 minutes. I am terrified that I might start doing that someday and it would be even worse if it happened when I out of town. Something just too possible. Diabetes lurks behind almost every thought.

That's the biggest change that diabetes has made in my life.  I have to plan everything and plan for everything.

BD, I would grab a dog that was scheduled for dog class, jump in the car, and get there.  Now I have to make sure I have supplies available in case I lose a set, insulin goes bad, etc.  I have to test my blood sugar before I get in the car, before I get on the training field and again before I drive home.

Today after school I'm going to a teacher workshop in Houston.  Going involved making sure I had enough supplies and even medications just in case something happened.  Hey, it is Houston, and they've been known to have weird things come up before without warning.

But every action these days requires infinitely more planning than ever before.  I miss being spontanenous.