Living with Diabetes and Lapband

Another week of exercise logged. It will get tougher, as I've got some new projects starting soon, but I think I can still get it done.

I've scheduled around the other activities, so that should help.

Is a bag a gadget?

I bought a big diabetic travel back with a cold pak from the diabetes store, and frankly it just wasn't big enough.

Had a gift certificate from Amazon so broke down and finally brought a Pump Pak. Wish I had years ago! It's Very nice! Very big and much better made than the Medicool bag.

If you want your own, you can get it here -- yes I get a referral fee.:

Another mom update. She still hasn't heard back from her doctors but she sees doctor that discovered the elevated blood sugar next week.

I told her to ask for a script for 90 days -- testing 4 times a day. It takes a couple of weeks to process so she'll have a good cushion when she gets that. I explained then she can test her blood sugar after meals so she'll know what is going on.

Her blood sugar was at 16* -- don't remember the last digit, but it is going down, so meds and diet are working.

Well, I ended up wasting two Inset II sets. And this is why I think that you have to have a full box before you truly know if a set is right for you.

I put in my fourth set this morning. Everything looked good. Not sure what went wrong with the first set.

I decided to go shopping and walked right past my emergency bag -- which was probably a good thing in a way, because I didn't have any Inset IIs in it.

I decided to go shopping and get rid of my gift cards (I love gift cards, and got quite a few from parents this year -- please send more!) I ate breakfast late and in the middle because my blood sugar was high this morning and I wanted to see if my changes worked.

Ate, then had to go to the restroom. I don't know if I pulled the set off taking my clothing off, or what -- but since my blood sugar was 186, I suspect that was the case.

Here's the bad part -- I had no replacement sets and at least one stop I wanted to make. Debated, and decided to make that stop which of course took longer.

I still like the Inset IIs better than the originals, but they haven't eliminated human error -- as when I got home, instead of pulling the paper off the set, I pulled the set off the needle!

So that's how I wasted two sets.

My insurance company has a chronic disease management program they call Lifemasters. I've had two phone consultations with them so far.

So far, they seem good. Right now we seem to be in the set up mode. She verified my medications, I gave her some lab work they wanted last time, and she suggested that they send me a blood pressure monitor but will arrange for that in a few visits.

It also sounds like they might be doing some online stuff.

So far, it seems good.

Her A1c is 11.4 so she's been in trouble for a little while. She's waiting to hear from her doctor's office on getting a quicker appointment and is going to talk to them about diabetes education and maybe even seeing an endocrinologist.

First her blood sugar was 184 this morning so she making progress in the right direction. This hard, being a long distance Diabetes Educatoe. Plus her treatment is quite different than mine. I personally would like to sit down with her doctor and figure out what she is thinking. I am still waiting on an A1C so we will know just how bad it is. She hasn't been feeling well for almost a year and she was been going to doctor to doctor to figure it out. I am upset that blood sugar readings were not taken earlier in the process. I want her to go to a nuitrionist. I am not really up for that. For now I am trying to get her to write down everything and reduce carbs. She freaked me out when she told me she did her water aerobics with no food. I am also trying to get her to test only once a day and fasting but tested after the exercisiong and of course it was higher than she started, but I had to learn the exercise thing the hard way. The excuses make me smile because I have heard them from my own mouth. I need to get her to a CDE too. I also set her up with Diabetes Forecast and Diabetic Cooking and have invited her to DLife.

I wish I could figure out when I need to send receipts and when I don't have to. I got an email probably Friday with a huge list. Most I had EOBs for the doctor's visit and Medco has a nice online statement. The only problem was my orthodics. I did not have receipts for them. Called this morning and then dropped by at 10:00 and they were printed out and waiting for me. Next I have set up my computer to Fax! Which I did -- and faxed them 14 pages of data.

Did I miss something?

We're we promised that the Abbott / Therasense Navigator would be out this year? Guess it didn't happen.

We're having a nice quiet stress free as possible Christmas. Husband loves his new gift and I got a great deal on it.

Hope everyone else is having a good Christmas!