Living with Diabetes and Lapband

Took awhile but I finally got to sleep.  We'll know better when I see a sleep doctor. 

Woke up at 5:30 and started dumping.  It's a bariatric thing.  Not sure when it will settle down.  Plan is to go to the gym and work out. 

Went through school email and forward some things to my department chair that effect students.

Recovery: I'm hoping.  I spent the afternoon at my couselor's and primary care physician trying to come up with a plan.  I'm very sick -- and I'm realizing the not sleeping thing is as bad as the diabetes.

Today's plan is see the sleep doctor.

Good news: second set of blood pressure medication arrived.

During winter break I'd taken a rest from Express Scrips, prescription drugs and the whole mess after my endo and I had figured out our plan. 

I have lovely system to manage my medication.  I have individual pill containers from container store, nicely labeled, that screw together and stack.  I have a two week supply and each week I fill up a week and when I see that I am going to run out of a medication I refill it. 

I find using Medco/Express scripts system means I end up with too much medication -- especially since we've had to redue dosages as I lose weight.  Especially blood pressure medicaiton.

I skipped a week, the wrong week and ran out of blood pressure medication.  I ordered the one I was closest one AND needed doctor approval.  Got that right away, it arrived Saturday and then the landlord replaced the door on my mailbox office and no one could get to the mailbox <sigh>  The mailbox owner got into the box on Sunday -- which is fine since I had medication until Sunday.  Won't be doing that again (skipping a week of managing meds).

So on October 31, I blogged that I knew about the formulary change.  I know that I called them on or right after that day and asked them what was up.

I also know they didn't know what they were going to do.

Blogged about it again on November 2, November 7 and November 15.

I also blogged about the Humulog experiement on December 24

I reached out to Express Scripts before they reached out to me.  They had me stressed out for months over this thing, caused an extra doctor visit, and wear and tear on my psyche.  AND now you are calling me and bothering me?

Seriously people.

And it was one of those you love.

First, they called at the end of my 2nd period class.  Since we had gone over material and they were supposed to be working on an assignment, I took the call -- also I didn't want to play phone tag.

A pharmacy tech told me a pharmacist want to talk to me.  I told her that I had already contacted Express Scripts before I contacted them, I already had a plan, that I was hoping that Express Scripts would leave me alone, and went through the fact that they had already annoyed me to the point I had filed a complaint with the state board of insurance and that I'm about to file a second.  I also told them if I heard from them again about this matter I was going to find a lawyer and file harassement charges.

I was on hold for over 90 seconds waiting for the pharmicist and she interrupted me when I tried to tell her what was going on.  I told her that I was a teacher, I was going to talk, she was going to take notes and I was going to make sure she understood what I said. 

I said that I was a very educated diabetic, that I knew before Express Scripts contacted me and had reached out to them.  I told them that I was using a Medtronics pump and was using my durable medical equipment to purchase scripts.  I went through the procedure my doctor and I used to determine that I was not having an allergic reaction to humalog and that I would get a new script when the current insulin was used up.

I also told her I was putting on my blog and that her company needed to review my phone so they could learn how not to treat patients.

As in all my phone calls I protested the fact that the forumlary was changed in the middle of the plan and that was the basis of my complaint with the state board of insurance.

By the way, the students high-fived me at the end and agreed that I was nice since I hadn't cussed yet.  They were pretty appalled at their end of the conversation.

Do you think that might be one of the reasons I'm not sleeping, it was in November.

Nothing really big.

Yesterday at the robot competition one of the volunteers got on me because Dulce was walking on the basketball court.

She was okay with it when I replied that the university knew about Dulce (they did) and that she was a service dog.  I also spent the day trying to keep her off the court as much as possible.

But right after that a competitor barked at her.  Now I'm usually pretty gentle with people about that, but I got in his face and told him in no certain terms that not only was the behavior unacceptable but it was a behavior that would get him bit.  The whole thing was getting on my nerves.

PEOPLE, teach your  children.

But keeping Dulce off the court surface meant that I had carry her when we had to be on it, and she does weigh 15 pounds.  That also meant that a few people had the ability to reach over and pet her and did -- ANOTHER good way to get bit.  Dulce is a really good dog, but because she is a service dog she is very protective and I don't like putting her in a position where she feels the need to protect me.  She also weighs 15 pounds.

By the way, she is still tired, but I think she enjoyed the afternoon off.

Other notes:  it's the first time I've been in public with students and they saw in a quick hurry what a PITA it can be.  I think they got it in about 5 minutes, as we were followed with comments of "puppy" and cute. 

After we were done competing, we were in the audience in the bleaches and one of my kids, an athlete looked down at her, looked at me, and said,"wow, Miss, she's really ripped".  I just rolled my eyes, looked at him, and said, "you expected less, she's more of an athlete than you -- she runs dog agility plus all her relatives are show dogs".  We then spend some time talkimg about conformation and what judges are looking for.   Of course, I didn't use the "c" word.  I did use the "B" word, as everything thinks it funny she won "Winner's Bitch"

Friday my plate was too full, and I got a call from Express Scripts telling me that their formulary had changed.

Okay, I've gotten two letters each from the following:

•     my school district
•     the state

I lost count of how many letters I got from Express Scripts, but each time, I got two. 

Next time this happens I'll keep them.  I am sure it has been more than 10, less than 20.

For the past three months, everytime I go to the website to do anything with Express Scirpts a pop up comes up and tells me that formulary changed.

There is supposed to be a checkbox to click to make it go away and it hasn't worked.

Something in my brain snapped with that phone call.  I called it back and I got the same freaking message, so I actually took time out of my day.

The idiot who took my call didn't seem to get my complaint:

"Okay people, I got it, you've told me countless times, next time, I'm going to save every single interaction and I'm going to send it to you in a box. My doctor and I have a plan.  You don't get to know what the plan is until I want to tell you.  I will tell you that you are losing money because of one of our plans.  MAKE IT STOP NOW".

I think it repeated it 4 times. 

I had children in my room and on third repetition one of the child told me to be nice.  My response: "I'm being nice, I haven't started cussing yet.".  There was also another teacher in the room, and she agreed that I had not broken the nice barrier yet, and that I had earned a lost of patience.

The good news: The pop ups didn't show up on the web site today.

The bad news on their end: I've complained to the state board of insurance.  I'm not holding my breath of course.

I still maintain that is not fair for anyone to change the rules in the middle of a policy. 

My plans: Medtronics gets to supply me my test strips.  I'm am liking Medtronics more and more every day.

I'm successfully used a vial of Humalog without an allergic reaction. 

When I run out of Novolog, and can't get any more, I will switch.  I will still support @racingwithinsulin and I will still support Charlie Kimball, and be envious of him.  I will still like NovoNordus as a company better than Lily even if they are foreigners.

We had a long day yesterday and the poor dog is tired.

It is days like yesterday that worry me. I have been following Tara and Duchess and I know that Duchess has stopped working.

I am letting her rest as much as possible.

We had a long day yesterday and the poor dog is tired.

It is days like yesterday that worry me. I have been following Tara and Duchess and I know that Duchess has stopped working.

I am letting her rest as much as possible.

I've purchased all of his books, and read most of his blog since he got his first CGMS, yeah, when he was processing Kodachrome.

I have had my CGMS since June (okay, I had a Dexcom a long time ago too).  Haven't done much with until I read his book besides put it on, calibrate it and listen too it and have been letting the endo deal with the data lately. 

Frankly I rely on Dulce to prevent lows more than the CGMS, and I haven't been worrying about the highs lately but I should.

Anyway, Beyond Fingersticks is great.  I'm about 95% through, and he is telling the gospel truth.  I have a disagreement with him:

"Chapter 13"

"Living with a CGMS is easier than having a pet dog."  Okay, maybe, but the endo and I both like Dulce a heck of a lot better than the CGMS.

She gives us no data, but she is more relable, and she hasn't left as many permanent marks on my skin.  I can also ignore her most of the day.

The payoff from Dulce is better than the CGMS though.

Get it here:

If you are a newly diagnosed diabetic, Taming the Tiger is great:

And I need to go read this again:

I got a LOT of gift cards for Christmas.  Some from Nordstrom's, some for Nordstrom's and some random ones.  I grouped them all together, spent them at Nordstrom's and got some cool new headphones what I have been using at the gym -- philosophy -- anything that will keep me exercising longer is a good thing.

They are Bose Wireless and if you want a pair of your own, they are here:  The cool thing -- they come with a wire, so if you forget to charge the wireless thing, or your device isn't bluetooth you can still use them.

You can also get this from Amazon:

Since my husband doesn't have any devices that are wireless, I went cheap and got him the same set of headphones but are wired.  Much cheaper, but same good sound quality.  In fact, he said he had forgotten that some of his music had piano in them.  Yes, he is older and going deaf.

Along with a major wardrobe change, I've also done a change in skin care -- until last spring I was a soap and water girl, but I've been noticing some sides of aging (though most people aren't aware I'm in my mid-50's -- horrible thought).

I asked my Nordstrom stylist for help and she hooked me up with a Personal Beauty Stylist.  Yeah, it's as cool as it sounds.  You don't have to go in store, but I do recommend it.  I personally like "Kate", Kate Summerville, but they have other lines and other price points.

Right now there are some on line sales going on you might want to take advantage of: 

Find winter skincare products at NORDSTROM. Free shipping & returns on every order.

By the way, fill is going well, though for some reason I am freezing tonight.  Managed to make it to the new gym both evenings--their parking lot is full but still plenty of space to work out which hasn't been true of the old gym.