Living with Diabetes and Lapband

But it shouldn't, it should be part of my proof of concept.

I really like the idea of diabetes alert dogs.  I know that there are a ton of people who don't do a good job at producing one.  They also put small children with really big dogs.  That doesn't seem like it would work well.

So I don't know why it bothers me when Dulce alerts on other people -- she did alert on Mike at #DiabetesLinkup.  Part of it has to do with the fact my husband's dog didn't like me, when we got married.  Beagles are really one person dogs.

But she has alert on other people through out the years, and its always been fairly positive. 

She's a good dog, though sometimes I think we're reading each others minds.

I started packing yesterday.  Mostly the dogs and double checking the medical equipment supply in the truck.  Also did a Walgreen's run.

This morning I've been pulling out everything I don't need tonight.  Plan is to leave tomorrow after work, maybe after a cardio workout.    I'll be playing Tetris with the truck today trying to get everything to fit.

I'm hoping to be gone for almost 2 weeks.  I have to be back by November 23 because of medications, etc.

This will be the longest trip I've taken since the National Specialty last year.  I'm staying with family on the way there, and stop and visit with the family on the way back.  I did it the other way around last year and then drove all the way home from St. Louis without stopping.

I do have about two weeks of Jenny Craig "shelf" food in the truck and there is a Jenny Craig in Ocala.

First, I went to Baylor College of Dentistry yesterday and saw my Periodontist Graduate Student.  She really rocks and is going to be a good doctor.

She was really pleased at my A1C results and called me a "controlled diabetic" in her notes.  Since her treatment my tooth numbers have gone down, but I still have two area that concern her.  Because I'm controlled, she said she has a lot more options, and she is going to do a procedure on December 2, that should help.  A crown came off two weeks ago, and my fourth year came up with a treatment plan for it, but it is in the area that we will also be treating.  I also learned the hard way, that I'm entitled to at least two more years of care from the college, even if they do get everything resolved.  All but the crowns should be covered by insurance.

Second, Jenny Craig measured me Sunday and that explained one of my mysteries - how could I lose so much weight and still be able to wear my jeans.  Oh, I've lost inches everywhere BUT my wasit.  They do fit funny, but they stay on.

I'm also in my fourth scale decade since joining Jenny Craig, being in the 270's, 260's, 250's, and now firmly in the 240's.   Though I've been maintaining weight the last three week, I started losing weight again this week.

One of the ideas I came up with at #DiabetesLinkup was to change the current standard of care by physicians (okay, I didn't write it that stiffly, but the same idea).

Now I doubt I came up with this out of the blue, out of the whole buzz of the #DOC and the online medical community itself, I've been concerned about one case of pediatric death from diabetes, and I've supported this: 

http://www.healthline.com/diabetesmine/legislating-change-undiagnosed-diabetes

But one small change could change the face of diabetes.

Here's what I mean.

Currently when we go to a doctor's office, they get our weight and our blood pressure.  Why not add blood sugar?  And in fact, I know an optometrist that actually does do the blood sugar test, since blurry vision is a symptom of  diabetes.  Now that I am diagnosed, they ask for my A1C.

Here's the deal, for the most part, blood pressure is tracked on a regular basis.  We are not life style shamed if our blood pressure is high (though they might mention the link to sodium intake), and there is no blaming the patient if a blood pressure drug doesn't work.

If tracking blood sugar (along with how long has it been since the patient has eaten), maybe the stigma can be taken away from diabetes?

It might also start catching some of the lack of diagnosis and misdiagnosis. 

One other really important thing -- while diabetes is often considered a life style disease, is it really?  Could I pick my parents and can I change how they raised me?

By adding body shaming or life style shaming, we make it much harder to change.

It is always interesting going out in public with a dog, -especially a cute beagle. Even more so when you are out of your comfort zone.  

Many of the #DiabetesLinkup people had lots of questions about her. One was even telling me about another dog and was wondering if the day would be hard on her with so many diabetics in the room. 

And yes, she ended up alerting on him. He had forgotten his mealtime insulin. 

I admitted then and will now, that always bothers me because I did train her and I do get a bit jealous. It doesn't help that people, especially my mother, seem to think I should give her up for someone who needs her more.  

With my lower A1C and the change in activity level, I did need her and she alerted twice on the trip.  She caught two lows which allowed me to shift when and what I ate.

We did have one issue with American Airlines which I did report   An overzealous agent demanded her paperwork which I was not supposed to need.  I did have it on the phone so we were all good.

I sat next to Dr. P on Friday at #DiabetesLinkup and discovered we have a lot in common.

First, we have the same external keyboard and we are both educators.  However, the biggest similarity is that we both got an out of the blue diabetes diagnosis.  No pre-diabetes for us.  

This is a point of the whole effort to strengthen and make more active the Type 2 Diabetes Online Network.  If it is big enough, patients will be able to find other patients with the same issues.  

I've maintained my weight loss for 3 weeks (this is not a bad thing).  I think part of it is that the next decade is bothering me a bit.  I've lost a lot of inches, especially in my bust and hips.  Which also explains why I can still wear my jeans though they fit funny, very large in the hips.

I mentioned the #t2doc stigma to my counselor and we also had some issues with the computer.  She didn't realize that by singling us out, they are adding to the stigma.  It got weirder because I wanted to go on the travel menu this week and she didn't think she could sell me the Anytime Bars.  It's odd because they have the best carb to protein ratio I've ever seen, and they are not very high carb.  So we had to call the nutritionist and "get permission".  She explained that there wasn't anything magical about the Type 2 menu and that a lot of Type 2, and insulin dependent clients eat the regular menus.  I didn't rub it in to my counselor, I'll wait.

We also had an issue getting my discount on the menu, but now she knows how to do it.

As a reward, I went and bought some athliesure wear off the rack at Nordstrom's.  Not plus size, though oddly enough the XL in Zella is actually larger than their 1X according to the website.

Dulce and I made it home last night, safe and sound.  I know I enjoyed the trip and I think she did too.  I really enjoyed meeting everyone, especially @MHoskins2179 from @DiabetesMine, Dr.P @not_defeated – I spent them most time with them, but also Michele @DiabetesWhiBlk, Bill @iRunT2D, Chris @cgoldrick of Edelman, Anna of @diabetessisters, Jill @100poundsgone, Gene Kunde  Diabetes Hands Foundation, Sarah Odeh Diatribe  , and Shelby @diabeticfoodie.  Hoping I didn’t leave anyone out.

I especially want to thank Lily of @AstraZenecaUS for iniviting me and helping with the arrangements.

The hotel was nice.  Plenty of places for Dulce to sniff outside.  The AstraZeneca site is really nice and she really liked the smells there. 

It’s incredible that a big pharma firm wants to put themselves out of business in the diabetes space.  I have used one of their drugs in the past: Symlin.  Though the lapband has eliminated that need.

Traveling is hard on me.  There is the arthritis (complication of diabetes but something I’ve been dealing with a long time).  My weight, but I fit in airline seats now, especially if I’m not in the middle and haven’t needed a seat belt extender in a long time.  I will admit to leaning away from my neighbor.  And the social anxiety. 

The social anxiety is the hard part, and it does keep me from doing some fun things – but I didn’t let it get in the way this time.

One huge issue and about to make a complaint with American.  They contacted me on Wednesday about Dulce (the service dog) and assured me that there would be no problems and that we only needed her vest.  Well on Friday, Ron Reagan airport, an agent demanded her paperwork.  No issues in Dallas.  The letter from my doctor that I keep on my phone was acceptable.  I assume she thought Dulce was an emotional support animal, which she is not.  She is a medical alert dog (diabetes, though that isn’t any of her business).

In fact, that was the only time we encountered problems with traveling.  The taxi driver was cool with her (Dulce did want his food), and was impressed that I only had to tell her “No” at the beginning of the trip and at the end when I was paying him.  The shuttle drivers were cool with it, from Park N Fly in Dallas, to the shuttles do and from AstraZeneca.

I learned a lot and met people I had “met” online in the past.  I also met new online friends.

Two big take aways:

The DOC isn’t always friendly to Type 2s.  I haven’t found that to be true as a whole, though I have found some individuals who aren't, I just ignore them.  My families favorite story in this regard:

The first newcomer approaches a long time resident working at a gas station and asks:  “Is this town friendly”?  His reply: “How was the town, you came in?”.  Oh, they were great, we will really miss everyone”.  The resident says, “we’re just the same”.

A second newcomer approaches the resident, and when asked if the town is friendly”? He asks the same question, and the newcomer replies: “Oh, they were awful, we didn’t find anyone we liked”.  He said, “Oh, I’m sorry, this town is the same way.”

We moved a lot as a kid and we always strove to be the first newcomer, and it usually works.

The second big take away is that there is a lot of problems with patient and doctor relationships in regard to diabetes.  I think we can solve a lot of problems in that space if we make blood sugar testing as routine as blood pressure testing.  If each doctor is required to do three things in an normal exam, I believe it will change how doctors handle diabetes.  These things are weight, blood pressure and blood sugar.

We need to start treating blood sugar abnormalities the same way we do blood pressure.  There is little patient shaming over a high blood pressure reading.  There is no blaming the patient when medication doesn’t work.

Again, AstraZeneca, thank you for the fun trip to Maryland!

I'm sure this is the hotel's fault.  I'm in Maryland, I want Maryland crab, and they didn't serve it in the dinner.  Some horrible "chili" was on the menu.  I like chili but this was too spicy.  Wasn't bad with the Jasmin rice.

Everything else was really good, and I did get an appetizer order of Maryland crab from the hotel restaurant.

Mark Freeman of @thepathtochange and @everyonehasabrain was the speaker, and he had some very interesting points.  He is actually making a living with his blog, which is a very interesting thought.

I got to meet Mark Hoskins @MHoskins2179 of @DiabetesMine.  Interesting enough, we have some common online friends.  I mention him because we sat next to each other and Dulce alerted on him and reminded him to take some meal time insulin.

All in all, it's been a good experience so far.  Disclaimer: AstraZeneca is playing for this trip.

Well, I have a bottle of insulin and no way to get the insulin out of the bottle.  Didn't bring a cartridge OR a syringe.

I thought about that when I parked my truck but the shuttle driver picked me up too fast.  That's my excuse and I am sticking with it.  Of course I'm not sure where my truck is either.

Oh, I have a full complement of diabetes supplies in the truck.  Usually good, since it's rare for me to go anywhere without it.

Also had two Jenny Craig shakes in my carry on.  Really they are factory sealed.  They did let me take them with me.

Other than that, everything is going well.