Living with Diabetes and Lapband

It’s quite cool to be able to go out to the web anytime and see my data:

And I’ve actually been much better at managing my diabetes lately because of that.  Which the dog really loves.

I’ve also been going through the insurance paperwork – both the medical insurance and the prescription medication – a lot of the work I’ve done lately.  Looks like we still need to jump through hoops for the generic Celebrex and for the Invokana, but the rest looks good.

Also have appointments set up for all my doctors in January since we need to do the new script thing.

I love my FitBit, so I got their Aria Scale.  I have had a Titiana scale for years, and it has been great.  Handles my weight, seems to show BMI, etc. but I figure it's time for something new.

Got the scale last night, it's been on back order FOREVER.  It's wireless and the setup was very different, but easy.  Was able to use the phone, and hooked up to the scale's wireless to give it the wireless key.

Last night it had no trouble connecting to the wireless network and sending my weight, but this morning it took three tries.

I didn't realize it didn't hook up the first time, so two times I had to do it wet.  Well, I have long hair and wet means at least a pound of water.  Good news was that I was able to delete the wet weights and stay with a first thing in the morning dry weight.

Working well.  My weight is transmitted to both the FitBit and the MyFitnessPal websites and synced.

I may want some programming changes on the dashboard, we'll see.

I decided to go without Dexcom for a few days.  The current sensor stopped working -- and man it was a good sensor.  Lasted 10 days, and was accurate the whole time.

However, if I put in a new sensor today, I'll have a sensor failure during a dog show next weekend, and it's not something I want to deal with.  I'm going to try going without until Monday. 

I think it is probably a good idea to give my skin a bit of a rest anyway.  The Dexcom is hard on it.

This is the first I've been without CGMS I started in July.

My pump just went off -- post breakfast.  Checked Dexcom -- 104 with a nice steady downward trend.  Three hours after breakfast.  I probably will make it until lunch, but I will probably eat something to be safe.

At the same time, I did an increase on my bolus rate.  Was using a 1:4 ratio and went to a 1:6 ratio since my pre 8:00 am was slow, and my after 8:00 was at 1:6.  Plus I've gone low a bunch in the mornings lately.

A commenter wanted to know what pedometer. It's an Omron -- not sure which model but it is much nicer than any other I've seen.

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.:

Diabetes Mine: Judgement Day: Disappointed

Although Amy is not quite as technology savvy as I am, I am still going to follow her lead on this. Seems that the Dexcom technology didn't help her.

I do feel though that she is "handicapped" by sticking to shots. I still think she'll do better on the pump. I sure have!

A1CNow � for Home HbA1c Monitoring - Medgadget - www.medgadget.com

I knew that Walmart was selling them cheap, and wondered what happened. Looks like they are being re released in a different form factor.

A1CNow �, device, designed for at-home monitoring of HbA1c--a glycosylated hemoglobin--was acquired by Bayer when it bought Metrika Inc., a company based in Sunnyvale, CA.

Diabetes Mine: Think Outside the (Test Strip) Box: DexCom and Me

I am seriously thinking of joining the Dexcom crown in August. It will be of course, out of pocket.

I picked one up tonight at CVS since they were $69.98 and have a rebate for up to $70. Not a bad meter, it has the best features of the Ultrasmart -- backlight and ability to make comments.

It is not smaller though, it's the same size as the old Ultra and not significantly smaller than the Ultra Smart. However, it is lighter.

Downloading data works fine, after I downloaded the software update. However, right now, I don't konw how to make it work with EzManager, I have an email out to EzManager support.