Blog

Really liked the new guy. Best year, this practice is closer to the house and is in my previous endo’s office.

I walked in complaining of blood sugars, especially at night and especially due to weight loss.

I attempted to fix by changing my carb ratio from 13 – 24. He said it wasn’t exactly what he would suggest but it was close enough.

He suggested an additional safe guard, which was to change my target from 110 to 130 for night time hours. I was still lower than I liked last night but I will give it another day and then raise it as needed.

Just “installed” my first Dexcom G7 15 day sensor. Will be coming back here to record what happened.

It does have a 60 minute warm up rather than 30. I did the overlap.

Readings are very close to the readings on my old Dexcom G7. Very little gap.

Had no issue pairing with my Omnipod 5. Having a bit of issue connecting my watch but I usually do.

The end is SO funny.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/juicebox-podcast-type-1-diabetes/id962416631?i=1000749378981

I refer back to this webpage all the time. It tells how to set up a new Omnipod 5 controller, whether or not it is the PDM or the iPhone or Android app.

Omnipod 5 – New PDM/APP

5.9. Baby steps. It might not be statistically significant but I am down from 6.0 and was hovering between 6.5 and 7.0

No lows.

I saw my primary care physician and was at my lowest weight and size in over a decade. Maybe two. I am also at my highest muscle mass.

I had an appointment with my endocrinologist last week. He was thrilled with all my numbers. He also reminded me that I was doing body recomposition and looks different than just weight loss. We both join the same contests at our gyms so he knows I focus on weight training.

But my primary care physician wasn’t. She focused that I wasn’t losing weight as fast she wanted. She always wants to add medication rather than wait it out.

So now I am doubting myself.

My A1C came back with a 6.0. Down from 6.1 so not statistically significant but was struggling with a 6.7 for a while.

I was a bit worried because I had a few high blood sugars this weekend but I guess they didn’t affect it that much.

I've tried a lot of things.

First, I did the Lap Band and that got me a 60 pound weight loss. Since I hit that, I've tried lots of things that didn't work.

Weight Watchers

A lot of super low carb diets which all made me a bit crazy. Especially since they made me want to cheat.

Ozempic — which made me gain weight. Too be fair, I was never able to get a therapeutic dosage on it.

I was stalled for about six months on Mounjaro and it took at least a month to lose weight again once we upped the dosage but at least I didn't gain.

Right now, the easiest and most sustainable has been "Arnold's The Pump Club" app. I'm concentrating on strength training and they have just added a nutritional component. I've done 91 weeks of that program starting with bodyweight and 3 days a week.

Personally I prefer going to the gym everyday — except Saturday because it is crazy crazy at my gym. I can always just do dumbbell workouts though even on Saturday it can get hard to get a bench. I do have a bench and weights at home, so I can work out here. I have also taken advantage of Silver Sneakers and have memberships at other gyms but I enjoy Life Time in Los Colinas the best.

I started Pilates this spring, and while it is hard as hell, I keep at it.

I would like to do more aqua workouts but they moved them to a time that is currently too early for me. I just put my contacts in and haven't made it to the gym yet.

I also do a lot of water walking but that's out on Saturday's too. Too many families who don't watch their children and it's hard to get in a zone with that. I haven't found a Saturday pool that is quiet.

Scott asked in his podcast if doctors have improved. 

Fortunately, I have some of the best trained doctors in the Dallas, TX and I have not seen “improvement “ in my diabetes doctors. They always want me on the latest and greatest. 

I have seen improvement in my sleep apnea doctor. Before the CPAP recorded data, any issue I had was caused by my non-compliance. Now, he sees that I am compliant – or not and changes things based on the technology.

I did have the power supply burn out and I had compliance issues until we get the next generation of machine. So machine generation version 9 burned up, version 10 i had trouble using, was working fine but i couldnt use it
every day and I am 100% compliant with version 11.  

FYI. I had undiagnosed Sleep Apnea resulting from a head injury which caused a lot of bad things including Type 2 diabetes.

Kathleen Weaver

Went on Medicare in December.  It's been scary — I have had almost the same insurance for the past 10 years.  

I did all kinds of calculations to see how it was going to change things financially, and was a bit disappointed as the out of pocket, especially drugs changed.

I figured that the out of pocket was going to be hard to reach.  I usually reach it between March and June each year and then don't have to pay anything else.

I was getting ready to see my endocrinologist on Wednesday and figure out what drug changes I wanted to make.  I saw every drug was only $9.95. Nothing on the mobile app showed what was going on and so I called.  The rep said I had almost met my $2000 out of pocket.  Now I was in shock to think I had spent that much on medications.  I was sure I hadn't.

I ended up doing a deep dive and found this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjJNTbuFu0o

So while I didn't spend $2000, it got calculated as $2000.  I finally found the breakdown on the Express Scripts website especially the EOBs.  And it still doesn't make sense, but I had a prescription that normally is $25.00 processed at the $9.95 and a second prescription was processed at $0.00

Very cool