Author: kathleen

CBS News | The Other Woman | December 31, 2005�23:04:34

I’ve watched this episode every time it’s come on, for two reasons — it is set in Hattiesburg Mississippi, where I went to college, and because of the insulin pump angle.

First, the insulin pumpers all get upset by this one, but I think they’ve renarrated it, and it shouldn’t set them off as much.

Basically, a doctor, with Type 2 diabetes was found dead in his bed. He was wearing an insulin pump — they should a Minimed 508, but that really doesn’t matter.

Wife claims that he died in his sleep. She sets off alarms with the coroner though (he says), because she demanded the pump and the insulin vials back.

They did a toxicology and found some drugs in his system that didn’t belong there. Because of the type of drugs, one of two things happened. He put them in the pump or she did.

Either way, she was found gulity by a court of law, and lost her appeal.

The insulin pumpers have gotten upset in the past because the narrative used to say that he had diabetes so bad, he needed a pump. It didn’t say that this time. In fact, they hardly mentioned the pump — the narrative on the page listed is pretty close to the actually show.

However, it’s highly unusual for Type 2’s to have a pump. I know of a few, mostly because I’m on the list.

My acquintances that know about the pump think mine must be worse that most because I use a pump, but people who “get” me, know the truth — I’ll trust technology long before I will trust chemicals.

I live in Farmers Branch, TX. We had a wild fire on Tuesday — it wasn’t near my house, and while we’re in a very suburban area, I don’t worry about my house. Much. Especially since “we” water the park and we water our yard (both have sprinker systems).

Anyway, get this — there is going to be a “public display of fireworks” shortly after midnight tonight in Dallas. Yep!

And get this — it is for a wedding.

Here’s the deal. They have a permit, and the city burn ban allows it. They also have a professional pyrotechnics unit doing it, and fire department standing by that they are supposed to be paying for.

I’ll admit, I eloped. I eloped because I couldn’t see wasting money on one day. So I’m not ever going to get this at all, but still.

It seems to me, if you were responsible citizens, you’d call off the firework, and take any money that you save by not having it and given it to a charity that helps the wild fire victims.

But then I’m just too practical.

And now I have another reason not to live in Dallas.

Here’s the local news story:

I’m not big on looking back. But this has been a good year for me in a lot of respects.

Before this year, I was able to follow my doctor’s directions and keep my blood sugar normal for normal days. However, I wasn’t good at adjusting for abnormal days. While I don’t feel I’ve mastered it, I do have confidence to try different things, and have the knowledge to be able to adjust. That’s something I’ve just gotten good at the last few months.

While I haven’t lost any weight recently, I haven’t gained a massive amount over the holidays which is a good thing.

I’m really looking forward to getting through this school and deciding what I want to do next year. If I want to stay at my school (I’ve been here 14 years), I will probably have to teach Algebra and focus on non-English speaking kiddos.

I would like to teach a group of students who have 100% access to the internet. I’ve put the word out on that, and we’ll have to see what happens.

I definately want to stay with my district IF I keep teaching, I’ll be getting a longevity stipend starting next year.

With the master’s and the experience, I could go into a different area. However, one thing I’ve found this year, is that I like teaching better than I like teaching with computers. I just wish I could do both.

Plucked From Africa, but Still Isolated in Their Classes – New York Times

I do think we do a better job. My job, half the day, is to teach nonEnglish speakers math. I’ve worked with a bunch of students — started with 10, we’ve moved 50 thru, and have about 80 now. What we do, is test them. Mine are at the lowest level and they stay with me until they can speak and read some English. Then they are moved to sheltered classes. If they don’t do well in those classes they come back — so far, only 1 has.

Went to the doctor and he diagnosed patella-femoral syndrome, gave me Celebrex and sent me home with some exercises.

He wants me to slow down on the walking, but I need to do it both as exercise AND to maintain my classroom. I have been keeping off of it a lot the last two weeks, but I won’t be able to do that.

I probably shouldn’t do dog agility either, from the leaflet he gave me. The good news is that none is scheduled until next Thursday (class)

That’s the name that Abbott labs gives their PC based Diabetes Data Management System. I just installed it, and while it isn’t intuitive, the data can be exported, edited, and imported into Animas EzManager.

If anyone needs directions, let me know, and I’ll provide.

It’s free software, just call the 1-800 number on your Flash or Freestyle meter and ask for it.

I kind of thing I know what is going on — my biggest problem is that I miss my Diet Gourmet food! I think I’m having some side effects from Symlin due to the different food.

Also, my knee is still bothering me. My biggest clue that there is a problem is a bruise mark on my knee. I’m okay if I stay still, but when I start walking it gets worse.

So far I’ve been shoving my workouts to my off days. Especially the cardio ones.

I’m gotten off my normal schedule and I’m trying to get back to it. I especially need to be back on it for Thursday — I’ve got labs first thing in the morning.

The good news is that my basal and boluses seem to be set correctly — I’m waking up with a blood sugar in the 90’s each day.

Here’s some fun news — We went to a credit card system for our Flexible spending plan. They said save receipts and they would ask for them. Well, November rolled around, no one asked for September, so I dumped them. Good news, the medication receipts are all online, so was the receipts for Animas. That left the dentist and my contact lens doctor, and SaveOn over at the grocery store, and no one gave me a bit of a problem with duplicating the reciepts. So I picked up everything, packed it up, and shipped it off.

Anyway, Diet Gourmet opens up again on Monday, and I’m counting the days.

I’ve been sick all through Christmas Eve and Christmas. I’m not sure why though. My stomach was upset all day Saturday, very sore and achy, and then had a sore throat and was achy on Sunday. Also very upset stomach on Sunday.

It’s better today.

The weird part is that my blood sugar has been pretty low.