Living with Diabetes

Author: kathleen

  • I know how she feels

    Pearls and Dreams: Pain scales and daily living

    I know exactly how she feels.

    Lately, I’ve been feeling like a problem patient to my dentist. I have been able to go almost 2 years without seeing a dentist, I had an emergency, and found this really neat Korean guy who was able to fit me in on a Monday afternoon, and managed to relieve my pain.

    Since then, I haven’t had a month go by that I haven’t seen him. In fact, just hours after he filled two fillings he was wanting to watch, I chipped a corner off the tooth next to the one he worked on.

    The good news, is that it isn’t hurting, and it isn’t bothering me. So I’m not going to bother him. I was going to have the next two fillings done in two weeks, but I think he’s going to have to work no that tooth, and do the other two fillings later, but I’ll let him decide.

    I’m afraid he thinks I’m a nut case, but at least he’s figured out why I hate and avoid dentists — the novocaine doesn’t seem to work.

  • Coincidences

    About 2 hours after I talked to Animas I got an email telling me they were shipping me a new pump as replacemment in the recall program.

    —
    From my Treo

  • Animas 1250 Weirdness

    Animas is sending me a new IR1250 this week because I had something
    really weird happen Saturday. I have my pump set to alarm at 20
    units, and it didn’t alarm until I had only 7 units left. The weird
    part, is that I had bolused at least 3 times before that, and it
    didn’t alarm.

    The only thing different was that I was doing an extended bolus.

  • She’s learning 🙂

    I’m glad she’s learning to take the news announcements with major grains of salt.

    I get sick to death of friends telling me about the latest thing … which I’ve known about for 6 months, know of people on email lists I’m on who’ve been on clinical trials and have already learned it’s not the next thing.

    Don’t get me wrong, I think that Symlin might be a good answer for some, but it does add extra injections, and can’t be used in a pump.

    Diabetes Mine: Excitement & Caution

    Excitement & Caution

  • I know the feeling…

    I’ve been there myself — and the bad part, is that the more out of control you get the worse you feel, and the easier it is to be self-destructive.

    Pumplandia: Violet’s Diabetes Blog: Crawling out from under a sugar-coated rock

    Crawling out from under a sugar-coated rock

  • Went off and back on Novolog

    I haven’t been happy with my blood sugar since I’ve been on Apidra, my fasting blood sugars have been high, etc. However, they have been very stable and the site lasted a while.

    Of course, something else may be going on, so I’ll still keep up with everything — and will have to since I think Apidra keeps the blood sugars high.

  • This is the kind of thing that drives diabetics crazy

    It isn’t a friggin’ needle!

    It’s a lancelet. Yes, I understand that the general public doesn’t know what a lancet is, but that’s up to the writer of the piece to explain.

    Now, I have no idea if you can get AIDS that way, and I really wonder about the parents of a child that would do that. Not to mention the child!

    Someone on the insulin pumper list has already mentioned the concern that blood sugar testing devices may be restricted on campuses as a result.

    CNN.com – Official: 3rd-grader stuck 19 schoolmates with needle – Apr 29, 2005

    Official: 3rd-grader stuck 19 schoolmates with needle

  • New Diabetes Blog

    I find it somewhat amusing that she doesn’t seem to realize that some Type 2’s are on insulin. No oral meds.

    The ‘betes

    Type 1, Type 1.5, Type 2

  • Food lowering blood sugar?

    The Diabetes Blog

    This has NEVER made sense to me. If you know how insulin works, eating a particular food would not lower blood sugar.

    However, some substances can reduce insulin resistance — it has been shown in studies that I’ve seen that cinnamon can.

    But that isn’t the same.

    Certain foods can also affect how fast other foods metabolize — for example, dieticians usually tell us to eat our night snack with a serving of carb, protein and/or fat, so low down the absorbtion of sugar in the carb.

    That’s also why typical Mexican foods and Pizza are hard on diabetics. The fat contain slows the release of sugar in the carbs.

  • Diabetes: Two Diseases in One – Type 2 Stereotypes

    I agree with Tekakwitha that the Type 2 stereotypes don’t help much.

    The sad part, is that the people who need the most help with their diabetes, are the people who are stimatized by the sedentary and overweight label.

    I “fit” that label myself. I’ve posted before I get real irritated when someone suggests that I exercise. I do. I have a home gym with a treadmill and weights and I work out 6 days a week. I run dog agility. I am still over 250 pounds.

    Why?

    Well, one problem is that I’ve had weight problems since I was in a car accident in college that broke my jaw. I’ve had sleep apnea ever since.

    At diagnosis, I had had the sleep apnea for 15 years. I was sleeping 4-6 hours a night and exhausted all the time. I was actually falling asleep driving in Dallas freeway traffic.

    When I was first treated for the sleep apnea I lost 100 pounds without trying. I was able to exercise every day, and almost enjoy it.

    The moral of this: I’m not always convinced that the weight problem is the root of the problem. Certainly in my case, when I have everything right medically, I have no problem with weight loss.

    Right now, not everything is right.