Author: kathleen

Although this is a diabetes blog, I have to say something about Christopher Reeves today.

It hit me hard to hear of his death today. I’ve admired his work for years, and admired what he has done for spinal cord injuries. I think it is very sad for his family that he died and died the way he did.

I was a volunteer at Baylor Rehab for many years, and worked with many spinal cord injury patients. I worked more with head injuries since I did pet therapy there and head injuries work with that modality than do spinal cord injuries.

I think we’ll find a “cure” for spinal cord injuries long before we find a “cure” for diabetes. First, in the scheme of things, it’s a much more simple problem than diabetes. Second, Christopher Reeves did a lot for that group in terms of not only fund raising but in research. He put himself in the cutting edge, had the funds for it, and had the time and energy to put into it. Few patients have that many factors going for them.

Got in, need root canal — scheduled for next Monday, which is not the best time for me, but oh well… tried all kinds of different ways to schedule and he wouldn’t go for it.

But this is a gastric reflux issue. The acid is eating the fillings in my teeth.

Note to self: Keep dentist and dental insurance current. In fact, I thought I had switched to the other insurance which is more flexible, but didn’t. Weird.

Not here, but in talking with husband, administrator, etc. it took over 30 minutes on the phone to get a dentist who would see me this afternoon.

The dentist I last saw couldn’t see me until next Tuesday. Not good for blood sugar control. My blood sugar is slightly elevated as it is with the tooth pain. I’m quite sure more is going on here than just the broken tooth. Sigh. I have a feeling that all the dental work on that side of my mouth will need to be dealt with.

Called the dentist I’d seen before them and they could get me in at 3:00 which is good because I would be able to at least get looked at before parent conferences.

Then called insurance company who said they only see “roster” patients, but they gave me a list of places that would see me off the roster. Guess the dentist has been screwed before. Anyway, there is one chain dentist who takes my insurance that I won’t see. They completely freaked me out once before.

But they had a name of a none chain dentist who can see me at 1:00 pm, so that’s what I am going with.

Treo is still acting up. I called Tech support and got help on Wednesday night. The whole tech support thing is still a bit scary since I had so many problems last year with my Zire 71’s replacement.

BUT I checked their website on Friday and they claimed they were shipping. However, DHL (was airborne) didn’t show anything when I went to tracking. Finally yesterday afternoon they claimed they had picked it up, but no ETA. SO I called DHL’s contact number and they claim I’ll have it by noon on Monday.

Can’t wait. Although the phone functions, nothing that requires the digitizer does, including EzManager. I’ve got it installed and functioning on my old Zire 71, but can’t bring myself to use it. The last time I did a bunch of mucking, I lost my entire database, and just can’t stand to deal with that now.

I’ve broken a tooth — and other things are going on — I’m sure it’s all from gastric reflux AND diabetes problems, and I haven’t been to the dentist in a couple of years — their fault — they were supposed to call me for the followup.

So I don’t know if I have a dentist — I meant to switch dental plans with the last benefits change — still have the horrible HMO and even fewer dentists are taking it. The last place I was at is only taking established patients, and I have no idea if I’m one.

I’ve already requested a sub since finding this out and getting worked in is probably going to take hours.

It’s probably contributing to the blood sugar control problems SINCE chewing helps it and since there might be some infection going on.

Two things have happened this week that has messed up my blood sugar control. I’m not sure which one is the biggest factor.

First, my schedule has gotten out of my control. Tuesday night I had a face-to-face from my master’s degree, and didn’t get home until 8:00. I had planned for that and had moved my exercise but I just couldn’t eat healthy. And I ended up not sleeping that night.

As a result I was exhausted Wednesday and didn’t exercise, and again my eating went out the window. Came home after school and went to sleep. And of course, Thursday is my dog day and didnt’ exercise or eat the right food well again.

The good news is that I can get back on track at least exercise wise today. We’re off. This weekend is busy with a dog show, but I’m going to make sure I exercise since we have parent teacher conferences on Monday.

I may very well take Tuesday off, since I have a midterm, but might wait until Wednesday as so many teachers take off — that depends on the other event though…

MY TREO broke! Wednesday evening the digitizer stopped working so that means that EzManager stopped working too. I did save a Zire 71, but I haven’t figured out how to get the database moved over without destroying my Treo database and now I am not sure I’m even going to try, because the Palm website says the Treo is on the way.

So far the shipping company doesn’t show it in their system but I may take the day off it is due off, might even take Monday off then show up for parent conferences depending on the time and date it is due, since I don’t function well without.