Living with Diabetes

Author: kathleen

  • Roche’s Accu-Chek Compact

    I’m experimenting with the Compact meter, and I am finding out some interesting things.

    First, it isn’t compact. It’s at least one third more of the mass of the Flash. Meaning that it probably won’t fit in my immediate bag. Second, it’s SLOW!

    Something interesting is that I NEVER get a decent test the first few times ou use a new meter. First of all, you have to lose some muscle memory, and learn new habits. If you test any length of time at all, you have a ritual. Or at least I do.

    If you are a meter manufacturer, I highly recommend you do what Accu-check does. Don’t throw in 10 lousy strips. Put in at least 50 strips. Accu-check puts 3 drums in their sample box, and my CDE gave me three more drums. That means I have 102 to play with.

    Why did they pick 17 tests? It isn’t even divisible by anything. I’d have put 15 in, and made it smaller. Or 10. Weird.

    After about 3 tests, the results on the two meters started converging. At first they were as much as 50 points apart, and now I am getting tests with 10 points of each other, which is as much as you can ever hope for.

    Fun little factoid — you never get a real number on a blood sugar test, all you are getting is trends. That’s even true with the A1C — actually more true, because that’s a so called 3 month average, but it doesn’t really work quite that way either.

    Just have to learn which trends to follow when it comes to correcting.

    So I haven’t decided which to go with, but I’m definately going to go with one more round of Freestyle while the copay is still $80, not $120.

  • Now my husband is having issues…

    He has some sort of congential heart defect and won’t share at all what it is or about. He really had problems with it when he had his hip repaired last year. Well, he’s been sick all week, has all the sympthoms he’s been told to watch for, and is going to the doctor tomorrow.

  • Endo appointment

    3 pounds less than last month’s CDE visit. 20 pounds over all.

    A1c is 6.2

    We are adding medication for chlorestral because bew study. they have been watching that tudy and agree with the findings.

  • Off to the endo…

    The reason I’m up early, if anyone cares, if that I am getting back to my school schedule.

    Plus I see my endo and CDE at 9:30. I want to ask them about bolusing for protein. I also want to ask why my carb ratio went down with weight loss and my basal needs hasn’t changed, but I have a feeling that’s a “huh?” even from them. I do think that the basal will drop about the middle of the week after next — when school starts, and am planning to watch everything VERY carefully.

    I’m also reinforcing the notion very hard, that I am NOT on a diet, that I am on a lifestyle change and that losing weight any faster than I am is liable to cause some emotional eating problems. Been there done that. Besides, with school starting, NOT knowing my teaching load yet — and this is the closest I’ve ever been with this much up in the area, I don’t need any more stress.

    Will post after.

  • Good post on pumping

    ComputerZen.com – Scott Hanselman’s Weblog – Medtronic Minimed 508 Insulin Pump vs. my New Paradigm 512 Insulin Pump and Blood Glucose Meter

    Though I disagree on a couple of things .

    Personally I prefer the Animas, but there is a funny thing about insulin pumpers — we’re even more adament about our choice of technology than PC vs Mac wars. My theory is that it is because its attached.

    I also disagree about handling the insulin stacking thing, and so far, the two CDE’s I work with agree, and think the Minimed thing is a bit nuts.

    I avoid insulin stacking by taking in account of the insulin on board at the time of the correction, NOT at the next meal. In fact, and I think I posted about this recently, I’m careful to only correct once during a time period. Thus, if I ate at noon, and correct at 2:00, I don’t correct again at dinner. I will correct, however, 2 hours after dinner, with two corrections in one day but I haven’t had to do that in a long time.

  • Seeing endo tomorrow

    One of the things I have to do today, is get my logs printed out and ready for the endo and the CDE.

    I see him for the second time tomorrow.

    I’ve done well since I’ve seen him. My bolus rates have gone from 8 and 5 (for lunch) to 13. 13 isn’t perfect, but 12 is too much. I also didn’t lose any weight this week — I’ve been following iShapes plan, and I think the calorie level was a bit too high.

    I also skipped cardio one day because I’m having heel spur problems again. I’m kicking around the idea of getting a shot for that at the podirist this week. Gee, I’m having trouble spelling foot words…

  • End of summer

    I’ve done everything on the district tests I”m going to do. We’re going to have to get it back from the word processers one more time, but I’m going to let one of the other teachers handle it. It’s a 30 minute drive there and back for me.

    I am almost done with my master’s class — we have a test on Wednesday and that’s it. I need 11.5 points for an A and there are 21 points on the test — and one point it a bonus question with no wrong answer. Only need 1 1/2 points for to pass.

    I’m getting ready for my flight on Friday/Saturday. I put my pill medications out every Saturday for the week, and decided to go ahead and do it for the next two — emptying a script bottle, so I decided to put 4 days of meds in a script bottle, and have printed out my history from medco, and put it with the boxes with the scripts for my insulin / needles and testing supplies.

    Hopefully the TSA can live with that concept.

    I think I’m going to get a twin sized “bed in a bag” for the dorm room. That’s something I can pack back up and put in a closet for the next one of these types of trips.

  • Inset experiences

    Well, I was afraid of this — I think the adhesive to plastic ratio is a bit too small on the inset. But we’ll see. This is one reason I feel that you have to try a whole box before you can determine if you like an infusion set or not.

    I was loading a new laptop bag — I really like this one, because it has a seperate carrier for the laptop. But that’s another story.

    Anyway, I pulled the set off, bending over. So I got to put the new set in. I was able to do it by glancing at the instructions, though the procedure is a bit time consuming.

    I hope they come out with a tubeless version by the way, as I just threw away some perfect good unused tubing.

  • Good mammogram experience

    I was REALLY dreading having my mammogram done. I’ve been going to the same place which is close to the house (RHD Medical Center, which should really be called Robert H. Dedman Hospital and was for YEARS), and it was a real pain.

    You’d call, make an appointment and they wouldn’t be available for months, and it would take up most of an afternoon.

    Not this trip. Though its start out frustrating. The doctor doesn’t have the right number for scheduling, and had to call the number he had twice before I got an answer and they gave me a number that didn’t answer at all after two calls. I called the main hospital number and they did verify the second number. That trip, I got someone on the first ring.

    AND they were able to schedule me the next day, for this morning.

    My appointment was for 9:30, and was told to arrive 30 minutes early for paperwork. I went through express check in — which wasn’t available before and sent right to Radiology (that was true), waiting only minutes, and was in and out. Arrived back at the car at 9:30.

    Can’t beat that service and it wasn’t even painful — I remember it being painful before.

    I stopped and told registration how pleased I was life was better.

  • Needle Phobia

    My needle phobia is well earned. This incident is also the start of my medical problems.

    Back when I was in college, I was very physically active, and especially did a lot of bike riding. In fact, since gas prices were so high, I drove almost to campus, parked at a friend’s apartment complex and rode to campus on my bike. When I was done from classes for the day, I’d go back and tutor him. It worked out well …

    Until one day when I rode all the way back to the apartment. I was having problems with the car, so I’d left it where it was and took my bike home. I was the night and weekend manager of the complex, and one of our groundskeeper hit me with his car. I went through his windshield and fell face first into gravel.

    I almost lost my eye, and broke the edge of my jaw, though no one knew it until a few years later when I started having ear problems.

    Anyway, I had to have about 20 stiches in my face, mostly around the eye area, and so not only couldn’t have I have much in the way of general anesthisia, but had to keep my eyes open while they stitched.

    As a result, needles really bug me, especially the ones coming out of me, going in doesn’t seem to bother me as much.

    You’d think after two years of diabetes and the associated needles I’d be over it, but I’m not. I just tolerate them.

    And yes, insulin was MY idea.