Category: Blog

First, a minor victory.  The skirts I bought around Thanksgiving when I first acknowledge I gained weight are getting bigger.  My plan is to wear belts until I can't any more than have a tailor take them in.  In Texas, you can always get away with a good jean skirt, not all of them are good but they are close.

I have been having problems sleeping since I had some seniors fail web mastering.  My problem? I take anything like this to heart even though I did everything I could to prevent.  Thus my ninth graders are really driving me crazy because they don't do the assigned work. 

I'm trying really hard not to take too much responsibility for it, even though some of their parents are adding to the stress.

You see, I give a lot of work and it doesn't take very long to get hopelessly behind.  One class period on myspace (yes, it's blocked but… ) and you are behind.  Funny, but if you do the assignment FIRST, you'll get time to play, but if you don't, well, you get hopelessly behind.  I tell them out to get caught up but they don't listen. 

My failure rate is the highest it's been but the good news, is my administration have been in my room enough to know it isn't my fault, and I am trying.  The kids just keep making the wrong choices.  I'm hoping to solve some of that with the new lab on Wednesday we'll see.

I'm still not sleeping but I am doing better with it.  At least I don't stay up trying to stay caught up at school anymore and I am taking more time for myself.

Seriously.

The sun is shining and I’m not at school right now but doing some school work.

We are giving Fall semester exams.  I’ve given two French exams (yes, that’s right), and I have three more to go.  Tomorrow is going to be my tough day.

When I finally figured out I was available to see the shrink, I called and the only appointment available was 1:00 pm during my Tech Support class.  That seemed serendipitous and I took it.  Then they announced we would have to give other people’s exams, so I immediately emailed the test coordinator and told him I was not available that period and he didn’t schedule me.

Left 15 minutes before the appointment, got my head shrunk and then thought about going back.  But it is a lovely day, I was near my favorite Avenue and they were having a sale.  Also realized I was close to the CPAP place so I called them up and said, hey, why don’t you replace everything my insurance will let me replace.

Bought a few shirts on sale, swung by the CPAP place and now I have new tubing, new mask and new filters and paid for them.

Now I’m back home and just took a break from organizing things for next semester to brag.

My shoulder is still killing me, but I know why.  I was in so much pain at the end of the day, I was ready to scream and the kids knew it.

Desk is too high.  Figured out to pull monitor to front of desk and work on adjustable table, but it was too late at that point.

Can't use the hot tub until this evening.  Orkin came out and killed the ants.  Husband promised to clean out hot tub when he gets home tonight.

May go to new massage guy this afternoon and see if he can fix it.  Or just break down and go to chiropractor.

Missed agility last night, between shoulder pain and ant guys was having trouble driving.  

The best news is that I haven't been binging like I was a few weeks ago.  Shifting calories has really helped.

My shoulder has been sore all week and has been really bad this weekend.  If I can keep it down and in, it’s good, but that’s hard to do.

Massage helped, but then, not two hours later, my foot got caught and I feel down our stairs, only 4 steps from the ground but now everything hurts.

Hot tub helps.

As a result, my blood sugar has been up along with my fatigue level.  That means I can not do as much on the treadmill.

However, I’m still managing to walk on the treadmill daily, though I did stare at my shoes for 2 hours before I could get on it.  Well, daily except for Mondays when I train two dogs at dog agility.

Diabetes can be all about numbers.

The good news, is that today’s numbers are good.  And the trend of numbers I’ve seen are good.

Fasting blood sugar is going down.

TDD Insulin is slowly going down.

The numbers on the scale are slowly going down.

A good trend.

Weighed in with the dietician and I had only gained one pound in the month of December.

Considering that I gained an average of 5 pounds from August to October, I’m doing well. 

My first month of medically supervised weight loss happened the month of Thanksgiving — and I gained no weight, so we both think I am doing well.

Exercise is going great too.  I did 20 minutes both Saturday and Sunday, trained both dogs back to back on Monday, first time I’d done that in a long time and I started making handling mistakes in the last runs so I stopped and watched.

I was only able to do 8 minutes last night but so far have 15 minutes in and am hoping for 20.  Yeah, I’m having to do it in 4 sets, but I’m doing it.

That was a tough show to watch.  I haven’t watched Intervention before, but since Scott and some of the other diabetic twitters were talking about it, I decided to DVR it.

I also find it interesting that the family feels that the invention was successful.  I do agree that the kiddo looks healthier than he did before. 

Like diabetes, I don’t think that there is a cure for diabetes mismanagement.  I think we all do the best we can on a given day.

There is a lot to say and feel about it — I recognized that most of the kiddos problems were caused by the complications of diabetes, mostly the depression which is not acknowledged enough.  I also believe that the family erred by not transitioning the boy well into doing his own self care.  However, we don’t know the whole story.

I have been sliding down the slippery slope of diabetes mismanagement for quite some time.  It’s a gradual slope and today I almost didn’t test my blood sugar before lunch because it was too much trouble to find my meter (I did find it).  I also ran out of insulin in the middle of lunch so I didn’t dose appropriately.  I’ve got to get better at that and I have to keep in mind that if I don’t take of care of myself, I can’t deal with anything else.

Part of my problem is my plate is truly too full.  I’m Campus Technologist in addition to teaching a full load.  Today our phones went down, and part of my job is to put tickets (work orders) in the system so they will get fixed.  Thankfully I let someone else do the teaching today, while I spent a lot of my day with the tickets and with planning the new lab install.  I’ve also decided we have to start tomorrow or we won’t make it. 

I got my third alarm at rewind.  Just called Animas and they are shipping a new pump on Tuesday — may arrive at the same time Alfred Thompson does — UPS usually comes by 2nd or 3rd period, put probably won't "install" until I get home as I have to transfer settings.

Yes, have a plan in mind if it does go bad — the customer service rep said to keep one in mind.  Will probably have to get more syringes but I do have some, and would probably have endo phone in a pen insulin order — I figure on doing multiple injections if it goes completely out – waking up once or twice in the night to correct.  <sigh>  Haven't ever had to do that but I hate long acting insulin.

Had a bad food time yesterday evening.  I still think it is related to drinking water which I still am not good at.  I also need to just eat what I am craving as fighting it seems to make it worse.

Still walking on the treadmill.  I'm up to 15 minutes in two sessions or 20 minutes in three.  I'm trying to get it to 20 minutes in two but I'm feeling a lot of pain partway into the walk. 

And tomorrow starts the week from hell — the new lab install….

Cozmo called me back already.  It seems they are in network now.  So right now, Animas and Cozmore are tied.  Money isn't an issue, coverage is the same.

One thing in Animas's favor is that I know their tech support, I am comfortable with the Inset infusion set and I like the idea of the Ping, however, I'm not hearing good things on Ping (love to hear from Ping users). Their technology is newer and screen is easier to read.

Cozmore's user interface is better, and so is their computer interface.  Their customer support reputation is good.

If Medtronics CGMS were covered and if it worked well, I would go with it.  I have requested a trial of it, so we'll see if that happens.  I really doubt the CGMS will be covered, but then Cozmore surprised me that they were in network.

Still leaning towards Animas with a big maybe on the Cozmore.

Diet Gourmet is back.  Have had two of their meals but don't have carb counts yet.  Have an email out to the home office about that.  Will probably be guessing a lot for the next 5 weeks.

Still walking daily, and slowly improving time, but had to do it in three sets yesterday.

Met with the final pump sales rep today — the Cozmo. I also heard back from Medtronics — going with the pump alone is going to cost around $200, so I need to find out that information from Animas and Cosmo.

I also want to wear the Medtronics CGMS system before I finally decide on it.  There are features on the Animas I like better (the Ping — and I have some questions on that), and there are features on the Cosmo I like better, but I am afraid out of pocket costs are going to be higher.

I do think that the Medtronics is the "worst" pump for me — they don't slice the insulin as fine as Animas and Cozmo do.  Animas does some slicing finer, and Cozmo does other finer. 

I like the size and feel of the Animas the best — I have been wearing it for 4 years, so I would.  I also think concealing it will be even easier IF the Ping system works.

Any one reading this have any feedback on the Ping?