Category: Blog

One of things I am working really hard on right now is reducing my TDD.  It seems the more insulin you use, the more you end up needing.  The result — weight gain.

There are two things I do to reduce insulin dosage — one is low carb it as much as possible. Friday, I stocked my refrigator with low carb snacks that I don’t tend to binge on. 

The second thing I do is exercise more, especially after meals.  I try to walk after each meal, but haven’t made it so far this weekend.  However, I have been increasing my frequency and duration — I’m up to 15 minutes at a time on the treadmill as of today, so that does end up being better.

As a result of working on that over the past two weeks, I’ve gotten my average TDD drown to 89 from 120 two weeks ago.  I did tweak my bolus settings a bit today and I’ll see how that goes next week at school.  It’s better to go a tad high right now, then end up going low.  That does so ruin my day.

I LOVE the new software.  Got it yesterday — had Fedex email when it arrived, left school during my planning period and installed it before I left for the shrink.

I really believe that the result is much more accurate than before.  Most of the time, I just have to do a minor adjustment when it comes time to enter my blood sugar, and sometimes none at all.

It’s amazing how using an accurate meter makes a difference!

I’m ordering new sensors on September 1st — using my flexible spending account.

I report tomorrow.  We have two days of staff development, a convocation at American Airlines Center (getting there will be a PITA), and two teacher workdays.

This will be my 18th year of teaching computer science, and the 18th year in the same classroom.

I suspect I handle the beginning of a big uniquely, but it works for me.  I spent this weekend at a dog agility trial, and will do the same next weekend.  In fact, I’m scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which means I’ll take one of our teacher workdays as a vacation — that is IF I decide to go on Friday.

I’m actually pretty ready.  Office Depot had their teacher appreciation discount last week, so I went last Sunday and got supplies.  I spent half a day the week before working on putting my classroom together, and spent Friday afternoon.  (That equals the day I’m taking off, by the way).  Went I left Friday, all computers were up and talking to the teacher workstation, server, and the internet.  So I can teach there now, without doing anything else.

My next task is to build a new student image.  I want to put Microsoft One Note and Microsoft Expression web on the images.  I also want to set of the workstations so building JCreator projects are easy.

I spent the summer writing our curriculum for Computer Science I (Visual Basic), and Pre AP Computer Science I (Java), so right now I’m waiting for our district specialist to start setting that up.  I also have AP Computer Science I (A) set up — but currently fu-barred and AP Computer Science II (AB) set up but don’t have my lesson plans set up yet.  I’ll work on that during the evenings next week, and probably quite a bit next weekend at the show site.

I’m pretty happy about next year, I have the schedule I want, and I’ll find out which kids and how many by the end of the end.  So far, so good, and I’ll use the agility trials to keep me from stressing out about school.

Got behind blogging on the trip.  In fact, didn’t touch computer for last two days — but did use smart phone.  So here’s the trip recap:

 

We went everywhere between here and Las Vegas.
We went to a ton of Indian Trading posts including Fort Courage and Geromino. My favorite was Yellowhorse in New Mexico. Also make sure you stop at the scenic overlook at the Laguna Reservation on the other side of Albequerque. There are craftspeople there from the Reservation.
Went to a Stuckey’s and bought candied fruit slices (very good)

We went to Meteor Creator – it was neat, and we should be very afraid (seriously, that is their theme).
We stayed in Williams Arizona, we rode the train to the Grand Canyon and took the bus tour.
We drove through Hoover Dam and stopped a bunch.
In Las Vegas, we went to MGM, saw the lions, went to the M&M store, and the coke store.
Saw the Fab Live show, at Planet Hollywood and saw a thunderstorm IN the Miracle Mile of Shops.
We went to Margaretteville and to the Venetian.
I like nickel poker slots, triple Play – Game King
We stayed at Circus Circus – DON’T but it was free.  Lots of screaming children, but we did finally find a parking space where we could avoid the casino.
We stayed at Winslow Arizona, and we went to the street corner (Eagles song).
We went to the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park
We stopped at all of the World Best stuff. It wasn’t. Well, the salt water taffy at the World’s Best Fudge wasn’t bad.
I’m tired.

I did learn some interesting things about my husband. 

He is extremely impatient in traffic. In fact, he is a horrible driver in traffic.  I drove through Albequeque rush hour, which didn’t bother me a bit.  My attitude in traffic is that there isn’t anything you can do about it, just sit back, relax, and focus on staying in your own lane.  If you do that, everyone will get home.

He has no sense of direction. I don’t get that, as I alwas know where I am at. However, I do everything left handed which confuses him.

He hates screaming children more than I do.  Well, actually I knew that.

We’re both also kind of selfish and really need our own quiet space daily.  Which I never did get, he did.

Wow!  No wonder my doctor thought I was non-compliant until he started getting reports from the machine.  I honestly NEVER go to sleep at night without my CPAP, never take a nap without it, and don’t like falling asleep without it.  What helps is that I am REALLY in pain without it.

With all that said, there are several reviews of CPAP compliance over the last ten years. About 70 % of patients will accept the prescriptions and about 50 % of patients end up buying the machine.

Using CPAP – Blogs – Revolution Health

More pictures tonight.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/17677386@N03/sets/72157606343341219/

We’ve made it to Vegas.  Got in 12,564 steps today.

Workshop starts tomorrow.

New photos are up:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/17677386@N03/sets/72157606343341219/

Lesson learned: Navajo fried flat bread with cinnamon and sugar is not a good idea for a diabetic. It was worth it though.

Another lesson learned:  Inventory bags when testing blood sugar etc. Misplaced @#$$)* proprietary Dexcom to One Touch cable.  Was found in floor board of car.  I am used to counting pockets.

We stopped at lots of tourist traps. One of the most interesting was a scenic overlook. Local Indians bring wares to the overlook and sell them and I got a gorgeous necklace. I was going to buy a fancy one, realized I wouldn’t wear it and got a much simpler one that I can wear every day. It was thirty dollars and came with matching earrings. How cool is that? I also bought a purple and a pink pair of stud earrings at the “Great Divide”.

Didn’t buy moccasins as they can be purchased from Zappos for the same if not cheaper price. Everyone is selling Minnetockas, only one had handmade and they weren’t worth it.

Indoor pool and hot tub at Best Western is great.

Man have I been stressed out lately, but it makes sense. 

Here were my plans for the summer:

1) Go to a workshop in Dallas for 2 1/2 days — pay $200

2) Write two Visual Basic finals for the district with at least one person helping — also paid, $20 an hour, max of 20 hours over the three summer months.

3) Write curriculum for two six weeks for Visual Basic.

4) Go to a computer science symposium for 1 day

5) Go to Austin — UTA for 4 days for workshop

6) Go to Las Vegas for a two day workshop — drive there with husband – workshop itself paid for along with hotel room and food for me during the day.

7) Go to a one week AP workshop in Dallas.

That’s it, whole summer.

So what happened?

1) did

2) modified — only me working on it, did 20 hours in June.  I still have at least two edits.

3) doubled — I ended up writing curriculum for two courses

4) did

5) Canceled — thank god!

6) On the way to Las Vegas, literaly, just ate in Amarillo at a place called Rosa’s.  Not bad.

7) Still scheduled.

But I added an emergency visit to the hospital with a 3 day stay and added an semi-emergency vet visit with a dog, two days, and ended putting her down.

This morning, it was all I could do to stay somewhat calm.  I would get up, do a task or two, then sit down and relax.  Mom and my husband kept asking if I’d done stuff and it was all I could do to keep from screaming at them. 

I did freak out, put my “purse” in the backseat instead of in my bag.  That caused a u-turn, and am small communications problem with my husband.

Other than that I’m making it.  Barely.  Thank goodness for the shrink!

First, let me start out by I’m disappointed that the upgrade hasn’t happened yet. 

I’m back on the Dexcom.  I am leaving for a teacher workshop in Las Vegas today.  We’re driving there, and I am hoping Dex will come in handy.  However, I don’t trust the One Touch Ultra, and love the Accu-Chek Compact Plus I have.

But I’m stuck back with the Ultra, and we’ll see how it goes.

Inserting still hurts like hell, but at least it doesn’t take long, but I can see how it could become a problem with a small child.

So far the readings are mostly with the One Touch … but ….

I’ve been blessed, and have had a series of really good dogs.  Marcie has been one of the two best.  Her full name is:

Bettner’s Byte O Magic AX OAJ AXP AJP

For dog people and especially agility people it means a lot.  And I know it was really important to the breeder to have the Bettner’s name and to have a magical name.  We’re weird aobut dog names.

When I first started running Marcie, I never imagined getting a title  I had recently quit K-9 police training, couldn’t run a full novice course, but needed to do something with her.  I’d gone to some kind of weekly dog training for the majority of my adult married life, and couldn’t imagine not. 

Our first run was awful.  They hadn’t set the jump heights right, and we didn’t do well at all, but I kept trying, and i got hooked.  Right now, I can’t imagine not having a night where I train dogs in agility.  In fact, for the last year and a half, I’ve spent 3 hours every Monday night training dogs in agility and it felt weird to only train two.

Marcie put up with me with untrained gastric reflux which caused asthma attacks.  She put up with be becoming diabetic, and all through it, her love of agility class kept me physically active.  Even when I injured my knee, it was because of her, I kept going.

I’m going to miss Marcie, and I’m going to miss her a lot.

She was an odd dog in many ways.  She didn’t have a lot to say, but when she did, she made sure she was heard.  She didn’t like being caged, and frequently got out, especially at agility trials.  She was perfectly content at home to be in her dog room and dog run, and the work people always said she never came out. 

She did escape a few times.  Usually accidently.  Once as a puppy she was exploring our huge backyard at our old house, and ended up going over our fence — it was only 4 foot, and covered with brush.  I think she was shocked, but did find someone fairly quickly who was smart enough to bring her home.

Very shortly after we got here, she was chasing a critter, ended up going through the fence, and again found someone to bring her home. We live across the street from a huge park, and when people in the park called her, instead of coming, she went to our door and knocked on it.  I didn’t hear her, so they came and rang the door for her.

She got really mad when we got our Uverse service and went through the gate after the tech accidently didn’t latch it.  She again found someone to help her, but instead of ending up at home, she ended up at the animal shelter.  When I picked her up, that was one of the few times she made noise, literally talking.  I was a weird thing.

For the last few weeks, someone, probalby Marcie, had been throwing up all over the house.  Not full meals, just little spots with some stomach contents.  I should have been alarmed, and I should have tracked it down, but I don’t think it would have changed the outcome.

Two of my agility friends were here Friday night, and they didn’t realize she was sick and at that point I didn’t either. She ate dinner fine that night, and then also ate breakfast Saturday.  I ran medical errands on Saturday and shortly after I got home, she threw up very loudly, very wet.

Marcie was throwing up constantly, begged to be outside and I let her go.  She would lie in the grass and then frequently get up and vomit.

I knew something was horribly wrong when she got up on Sunday, wouldn’t eat, drank and then immediately threw up.  I decided to rush her to the vet.  The next alarming sign was picking her up. She weighed less than my 13" beagle Maggie.  Marcie was a very large, 15" beagle, and she was close to 15" as you could be and not go over.  She was a very large girl, and usually weighed just under 25 pounds.  The first thing the vet tech did was to weigh her.  18 pounds.  That was frightening.  In fact, in March she weighed 23 pounds.

Let’s suppose you are a healthy human weighing 115 pounds.  That means in that in a 24 hour period, you went lost 25 pounds and weight 90 pounds when you went to the doctor. And that you threw it all up. 

She was also in a lot of pain. They had given her hydromorphine yesterday morning.

I went to see her yestereday afternoon, and she whined and wanted in my lap.  This is NOT a lap dog.  I know she was asking to go, but I wasn’t ready yet.  When I called and found out she wouldn’t go outside, I knew it was time.  It was very hard, and in many ways I wish I could have been with her, but I needed to take care of Maggie and Macy.

She was a very special girl.  I’m not sure I would have made it through the last few years without her.