Category: Blog

This was in our local paper today, in an article about diabetes.

Two of the family’s dogs are beagles, the breed from which scientists first extracted insulin. “I feel as if beagles saved my life,” Ms. Middlebrooks says. Kris shared some of his feelings:

For some youths, managing diabetes is part of daily life | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Life/Travel: Health

It bothers me.  As a long time beagle owner and even breeder of two litters, I know that beagles are frequently used as lab animals.  They are easy keepers, many easy to care for, easy to breed etc.  I also know that the beagles bred for lab use are not related to my girls and haven’t been for many, many generations.  However, they do look like my girls.

What a weird coincidence if it is true though I didn’t make the choice of beagles — my husband did.  We have other breeds of dogs but we’ve always had at least one beagle since we’ve been married.

Ignore it.

Seriously.  It helped that husband was sick and wanted to sleep, but I didn’t buy any candy this year.

Someone did bring in some candy for the teachers, and I did eat a bit of it, but my blood sugar has been much better than it usually is around a food holiday.

I’m going to do close to the same Thanksgiving.  We’ll go to Steak and Ale, but I’ll get one of their regular prime rib dinners and stay away from the carbs.

I found one of these on Ebay and ordered one.  Not for my Animas pump — if you go back through the archives, you’ll know I have a pocket in my bra for that for the Dexcom. 

One big problem being female is finding skirts with pockets.  Few have them.  The Invisapump is nice because it slips down inside your skirt or pants. 

The Dexcom works, but it is a little too long for it.  It does kind of stick in the pouch so it doesn’t slip in and out easily.  It would be nice to have something like this make for the Dexcom as most Dexcom users will tell you that the Dexcom case sucks.  I also start looking a bit silly with both the phone AND the Dexcom hanging out.

In fact, I’d love to see a similar arrangement for my phone!

From their web site:

The INVISAPUMP is made of full grain, soft leather, with a scratch resistant window that enables you to see your pump buttons clearly, an unbreakable belt clip, and durable nylon webbing. A simple idea maybe, but the best things in life are simple.

Invisapump the Invisible Insulin Pump Case

See this is exactly why I am not going for bariatric surgery.  It just can’t be as good as all the people making money off of it think it is.  Funny how we go through this weight loss fads.  Liquid diets, etc. 

About 1% of bariatric surgery patients die within a year of surgery, researchers here found, and the case fatality rate approaches 6% after five years.

Medical News: Not All the News on Bariatric Surgery Is Good – in Primary Care, Weight Management from MedPage Today

I was very dismayed to learn that BCBS of Texas did not cover the Symvist injections in my knee.  No one in the doctor’s office mentioned that was a possibility.  Plus, all my other specialists told me when it was possible that something wouldn’t be covered.

I was also dismayed to learn that the injections were $1000 a piece.  They didn’t seem to be worth that.  Especially since I’ve been having more pain in my knees since the last shot.

The good news, is that one of the shots has finally been covered, so I assume the doctor’s office has gone through the appeals process.

There are pictures and everything here.  By the way, I got a shipment of syringes from Medco last night — and it was SO nice to realize that it was my last shipment of them and I’ll be going back to pen needles soon. 

FDA approval has been given to Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to market their automatic Symlin injection devices. Symlin (pramlintide), a synthetic analog of human amylin, a naturally occurring neuroendocrine hormone, is the first of its kind injected antihyperglycemic medication for use in patients with type 2 or type 1 diabetes. Two versions, rated by their maximum dosage, should be available for purchase in December.

Source: SymlinPens Approved by FDA – Medgadget – www.medgadget.com

Amylin has announced today that the FDA has approved two Symlin pen models. The pens should be available by December 2007.

Source: Bernard’s Diabetes Blog: FDA Approves Symlin Pen

Another diabetic who is excited!

 From Scott’s Weblog, but it’s blocked by our content filter at school.

Well, it has been promised for nearly 3 years now, but today, the company revealed that they were in receipt of an approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the SymlinPen 60 and the SymlinPen 120 pen-injector devices for administering SYMLIN (or pramlintide acetate) injection. According to the news release, the pens are expected to be available to patients by December 2007.

I am SO SO HAPPY.  The vials I have are the last I’m going to own.

 From the Dallas Morning News:

Ten North Texas teachers will be inducted as fellows into Texas Instruments Foundation’s new Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Academy.

Education notes | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | News: Education

I’ll find out what this means next week.

Whew! It was finally delivered last Wednesday.  Hmmm, I’ve had the pump since May and couldn’t use the software until last week.

First, the carb counting and the blood sugar is recorded by the pump now and shows up on the reports.  That is what I’ve waited two pump releases for — I certainly would have implemented that in the IR1250 if I had been then.  In fact, I was shocked to see that didn’t occur when I received and downloaded the IR1250.

The problems….

All of the existing bugs I could test for are still there. 

You cannot edit or delete items from the food database using the EzManager PC Software.  All you can do is delete all the favorites.

You can delete individual items from the food database, but you can not edit them, even though there is a item for edit in the menu.

One new thing that bothers me, you cannot add injections to the log from the PC version of the program.  However, you can add them via both the Palm version and through the Ultra Smart meter.  In fact, the Ultra Smart is a good way to enter in exercise data too.

I do wish Animas would clean up and fix EzManager.  It’s a good program but a few small failings hurt it.

Oh, and I can’t test this one — did they ever fix the Freestyle upload?  It doesn’t handle Freestyle data correctly from October through December if I remember the bug correctly.