Category: Blog

DexCom SEVEN: Taking a break from the Dex

Funny, I feel the opposite, I don’t feel diabetic when I’m using Dex, but do when I am finger sticking.

If you have diabetes, you should have a flu shot every year. And with the shortage of flu vaccines that we’ve had in recent years you can’t start thinking about this too early.

Bernard’s Diabetes Blog: Time to start thinking about….Flu Shots

Though I really believe if you have insurance, use your doctor’s office.  I never have to wait in line when it is just a flu shot.

If you have diabetes, you should have a flu shot every year. And with the shortage of flu vaccines that we’ve had in recent years you can’t start thinking about this too early.

Bernard’s Diabetes Blog: Time to start thinking about….Flu Shots

Though I really believe if you have insurance, use your doctor’s office.  I never have to wait in line when it is just a flu shot.

If you have diabetes, you should have a flu shot every year. And with the shortage of flu vaccines that we’ve had in recent years you can’t start thinking about this too early.

Bernard’s Diabetes Blog: Time to start thinking about….Flu Shots

Though I really believe if you have insurance, use your doctor’s office.  I never have to wait in line when it is just a flu shot.

Time to blog about my yearly eye exam again.  It amazes me that there are not more Optomap Retinal scanning devices out there and being used.  My eye doctor — Kay Willis at Contact Lens Center in Dallas swears by it.  Pearl Vision Center has also been advertising it, but they only have too.

Cool gadget, you sit down on a stool with a remote control, the tech lines you up, and it takes a picture of your retina.  Even better, the doctor saves a copy of it.  My doctor now has several pictures over several years to compare.

No dilation, no pain, and better yet there is a record of what is going on with your eyes.

And so far … no problems!

I knew there had to be more to that study!

Now a lengthy study in the British Medical Journal has delved into the reasons why meters are often not used effectively by people with type 2. And it has concluded that the problem lies, first, in caregivers’ failure to educate type 2s about how to respond to blood sugar readings, and, second, in an apparent disinterest in meter readings on the part of healthcare professionals.

Blood Glucose Meters For Type 2s: Why Aren’t They More Useful? – Diabetes Health

Of course the insurance companies and the PBM’s are going to ignore this one, and focus on the first.

The nurse came by my room hunting down a kid, and I told her about my diabetic girl yesterday.  She didn’t know about her and was glad I figured it out.  So today when d-girl came to class, I called her aside, double checked and took her down to the nurse.

Bad news, she is not being treated for the diabetes.  Good news, she has lost weight which should help.  I left her with the nurse and am hoping she gets dealt with.

Maybe she’ll learn more.  I told her about how I was slurring my speech earlier today in front of the principal and discovered my blood sugar was low — and showed her my 154 after lunch — she said she wished she could get hers that low.

I told her I kept tight rein on it because I felt better under control.

So now I have another mission — and teaching 4 subjects and 2 at a time aren’t enough?  I also think my entire 7th period class has ADD.

Scott’s posted an interested article again big pharm and their ads and credits me for dooming Exubera.  BUT wait a minute….! 

Collectively, patient groups can flex our collective muscle on many of these issues (such the role as Allie Beatty, Amy Tenderich, Kathleen Weaver and my reporting played in dooming Exubera).

Scott’s Web Log: Flexing Our Collective Muscle

In my own blog posts, I actually praise Exubra.  I can’t imagine using it myself, but I have a coworker — teaches the same subject at another school — who loves it last time I talked to her.  If a drug (or in this case a different formulation), helps people get healthier, I’m all for it.

I’m middle of the road on the drug ads myself.  I honestly feel like a drug ad sometimes, as I am taking many of the medications advertised on a regular basis.  I usually take the drug first and then see the commercial, but there are major benefits to drug ads.

For one, they are a major source of revenue for television, magazines and for even the internet.  I wish some of the ads weren’t as pervasive and intrusive — the E.D. drugs, but at the same time, I do think that they can be beneficial.

I certainly don’t believe that the big pharmacy companies are delaying a cure.  Frankly, I don’t think the medical community understands enough about diabetes to even have a cure — contrary to the information I receive one of my science teacher coworkers who works at Southwest Medical in his spare time.

So don’t count me against Exubra OR against pharmacy ads, or even against pharmacies.

Scott’s posted an interested article again big pharm and their ads and credits me for dooming Exubera.  BUT wait a minute….! 

Collectively, patient groups can flex our collective muscle on many of these issues (such the role as Allie Beatty, Amy Tenderich, Kathleen Weaver and my reporting played in dooming Exubera).

Scott’s Web Log: Flexing Our Collective Muscle

In my own blog posts, I actually praise Exubra.  I can’t imagine using it myself, but I have a coworker — teaches the same subject at another school — who loves it last time I talked to her.  If a drug (or in this case a different formulation), helps people get healthier, I’m all for it.

I’m middle of the road on the drug ads myself.  I honestly feel like a drug ad sometimes, as I am taking many of the medications advertised on a regular basis.  I usually take the drug first and then see the commercial, but there are major benefits to drug ads.

For one, they are a major source of revenue for television, magazines and for even the internet.  I wish some of the ads weren’t as pervasive and intrusive — the E.D. drugs, but at the same time, I do think that they can be beneficial.

I certainly don’t believe that the big pharmacy companies are delaying a cure.  Frankly, I don’t think the medical community understands enough about diabetes to even have a cure — contrary to the information I receive one of my science teacher coworkers who works at Southwest Medical in his spare time.

So don’t count me against Exubra OR against pharmacy ads, or even against pharmacies.

My afternoon CS class got me off topic.  I’m starting to teach the kiddos about buying computers.  I like to do it in little chunks, and today I was showing off my convertible notebook.  Later in the week I’ll show off the MacMini.

Anyway, I ended up showing them my continuous glucose monitor.  One of my students asked “is your diabetes so bad that you need that?”. 

My answer:  “I’m so much into data that having it makes it easier for me to keep my blood sugar where I want it and not only do I feel better, but I’m a better teacher”.

Guess what?  She’s hispanic, overweight and diabetic.  Doesn’t take insulin.  Betting you that she’s a Type 2.

Maybe she’ll learn something.