Category: Blog

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.

I wrote about a little gal in my class I was worried about and I have some good news.

During “Meet the Teacher” I had a few minutes with momma and I told her that I was worried since her daughter had shared her blood sugar with me.  I told her when I was diagnosed, I felt very ill, was very hard to get along with and was fairly certain that the daughter felt the same way. 

Well that Friday and the next Monday, my student was absent.  When she came back on Tuesday she let the whole class know she had been in the hospital and knew all about diabetes now and was on insulin.

Apparently if you are diagnosed Type 2, they put you on insulin probably because they are not real sure what the oral medications will due to teenagers.  She’s the second kid I’ve had from the Parkland Diabetes clinic who was a Type 2 and both were put on insulin.

I really do think she feels better already.

Except for today and this sensor, I’ve only been finger sticking with the Dexcom wants a calibration — well, I take that back, the two finger sticks I’ve done today was because Dexcom said he wanted them.

It will be interesting to see an A1C.  In fact, I am thinking about seeing if I can get an extra A1C before my doctor’s visit. 

Since before school started I’ve been relying 100% on the Dexcom sensors. 

And it’s been working well.  It’s caught a few unexpected highs, and a few unexpected lows, but for the most part, I’ve been having very stable blood sugars.

Diabetes care is undergoing a transformation: Thousands of patients are switching from a few finger-pricks a day to track their disease to new sensors that keep guard around the clock.

Diabetics swap finger pricks for sensors – Diabetes – MSNBC.com

This would be me.

However, we’ve got a LONG, LONG way to go before I’d ever go with a closed loop system.

Guess I’ve seen too many problems with all ends of the system.

First, I undestand people are getting a CGI error when they post comments.  Would someone please email me at kathleen at gmail and let me know what it is.  A screen shot would be terrific.

The good news, is that the comment gets posted, but delayed because I have to approve it.

Next, life has been very full since school started.  I have about twice the number of students as last year which doesn’t affect set up time, but does mean that grading takes up lots more time. 

I really haven’t had time or energy to do anything in front of a computer but school stuff.  Hopefully that will change soon.

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.