Category: Blog

September 21, 2004

Newer insulins and easier blood glucose monitoring have greatly improved the ability to obtain excellent control of blood glucose levels with less risk of hypoglycemia. In type 1 diabetes, insulin pump therapy remains the optimal approach with the most flexibility, especially with the ultra-fast-acting analogs lispro or aspart. Otherwise, once- or twice-daily dosing with the long-acting analog glargine provides excellent basal coverage, and lispro or aspart at meals provides bolus coverage, all in the attempt to mimic physiological insulin secretion. For type 2 diabetes, although oral agents continue to be a mainstay of therapy, it is clear that many patients require insulin to attain the goal A1c of < 6.5%. Once-daily glargine is now used more commonly after 1-2 oral agents have failed, and it typically takes the place of sulfonylureas. The future will likely have better systems for continuous glucose monitoring and novel therapies to control glucose through agents that affect gut hormones.

Right now, continuous glucose monitoring really doesn’t seem feasible, even in the very near future. It’s also expensive!

This is a good article reviewing the state of technology though. I will say, as a Type 2 diabetic, I STILL hate any of the longer acting insulin. Their release just isn’t as perdictable as the fast acting in a pump. Plus, if you get up and you end up running around the room all day, the only way to deal with the excess insulin is eating, thus incurring weight gain.

Health Beat :: America has heartburn

Back when Prilosec worked for me, and it was a prescription drug, the pharmacy’s would run out of Prilosec back then too. Makes me wonder if the manufacturer does it on purpose.

Which may be why the Glucowatch hasn’t been successful.

I bet the blood sugar monitor required one too.

Diabetes In Control News – New Tool Developed To Evaluate The Accuracy Of Continuous Glucose Monitoring

There are two points to this story — to illustrate another way that apologizing isn’t acceptable —

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And to illustrate what happens when blood sugar is out of control.

A couple of years ago, right after being diagnosed with diabetes and
with a blood sugar of over 400 … a teacher aide interrupted one of
my classes. I politely asked her to leave, and when she continued to
interrupt my class time by standing in front of the computer I was
doing the demonstration on, I yelled at her to get out of my room.
Probably a bit strong of a reaction, and if my blood sugar had been
lower, I might have not yelled as quickly. Woman never DID budge.

As a result, she complained to one of the administrators, and I
refused to back down. Geez, it was MY classroom, I was teaching MY
class, and she was interrupting. I ended up discussing it with the
principal, and no one ever did acknowledge interrupting me put her in
the wrong.

To mollify everyone involved, I agreed to let her come up to my
classroom, introduce her to my students, and apologize to her in front
of them. She wouldn’t accept anything less.

My students were appalled! I told them what was happening the day before she came.
And after she left, I let them know that while the witnesses agreed she was in the wrong, third parties had determined that I needed to apologize and it wasn’t a big deal for me. I truly
shouldn’t have yelled, even if she wasn’t listening.

Good things came of it. My students learned that apologizing for
misbehavior — justified or not — is not that big of a deal, and the
aide and I are at least cordial, and she sees things my way now.

She also hasn’t interrupted a class of mine since.

And due to posts from the insulin-pumpers list, I believe they are starting to ship

FDA Approves Geodon, Alimta, Vioxx, and Others

On June 28, the FDA approved a blood glucose module (CoZmonitor, made by Smiths Medical MD, Inc., formerly Deltec, Inc.), intended for attachment to the back of the Deltec Cozmo insulin pump to create an “all in one” insulin pump and blood glucose monitoring system. The pump keypad and screen are used for all blood glucose testing functions and results.

Just updated the mobile blogging software.

Olympics Dispatch III: Victorious

My husband doesn’t GET why I care about this, but I do. Of course, he isn’t a diabetic, he isn’t fanatical about having as good as blood sugar as possible, and doesn’t understand how hard it is.

It is SO cool that this doctor cares so much.

Sometimes I feel like the little kid in first grade when I’m interacting with my doctors, trying not to be on their nerves and trying hard to have the best blood sugar possible.

Athens Airport, 5:00 AM, Saturday, August 21, 2004 — Gary won the gold. Unbelievable. He did it. He did it for himself, his family and friends, and for all people with diabetes. He says he’ll give his gold medal to the person who finds the cure. I hope he has to give it away soon. But for now he inspires; he inspires me and all of the people in the world who live every day with the disease that is diabetes.

This is the first time I’ve seen the pump — I’m at an insulin pumper user group meeting and the local rep is showing it off.

Basically the features are a calculator and it lets you calculate everything (carb, correction, and even combo bolus) and let’s you adjust it on the fly.

I may yet upgrade….

DANA Diabecare USA LLC Warning Letter

This is sad, because people’s lives are at stake here.

The link takes you to the letter the FDA sent to Dana.