Category: Blog

I was talking with some old friends today about Dulce as a service dog and I realized that how businesses treat us has been really influencing my purchasing decisions.

It has come out of my mouth twice now:

“You know who treats her the best: restaurants and Nordstrom’s”

Now we don’t go to a lot of restaurants, but when we do, they always treat her well. She has been invited to stay for the evening and do clean up at several places <smile>. Once, an employee got a little too into my face (an El Chico’s), but I felt like it was in a good way. Most of the time, when people have a lot of questions, I find out they have a family member who could use a dog.

Only one employee at Nordstrom’s has looked at her oddly and it wasn’t OURs, it was at Stonebriar, and we were passing through to get to the Microsoft store.

Our Nordstrom’s, the Galleria, treats her exactly right, talking about her, not to her, and ignoring her for the most part. That’s exactly the right attitude to take with a service dog. Asking if they need water is great, but I have taken care of her already.

And I have not purchased anything at Lane Bryant’s since the debacle even though the district manager fixed the problem.

Its customer service people. And the way to handle the situation – ignore her. Like they do at Subway.

And I let her.

We did something really tough, went to a conformation show as spectators. She had done this before I met her and we competed and won together. I knew it would be hard, but also knew I wouldn’t have made it without her. I had to remind a few people and her that she was working and a cute dachshund even gave her its toy.

She even alerted twice.

Finally, a friend had a darling young Malinois that she had to play with so I gave her a few minutes. I think she needed the brief break.

She’s a good girl and its hard work.

I’ve opened the package and have been going through the training. I was on the Dexcom 7 almost a decade ago …

Things I like about the Minimed technology already – receiver is built into the pump reduces the number of devices. I lost my Dexcom once, when I was packing for a trip. It dropped into one of my bags. Was a pain, because I had no way of finding it. My pump is tethered to me, and beeps at me periodically.

Oh, and I dropped it a few times and people picked it up and handed it to me.

So far, I have never lost a pump for very long. I haven’t looked at the sensors and am not planning on opening those boxes until I see the trainer.

I have however, turned on and off that section of my pump and put the transmitter number in.

Last year, my oby/gen decided to fire me in a very passive aggressive way – I saw it coming – it got increasing harder to get well woman appointments with him.

I get it – he has a thriving deliver baby practice, and he really can’t afford to treat menopausal women. But it would have been nice if he had fired me outright.

So, I couldn’t get an appointment last summer, and had to go to my new primary care physician who decided my issue was beyond her and needed a specialist. They found me a really good doctor, but literally at the last minute. Right now, they won’t see me until after August 17 (a Saturday) and I report on August 19. I won’t really be able to schedule anything until October. In fact, I just scheduled my next follow up with my endo for the week before school starts for precisely that reason.

I was told if I contacted the insurance company and got them to agree AND bring them a confirmation number, they will give me an appointment.

Guess I’ll wait until next June

And it was easier than getting the pump covered. So those of you who are Type 2s, the insurance companies are starting to give us CGMS. It was about $1500 to get started. I now need to go through the CGMS training and schedule training with the trainer. I am not about to inject a $40 item under my skin without someone helping me the first time.

In fact, when I had the Dexcom, I had to be on the phone a few times the first couple of times, with tech support.

Hopefully my needle phobia and my skin reactions won’t get in the way.

Oh, and the box arrived today too, though UPS thinks its in Washington State.

After doing some odd 60 pages in WordPress and doing some playing with Typepad – I am keeping my Typepad account for blogging.

As an end user, both are equally easy. I go into Word, I type up my blog entry, I hit publish, I close my Word document and I get on with my life. Same thing if I want to edit an old post, etc.

The problem is maintenance. I don’t have to do anything with Typepad. They do it all for me. Occasionally I have to renew my domain name with someone else. WordPress still requires me login and do maintenance. Plugins and everything else.

That’s too much work. Especially for the average end user.

One of my many issues is sleep – in fact, I didn’t last night, but that was because one of the dogs was in distress.

I have had sleeping pill prescriptions – probably have one on file right now – but try not to use them because I don’t feel good the next day. I know why now – and I’m not sure why I didn’t see this when it happened.

    http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-01-10/sleeping-pill-doses-are-cut-for-women

Yes, even at the lowest dosages, I’m out but groggy the next. My sleep doctor doesn’t like it – but there you go. If I keep having trouble sleeping this summer, I might see if they have a lower dose pill available.

It seems that BCBS is now coming CGMS for Type 2 Insulin pump users and that I met their medical criteria. That still doesn’t mean that I will be covered, so I’m getting a 3 month starter kit which I am not to open until I get my EOB. Then we’ll do training and I’m set.

No that doesn’t mean that I will be retiring Dulce – it’s just another tool in the toolkit.

While I am setting up a WordPress site for my breeder, I really believe in Typepad – they came to the table first via Moveable type, and I love their service.

So today, I am playing with this Blog / Account and turning it into a full website, that includes a blog to prove proof of concept. Frankly finding it a touch easier than WordPress, and I think it will be easier to turn over to the user.

Hey, the more tools in the toolbox, the better.

A1C is staying in the high 7s and its because I am not testing, so I am going to give CGMS testing a try, even though I doubt insurance will cover.

I do have a Metronics pump, so its just the sensor cost.

We just pushed all the buttons to get it rolling.

Sent from my Windows Phone