Category: Blog

Here’s one with the dog.

Notice that the average is smoother, and there are more readings.

Here’s a blood glucose chart from my pump before I started working with the diabetic alert dog.

She is really good at picking up the knot on the leash when she smells the sample of “high” scent.  She hasn’t put it together with my being high. 

However, when my blood sugar is high, she pulls “stubborn” beagle on me.   And I think it’s more the process of an escalating blood sugar than an actual high.

She does the same then when I have a crashing low.  I get “stubborn” beagle. 

By the way, I’ve seen “stubborn” beagle before.  You have to understand that I have beagles that listen to me, do what I tell them to do, but when my health isn’t right, I get stubborn beagle.  Stubborn beagle won’t listen, won’t do what I want them to do,

In her case, she won’t stay in the open cage, pulls on the leash, doesn’t want to stay near me.  Means it’s time to check my blood sugar, lock her in the cage, and ignore her until things normalize.  Pretty interesting.

Be nice when we have a communication system going.  I think it will come soon.

She is well behaved in public.  Usually snoozes when we are in workshop situations.  Walks nicely on a leash, and when people are watching, puts on her runway walk.  Does pretty good at restaurants, though all bets are off when someone drops food on the floor (no self-respecting beagle ignores the opportunity to eat calories).  Cafeterias are hard, and its best if we pick a quiet corner.

So far, no issues with access.  Of course, walking in with confidence and 100 degree plus days helps.

So I am finally going in the right direction and am at lightest in a long while.  Not at my smallest, still carrying a lot of weight in my midsection, and I am not physically feeling the weight loss.  Weird.

Stress level is good.  House is organized, almost finished with the staff development of the summer and at a good place at curriculum development for the district.

I’ve got about three more weeks of summer, and headed to the far north of the country for almost a week.

Weight is going down at a nice slow steady pace.

It’s nice.

They have been slow drops, not panic causing, and easily fixed.  I've also been able to get training samples on two of them.

We haven't taught a formal alert for lows.  Dulce was trying to tell me that I was going low, and didn't know how.

Listen to the dog!

May have to start teaching it, as I've headed towards low daily now.

You go low.

I’ve been running around with my blood sugar way too high for two years.  For the past three to four weeks, I’ve made an effort to change that and I’m checking my blood sugar, doing boluses when I should and in other words, not ignoring the fact I’m diabetic.

I’ve gone in the low range three days in a row at the gym.  Not treatable on Thursday, not even low enough for dog training samples.  Definitely treatable and dog training samples today and yesterday. 

So the good news, is when I get back from Milwaukie, I’ll have something to work with.  Today I even did a temporary basal which helped, but not enough.  I’ll have to think on this.

I didn’t used to really have to worry about it.

I’ll take hints.

Well, not really, but I had been out with Dulce at the local Discount Tire when I found out my tires were bad.  Each of the store staff had to hear the story.  At least only one of the guys had to know why she wasn’t with me – I’d given her the day off.

I know better than to not take her to my gym – I have to go to another gym if I want to work out without her. 

Thursday is when the district will first meet after receiving the paperwork.

It takes VmWare Player at https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/downloads and a valid copy of Windows XP as an .iso file.

Had to install all the updates and give it a decent sized screen, but once I did, I’ve got a working Windows XP machine on my Windows 7 box and I have ExManager running in it, with the USB doggle on Com 7.

If the world is really interested I can provide more information, but it not hard to and fairly portable.  I’ve been concerned that my last Windows XP machine would die and sure don’t want Vista laying around if I can help it.

Diasend in good, but lets face it, you can’t do anything with the pump settings and manual is painful.

Got the basic information from the #IBMInnovationSummerCamp with some conformation from the IBMer’s, so thanks guys.

After running way too high for far too long, I’m finally running around with normal blood sugar.  Did a bit of a oops today, went to the gym and worked out without taking any allowance on the insulin.  I usually either drop my temporary basal, or ingest some carbs before I go to the gym.

I hit a 79 according to the meter, but held it all together and gathered 3 samples, saved them and labeled them properly.  Treated it with a glucose tablet and an ice cream cone – which was sort of my list of things to do today anyway – and went on my way.

I want to concentrate on the high blood sugar samples until we get that down – I’m more likely to be high and I have plenty of those samples. 

Dulce and I are doing three to four training sessions a day with the high blood sugar samples and I’m keep her with me most of the time.  I did give her and I a break today at the IBM camp tour.  It wasn’t going to be a normal situation for us, and I didn’t want to take anything away from what they were trying to accomplish.

All and in all good week, and I’m probably much more healthier than I’ve been in the past two years.