Category: Current Status

Finally got the dog’s pictures with Santa. I had them taken on Dec 6. Very disappointing, I was waiting patiently.

Speaking of which, I have also been awaiting the return of my Palm Zire 71. I’ve got a Tungsten E for a while, just to manage things, and haven’t decided what to do. I might just sell the Plam Zire. There are a lot of nice things about the Tungsten.

Here’s the deal. I called and talked to their tech support in November. The 5 way navigation button broke, was fine one day, and next day wasn’t — and I had it in a hard case.

So the tech support person (an Asian speaker) got my name, my email address, and every other important piece of information wrong. Palm had an English speaker call to get the screwed up information wrong, but gee, I was at school teaching.

Oh — and in case, you are wondering what this has to do with diabetes — well, I manage my care with Animas’s EzManager, and use the Palm extensively.

Anyway, the person who I got ahold of — another Asian speaker — told me to go ahead and ship, even though I didn’t have all the information. I had a note in the envelope, and the SR number on the outside. Had it sent UPS, had the tracking number, etc. Well, it arrived, and nothing happened, and nothing happened.

So, I call back on a Saturday, but didn’t have the tracking number. THAT Asian speaker claimed she had escalated it to Level 2 and that someone would call, but no one did — I checked the caller ID AND the messages.

When I did have the tracking number (had left it on my desk at school), I called and got yet another Asian speaker, who assure me they had it, gave me yet another Service number, this one was NOT in their database, and assured me, that they were shipping.

Well, I knew he’d lied … so I called later in the day. Another Asian speaker who only confirmed all the numbers I had — though DID confirm that the number I had been given that morning was a lie — and assured me once again, I’d be getting my Zire back.

Still nothing — even though I emailed their tech support and told them all of this — oh and they also claimed someone would call, and no one did.

Finally on Wednesday afternoon, I got ahold of an English speaker. He confirmed that the Palm had arrived, but was not paired with a SR number and was just sitting there. He said that the facility that handled that had just closed, and couldn’t do anything but would handle it first thing in the morning.

GOOD NEWS! I actually got an email early in the morning claiming that they had received the Palm. Sadly their ship date was December 24! That means the Palm had been gone close to a month!

But better news, got an email this morning, with a Airborne tracking number, and it is on it’s way.

I really believe the problem is outsourcing … when I did get English speakers, life was good, and things got solved. Not one of the Asian speakers got ANY of the call right.

The moral of the story, is to make sure you don’t buy a Palm with parts that can break off — like this Tungsten E.

Anyway one want a refurbished Palm 71 Zire cheap?

OEA – A New Player in Appetite Regulation Answers Old Questions

This is interesting because it suggests that there is a lot we need to know about Type 2 before there is a “cure”.

Incidence of Hypoglycemia in Insulin-treated Type 2 Diabetes Higher than Previously Recognized

I was sure having trouble with this!

DB’s Medical Rants

He’s started something, but one of my recent favorites is from Jimmy Buffet’s Growing Older But Not Up, most recently in Meet Me In Margaritaville.

I’m growing older but not up
My metabolic rate is pleasantly stuck
So let the winds of change blow over my head
I’d rather die while I’m living then live while I’m dead

I listen to Jimmy Buffet when I walk on the treadmill. I like his upbeat, fun, Key West kind of music, with his ironic lyrics.

My husband doesn’t it get it, since I don’t drink, never done drugs, and yes, so much of his lyrics to glorify that … but at the same time put down that lifestyle. It’s weird.

I attribute a lot of my liking him, because he too is a graduate (or is that former student?) of the University of Southern Mississippi. They’ve always had a good music program, but while I was there, had one of the best Computer Science programs in the country.

I don’t really trust this … but I did another at home A1C — nor do I recommend this — more in a moment, but I had an A1C of 6.0 — which translates to average blood sugar of 124.

Obviously the pump is working! And that is an excellent A1C. The ADA’s goal is 6.5, another groups is actually the 6.0

The kit was easy to use. It’s from Diabetes Technologies and I wouldn’t use them again. If I go through my insurance company/doctor’s office, I get the full panel (lipids, blood glucose, etc.) and I get the results in 2 days. The results were posted sometime in the last twenty four hours, and I mailed this on 12/03.

I did get this free … long story on that, which I need to post. However, it’s annoying.

In addition to teaching 6 different subjects … okay, with computer science I always teach 4 different subjects, but that’s my choice…

I’ve been taking two master’s levels courses to get additional certification. I got A’s in both classes. Not bad. These have been almost 100% online — there were two face-to-face meetings for the one class.

Finishing these two classes, put me in line for getting my district to pay for a master’s degree (in CECS). Boring, but it’s a master’s. Most of the other districts around here want them. It looks good on the school stats, etc.

This also means I’m triple certified — computer science, technology apps, and mathematics. The good news, is the certifications are all recognized shortages.

So it’s been a good weekend. And maybe I can start breathing.

Husband was even walking around the house without crutches last night, and seemed to have a close to normal gait (yeah, that’s been the biggest OTHER issue — he broke his hip about 11 weeks ago.

He’s going out of town to Shreveport to gamble, which is a major breakthrough. The thought of sitting/driving that far has not been attractive to him.

I’ve got one week of classes, one day of classes + 4 days of finals and winter break.

Having been posting much “personal” stuff, because I feel like I’m whining … but had an awesome day yesterday.

Went to a very small agility trial with Marcie and she Qed and took first place in Jumpers With Weave and in Standard.

Woke up today with horrible heel spur pain in the left foot, but was able to work most of it out by the time I really got out of bed.

And we continued the good weekend with a third first place and Q.

Foot got the better of me though.

A potential difference between statins

For some odd reason, it’s on the formulary for the new prescription service starting in January.

I was a bit worried about changing the battery on my pump. Okay, the first time doing everything along has been a bit scary.

The whole — pump has to have a battery thing bothers me. I’m a bit anal about batteries anyway, every since I went to a AP grading to Clemson state and arrived without Palm Pilot batteries and NO place to get them. Had to live without it for 2 days. Major withdrawal.

So anyway, this pump (Animas) does make a hideous sound when it is out of battery. I’ve heard it once, when I first got the pump. But the good news, is that the battery lasted 9 weeks and a day.

9 weeks of pumping 60-90 units of insulin a day, site changes, and downloading data. Not bad!

The batteries aren’t cheap, but I did find a source of inexpensive on Ebay — go to Ebay and do a search on insulin pump and it will come up. I’ve put a set of those in, and I’ll let you guys know how well they lasted.