Category: Diabetic Issues

Transportation Bill Passed in Congress to Prevent Discrimination Against Employees With Diabetes

Transportation Bill Passed in Congress to Prevent Discrimination Against Employees With Diabetes

Straightfromthedoc – News and views, Straight from the Doc – Physician trust and the cost of medications

Watch out for diabetes supplements

I’ve actually heard about this before, but this is the best article.

I’ve never been tempted myself. I always figure if it works, it is a drug, and there are possible undocumented side effects and no one to go to for help.

If it doesn’t work, it’s a waste of time.

Six Until Me: A Bottle of Juice in the Shower

Thankfully she treated it and is fine now — but she’s done a good job of describing what a low is like.

Six Until Me: A Bottle of Juice in the Shower

Thankfully she treated it and is fine now — but she’s done a good job of describing what a low is like.

First, I love comments! As long as you aren’t advertising a poker or porn site — I have to delete those.

Jan makes some great comments. Yes, after the first week, I haven’t found symlin to be that great of a wonder drug either. I’m definately using less insulin, but I am not getting the weight loss, etc. I did before, and my calorie count is much lower.

I’m hoping that some of the problem is that my activity level has been the lowest it’s been this summer, due to the amount of writing I’ve been doing. I’ve honestly spent hours at the computer on my projects.

I’ll also admit that for the past almost 3 years, diabetes management has been a full time, on my mind, no matter what I am doing, job. It is a drag. BUT, my energy level is higher, I’m happier, etc.

The symlin syringes and vial are major drags. I am keeping an eye out for the promised pen. FYI: On the way out of the elevator from my endo’s appointment I ran into the Amalyn rep, and complained about the vial for us. He said that they really didn’t expect approval when they got it, which is why they came out with the vial. They don’t know when a pen will be coming out. I’m going to bug the 1-800 number about it too. 1-800-349-8919 for those to lazy to go to the Symlin site to look it up 🙂

I honestly don’t know how next school year is going to go, don’t know what I’m teaching yet, or where, and I’m trying hard not to think about it. I’ve got enough on my mind with the master’s.

Tight Control article

Now that I have my summer back …

I tried the MDI (Multiple Daily Injection) method of tight control and it almost made me nuts. I could not keep a constant schedule. Summer was the utter living end of that for me, especially the teacher workshop thing.

Oh, and the school year where they changed our lunch periods every 4 weeks.

I can’t imagine going back to shots and keeping this tight control. Today is a good example. Let’s say that I ended up burning more blood sugar than I had planned. Now, while I might be able to figure out I need 40% more insulin than usual on a workshop day, and I could probably do a rough estimate and give myself a bigger long acting insulin dose, there is no way to guarantee WHEN that insulin would get released. Also, there is no way to change my mind once I give it.

With the pump, if I had checked at 10:00 and saw I was going towards low, I would have eaten a Snicker minature and then turned off the temporary basal. If I did it the shot way, I’d probably have to eat a large Snicker’s minature, causing some weight gain.

Tight Control article

Now that I have my summer back …

I tried the MDI (Multiple Daily Injection) method of tight control and it almost made me nuts. I could not keep a constant schedule. Summer was the utter living end of that for me, especially the teacher workshop thing.

Oh, and the school year where they changed our lunch periods every 4 weeks.

I can’t imagine going back to shots and keeping this tight control. Today is a good example. Let’s say that I ended up burning more blood sugar than I had planned. Now, while I might be able to figure out I need 40% more insulin than usual on a workshop day, and I could probably do a rough estimate and give myself a bigger long acting insulin dose, there is no way to guarantee WHEN that insulin would get released. Also, there is no way to change my mind once I give it.

With the pump, if I had checked at 10:00 and saw I was going towards low, I would have eaten a Snicker minature and then turned off the temporary basal. If I did it the shot way, I’d probably have to eat a large Snicker’s minature, causing some weight gain.

RNweb – Tight insulin control: Making it work

Tight insulin control: Making it work

RNweb – Tight insulin control: Making it work

Tight insulin control: Making it work

I’ve blogged about this before, but a conversation came up today and it’s been rolling in my head for a while after reading someone else’s blog entry.

One thing that was covered in my diabetes training, but something I’m not sure diabetics think a lot about is Sharps Disposal. However, what I was taught in diabetes training is wrong for my community and it might be an issue for yours.

I was taught to do one of two things:

Buy a sharps container — which was my choice, because it was quick and easy.

Take an old laundry soap container, soak off the label and mark it sharps with a “sharpie” pen. When finished, tape the lid down.

Well neither works where I live. I got a cryptic note from the city the two times I put a sharps container in the trash, and when I finally figured out what was going on, I called. Come to find out, one of our city workers was injured because our city grinds up the trash. Okay, I don’t really get it, but the gist is, we can’t dispose of sharps in trash in my community. You might be able to in yours.

They thought that the local hospital would deal with it, but they won’t. I did find a guy that hauls sharps for the local doctors who said he’d take them at no charge but it’s a bit out of the way.

So here’s the solution I use:

You either contact your pharmacy and order a BD Sharps by Mail kit OR you can order them from an outfit online. The NDC number for the BC Sharps by Mail kid is 08290323488. If you give that number to your pharmacist, they can order it.

I really like these people though, because they have quart containers I can stash in various places: http://www.sharpsdisposal.com/

And everything we stick ourselves with is a sharp. Lancelets, syringes, pen needles and even the inseration part of sets. Though the Inset is designed to be disposed in regular trash and I haven’t gotten a nasty note about them.