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I go for my pysch evaluation on Monday. 

I’ve gone from over 5 meals a day to 3.  The rest of the time I alternate between liquid Slim Fast and Slim Fast bars.  My insulin usage is dropping as a result.  I would like to get down to two, but I’m not there.

Part of my problem is I am saying good bye to some of my favorite foods I know I won’t be able to eat after surgery.  Like Brazilian BBQ today.  I also didn’t make it but the place was actually busy for lunch and I probably had some of the best service and meal I’ve had there.

Interesting – betting it doesn’t make a huge difference as people tend to keep their pump in the same place.  I will admit that I keep the new Ping below insertion sets where I used to keep it above but didn’t notice a change in amount of insulin used when I switched.

Dr. Sheri’s Blog on Exercise and Diabetes » Watch out for Your Insulin Pump’s Position

I’m also pretty sure that the research has a bias.

I went to Albertson’s to the Save-On Pharmacy to pick up Maggie medication the other day and they charged me over $50.00 It’s generic Xanax and I’ve never paid more than $20, and usually get it for around $12.00 there.

The tech said, “they switched the generic on us and we complained to the home office but there was nothing we could do”. Read the Angry Pharamacist blog this morning and thought — hey, I’m going to ask him what to do.

He said to call the pharmacist and I did.

Seems they have a new discount program.  If I would come in and sign up for it, they would refund the extra cost of the Xanax and it would never be more than $7.49 again (well, I think that price holds for a year or something).  Some drugs are $4.99 and if my co pay is more than what they charge, I get charged what they charge, and it even applies to the pets.

Weird.

So I did.

I have a refund of $3x.xx coming.

Weird.

Monday was Parent Teacher Conferences

Okay, who ever thought it would be a good idea to have Parent Conferences the Monday after Day Light Saving time change needs to be drug behind a car for a block.  Not enough to kill them but enough to get the point across.

Parents feed us greasy barbeque with lots of carbs.  What happened to cole slaw and green beans?  Please.  Are they really more expensive than potato salad and baked beans?  I skipped the bread and the desert.  Though if they give us time to get something to eat we’ll be here to 9:00 pm so no thanks.  Had 12 parents. Finished my part of the girl scout cookies.

Yesterday I got hit by thought that the BBQ place around the corner probably had salads, and having a last one would be a good thing. You don’t understand.  They give you a HUGE plastic container full of what ever salad makings you want.  Lettuce, corn, black beans, mushrooms, olives, croutons, etc.  It was good.  I’m glad I did it.

Yesterday I had my last Diet Gourmet breakfast.  Probably ever, I doubt they will work once I’ve had surgery.  So today I had a slim fast drink at 8:00 and a bar around 10:00.  Just finished lunch.

My food is much better in control that it was.  We’ll see how it goes.

Oh, by the way, last Friday my department chair was whining about how much she had scheduled this week — my response, and why do you think you are special?

One of my twitter friends was asking if she should renew her dog’s microchip with "Home Alone", and thought maybe that the information in the chip.

Sadly, no.  All that is in the "chip" is the number of the chip.  When you dog is chipped, your vet should scan it and make sure it is working.  Then during the annual exam, they should scan each time to make sure it still works and has not migrated.  I’ve heard of chips ending up in dogs legs. Not a big deal, but not something anyone is working for.

Now everyone of my dogs has been chipped and I have been chipping them for a long time.  I’ve also tattooed them.  Hasn’t done a bit of good.  First, my dogs don’t get separated from me very long. Marcie has made a few excursions and when she did, she found someone smart enough to listen to her and bring her back home.  Kid you not, happened 4 times. 

However, the 5th time Marcie got out, she was playing in the median on a 3 lane road and a lady kindly picked her up.  Claimed she took her to a vet and had her checked for a chip but they couldn’t find it.  I suspect the lady was not telling the truth, as my vet found the chip right away and she couldn’t tell me where she had taken her. Marcie had a very distinctive collar on but no tags as we were in the middle of agility season.  It was the collar that got her home, not the chip.  I had left messages with all of the local animal control officers with her description and especially the collar and they called me back the next day telling me which shelter had her.  By the way, the lady DID put an entry into PetFinders describing Marcie and the collar so I was already pretty sure I knew she was at. 

The moral of the story — tags DO work better than chips.  Having a distinctive, custom made collar really helped us but she wouldn’t have had to spend the night in jail if I’d had a tag on her.  And yeah, Maggie doesn’t have a tag on her right now, but then at the same time we wouldn’t miss her if she disappeared.

Okay, Maggie is freaking out over the local storms, I let her wander the house on the weekend, and I saw her all of 4 times on Saturday and 3 on Sunday.  Two of those times were for meals.  We’re not doing the well together in agility either, mostly my fault. 

Macy on the other hand is well tagged.  I just have to find Maggie’s.  They stay in cages during the day and are double fenced most of the time.  At least one human is downstairs and can see the yard while they are in it when they are not double fenced.

For the second day in a row, I hit 65.  This time at Sam’s Club (yesterday was Office Depot).  I need a plan for that.  I also need to fix my breakfast bolus — I have it set too aggressive for my new eating plan.  Since I was too far from home, I decided to go to Taco Cabana and get a personal sized Quesdilla.  I think it was a better plan that the first — McDonald’s Hamburger and a real Coke.

Since my low was fixed decided to see if Tom Thumb had good deal on SlimFast, they did — $5.99 for protein both chocalate and vanilla — when I was attacked by some Girl Scounts and forced to by cookies.  I am feeding them to the husband but had some.  Okay, they didn’t really attack me, but since I was one, I was buy some.   And I did give them the change.

I was smarter later when I went to Kroger  for dishwashing liquid and roast chicken, that time I just handed the girls $5.00 which probably the equivalent of buying 10 boxes of cookies, from a money standpoint.  

So both groups of girls probably came out equal.

My scales were showing I was losing weight but probably gained it back today.

So far, no outside food.  Finished off the eggs I had in the refrigerator when I had a low today.  I know it sounds weird but I treated the low with carbs but really still felt like I needed to eat and for me, protein stops the munchies after a low.

I let my blood sugar get down to 67 which wasn’t smart. 

I definitely need to consume something every two hours when I’m doing the liquid thing, or figure out my blood sugar better.  Probably a combo of the two.  I’m alternating Slim-Fast shakes with bars right now, but will eventually eliminate the bars too.

Walking on the treadmill is going better.

I did skip dog agility today.  And withdrew my entries for next month.  I think that I just need to hold off until I’ve lost some weight and feel better.

Hopefully will be able to do better starting with the August trials.

My shoulder has become a lot like my knee.  I know it’s there but most of the time I can tolerate the pain.  The chiropractor has helped, though at first I thought not. This week, I came in aching, he did the adjustment first and it stopped hurting.  I will say any kind of massage helps it too.

I am really hoping that a lot of the pain will go away when I lose weight.  I’m certain it will help the knee.

I did get some "outside" food tonight — had a massage appointment and a tad low when I was done so stopped at a local Mexican fast food restaurant and got grilled chicken and tortilla soup.  I tossed the tortillas though.

I let Diet Gourmet know what was going on when I picked put food this weekend and they are hopeful for me.  Husband will still be eating food there, and I’ll taper off this month, and pick back up once I’m healed.

My psych evaluation is scheduled for March 16th – first day of spring break.  Also, it’s covered by BCBS.

Took a little doing — I wanted to make sure everything was arranged ahead of time, so I emailed last week.  No response.  Called.  No response.  Emailed a different address. Got a phone call on the home phone.

Funny, one of my teacher friends said, "you are so lucky". And as I explained to her, you make your luck.  You tell people what you want, you positively reinforcement them when they get it, and you politely let them know when you don’t get what you want. 

However, I will admit to abusing tech support poeople who don’t speak English.

I made it through Day 4.  No outside food.  Forgot my breakfast, luckily I had enough Slim Fast stuff to make it, which is good, it is a rehearsal for next week.

I’ve just gone through several weeks of our Diet Gourmet meals and am slowly reducing calories, especially carbs.

Also managed to do 11 minutes on the treadmill.