Living with Diabetes

Blog

  • Sleep Doctor

    Saw the sleep doctor today.  I really LIKE the new CPAP, especially since it gives such good reports to the doctor.

    It showed that I sleep an average of 7 1/2 hours a day  and that I stay at “12” most of the time.  It’s an auto CPAP so it adjusts and that it keeps me have having apnea events all night.  It also shows that my mask leaks 21 minutes a day on average.

    I had shucked my new mask because it wasn’t fitting right, and was using a REALLY REALLY old one.  Doctor fitted me for the new mask and it is a completely different size than the one I had.  I also asked for all new hoses and filters since it’s been a year. 

    The nurse fussed at me because it’s full of dog hair, which is WHY I need the new filters.

    They should be here in a few days.

  • Finally!

    I finally got released from school.  It’s been a rough week with lots of meetings.  I’ve actually never had such a touch last week.

    This weekend has been all about recovery and getting some rest.  I go to the sleep doctor on Tuesday, have dog classes — they are getting rescheduled, and that’s it this week.

    Also playing with my convertible notebook.  I really love it, and I need to get my old notebooks organized to sell.

  • Lens Solution Is Pulled Over Link to Infection – New York Times

    Guess what — I have an eye infection AND am using this contact lens solution.  Though I believe my infection is isolated to the eye lid, not the eye itself.

    I’m calling Monday, and want them to pay for my solution AND my current set of lens.  My new lens are $150 for 6, so tossing them isn’t cheap. 

    Link to Lens Solution Is Pulled Over Link to Infection – New York Times

  • Survived

    Long, over scheduled week.  Unfortunately I spent most of the week being a responsible adult.  Since I start getting ready for the end of the school year in April, I don’t usually have much to do this week. 

    Today is about getting some final stuff signed off, making sure my students grades are in the school “grade book”, and going to the faculty luncheon. 

    I had meetings most of the day Monday and Tuesday, and also went to the board meeting last night.  So far, there is nothing about the award in the paper.

    After the board meeting, life got weirder — we were having heavy thunderstorms — I keep telling everyone, it’s no worse than usual, we just forgot them in the drought.

    Anyway, a few cars in front of me, was a white convertible.  It went out of control, and I got stopped with getting hit, but it went off the road, and landed into a drainage ditch with a huge splash.  I called 911, and reported it, but no one else stopped.  I couldn’t see that they were getting any help, so I got off the road, and back on the exit.  Still no one was there and they couldn’t be seen from the road at that point, though there was an Dallas Fire and Rescue unit about a mile behind me, so I stopped the safest (relatively) place from them, got out of the car, ran to where they were at, pulled off my jacket and waved DF&R down.  DF&R insisted I leave, so I took off.  Fortunately they landed wheel side down, but water was up over the door handles. 

    So I feel really lucky AND sore today.  Knee is bugging me, it isn’t good to run on a bad knee in the rain.

  • Snide Remarks

    Last night I was working on a project with someone, and I felt my cognitive abilities start to slip.  It was an hour after I normally eat. 

    So I said “I have to eat now”.

    She wanted to keep going.

    I said “No, you don’t understand, I HAVE to eat NOW.  I’m diabetic”.

    She said, “Everyone in the world knows you are diabetic”.

    I acknowledged that was true — as it is.  And left her and  ate.

    I felt much better later.  But I had so many thing I wanted to say, but bit my tongue.

    Yes, I’m out there with my diabetes.  Preventing complications — which I’ve managed to do so far — is number 1 with me.  It comes before my dogs, my husband, my students.  It comes before even a project I’m working on.

    Why?  Because if I don’t take care of it, I won’t be able to do anything else.

    I watched my dad die of diabetes, and it was not a fun way to go.  He made it fun, but it wasn’t.  I don’t want to be that way.

    I want to be the woman who does a really good job running an Agility World Course with her beagle — which I did last night.

    I don’t want to be house bond and on oxygen like my dad was.

  • Diabetes Drug Linked to Heart Attacks – Newsweek Health – MSNBC.com

     This is one of the reasons why I choose insulin over an oral drug.  Also the oral medication wasn’t working fast enough for me. 

    More than 6 million people around the world have taken the drug Avandia (rosiglitazone) to treat Type II diabetes. But a new study published this week in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests that the drug is linked to a higher risk of heart attack and death.

    Source: Diabetes Drug Linked to Heart Attacks – Newsweek Health – MSNBC.com

  • Animas 2020 Screen and direct sunlight!

    Just like every other device with a color screen — you can’t see it well in direct sunlight.  It was bit disconcerning the first time I tried it, but just like the cell phone and anything else with color on a black screen, you can’t see the Animas 2020 in direct sunlight.  I’ve had to turn up my constrast to 10, so I can.

    There is one thing for black on green screens — they don’t wash out.

    And still no Ezmanager.

  • I won this!

     I go to the school board on Thursday to be recognized.  I’m very excited!

    Texas Instruments Innovations in STEM Teaching Award 2007

    Source: Dallas Education Foundation-Programs

  • Insulin therapy for diabetes – 2

    Good article on the different insulins. 

    Let us now delineate the different types of insulin available for treatment to suit the specific needs of patients.

    Source: Insulin therapy for diabetes – 2

  • Still disappointed

    No one I’ve talked to or emailed at Animas has a ship date for the new EzManager.  I’m really hooked on downloading my pump and analyzing what is going on, so not having a full picture is extremely annoying and disappointing.

    I’d love to know what the hold up is, because they DID get FDA approval for a new version last month.