Blog

  • 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.

  • Did it – 3 dogs – 3 classes – 1 night

    I drive about 90 minutes to dog agility and about 40 minutes back.  That amount varies according to traffic.  Why?  She’s the best instructor for my dogs.

    I’ve been taking Maggie and Marcie on Mondays, and Macy on Tuesdays.  That eats up a lot of evenings, and FUEL! 

    Lately, Macy has been bored with the Tuesday night class.  She can do 10 obstacles, no problem, provided I have cookies in my hand, I make enough noise, and I move fast enough.  The other dogs have problems with 3.

    Concidently, I have a really good friend who trains with the same instructor and her dog was having similar problems with the early Monday night class.

    Her dog was moved up to Maggie’s class and Macy got her dog’s slot.

    I even had a bit of a stress attack over this — but we did fine.  Macy even managed to figure out the dog walk even though we had not done it before.

    So I trained Macy from 6:50 until 7:45, Maggie from 7:45 until 8:40, and then Marcie from 8:40 on.

    Maybe we’ll make it through the Sanctioned Match on Saturday!

  • Pump Impressions – by Others

    I’ve polled a few people in my building, both adults and students.  Of course, those students are computer science students.

    All say that the pump looks “cool”.  They like the screen, but didn’t remember the old one.  Fortunately the UltraSmart II screen is similar to the old one, so they can compare.

    So, it’s definately cool, both with the screen on and off.

  • Pump Disappointment – Followup

    Just got off the phone with Animas.  They verified that I cannot retrieve carb and blood sugar information from the pump itself, but that it is downloadable with Ezmanager.

    No release date.

    I do have an email out to ezmanager support, so we’ll see what they say.

  • Weekend focus

    The last two weekends were about increasing my aerobic ability and dropping my TDD.  This weekend, because I wasn’t sleeping well last week, has been about catching up on sleep.  I’m also focusing on getting my house back together.

    I only got 2 20 minute sessions done on the treadmill, yesterday, but my TDD was still around 40 units. 

    I also have good news.  I saw a new low weight yesterday for a weight loss of 7 pounds!  I didn’t see it again today, but that’s normal for me.  I’ll see a 2-3 pound fluxation from day to day.  Some of that is due to water retention.

    All in all, I’m still very very happy with fitness for diabetics and even planning to sign up for another intensive 4 month session.

  • Pump disappointment

    The new screen is nice.

    The new way of doing carb ratios and insulin sensitivity is nice.

    But here’s why I am disappointed — while the ad says that the pump stores the blood sugar and carb information on the pump, I have no way of retrieving that information right now!  And that’s why I wanted the upgrade.

    Hopefully they will have it fixed soon — I know the FDA approval went through a few weeks ago.

  • Ezmanager

    It definately stops during basal download — the bolus’s show up on the pump but my TDD isn’t showing up.  Guess I’m just going to have to be patient.

    A commenter asked about EzManager, and I’m sure I have posted about it in the past.  Check the software category.

    I first started using EzManager BEFORE I got a pump.  In fact, EzManager may be one of the reasons I got my first Animas pump.

    The current version of EzManager works very well with either a Palm device or with an UltraSmart meter.  I will have to review the new version of EzManager when it comes.

    My medical team finds the daily graph a bit confusing and they prefer to get the log output.  I do better with the daily graph.

    EzManger will track whatever you put in it, and you can either enter food data and exercise data through the Palm or Ultra Smart, or through EzManager itself.

    The biggest problem I have had with EzManager, is with the food database.  You can not edit food database entries, and you can only delete entries by using a Palm device. 

    Everything else works well.

  • On Sleeping — or NOT sleeping

    As you can tell from the entry time, I’m not sleeping right now.  I haven’t been sleeping well all week again.

    What woke me up?

    A bit of gastric reflux, dogs and the lights from our local police car at a traffic stop in front of the house.  And maybe my pump alarm.

    I WAS sleeping pretty good.  Until last Friday night when the A/C went out and I had to deal with it, and the finances surrounding acquiring A/C.  Friday night I couldn’t sleep because I was too hot and for worrying about money and getting it all done.

    Slept all night on Saturday but couldn’t sleep at all Sunday night.  So every night, I don’t sleep my pain gets a little worse.  I wake up more easily etc.  The only way to fix it is to sleep it out.

    That means when I finish this post, I go back to bed, and sleep as late as I can.  And if I wake up before 9:00 am, I mess around again like I am doing now, and then go back to bed again.  It also means maybe taking a nap or two, but making sure I get enough sleep so I can sleep all night on Sunday.

    It might even mean taking some Sonata.  Which I probably should have days again, but I don’t like the way I feel if I don’t get enough sleep when I take it.