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Woke up very photo sensitive and with two very dry eyes.  Put artificial tears in each eye.

Marked each of the bottles with a sharper to indicate which I take.  One is once a day, two are twice a day.  I have a feeling that it doesn't matter how often I use artificial tears as long as I wait 10 minutes between drops so as not to wash out the others.

Pain is a very low buzz if that, more photo sensitive than anything.  That eye isn't as clear as after the repair but loads better than before the repair.

Did do a conformation class with Summer last night, but quit as soon as I started sweating.  About 50 minutes in.

At a cornea specialist and she doesn't think the dental procedure cause the eye issue. I have had dry eye issues before. She is doing a debradement and putting in a contact lens bandage. 

They assure me that it will hurt but the contact lens will help that.

 I promise I will put tears in my eye from now on.

I’m not 100% but I’m not having sharp pain and I am not as photo sensitive.  It’s still blurry and I still have quite a few drops left.  The other eye is much better since I’ve been doing artificial  each time I treat the injured eye.

The cause – dental surgery is also healing up.

i do have an appointment with a cornea specialist inhe morning. 

The cornea specialist I saw on Tuesday was convinced and convinced me that it was merely coincidence.

So I removed most of this post.

I haven’t had my lapband looked out in over a year.  Partly because the place i was getting it done went out of business.  Seems the principal owners have been charged with a crime.

I went back to the surgeon who did the procedure originally, as the company who I went to went out of business.  Sensing a theme.

It checked out fine.  I think they tested the port, as they numbed the area it was at, and had me swallow barium  We all watched everything work, and it does work correctly.

I’m quite ambivalent about lapband.  I never have been that happy with it but it does help with the binge eating – I still binge, but can’t eat as much food.  I can also choose not to eat easier.

I remember when Amy started Diabetes Mine!  I met Mike last November.   There is an article about Dulce and I on their site today.

http://www.healthline.com/diabetesmine/kathleen-weaver-diabetes-story

First, the lap band was successful.  I took off 60 pounds with it. 

+However, it takes more than that.  If you look at the literature, I’m typical.  I needed more.

A program where you have a certain number of calories or points has never worked for me.  I run out of them.  (Weight Watchers).

A program that is punitive doesn’t either – I tired Slim4Life, and man, it might work for some people but not me.  Every thing was a formula or magic.

What I needed is what I get from Jenny Craig. 

• A list of things to eat.  Do I always eat that food and only that food, no.  But it’s a starting point.
• Positive support – no matter what I weight, my consultant is support about it.
• Someone I can talk to about it.  Though I have other people.

First I had done Jenny Craig years ago, but when I tried to restart, my primary care physician insisted I go for the band.  There are a lot of days its made me unhappy, but it does have an impact on binge eating.

And on the goal.

My consultant wanted me to have an attainable goal, so she insisted on going with about 60 pounds.  Basically it was something I could do in less than a year if you figure on losing 1 1/2 pounds a week (basically 10% of a healthy persons weight).  I get my money back if I hit that goal and maintain it.  Though I think the 10% on the food covers the enrollment fee.

And here’s the smart way to do the food.  Always buy 1 week at a time (you don’t get the discount otherwise).  Keep your extra food on one shelve and the food for the menu you are on another shelf.  When you have 7 extra snacks, 7 extra breakfasts, and 14 extra meals, don’t buy food that week.  I like to have a day or so cushion myself, so that’s an estimate.  Also the travel meal DOES count as a full week, but not all consultants know that.  Mine had to call in and ask.

Also keep easy to eat foods on hand.  I keep a couple of salad kits in the car, in case I want to stay on plan when I’m out and about.  I also do the same with the breakfast bars.  In fact, buy a few one the week you are buying a few menu so you get the discount.

I joined Jenny Craig again last summer and today I hit the halfway point according to the goal my consultant set for me!

Very pleased!

in a simple phrase: word of mouth

It’s very important to me to have a diabetes doctor who has some understanding of lifestyle challenges.  My gynecologist is from West Africa but that doesn’t really matter, because I need someone who gets menopause and she does.  Especially menopause in someone who has been on hormones all her life.  I also think that having a common culture is important with my sleep doctor.  Again, that’s lifestyle as much as anything.

Each time I’ve gone with a diabetes doctor, I’ve used word of mouth.  I’ve found local people with diabetes and who have a common background and flat out asked them who their diabetes doctor was and what was there experience.  The diabetes online community can help with that.  For other doctors I’ve always taken another doctors advice first, and I did ask my previous doctor his opinion of my choice.  While they are both Baylor Scott and White, apparently there are different branches, so my previous doctor didn’t recommend them.  The current doctor has worked with the previous one, though my previous doctor didn’t mention that.  I’m not sure he knew who was at the clinic I am going to.  (hoping this isn’t too confusing but I’m not comfortable sharing names)

I had also seen Diabetes Center of America when I was out and about at health fairs and other diabetes related events. I was happy to see that they have CDE’s.  My original diabetes doctor had a very good one that I saw on a regular basis when I first became a patient.  Unfortunately that was one of the first things to go.

The new patient experience of seeing a nurse assistant for labs, the CDE and the doctor was great. 

There are a couple of things I wish they did better – I always liked doing the labs in a separate visit and I’m going to approach them that next time.  Of course, the pump tells us more but that’s a shorter window.  The A1C gives a broader picture though we’re all getting better an interpreting the CGMS.

If I didn’t have a CGMS, I would think advance labs would be more important. 

Several years ago, when I was still teaching face – to – face, I had an opportunity to present a robotics workshop, expenses paid.  It let me go to a professional conference I enjoy.  At the time, I had just lost 60 pounds.

I also knew that the way I was dressing wasn’t appropriate for the event.  I wasn’t sure what to do.  I’d been watching What Not to Wear, and new I was wearing it.

I’m also a huge fan of Sunday Morning.  A few months before the conference, they had a segment on how JC Penney’s was changing and in that segment that also talked about Nordstrom’s and why their business model was so successful.  That’s the first time I’d heard of a personal shopper.  I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try and gave them a call.  I also called Macy’s and gave them a try but their quality just wasn’t as good, nor was their tailoring free.

Here’s what I loved about Nordstrom’s – the clothing fit and made me look good.  It also made me feel good.  When things didn’t quite fit, they had a free tailor that fixed them.

I will be honest and went a bit overboard, but they have always taken things back, especially when I ended up not wearing them.

Even better, several years later, I still have that wardrobe and it still fits and it still looks good – I’ve had to have some things taken in.  But that was the personal shoppers plan.  Buy very quality things that fit, make adjustments on the way, and then add to them with quality things.

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However, now I live in their Zella exercise line.  I buy most it on sale.  Again, it fits and makes me look good.  And even in exercise wear, I look like I thought about it before I put it on.

That original wardrobe is working well for dog shows and I’m slowly downsizing it.

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I’ve also had two good customer experiences.  Though the first one was kind of weird.  I needed a new pair of pants for dog shows.  Plain black pants with pockets.  I went through the Encore section and pulled a bunch of pants, then organized them by price in the sales room.  I found a pair that I really liked that were marked with a sale price.  Got the tailor in and got them marked.  Went to pay for them, and the sales lady said they weren’t on sale.  I thought that was really weird at the time, but shrugged and bought them.

Guess what – 21 days later, those pants were on sale at the price I originally bought them.

Called the store and they gave me the store credit.  Yeah, it was luck and I really think they should have been on sale then.

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I had a Clarisonic body brush I really liked.  It came with a handle but it stopped working.  I contacted Clarisonic – they don’t make it any more, and the most they would do was 25% off.  Nordstrom gave me store credit for the last price they sold it for – considerably higher than Clarisonic’ s offer.

So this is why I have Nordstrom’s ads on the website.