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Something very strange is going on.

I had the pump failure this morning and rebooted the pump.

Did a site change.

Ate breakfast, blood sugar was in the 230’s, 2 hours after. Corrected and by noon was 90.

Ate lunch, blood sugar was in the 250’s, 2 hours after. Corrected and by noon was 107.

Ate supper, and blood sugar was 180, 1 1/2 hours after, ate a pre-agility class snack, and was 130 after two hours (and two dogs) of class. Now I’m 260.

I changed my correction factor, increased it by 1, as the correction factor seems a bit overkill, and has for days.

But I’m wondering what’s going on with the bolus. It was fine the rest of the week.

Think I’ll call the endo’s office tomorrow — BUT I don’t have a duty period tomorrow.

— Added later

The blood sugar IS going down. Man, I hate to sleep when things like this are going on.

And the good news is that my TDD is slowly going down.

For a second I thought I figured it out, but maybe not. I used the same bottle of Symlin this morning and lunch, but different bottle for dinner and agility snack. So I don’t think it is bad Symlin. And the insulin I used in the set change was the last in a vial. BUT the corrections are working.

—- Later

Just woke up sick to my stomach and sure that I was too low but at 165.

This school year.

I shouldn’t jinx it, but we’ve only got a short day tomorrow (and teacher torture in the afternoon — it’s called early release), and I’ve got a tutoring session on Saturday.

But man did I need that spring break. I’ve finally been able to enjoy my CS students. I didn’t realize how overwhelmed I felt. Imagine going from 2 preps to 5 preps (for the non-teacher, a prep is a subject you teach). Imagine getting a whole new set of faces and behavior to learn in the middle of the year.

The AP kids are the most fun. We have the most outrageous conversations. Most generated by them == a bit of avoidance behavior, but I love the way they think. The key to teaching AP is to point them in the right direction, stay out of their way, and dig them out of their holes they did. (Remember, they were supposed to have PreAP the year before … and I did at least teach 4 of them PreAP and one of them Webmastering — only 3 are new to programming and they are good).

I do have to teach PreAP and regular Computer Science. That involves introducing each concept (I’ve been doing that on computer-less Friday), assign them programs and give them a chance to solve them on their own, and then on the day they are due showing them how to do it. The really good kiddos — the ones that will go on to AP, will have solved the problem the day before it is due. The normal kids will take notes and figure it out about the day after it’s due, and the ones who don’t care never will. That’s the fun thing about teaching CS, you have three bell curves, not one.

My philosophy, which I shared with them this week when I told almost everyone they were getting a failure notice, is that they can come and ask for help anytime and I promise I won’t make them feel stupid. And if I do, they have my permission to head me upside the head. I watched their formal teacher in action for a year, and his favorite thing to do was to make people feel stupid so they are afraid to ask me.

The worst I ever say is — “gee, you can’t spell, but then I can’t either, but at least I spell it the same wrong way every time”. Or “Gee, don’t you hate that I saw that within two seconds of glancing at your screen? Don’t feel bad, it would have taken me hours if it were my program. I often make mistakes when I do solve a problem in class, a few times on purpose to show them how to dig themselves out of that particular hole. But most of the time, they are truly honest mistakes, and I think it helps them to see me make them AND for them to catch them before I do.

My Algebra I kiddos are getting better. My 1st period group rarely gives me any guff anymore. I am still having problems with the 7th.

Their favorite thing to do to torture everyone in the computer lab and every room on our hall is to turn up the sound as loud as possible. Well, I found a little program called Wizmo and it has an option to turn off sound. So I installed it on their computers and used Lanschool to set it up. I can actually turn off the sound on every computer with two mouse clicks.

It was so cool. Had the math coach with me who feels the same way about this group as I do, and I just started laughing hysterically. They would blast the room with sound, I’d hit two mouse clicks as she was watching, and shut off every speaker in the room. They blast again after a minute or two (fumbling to turn on the volume), I’d hit two more mouse clicks, and shut off the sound again. That went on for 5 more minutes, I showed them how I did it even, and reminded them to BRING HEADPHONES! I also reminded them, it might take a few days, but I always win. Besides, I have the power of the gradebook on my side and they are NOT passing.

This are the same little darlings that spent two weeks of flashing laser pointers in every one’s eyes including mine while I was teaching — they didn’t realize that laser pointers have nothing on the light from an overhead … and got that the #$#$# that had it and turned him in. Of course, the administrator didn’t do anything to him, but I got the laser pointer.

Lovely children. Everyone should be blessed to have a classroom full of them. Do realize that I like most of the students in the class, it’s just about 6 of them who have to torture everyone around them. And I despise people who keep others from learning.

Just checked Medco again. They are shipping the 90 pills they owe me from the last prescription (and probably charging me full copay, but oh well, and shipping me the 180 pills for the next time I can refill at the end of April.

Man it was an uphill battle.

Of course, now it will get lost in the mail.

it’s sad when paying 2.43 a gallon feels like a victory.

— added later

And it was 2.59 at the station closest to the house (not that I will buy there).

Medco is shipping 180 tabs of Protonix next month. YEAH!!!!!!!

At 5:40, my pump issued a “Call Service” alarm.

It was weird, because I woke up about that time dreaming that my pump had failed. It kept vibrating, but it didn’t register to me that it was anything different than a check glucose alarm until I got out of bed and looked at the pump and saw the message.

It said to disconnect the battery to silence the alarm but I put it back in and downloaded everything, because a) I wanted the data, b) wanted to see the error message in print, and c) because I’m anal about downloading everything and had not in a few days.

The good news is that my blood sugar is 107 and it was a set change day anyway, and that was one reason I hadn’t downloaded data.

Well, Animas just called, a nice lady named Frances and she said we had to do a full reboot, and call if I get more than 3 of those messages in a 30 day period and they will replace the pump.

She thought it was a hoot that I’d dreamed the pump had failed.

As I told my husband, this week is the week that I realized just how much I missed teaching computer science. I think it’s because it’s the first time since it’s happened that I’ve had time to just enjoy those students.

My 1st period Algebra Repeaters are doing good. I never have to yell at them, and their passing rate is higher. My 7th period is still VERY VERY tough. They constantly play music on the computers and while I have headphones I don’t trust them with them. Heck, I won’t leave the room for a second with them.

Here’s how bad it is. I have a young man who has an 8 average. He also has over 10 absenses THIS six weeks. He wanted me to take the time to pull out the make up work for him. Well, I’ve spent hours creating a web page that has exactly what he needs to do on it, and I have all the handouts in a pile. Everytime I spent a moment dealing with him, the other kids were off doing things they shouldn’t, mostly playing music. I could deal with it if were in the room by ourselves, but we only have a divider seperating my class from the rest of the room.

Thankfully I have my AP kids right before them. They are SO cool. Best group of AP kids I’ve ever had as they ALL want to work they all want to pass the class and pass the test and THEY ask me for help. I feel like it’s all student driven. I really think they were the only group that the old teacher taught, but these kids were special before him. I had 5 of them before, three I really don’t know.

The other fun thing is that each week I seem to get something “back”. The week before spring break I got my AP contract. Today I found my little file cabinet. I am still looking for my desk and my rolling chair. I think the teacher in the other half has it. I wish I could get my closet back…

So it’s better.

Well, it’s being processed and it looks like I’m getting 90 pills again. Oh well….

And I wish I knew how to prevent bad attacks. My blood sugar was too low at 9:30, so I ate 15 club crackers and some cheese to slow it down — don’t know exactly how much but was sharing it with the dogs.

Woke up at 4:00 am freezing as I had not turn on my CPAP heated humidifer and then immediately had the worst reflux attack in a while. Was able to go back to sleep, but woke up coughing and been coughing and refluxing all day.

I’m not as cranky as I expected, at least.