Blog

  • Preventable? I don’t think so.

    BlogHer did a trackback to my site, in a post that made the following statement?

    Diabetes: A Wake-up Call | BlogHer [beta]

    In most cases, it can be prevented, so why aren’t we doing more to combat it?

    ARGH! In most cases, it can be prevented? When will people get it through their thick heads that in most cases it can not be prevented.

    First, she links to a bunch of other diabetes sites — those run by Type 1 diabetics, and we all know that Type 1 can’t be prevented until we can order our genetics and our environment.

    I believe that it can’t be prevented in most Type 2 diabetics either. My genetics definately showed my doctors and I that Type 2 is coming, but I certainly wasn’t able to prevent gettiing it, and I really believe that it is today’s technologies that have kept me from cardio vascular complications so far, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t succumb too, just like my father and his parents.

    There have even been some recent studies that seem to show that all we can really do is to delay the onset of Type 2 diabetecs, but not completely avoid it unless we die of something else first.

  • Medco – Protonix problems – the next step

    I sat down this weekend and wrote a letter to the doctor explaining exactly what I wanted and how I felt about him not complying with my requests but….

    called Medco’s 1-800 Case Review line first to make sure I knew exactly what was going on. They stated that the doctor had not called and started a case review but made a better offer. They faxed the doctor a case review form — which the doctor’s office has received. I’m watching Medco’s site like a hawk to see what ends up happening with this.

  • Dog Agility

    We had a good agility day today. Marcie ran perfect, I made mistakes and learned something interesting — I really DO need to move with her, especially on a hot day. Maggie wouldn’t down on the table and is still having weave problems, but the rest of her runs were great.

    The best news though, is that my blood sugar has been stable all weekend. I have kept the carb level down this run, as I’m trying to get my TDD down.

  • Further Prilosec Frustration

    According to the Medco website, my doctor has YET to do the coverage review on my Prilosec. I expressed my disgust at this at the agility trial this afternoon and at first my friends were teasing me, and didn’t realize just how spitting tacks mad I was.

    So here’s my rant … I have a good medical team that gets paid well and on time. I have good insurance — BCBS of Texas and I pay any of my charges within 30 days of being billed, usually faster. I expect return service.

    First, I called my prescription service and determined exactly how to handle the request. I made a specific office visit to discuss the request. I am bothered, that rather than doing what I told him had to happen, he decided to ignore the request and just fax a prescription.

    Thus, I got half the medication I need.

    I then faxed a request, and verified that it was received (had problems with that), and left a message on the patient line again requested that the directions on the fax be followed. Doctor’s response? He would have his girls fax the request. Well, guess what, that was NOT what was requested on the fax.

    I don’t understand. I would understand if I got a message on the patient line saying he did it and it wasn’t approved.

  • Good day of Agility — almost

    For us it was good…

    Marcie made half a mistake (well, I’m calling it half of one), as she got her head past the wrong weave pole, but corrected her mistake when I told her — so we didn’t Q in standard. She was also very slow because it was muggy and starting to get warm — she’s a Vermont beagle…

    I completely screwed up the beginning of Maggie’s run and she gave up in disgust. I had to promise a bribe but she was perfect after that. It was her first excellent run (the class excellent, not the style).

    Then Marcie ran the exact same course, the way I wanted to run it, not the mucked up version and Qed, 5 seconds over time She is a Preferred dog for sure.

    Then Maggie and I were not on the same wave length for Open Standard, I put her over a jump wrong, she wouldn’t sit on the table, and she mucked up the weaves, but since we were already NQ, I decided not to push the issue.

    I’m trying to get a specialist trainer to come to the house and help me set up some exercises to fix the girls weaves. We went to a workshop last week with her, and I figure having her come over and get me started right will help.

    But for another handler and dog it was very very sad. I had just arrived when I heard a dog screaming. I was told later that the handler had crossed into the dog’s path and stepped on the dog. We later found out it was a spiral compund fracture and will be repaired on Monday.

    There is a good part. They immediately set up a donation jar, and at 1:00 pm it was looking very full. The giving club said they would match donations to pay for the dog’s surgery and one of the vendors had a raffle set up and also pledged half the of the proceeds. I contributed and bought raffle tickets.

    I hope the dog comes out okay and feel very badly for the handler.

  • Protonix

    I figured out why my doctor didn’t get my fax … I was sending it to the wrong number. Oddly, the automated lines don’t tell you the fax number so I had to call the office.

    Hopefully this was straighten things out, but if not, I’m on Spring Break next week and can do it in person.

  • More good news!

    My blood sugar has been extremely stable today, though I did have a quick dizzy spell in the afternoon. I ate 4 mini-Snickers and did insulin, just in case.

    I’ve managed to get on the treadmill for 20-30 minutes a day, every day for the last 6 out of 7 days — I always take dog agility as an off day. I’m sure that’s helping tremedously.

    The knee is still bothering me, but I figure the best way to handle that is to lose as much weight as I possibly can, thus I did my 20 minutes today in three stages, with a short knee workout session betewen each stage.

  • Protonix frustration

    I’m getting a bit more than frustrated with my doctor. Those of you who read regularly willl recall that I made a special trip to my doctor’s office to ask him to call Medco and tell them to give me 2 Protonix a day. He didn’t, he just faxed the prescription, so they mailed me one a day, and sent me a letter rejecting his request. I faxed him that letter a week ago, and apparently he didn’t get it, so I sent him another one Friday night. I still haven’t heard back — I think I’ll try faxing him a new one after school tomorrow as they have evening hours if I haven’t heard from him.

    I’m still occasionally waking up at night, especially when I have to feed insulin in the evening. I’m trying to avoid that.

    I’m also a bit put out by my PT, as he was supposed to order me a knee brace and that hasn’t happened yet either. Supposedly he did order one and it will be in soon, I hope so, since I’m competing again next weekend.

  • Still feeding insulin

    I spent the day at an agility workshop — kind of fun because the presenter is one of my former students. She took a dog obedience class from me when she was a teenager.

    Agility Workshops are much better than teacher workshops because you get up and do agility once in a while. You aren’t sitting around as much.

    I spent a lot of the day feeding my insulin — I was around 90 at lunch and not feeling real well for example. Had some wheat thins and that helped.

    I also got some sun burn.

  • Things are going MUCH better

    My blood sugar has been extremely stable all week, and in fact was low on Friday and I ended up feeding quite a bit of insulin.

    I dropped my bolus rates by one last night — all of them, just to avoid that. Today has gone very well so far, was 87 at breakfast, and at 146 two hours after. It’s nice to be reducing insulin for a change rather than increasing it.

    I’m even managed to get on the treadmill my regular workout days, but I haven’t gotten back on the iShape schedule yet. I’m still nursing the knee, and am still doing my physical therapy exercises.