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Yeah, I DID hate this meter, and I still am not real happy with it.

The Freestyle Flash is smaller and has the cute little flashlight for the test strip. Also I personally think it is easier to use. For one thing, if you don’t get enough blood on the first try, you can give it more and it will eventually read. Not so the Ultrasmart.

However, the copay on the Ultrasmart is quite a bit cheaper than the Freestyle. Plus I like having the graph in my hand. It makes it easier to see trends, both good and bad. If the Freestyle/Palm combo, I have to wait till I get to the big computer and run EzManager.

I think that the Lifescan tech support sucks, but the last couple of times the Freestyle sucked too. You should not have to wait seven minutes to talk to a tech when you are dealing with blood sugar readings. Yeah, I time these things.

However, they did send me a bottle of 25 test strips, which pretty much takes care of the strips I’ve wasted, and I’ve gone from wasting 3 strips a day to one yesterday and so far, knock on wood, none today. So maybe I’ll have figured it out.

I’ve been using it for a week.

Using the test strips is enough different from the Freestyle, that I frequently screw up the procedure, thus wasting the strip. In fact, Wednesday morning, I wasted 3, then called the company and had them walk me through the procedure. Did it again Saturday and asked for some free test strips to make up for the ones I was screwing up.

I will probably be sticking with it. For a pumper, having a graph of your blood sugars by meal is invaluable. Also, having all the log book information in my hand and organized in different ways is also invaluable. The UltraSmart does a bunch of stuff EzManager doesn’t do, both the Palm and PC version.

However, you can’t transfer data back and forth between the three, which is sad.

I did see that the FDA issued an approval on something Lifescan called an ONETOUCH ULTRA 2 BLOOD GLUCOSE MONITORING SYSTEM. I am wondering if that is going to communicate with the Animas pump.

Even though we didn’t Q, I think we had 4 of our best runs. Sounds weird, but I wasn’t hurting and my blood sugar was in the best control I’ve ever had at a trial.

Marcie’s first run was very good — we missed clean by one weave pole, one of us wasn’t concentrating on what we were doing. Since we blew that, I was wiling to try some distance work like we do in class, and the end of the run was not only pretty but caused almost no stress on the knee. She was 3 seconds under time.

We were also clean until about jump 15 on the JWW course, but I got tired and pushed a little too hard and pushed her off a jump, we lost time as she circled it. We did nail the weaves, but I pushed too hard again, pushing her into an extra jump. My instructor and I both think that the 5 seconds over time were caused by the mistakes, and that she’d had made time.

Maggie is still extremely random. I couldn’t get good stays at the start on either run, but we still managed good work. Her JWW run was first, and she went into the wrong end of the tunnel, she also took an extra jump. I almost lost her at the weaves, but she did come when I called hard. She also bellowed less. One of fellows who has trained in most of Maggie’s class said — yeah, Kathleen, she doesn’t bellow as much if you keep up with her. She also did very nice weaves and only bellowed at the beginning and end.

I pulled her out of the tunnel on the opening — forgot I didn’t have perfect Marcie, and then she just couldn’t down on the table, and I don’t blame her, I wouldn’t have wanted it to either. Man it was cold. She also blew the weaves, which was weird, as there were only 6 poles.

Both dogs were with me most of the runs, I just lost Maggie for a few seconds, and both did what I told them to, most of the time. All of Marcie’s problems were handler caused.

It’s nice being tired because you had a long day, and not because you are sick from too much blood sugar.

Between the new schedule, tutoring and physical therapy, I just don’t get much spare time. The knee is much better, the PT thinks 4 more sessions maybe. It will be nice to get my evenings back.

Today is good example. Left at 7:00, picked up breakfast on way to school, staff meeting at 8:00, school starts at 8:40, first break 3rd period, but had to hunt people down. Rest of the day, go go, though had some time to grade, read, etc. since the kids were doing a writing assignment (mandatory).

Picked up food, picked up a heater for the agility trial this weekend — reminds me, need to double check and make sure they are not on a prohibited item list…. Got home, ate, and had 1/2 hour to play with the heater and a bit of down time. Went to PT, got gas on the way home and snacks for the trial. Got home about 7:30. This is the first down time I’ve had all day.

I am ready to be done with physical therapy, and the good news, is that after a really bad day last Monday, the rest of the week has been good, even with the cold fronts that have come in. The most important thing is that I’ve learned to NOT sit down and wait out the pain, but to do my PT exercises so it will get better faster.

Four Jobs I’ve Had
Kelly Girl — as a teenager, loved it
Police Dispatcher
Dog Bather
Pet Sitter

The last three are things I’ve done summers as an adult.

Four movies
You’ve got Mail
True Lies
Great Escape (the first one)
Full Monty

Four TV Shows
MASH
Cosby
Amazing Race
NCIS

I picked two old and two new

Four Places I’ve Been on Vacation
I’ve never really gone on a big vacation

Las Vegas
Jackson Mississippi
Monroe, Lousiana (twice for agility trials)
Round Rock Texas, but I don’t like that site much

Four of my favorite foods
Texas BBQ especially Marshall’s
El Chico’s Chicken Fajita Chimichanga
Anything with Chocolate, love the Sonic Browner Blaster
Greek Salads

Four Websites I visit daily
Dallas Morning News
especially for the latest DISD scandal
Google, especially Gmail
Slate
Anything on my RSS feed

Four places I would rather be
No where. It’s extremely difficult to get me out of Dallas and out of my house.