Living with Diabetes

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  • The Hunt Test, my knee, and diabetes

    I had to get up EARLY to get to the hunt test. Google maps indicated it would take 2 1/2 hours — but I may have calculated wrong, because I made it in 1 1/2. However, if I had gone during rush hour, it would have taken the full 2 1/2.

    My postpranial after breakfast was 180, but I decided not to correct as it looked like I was going to be on my feet and walking for a while. I think that was a good choice. I also had some lovely sausage and cheese bread at the hunt test site, and bolused for a regular piece of bread — I think that worked out well, when I got done with Marcie’s turn, I was at 120. And it was about two hours after the bread.

    I had some problems with the knee today, which I was expected. The PT kicked butt last night, it was all strength and stretching, and I was sore when I got up. Sitting in the truck for an 1 1/2 hours didn’t help it.

    I got smart. I took Marcie and my chair out during the second dog’s turn, and then ditched the chair during dog 3’s turn, so we’d be ready. One of the other handlers took it back to the sidelines for me.

    Marcie and I walked steadily in very rough terrain for our full turn — 30 minutes. Like I said, my blood sugar after was good.

    I ate lunch with the club and then came home. I got sleepy driving and I’m very proud of how I handled it. Instead of getting candy — something my dad taught me, but is dumb because the sugar makes me sleepier, I stopped at a Subway and got nice big salad. That got me home.

    I crashed when I got home, and then woke up at 5:00 pm with a blood sugar of 140. Not a bad diabetes day.

    The knee is still bothering me. I’m fine when I sit, but the longer I sit, the stiffer I am when I get up.

    It was really nice that my health issues didn’t get in the way of a planned day.

  • Hunt Test

    I took Marcie to a hunt test this morning at the Lone Star Dachshund Conservatory. Maggie went along, but I was pretty sure when I entered I was only up to one dog (and I was right).

    Lovely site! It’s fenced in, to keep both the dogs and the rabbits in. It was very dry there, very grassy with cedar trees. They have put out pallets, chopped down trees, etc. to create places for the rabbits to hide. They put out water and feed for the rabbits too.

    Here’s how it worked. They listed all the entered dogs, and then drew small numbered balls for our running order. We got to go 4th, which I think was a really good place to be in. I could see what other people did, and give Marcie a change to get out and see what was going on.

    When it was our turn, I was told to let Marcie off leash and to guide her into places where the rabbits might be. I actually flushed out the first rabbit, but Marcie was too far away to see it. She flushed one out later, but it ran towards the fence and she gave up when she saw it disappear at the fence. She didn’t realize that they can’t get out, and didn’t keep looking.

    She went back where she found it, and was very dilengent and excited about searching for it.

    Unfortunately she didn’t find anything else in her 30 minutes so we were excused.

    I was praised by several handles because I didn’t try to over control her, let her work, and didn’t say anything at all to discourage her. I was thrilled because she came when she was called and she worked hard. I wasn’t sure how that part would go.

    One of different parts of that day is that one of the big bosses at Tuesday Morning was there. I think Rich’s boss reports to him, but there may be a person in between. I’d first met Richard (yes, same name as my husband) and his wife at their house when they got their first basset hound. They are extremely active in the Basset Hound club now and have quite a few dogs. They do conformation and are just starting in field work. I will admit I didn’t recognize them at first, since we usually see each other dressed to the nines for the company Chirstmas party and they aren’t in my “dog database”.

  • Glucowatch Source

    A commenter asked about obtaining the Glucowatch.

    Animas Corp at http://www.animascorp.com owns Glucowatch now. I would assume you would contact them in the US and find out if there is any way to get one in your country.

    I’m honestly not sure of the price because of the ownership change.

  • Physical Therapy

    Tonight was a tough strength session. When we finished, my blood sugar was below 110 when I got done.

    Today went well. The Algebra I kiddos did well on the computers, we got our activity done — 7th period finished a bit early, but they usually do.

    I was on my feet all day, and was in pretty good shape at the end of the day.

    I have to be out of the house by 5:00 am tomorrow to get Marcie is a hunt test. More on that when we survive!

  • More Knee Good News

    No pain this morning! I figured I might have some problems this morning.

    The good news, is that I won’t be climbing the stairs as much today. I’ll be in one of my friends computer labs with the Algebra kids, go back to my room for the non-English speakers, and then back in her room for the end of the day. The computer labs are upstairs.

    I think I am ready for today. It’s going to be very interesting. We haven’t done this before.

  • Job news

    Don’t know how I feel about this. This is the news I’ve been hinting at.

    Was told by the principal that they couldn’t find a new CS teacher and didn’t want to lose the PreAP/AP CS program. They can find an ESL teacher. I get to keep my Algebra I repeaters. 35 x 3 of the most interesting students you’ll every meet — right now, the new ones are tagging my room (graffitt) and stealing stuff — we got over that in September, I hoped, but I have a different set of kids. I get to stay in my room with them. We had a very high passing rate last semester, but many of them had passed 2nd semester and were only lacking first semester.

    I get to go to the computer lab three classe periods and teach in that room for 4 days. For one day, I get to teach them in someone else’s class room for three periods. Longer story. Not worth getting into.

    They haven’t had any instruction since school started.

    Bet I lose more weight.

    I will do what is best for my kids and for my school I’m also not sure I’m the best teacher for the ESL students I have right now — most of them are extremely low level — we have moved all but one student who had talent in math. Many of them have not gone to school before they came to ours. Some weren’t allowed, some didn’t have schools, and in one sad case, no one cared enough to make him go to school. I can teach high school math to non-English speakers who have some skills — they are doing well in the higher level course. I am not doing well with kids who don’t have skills.

    Don’t know when the job change will happen.

    I feel like the saint of lost causes — but then that was what I was unofficially canonized for when I was in college — I tutored handicapped students taking CS and the CS professors got together and unofficially canonized me for it. Hey, the pay was $20.00 an hour when Work Study pay was under $3.00 who wouldn’t do it.

  • David writes about insulin allergy

    I’ve blogged about it before and left a comment for his blog. I am definately allergic to Humalog.

    Diabetes – Allergic To Medicine

    The full prescribing information for several insulins, including Lantus, Levemir, Humalog, and Humulin, all warn about allergic reactions. They say that these reactions are rare.

  • Physical Therapist

    If you need a physical therapist, I can’t recommend him enough.

    http://www.metrocrestchamber.com/html/members_alpha.cfm?Company=T

    Closest thing I can find to a website.

    My doctor’s office likes him too.

  • I ran dog agility!

    Yep, it wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t graceful, I wasn’t where I needed to be all the time, but the dogs and I managed to make it through 1 1/2 classes of dog agility.

    I did all of Maggie’s runs — they were pretty flowing and only a couple of front crosses — they hurt the worse — in front cross, you get in front of the dog and turn in front of them. As you might imagine, it’s hard on the knee. I do better with rear crosses as you drift behind the dog’s path to do those. Basically dog is ahead of you, and you move to the other side of the obstacle. Front crosses cause tighter turns than rear crosses, but like I said, you have to rotate on the knee and you are usually digging in and planting.

    Marcie’s runs were tougher as they were in the barn, tighter, and almost all front crosses. We only did have the class, two courses, and the first one really bit us inthe butts. We both made mistakes. Marcie felt mama pain vibes and was running slow. Mother was behind all the time, even behind slow Marcie.

    She’s a good dog though as she compensated for me on the second run and was perfect. Again not graceful, and I caused her some time wasting, but we got through it.

    Best yet, is that even though I was still and sore when I got home, the hot tub releived most of the pain.

    I love my PT!

  • Knee

    It feels almost 100% this morning. I hope it stays this way though I’ll probably mess it up tonight.

    Next two days are going to be a mess. I have to get the furnace fixed this afternoon — provided the part is avaiable. I’m going to check on that fairly early. Have to get my CDE appointment fixed, since they want to cancel on me. Probably just skip it as I see the endo that day. She’s over booked.

    I have to profile my students, which means giving them a practice test. That means getting copies. One of our copiers are down, and it’s the hardest to use for this job anyway. Hopefully the co-op teacher will let me borrow her copier since i’m careful to use it for emergencies and I gave her reams of paper.

    Of course, I was told this yesterday evenng.

    That’s not a big problem, since I really don’t want to start a new unit tomorrow. Grading and profiling is going to be a pain and will probably have to be done on Monday.

    Because of my mystery news (which might not happen), I’m trying to keep everything graded, everything planned, and everything ready to go at a moment’s notice.