Living with Diabetes

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  • Yikes!

    I always knew those Type 2 diabetes drugs weren’t anything to mess with….

    I’ll admit to blowing the initial headlines off, thinking — well, it’s a known complication anyway, until I read the following paragraph.

    FYI: Eyes scare me AFTER cardiovascular complications.

    Rosiglitazone Linked to New/Worsening Macular Edema

    A majority of the cases involved concurrent peripheral edema, according to an alert sent today from MedWatch, the FDA’s safety information and adverse event reporting program. In some patients, macular edema resolved or improved after discontinuation of therapy. In one case, the condition resolved after dose reduction.

  • My knee

    I put a knee brace on this evening, and went to dog agility class. I got to the outside of the aframe which was obstacle 3 on the course), put my knee on the ground and screamed. I honestly don’t know what happened now, at the time, I thought it was a snap or a pull, but now I think it is a really really sharp intense pain.

    I’m taking tomorrow off and dealing with it. I’m on crutches, but mostly to support some of my weight, not immobilizing it.

    The good news: He is sending me to a retired army physical therapist who can get me running again if anyone can.

    The bad news: I may not ever run again.

    Plus the jerks didn’t reconnect the temperature gauge when they repaired my truck so maybe I can get that done too.

    (You are a jerk if you don’t check everything).

  • My knee

    I put a knee brace on this evening, and went to dog agility class. I got to the outside of the aframe which was obstacle 3 on the course), put my knee on the ground and screamed. I honestly don’t know what happened now, at the time, I thought it was a snap or a pull, but now I think it is a really really sharp intense pain.

    I’m taking tomorrow off and dealing with it. I’m on crutches, but mostly to support some of my weight, not immobilizing it.

    The good news: He is sending me to a retired army physical therapist who can get me running again if anyone can.

    The bad news: I may not ever run again.

    Plus the jerks didn’t reconnect the temperature gauge when they repaired my truck so maybe I can get that done too.

    (You are a jerk if you don’t check everything).

  • Normalizing

    My fasting blood sugar was 107 this morning.  Lowest it’s been in a while.

    While the break was nice, it was definately hard on my blood sugar, especially last week when I’ve taken a break from working out because of the knee.  I plan to start up again on Saturday.

    I also should get my truck back today.  I think I blogged that I took it in on Monday and not only is the door broken, but the engine compartment is leaking.  They were hoping to have it done yesterday after school, but didn’t get there.  It’s going to cost about $3,000 to get it fixed.  I’m hoping that 6 car payments are going to be better than 3-4 years worth of car payments.

    I plan to ice my knee after each stair excusion and see if that helps.  I may have to break down and get a heating pad too.

    Plus I have dog agility tonight.

    Does anyone know if the knee braces sold at Walgreen’s would help?

  • Diabetes OC Blog Choice Award!

    I attended the awards ceremony last night, and it was a lot of fun.

    And … drum roll … this blog was honored with the Best Adult with Type 2 Blog Award

    blogaward.jpg

    As I said in my acceptance speech last night — I owe it all to Medrants, his blog is my parent blog.

  • Knee

    My knee has been bugging me since I went back to work yesterday.  Today is probably equal to yesterday which is good, since this was the first teaching day, but I didn’t need to spend a lot of time moving through the classroom. 

    I’ll be tied to the computer most of the period tomorrow, so that will help.

    I am finding ice does give some relief.  Also the hot tub provides some temporary relieve.

    I have a call out to the doctor for something that works better than the Celebrex.  I’m ready for a knee brace right now, boots really helped with my feet.

  • Made in America

    I DVR’ed last night episode of Made In America on the Travel Channel.

    Before I saw that segment, I thought Made in America was a good series.  I had no idea how good.  Ratzenburger narrated and his narrative was very carefully researched.  He explained what diabetes does, how a pump makes a difference, etc.  One of the best 10 minute segments on Insulin Pumping and Type 1 Diabetes. 

    You really need to see it.  It’s fascinating how the pumps are made.  You actually get to see the individual processes. 
    There were a few points I have problems with.  I seriously doubt that there are “millions” of Smith insulin pumps in use.  I also don’t think it is the most portable insulin pump — I think the Animas is, as its profile is smaller, and it’s easier to hide on your body.  I also think they should have pointed out that you still have to poke a whole in your body to get a blood sugar reading.  They made that sound like it was a complete function of the pump and that’s the part I have to educate the most about.

    I would have gone with a Smith pump IF they had been more responsive.  When I was initially pump shopping.I contacted all the manufacturers.  It was just after the Minimed / waterprrof debacle and since I have a pool they were completely ruled out.  I was very torn between Smith and Animas.  Here’s what sold me.  Smith sent me a brochure in the mail.  The Animas rep contacted me via email, arranged for me to meet him in person AND other pumpers at an insulin users groups and was 100% proactive.  Good thing for them, because I’ve bought two pumps from them (an IR1000 and an IR1250), and all supplies since I’ve met them.

    I don’t remember, but I may have told the Smith people I was Type 2 and what insurance and figured it wasn’t worth pursuing, but they should remember, some people find pumping important enough to lay out the money for it themselves, even if insurance won’t help.

  • I’ve certainly found this to be true

    Shorter Dinner-To-Bed Time Linked to GERD

    In addition to diabetes, I do have GERD (Gastric Reflux Disease). Before my diabetes diagnosis, I was careful not to eat after 6:00 pm and I found that my sympthoms were significanly reduced.

    However, now if diabetes, the nuitrionist had me eating before I went to bed and yes, I saw an increase in GERD. In fact, just about everything they want you to do to manage your blood sugar makes GERD worse.

    My GERD is best if I only eat three meals a day. Of course, that causes spikes.

    I am working hard to avoid eating at night, but these higher blood sugar levels make it harder.

  • Living the Diabetes Life

    Diabetes Mine: Amylin’s Colorful CEO, and AOL’s Stake in Diabetes Blogging

    The Type 1 bloggers are very upset by the Amylin’s statement that she tests her blood sugar once a day to “live the diabetes life”, and rightly so.

    One thing to keep in mind, is that Byetta is potentially a bigger money maker than Symlin, and Symlin is exculsively for Type 1 at the current time. So her largest market share is Byetta.

    However, they also forget that is often the Type 2 Diabetics life. When I first was diagnosed, I was given a prescription and told to test my blood sugar. I was given this schedule:

    Monday: Test in the morning
    Tuesday: Test before lunch
    Wednesday: Test before dinner
    Thursday: Test before going to bed
    Friday: Test in the morning
    Saturday: Test before lunch
    Sunday: Test before dinner

    Why? Well many insurance plans will only cover 50 strips a month for non-insulin using diabetics. Some only over 100 strips. Over a long time period, this will give the doctor a picture. Not an inaccurate picture.

  • Today

    I think my blood sugar is slowly lowering.  We’ll have to see.

    Today was a teacher work day.  Got my student’s grades back.  They had a very good passing rate on the final and a better overall passing rate.  This is good as all of my students are repeating their class.  As a result, I am starting to get a little bit of “big head.”

    My knee is in horrible shape.  The bad news is that the elevator wasn’t working and I ended up going up to the second floor a bunch of times.  Unfortunately there is no elevator between my room and the main building, but it’s easier to up and down that flight slowly — for one, it’s steeper.

    I’m worried about tomorrow.

    Good news: there is very little change between my 1st semester roll and my 2nd semester roll for my ELI classes.
    Bad news: There is a massive change in my repeaters classes.  They are all over 25 students now.  We had quite a few students who had flunked only 1st semester of Algebra I, they were also enrolled in Geometry and they are all gone now.  (They all passed).

    It’s going to be an interesting day.

    Sure hope my truck is back.

    I have some decisions to make.  If I want to move to the new school, there is a January 31st deadline to apply.  I don’t think I want to go, but I don’t want to burn that bridge.  Also, my principal tells me that he has a computer science opening (I knew this).  Of course that status could change, but I would have seniority.  Of course that didn’t count last year.

    So do I want to teach computer science?  Or math?  I’m leaning towards math.

    Do I want to stay at my building?  My biggest problem with my building right now is temperature control.  It’s great out in the portables — that might be a plus for a new school.  My old classroom was incredibly hot in the winter time.

    Decisions!