Living with Diabetes

Blog

  • Problems with controlling blood sugar

    If anyone doubts I have diabetes … and yes, sometimes I do, because I can keep my blood sugar so stable with the pump,

    my blood sugar spiked to 355 on Saturday and to 250 on Sunday evening.

    I’m not sure why, but the dogs not behaving well at all on Saturday at an agility probably had something to do with it. I need to download everything and review logs, but it’s possible I missed a bolus.

    As it was, the blood sugar was down to 155 Sunday morning and down to 116 this morning. I like fasting blood sugar lower, but not bad considering where it came from.

  • The insurance thing has me confused

    Here’s the latest.

    I want an IR1250 from Animas. Why, the carb counter for 500 foods you most often eat is built into the pump. Having to carry around a Palm pilot all the time to do the calculations has gotten to be a pain. So, I want one.

    I’m now on Blue Cross Blue Shield, and I contacted my sales rep, who had me contact someone who is expert on pursuing denials and she told me since I was on a PPO, they had to ship the pump, then get approval and they ate the cost if it was denied. Okay, I can deal with that. Oh, man, can I deal with that, after the HMO thing, of waiting forever for the denial, getting the pump and waiting months for more denial.

    So I sent in all the paperwork, got shifted to a different person than before, which might be a good thing, and get an email that he sent the pre-certification paperwork on Feb 04. I’m like what, I thought they said it didn’t grow through that.

    So I emailed the person I emailed about this first, and said since it had been less than 2 years, it was “inside Animas” and had to be pre-certified, but just because it got pre-certified doesn’t mean they will pay for it.

    Well, now I’m waiting on that — though I don’t think the 1250 is shipping yet. I’d love to have it before we go to Monte Carlo, but that all depends on insurance and when they are shipping.

    The weirdest thing, is though they have issued press releases there is still nothing on the website about the 1250.

  • I keep telling people this…

    comments

    See, someone else with the SAME problem.

    When I have my blood sugar under control, NO problem with food, but man, when it spikes and for me a spike is anything over 180, I start looking for more food.

    One of the symptoms of diabetes is polyphagia – eating lots and lots of food.

  • Passport Came!

    I haven’t said much in the blog, but my husband and I are traveling to Monte Carlo in March. He’s going to play in the European Series of Poker.

    We’ve been slowing gathering things we might need — I’ve got a battery for the CPAP so I can sleep on the airplane.

    I’ve got a few none health related things on my list, but the biggest thing is making sure I have a legal carry on bag so I can have everything with me.

  • There is actually a picture and link to the blog!

    VOA News – From Politics to Hobbies, Individuals Take Their Views Into the Blogosphere

  • FS Day 21 Sunday Feb 6

    Clean Eating 11/25
    Cardio Session 18/35
    Strength Session 16/28

    Weird, but I can’t seem to access the forum portion of iShape.

  • FS Day 20 Saturday Feb 5

    Clean Eating 11/25
    Cardio Session 17/35
    Strength Session 15/28

    iShape has me on too few calories which is bugging me. I’m going to 2300 calories for a while and see if that helps.

    They had me as low as 1800, which really bothers me in lots of ways. First, I want more food than that. I would rather walk more than eat less. Second, I’m afraid it will put me in starvation mode, especially since I wasn’t sleeping well last week.

  • Voice of America

    The blog might be mentioned in an Voice of America article and if so, and any readers came from the article welcome.

    I got a call from the writer of the article today, which was a bit odd after I thought about it, but it’s okay.

    There are several reasons why I’ve put up this blog, and I haven’t mentioned them in a time. Hmmm, and come to think of it, I’m approaching an anniversary.

    One reason I started the blog, was I needed a writing exercise. One of the things I want to do when I “grow up”, is to write teaching materials for my students. I do some already but I’m not real happy with it yet. I think of this blog as a “child” of the Medrants blog (www.medrants.com), because I had been reading his blog for a while and he mentioned the same reason for writing his, which gave me the impedious.

    The reason I’ve focused on diabetes, is that this blog has seemed to be a good respository for the information I’ve gathered about diabetes on the internet. That’s why many of the entries ARE news articles. I have gotten more and more selective over the years, I do reference EVERY THING, just the useful stuff.

    Since my diagnosis, I spent a great deal of time dealing with the issue on the internet. My tendency, since I teach this stuff, is to use the internet to solve as many problems as possible. I guess I keep hoping I’ll find a short cut or even a cure on the web, and I’m sure I have.

    Finally, I do spend a great deal of my time on the internet itself. I have a classroom website where I keep my classroom assignments, have my students turn in their work, etc. I keep my dog photos on line (and on my palm), and I even use iShape for workshops.

    Definately an internet person. Interesting bit of trivia — I had the second personal internet account in the DFW area.

    Finally, if I can help anyone following this path, I’m glad to do so.

  • FS DAY 19 THURSDAY FEB 3

    Clean Eating 11/25
    Cardio Session 15/35
    Strength Session 13/28

    I think I’m going to meet most of my goals. I think Saturday is the end of the third week on this challenge, and I’m definally going to get the strength one done. Should be able to do the cardio too.

    Cleaning Eating has been hard, because iShape dropped both my cardio level and calorie level — they do something called periodization. I’ve finally gotten myself to do 20 minutes on their off days. However, that puts me at a very big deficit so I’m trying to come up with a compromise on the calorie level. Today, I did 228 calories of cardio and ate an extra 100 calories.

  • I’ve got a problem with this article

    I’ve never been able to stick to a diet of 1400 calories. And in fact, if I did that right now, I’d be in starvation mode.

    According to iShape’s calculations, without exercise, I burn 2525 calories. At 1400 calories, I’d be in deficiet by 1125 calories.

    That should make me lose a pound every 3-4 days, way too fast.

    Diabetes Health – Tips for Successful Weight Loss

    Participants consumed an average of 1,400 calories per day
    Their daily food intake was very similar—approximately 24 percent of their calories came from fat, 19 percent from protein and 56 percent from carbohydrates.