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DB’s Medical Rants ? Reggie White, RIP

I’m anxious to hear the details about this myself, being a CPAP patient and being extremely compliant.

I’ve seen two causes listed now, but nothing official and we probably won’t get official results for several weeks.

I usually set up a nice web page but didn’t get around to it this season.

Well, I threw something together in class to demostrate the techniques to my students, but I never did like anything I put together.

Photos

I’ll start this entry out, by saying, I’ve always taken jobs that had excellent health insurance and have stayed in the current job because of the health insurance (certainly NOT because of the pay). Though there are lots of intangible benefits to teaching, like these two weeks off.

Anyway, people “get” me. Tonight, someone contacted me on chat, and started out the conversation whining about people in the next county over who wanted his county to “support” them.

Then whined about how he got denied by SS disability.

Now, I’ve actually worked for that office — In Mississippi — a LONG time ago. Assuming that the standards are similar, they don’t turn people down very often.

But here’s the point — in one breath he is whining about other people wanting tax money — and then wants other people’s tax money in the next breath.

Weird.

Sometimes you truly get more than what you pay for. I’ve been using Movable type for most of the life of the blog. When they went to the pay model, I tried Word Press, but just didn’t like it as well.

Well, I had uploaded and installed the latest release, but was having trouble with the upload. I didn’t notice that not everything got loaded, and I was seeing some problems with the month and category archives.

I put in a ticket in the Movable Type help system this evening thinking that it would be processed early on Monday. WRONG, I got an email at 11:03 pinpointing the exact problem, and it is now fixed.

I love doing business with companies that have their act together!

Animas has been VERY VERY good lately.

Of course, they recently replaced my pump, but they also handled my supplies promptly. I ordered a bit early, I was due to order January 1, but I was cutting it close on the Inset infusion sets. I’ve been changing every other day lately, which means I use 45 sets in a 90 day period. I was afraid if I waited and ordered on the 2nd, I would run out and be forced to use the Comfort sets I have.

The Comforts aren’t bad, but I have to see the needle and have to manually insert. The Insets are fabulous because I never have to look at the needle. Plus they are virtually pain-free to insert — every once in a while I hit a nerve, but on the whole they aren’t bad.

Anyway, the new order arrived today, so I don’t have to worry about running out this cycle.

Note the medication itself, but the way it is dispensed. It is preservative free, so it comes in little plastic vials, in a tube. They are clearly marked, single use only, dispose immediately, do not keep, etc. They are dosed 2 drops, 1 in each eye, twice a day. However, they are packaged in a package of 32. That means, you have to hang onto the vial for the second dose, which is clearly against the other labeling.

However, in the sample pack I was given, they give you a nice little plastic thing, built to hold the vial upright.

Very odd.

I can’t decide if it is helping and IF that is the problem. I got new contacts prescribed, and most of the time they work fine, I have really good reading vision and really good driving vision, but occasionally I lose my mid vision. I think it’s because my eyes are so dry.

I’ve got a follow up on Monday and will discuss it then. And keep trying.

I’ve been able to consistently exercise since before Thanksgiving. I’ve been following iShape suggestions, except for their off days. I do take their strength exercise off days, but in the interest of maintaining blood sugar, I do 20 minutes on the cardio off days.

As a result, I’ve been able to reduce my bolus rate to around 12:1.

Actually that’s the weird part, I’ve noticed that I do better if I do the following:
breakfast rates: 13:1
lunch rates: 12:1
dinner rates: 11:1

Though my CDE didn’t seem to think that was a bit strange. But I found that if I used the lowest rate, (13:1), all day, I would slowly start running right later in the day. If I use the highest rate, I do low in the mornings.

I can probably go a tad higher, but I am never change anything too quickly.

My lowest bolus rates have been 5:1 — my best has been 15:1, until the brief set back I had in October.

And I’m pretty proud of how it turned out.

Mexican food itself is fairly difficult for diabetics to deal with — which is a shame, because there is a high risk of diabetes in hispanics. But I digress. Last night, husband and I decided to go to El Chico’s and I wanted a break from measuring everything, etc. So I did an extended bolus with 15 units of insulin for 3 hours. Then I checked two hours after the last of the insulin was delivered and did a correction. It was temping to do another correction, as my blood sugar was climbing instead of dropping, but I resisted.

Woke up this morning and fasting blood sugar was 105.

Not bad!

I think I’ll extend the bolus longer next time, though don’t worry, next time will be a few months away.

And I have improved — I have switched to fajitas rather than eating a chimicanga.