Living with Diabetes

Blog

  • Another “promise” bites the dust…

    Welcome To Diabetes In Control – Topamax Not Effective for Obesity, Diabetes

    Johnson & Johnson last Wednesday said its epilepsy drug Topamax was not effective as a treatment for obesity and diabetes.

  • “The Biggest Loser”

    I’m watching this show — I think it’s the third episode I’ve seen, and they are down to six and cutting them lose — no longer on teams.

    Some of what they are doing makes sense — they showed a temptation dinner — which was typically of a family, church or work “spread”. Will it seems cruel, the participants saw it as something helpful. They used the experience to find the right food, and stay away from the wrong food.

    I still think there are a lot of wrong things about the whole premise. Weight loss isn’t necessarily less calories eaten and more burn. A lot of other factors go into it, for example, read the article on sleep I posed about earlier. Insulin is also a factor for me.

  • Sleeping the third key to losing weight

    Want to lose weight? Don’t forget to hit the sack

    Now a growing body of research is pointing to a third possible key to weight control: Get a good night’s sleep.

    And in my case, I tend to eat to stay awake.

  • SharpMT

    I’ve installed SharpMT on both my school laptop and my home computer. If you have a TypePad or Movable Type blog, this is a really fast way to blog. You can also blog “off line” and upload later, which isn’t an issue. It works a lot like my mobile blogging software.


    So maybe I’ll blog a bit more.


    See Sharp MT Site

  • More on gastric bypass surgery

    Oddly enough, it came up somehow today at an agility trial. Weird coincidence, but a lady see at agility trials, and who has the same size dog, actually has had successful gastric bypass surgery. She told me that the biggest things I needed to figure out, is

    a) can I live without whatever food gives me down — can I give up eating full meals, sugar, and lots of other things

    b) what size do I see myself, and can I “be” thin.

    And I think the answer to those two questions right now are no.

  • Speaking of Weight Loss…

    It’s not going as well as I would like lately.

    However, I feel I’m mostly recovered from the few weeks without exercise. My bolus ratios are still low, but my daily insulin usage has gone done substantially AND my blood sugar levels have stabilized again.

    The good news, is that I lost the weight I had temporaily gained and now I am not gaining.

    —
    From my Treo

  • Gastric bypass surgery

    I have been thinking about surgery since if I am going to do it, I need to do it this year.

    Lots of reasons not to though — first, I can always wait a year, and it wouldn’t be that big of a thing.

    I am afraid I would be trading one set of medical problems for another.

    There is a huge possiblity insurance won’t cover it, and I’m definately a believer that you don’t rely on insurance 100%. In fact, I just talked to someone who has had the surgery, happy with it, but has already paid for over half, and I wouldn’t be surprise if she doesn’t end up paying for all of it.

    FYI: If you don’t count on insurance covering things you won’t be rudely suprised. Been there, done that.

    I am still afraid that going with WLS means trading one set of health problems for another. In fact, I only have one health condition that will probably be solved by weight loss surgery, and I consider it the least of the problems (GERD).

    I also consider that waiting a year means that I’ll have a stronger case, I definately am getting good documentation on weight loss via the CDE.

    So I really think I’ll not be doing surgery. It really only comes up with me when I realize that it’s six months until June AND I’m depressed about weight loss, or lack there of.
    —
    From my Treo

  • A bunch of reasons for being on insulin rather than relying on oral agents

    Achieving Glycemic Control in Type 2 Diabetes

    This paper will review currently available oral therapies, with a focus on the unique attributes of the insulin sensitizers for patients with type 2 diabetes.

    I’d heard this on a diabetes awareness piece but had posted anything about it here yet, because I didn’t have time to confirm it.

    BUT, according to this article and the news item I watched, oral agents only reduce A1C by 1.5 – 2.0 % —

    I suppose most people start out with diabetes more gradually than I did. Before my glucose tolerance test, my fasting blood sugar was never over 200, and I think (but don’t remember), it was between 150-200.

    My blood sugar was elevated to over 500 at the end of a glucose tolenance test, and never went below 400 until I went on insulin, no matter what I ate or did.

    And it took weeks on insulin to get it down to something reasonable.

    I still haven’t “recovered” from that excusion, my blood sugar hits over 300 if I forget to bolus, and it climbs to 200 if I get disconnected from the pump for several hours (like gets pulled off at night).

    I don’t think oral meds would have solved the problem even if we had played with combinations. And man, I didn’t enjoy the side effects.

  • This must be why their formulary is so skewed.

    Prescription Drugs | Lawsuit Alleges Medco Paid Health Plan $200 Million in Kickbacks – Kaisernetwork.org

  • Interesting updates

    I’ll pass on the inhaled insulin…. I’ve never done well if inhaled medications.

    Diabetes In Control – Drugs in Development