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Those of you who have been reading for a while, will know I was a member at a gym that I absolutely loved. They greeted me by name and acted like they cared.

Well, the company that owns them shut them down. They converted our memberships to the local country club that they own. All of their part time employees were fired, and two of the four full time employees.

Well, it’s not the manager’s fault, but I am just not comfortable there. First, I have tried the country club scene, and it isn’t for me.

Second, the people who work out at the gym are positive dirty — and the worst part is that the worst culprits are people who have positions at the club. For example, the tennis pros sweat all over the treadmills, and then don’t bother to wipe that sweat up.

Of course, these are the same people who are rude both in and away from the athletics area. And the country club wait staff are rude too. I went to two parties and the grill, and in all cases, and I’m sure weight is the issue, I wasn’t waited on until I took the first move.

Then they got new fitness equipment and I’m sorry again, the transition hasn’t gone well.

First, their new weight equipment is just too confusing. They were supposed to have someone on the floor to help people, and maybe he was helpful to others but I have not have had positive experiences with him.

Second, the new cardio equipment wasn’t set up right. Apparently they didn’t have electrical outlets in the right place and it took over a week to get that fixed. And then as soon as they got all of them up, they started breaking.

They have also treated a long term employee badly. They basically demoted him — putting him on the desk which he can’t leave — which keeps him from training HIS clients when he is on duty. He has to work extra hours if he was to train people.

And that doesn’t even get into the space. The athletics area is just too small. The locker area is down a flight of stairs which this time of year is always coold. There isn’t much room to get dressed down there and only room for 3 people to use mirrors at a time.

Upstairs has a dressing area, but only room for 2 people at a time.

There was a line for the showers in the morning at least once.

They didn’t have enough room to have cardio, weights and stretching in one area, so moved the free weights and stretching into another room — which is not only inconvenient but most of the members wouldn’t use. AND most of the trainers didn’t use, making the cardio room hard to navigate.

So I’m going to get a treadmill that I can fold up and roll out of the way when someone comes to visit. I’ll be able to watch whatever TV station I want, and I can workout however I want. I’m also going to hire a local personal trainer that does quite a bit of his program online.

I can also work out little bit at a time, which might help these heel spurs.

And it’s coming on Wednesday after school. Got it from Sears. It was a good deal, it feels good walking on it, — at least the one in the store. The cheapest was definately cheaper — didn’t feel good at all. One of my friends said she’s wished she’d spent a bit more and gotten a studier one when she bought hers.

I’m getting with a personal trainer to find out what equipment I need, besides the treadmill and the ball. I’m going to go back to Sears — apparently I have a $25 gift card coming — and buying weights after I’ve talked with the personal trainer.

… and I decided to try and call him in the middle of the message and now I have a shopping list.

First, their pumps are really water tight. I really don’t have any qualms about spending a day out in the backyard in the pool. Of course, it isn’t happening in February, and I wouldn’t spend every minute in the pool, but I’ve been know to spend some time there. It’s in the shade a lot of the day. (We do live in Texas).

Second, every single person I’ve ever met who works for Animas is happy where they work. You hear it in their voice.

If you have a problem they fix it. The clip has broken off my pump twice — now I am tempted to buy a spare, because it always breaks on the weekend, first on Saturday, second on a Friday with a Monday postal holiday, so it does mean I’m without the clip for a few days, and I use my clip! And I haven’t been charged once.

Donetta — the local pump trainer is just absolutely wonderful! I cannot say enough about her.

Well, they have one issue. Their billing system is a bit strange. Don’t get me wrong, I get bills, I pay them and I get receipts. It’s just every time they send me a bill, every single transaction from day 1 is on it. I used to a bill that has last month’s balance, this month’s transactions, and the new balance.

And heck that might a good thing.

First, I will admit to some FUD (Fear, Uncertainly and Dismay) that they were bought by Abbott.

Here’s what I like about Therasense. If you call freaked out because your meter is acting weird, and you are a new diabetic, do they do not treat you like you are stupid. FYI: Lifescan did treat me like I was stupid when I couldn’t get their One Touch Ultra Smart to work — and I wasn’t a new user and I wasn’t freaked out. I went through 8 test strips to get one blood test to work. I do have a One Touch Ultra just in case something happens with Freestyle. (Long story, but Animas is handing out free Ultra Smarts). The secret — you can’t bleed to much with their meters and test strips.

The other thing about the Freestyle, is that the test strip doesn’t care if you don’t bleed enough or you bleed too much. If you don’t bleed enough, you have time to give it enough blood to make the meter happy — yeah the blasted things are vampires.

Every single dealing I’ve had with Therasense Freestyle has been cool. Well, they don’t do email as well as I would like, but they do phone really well. (I have trouble with doing phones since I’m a classroom teacher who has students from 8:00 – 4:00) The good news, is they do phone outside that window.

Medtronic MiniMed: Protect My Child

Unfortunately this is by Mini-Med. Sorry, but after watching the insulin-pumpers list since June, and reading the archives back through March, these are not people I want to to trust with my life.

They’ve apparently screwed up every new device they released this year.

The Paradigm system only works with properitory infusion sets. (FYI — this is why I always have hated Macs).

The BD Monitor that links with the Paradigm 512 and 712 gives off error messages on 3 out of 5 test strips (okay, maybe it’s 2 out of 5), to just about everyone who has used it. The only people who don’t seem to follow some really bizarre instructions.

They sold a bunch of insulin pumps as water tight (or was that proof — there is some difference between the terms), then had most of them fail — giving too much insuiln in most cases — as soon as they got damp. I was just thinking about a pump then, and we have a pool so I was sure glad not to have gotten one of those, and have an Animas that is water proof.

A group of people have been harassed by the company for bills they were told had been paid by their insurance companies or were told were forgiven as long as 4 years ago. Usually co-pays.

A large number of people hate their new insulin set — the Quick Set Plus. While I attribute a lot of that feeling to a “who moved my cheese feeling”, I feel their pain, as I tried SpectraRX sets and hated them for many of the same reasons — and I really wanted to like those sets.

It seems it won’t be available for a couple of months, so hopefully Therasense’s Navigator will be on the close horizon.

And it is definately NOT a company I want to use to deliver me a closed loop system.

I’ve never been fond of government sponsored research and am even less so right now.

I honestly feel that diabetes research, heart disease research, etc. should be privately funded, and not funded by the government.

I even feel that way about space research these days — it was different when it was a defense related thing, but it isn’t now. In fact, I just said to my husband that putting money into going to Mars right now, is like buying a plasm TV when you can’t make the mortgage payment.

I think we’re much better off if we, as a government spend money for educating everyone rather than working on special interest projects. Of course, I’m a teacher … but I wouldn’t be teaching in public school if I didn’t believe that.

Got a letter from the state insurance board, almost didn’t want to open it because I was afraid that it might tell me that I was finally and unrevokable denied on reimbursement for the pump.

But it wasn’t that. Just told me they were working on it and who was in charge of the case.
The same nurse who I’d talked to on the phone.