Blog

  • Perfect alert

    I was at a meeting, Dulce was some what restless.

    Then she jumps up on me.

    I test.

    I am at 89. Eat something.

    I am good.

    She gets a cookie.

    We are all happy.

    Sent from my Windows Phone

  • Dulce Compliments

    I’ve been getting compliments on Dulce’s behavior – especially at a restaurant at dinner – and she is so new at that. I stopped using a cage when we were eating in August.

    My answer: thank you but she’s a service dog, she’s expected to be well behaved but also graciously accept compliment since she is self trained.

  • Travel Cursed

    I arrived and there were two problems at my hotel:

    • A “My Little Pony Convention”
    • My door wouldn’t open

    First a question: Do you tip maintenance? My plan is to get some change and leave him a tip in an envelope.

    First the door knob wouldn’t turn, second the door itself was stuck. Apparently all the doors on the 9th floor need their batteries replaced.

    The sad part, is that this hotel is one of the hotels I could pick for TCEA in February and I like the room and the price. It has a corner sitting area. It has a mobile desk and a nice office chair. So far, the internet seems to be working well.

    Now to the “My Little Pony” thing. I’m not sure which is worse, the young adults dressed up in furry costumes (and yes, I know the implications and it creeps me out), or the hordes of young children who should probably still be in school. We don’t do that age group well. Probably more my issue than hers.

  • The call for service dog regulation is going to hurt service dog users

    First, service dogs are very expensive. I can't tell you if the expense is a good or a bad thing.

    If I had had to purchase a trained service dog I wouldn't have one. I am lucky, I can train my own.

    I will tell you if service dogs are regulated, they will be even more expensive and I wouldn't even be able to use Dulce. 

    As it was, I had to convince my school district that I needed her. And my gym.

    I will say that restaurants have been easiest but not all stores. 

    How do I prove that Dulce truly does what she does without endangering my health?

    Its all truly a mess and the liars need to stop.

    Sent from my Windows Phone

  • Scale Victory

    While I have been in this decade on this scale before, and I have been in this decade at the doctor’s office – my Aria weighs 5 pounds heavier at least – I have finally seen this decade again. It’s been at least last December.

    I saw it briefly before winter last year, gained about 5 pounds and have bounced around that weight for months. It’s taken going back to school to see any progress.

    I’ve been working out all summer, but the activity level isn’t the same, and any traveling I’ve done has been very sedentary. Since school has started back, I’ve only missed going to the gym twice, and those were very long and on my feet days.

    I have been discouraged though, that my arthritis pain is still bad.

  • Another Dulce Alert

    Thought I had enough carbs on board for a workout. Stopped at the gym on the way home. At 26 minutes into the work (I was going for 30), Dulce got up from her mat. Told my workout neighbor that meant it was time to go.

    She timed it pretty well, didn’t really feel the effects until I hit the house. I grabbed her and a few things out of the car, greeted Macy when it hit me. Had husband get the meter out of the car since the one in the house was out of strips and the strips were upstairs.

    Freaking 61!

    We had a low party, I had protein Gatorade, and laid down and let it work. She keep checking on me every few minutes, even though I was willing to give in completely. After a while I picked back up and went out to dinner with the husband not in any shape to cook.

    Diabetes sucks.

  • Liking Medtronics Customer Service

    I started getting Senor Errors on Friday morning. Didn’t think much of it, as I was at the end of the life of the current sensor. It’s the first I’ve had since the beginning of my first box. However, I got another sensor error at lunch today, and decided I needed to call customer support about it. However, I was at lunch with friends, wanted to get my nails done for the next weeks AND knew I needed to be near the “blue thing”.

    So I waited until I got home.

    Nice friendly service. Everything checks out, we decided that we would toss this sensor and that she would send me two new ones. Have no clear what caused the problem but reviewed the rules, and put a new sensor in. I’ll need to put a tad more insulin in their cartridge I’m sure.

    Impressed I wasn’t put on hold for someone to call me back. (That was Animas on the weekends). Was overall very favorable impressed with the whole customer support experience.

  • Dulce Alerts Still Surprise Me

    We’ve been working together for over a year now, and I still get caught by surprise.

    People ask me what her alert is – I had trained for a “pick up” of the leash, but that just doesn’t work for either of us.

    Banging the crate door and whining when she is “in her officer” and pawing at me when she isn’t works fine. Or when we’re at the gym and she gets up from her mat.

    Also, she does it SO early. Last night I was 103, from a 180 just an hour before. If that trend had continued, and I’m sure it would have, we’d have been caught on a highway under construction. Never pretty.

    Long before it will be a problem.

    Good dog.

  • Dulce is working her beagle tail off

    This has probably been the worst first week of school for chewing up blood sugar. I honestly got sick of chewing today. I’ve been running low the last three days, and poor Dulce has been alerting.

    The funniest this evening was at a Social Hour after school. We were at a local bar and grill and my husband came to meet us. I honestly thought I had things under control, my husband was petting Dulce and so I wasn’t paying that much attention. She started pawing at me, and I ignored her the first few times. I finally decided to test and I’d gone from 180 to 105 in the space of an hour and no way was I driving home 30 minutes or more in traffic in that state.

    Dumped some sugar in my tea and decided I needed to eat dinner then – only that appealed was chips and queso, which is what I did. Actually a good choice as they were able to get them to me fast.

    I’m pretty high now, but haven’t wanted to risk doing another correction since they have been making me low. And yes, I did fix my correction ratio.

    That’s the first time my husband has seen her alert – and he didn’t realize that she keeps alerting until I’m “fixed”.

  • Met @SHanselman last night!

    I met Scott Hanselman finally. Toi Wright and the DFW ASP.NET user group brought him here to Dallas. I know her from Geeks in Pink. I joined the user group specifically for the talk. I’ve done some ASP.NET, but not much.

    I’ve tweeted Scott a few times, asking him packing advice, corresponded with him on diabetes issues and harassed him over his kids and Legos (since I coach two US FIRST FTC Robotics teams). He even tweets me back.

    I’ve followed his blog forever, especially his diabetes advice. I’ve listened to his podcast. Yes, I’m a fan. Meeting consisted of tweeting him in advance and telling him to watch for a small beagle Diabetes Assistance Dog – and yes, she was the only dog there – and saying hello to him before his talk.

    He tweeted me this morning. <brag>

    Meeting him wasn’t as cool as meeting Clint Rutkas, as I’ve had lots of time to pick his brain – but then Clint does Xbox stuff, and I teach Xbox stuff. (And why does Microsoft Office insist on spelling Xbox, Xbox and not XBox?) I don’t do much ASP stuff.

    I did have an awesome time. Toi knows how to put on a user group. I also always manage to win door prizes….I did last night.

    I think I wore Dulce out though.