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I am going to start out by saying if you are hypo and hyper glycemic unaware that having a dog that can hp y9ou with that is invaluable, and is great for your confidence and state of mind.

However, don’t do it if you just want to keep your dog with you. There are some drawbacks. First, accidents. Dulce had a few on the trip. Thankfully, she’s small, I feed her really good food, and I don’t let her have too many treats when we are traveling.

Most of them were caused by logistics and once I realized what we needed to do to get where we were going, we were fine. No accidents in the hotel room. One was caused because I really just wanted to get her to the dog park. One was caused because we were both being a little bit stubborn. Still not sure what was up with that.

Austin was dog friendly. There was a dog park close to the hotel which we used the first two days – Wednesday and Thursday were just too busy. There was a regular city park across from the Hilton and they were VERY pet friendly. Probably worth it to stay there.

The Holiday Inn where we did stay at wasn’t too bad. Just not as much grass.

The other thing is that your medical business is out there for everyone to see. Not as bad as say a wheel chair or a white cane, but it’s out there. Since I’m a teacher AND it was a teacher conference I did a LOT of education. Hopefully people will learn not to ask questions.

We did have a lot of fun though.

Dulce is a totally different dog at a convention. Which is probably good, because I think I need a different dog and am a different person. She is out going, visits with people and just has a good time.

She still takes care of me, but didn’t have to work real hard at it. I was careful to stay in range, maybe a tad high. We did a lot of walking.

Came home a bit heavier, but I think it’s the constipation thing.

Anyway, first, the Lego people had gotten a badge printed for her. I wasn’t sure she would wear it, but she did. Pinned it to her vest. Everyone thought it was WAY cool she had a badge. Will remember that for the first convention.

Second, she seemed to recognize that everyone was at a high stress level and missed their dogs. There were some people she wouldn’t interact with, but there were a lot of people she would. She was super friendly to important people – the guy who picked up after her at the hotel – the bus drivers, and the door people at the Hilton – they had water and treats for her, she is no dummy.

There was a nice park outside the convention center. We used it a lot. There was also a dog park near the hotel. We didn’t get to it on Wednesday or Thursday. We answered lots of questions and we did a lot of teaching about service dogs. I did explain that she seemed to realize that people needed her.

I'm healthier and have lost more weight in two years (psst. still a size 16, hope we can still be friends) than I have in my life, because I finally felt like I respected myself enough to be worth it.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

I've recently started losing weight again, and wondering if my new wardrobe has anything to do with it.

Drives me absolutely nuts.

Because fiber doesn’t work well – it clogs up the small opening – I don’t eat a lot of it. So the other end gets clogged. So here’s how typically weight loss goes – large drop, small gains, then some small drops and then large drops again.

I’ve definitely lost a size in my waist lately just after buying pants for the first time in years. Thankfully from Nordstroms and they are doing this alteration for free! 

You do get what you pay for some times.

I’m really happy with the new look:

Been losing the same 5 pounds for a while now. It’s something I do a lot. It’s all part of the eating disorder, diabetes, and lap band thing. I haven’t even been sure that I was at a place where I could lose weight without another fill. I also wasn’t sure I wanted to do that. As it is, I can’t eat much.

The cortisone shot has done its thing. The arthritis pain I’ve been experiencing is subsiding and I’m more active which helps too.

Broke down and got a cortisone shot on Thursday. Had to drive to South Lake but didn't miss any school, though should have.

Had high blood sugar all day Friday and tipsy but had a parent conference, project final to give and promised a parent I would let a kid make up work. Got it all done but pissed off the principal <sigh>

He saw me leaving at 4:00 with the kid though.

Kid and I got a lot of good work accomplished and he is passing so that is what counts. Same with parent conference.

Blood sugar seems back to normal today.

Sent from my Windows Phone

Proof that it works – between my recent weight loss, change in activity level due to exams, etc. it’s been hard determining the exact insulin dosage.

Dulce was in her cage, door locked, and woke up from a dead sleep whining at me. I checked and my blood sugar was dropping too fast. Was able to eat some carbs and now fine.

Glad it didn’t happen during an ACP the first time – she snoozed all through the Art I test yesterday, but it’s also nice to know that it does work in a testing situation, isn’t very disruptive, and gives a huge measure of safety.

I had a balance with Animas because I’d ordered supplies right before the doctor decided to switch me off the Animas Ping and onto the Metronics pump. In fact, they arrived the day before the visit. Animas agreed to take the supplies back, and I sent them everything I had marked Animas which was quite a bit since I had been pumping with them for 8 years.

Of course, they got it back on November 28 and I had even gotten another bill this week but I logged in this morning and saw I had a balance of $0.00

Now the interesting part is seeing the games that Medtronics and the insurance company are paying since Medtronics sent me the pump before the Animas pump expired. By a full three months. Right now I am renting the pump. I haven’ seen that since I got my first CPAP machine. Since it was common for people not to tolerate them, you initially rented them and if you could tolerate them, after 6 months or so, you “owned” it.

It’s starting to bother me, which isn’t bad since I haven’t had injections since last spring or physical therapy. I’m trying to hold out on getting any type of injections – though I have an orthopedist who is happy to do them. One Celebrex seems to be holding me most of the time. Best I’ve done in a while.

I’m not a New Year’s Resolution type of girl…. I’ve been working really hard on managing my blood sugar, working out and taking my weight as it comes.

My lap band has stopped my weight gain and a lot of my eating issues. I see a counselor on a regular basis for it and other issues.

In other words, I’m not doing anything special for the New Year.