Living with diabetes

I sent the patient information and medical necessity packet to my endocrinologist office last week for the Omnipod.  They have a doctors portion to fill out then it will go to Insulet Corporation and they will call my insurance company to check on coverage.  According to the pump educator the Insulet Corp. will call me with the information that my insurance company gives them in regards to rather they will cover the Omnipod pump or not.  At that point I will decide if I want them to send me the pump. 

We will see what happens.  I do know that we don't want to pay a lot for it. so we are hoping insurance will cover all or most of it.

Tags: Insulin Pump, Omnipod, Insulet Corporation, Insurance Companies, Diabetes, Endocrinologist, Patient Information, Medical Necessity, Insurance coverage

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There have been several comments to the post on Cortisone. Since my experience with cortisone shots and my endocrinologist mentioning to be careful using any steroids, which cortisone is a steroid, I've decided not to try those shots again.  Plus, the shots didn't help the problem we were using them for anyway.

The last two people to comment on the previous post mentioned their doctors not warning them about using Cortisone/steriods and the effects these medicines can have on their diabetes.  I hate to hear that.  Doctors should be aware of these kinds of effects and update their patients as well.

I know we shouldn't have to tell doctors how to do their job, but if we are educated, then we can visit our doctors armed with the right questions. 

Are there other questions or concerns you have about cortisone and/or steroids and their effects on diabetes?

Tags: Cortisone, Steroids, Diabetes, Endocrinologists

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Recently I friend mentioned not seeing me blog for a while and I commented being discouraged about things, which were keeping me from concentrating or wanting to concentrate on blogging.  Then she mentioned blogging about my discouragement.  This wasn't a new concept to me, but it seemed a different idea when she mentioned it.  So, about a week ago, I began working on that blog post.

So where is it?  Lost.  I had five or more paragraphs, which was kinda long, but I was getting it out there.  Then my computer fubared on me. 

Fubared with a blue screen of death "fatal error" message.  I got my husband to help me with it, I gave up on the post, and went to bed.  Talk about adding more to the discouragement.

I make no promises, but hopefully I will get back to it soon and get it written and posted.

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After learning about the Omnipod and doing research, which including talk to some people who use the Omnipod, I am now looking into using this pump.  I love the idea of it since there are no tubes and it is very much unintrusive.  I just hope my insurance will cover most if not all of it.

Tags: Insulin pumps, Omnipod, Diabetes, Insulin

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So my CT scan came back good. 

And this brings me to the fact that ever since my hysterectomy my blood sugars have had a different mind.  My insulin regimen that worked before this procedure seemed to be too much.  I backed off of it a bit due to my impending wedding and that I didn't want a hypoglycemic attack the week of or day of my wedding. 

That was back in July, and about four months late there is still no rhyme or reason to what my sugars are doing.  I used to be on a bolus dose of fast acting novalog insulin of one unit per every 8 grams of carbs I ate.  That worked fine, again, until my surgery.  After the surgery I dropped it back to one unit of novalog per every 10 grams of carbs I ate.  This works much better, but still at times, is too much.  Therefore, I'm at a guessing game every time I give insulin now.

I know I know, why not look into pumps or get one?  That is what my endocrinologist keeps asking me.  I don't like the idea of change and, even though I once thought I'd never be ok giving shots daily, I actually am ok with it now.

So anyone else out there with diabetes (type 1 or 2) who has had a hysterectomy, gone through menopause, or going through it had issues with your blood sugars going haywire?

Tags: Diabetes and hysterectomy, Blood sugar levels, Hypoglycemic reactions, Bolus insulin, Novalog insulin, Carbohydrates and insulin

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I had a CT scan today for a follow-up on my ovarian cancer.  I had to drink the barium sulfate suspension and then the added a contrast through an IV while doing the CT scan.  I woke up with a blood sugar of 111 at about 8:30 AM.  After my CT Scan, before lunch, and around noon my blood sugar was 216.  My only conclusion is that something in the suspension and contrast helped raise the sugar levels.  Anyone else had these kinds of issues with CT scans?

Tags: CT Scan, Blood sugar levels, Barium Sulfate Suspension

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So we are back from our honeymoon. We went to Hawaii, the big island. It was lovely, and with a 5-6 hour time difference, my bloodsugars were not what I wanted them to be all of the time. Laying on the beach enjoying your time is not the best place to check you sugar and find it at 59. I made sure to have snacks with me all of the time, along with my meter, so things were fine. Still when you are relaxing then putting up with a low sugar is that last thing you want to do.

I will write more later. I do plan on doing some blog posts that are more along the lines of this blog. If you look at my links section you will notice that I figured out how to update my links; therefore, my blogroll is starting. So I'm still in the process of updating things. I hope it won't take me too long though.

So till then happy bloodsugars and times.

I've still been working on things to get my blogging off the ground better.  It is taking more time than I hoped though and I'm running into some snafoos. Hopefully I will get things together soon though.  I have figured out that I need to takes baby steps as I got major brain overload the other day and I do not want that again.

 Tags: blog, blogging, brain overload

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