Many blogs in the OC have mentioned inhaled insulin in their blogs, and this is even my second time bringing it up. Therefore, I hate to bring it up yet again, except for one thibg. I hear commonly amongst the bloggers that the news is doing a poor job presenting inhaled insulin. However, I found a new article that I think did a pretty good job balancing the pros and cons, so I thought I would share, even though you have all heard them by now. Enjoy!
Read the article here.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
gerr....
Why is it that some days such minor things annoy me? Mostly I think it is anger compiled over many weeks now. I am so annoyed about so many things. For one thing, I am on my fourth semester of college, and my third semester of commuting. I am going crazy. I am sooo sick of commuting. I am spending way more time with my family than I should be at my age. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family, but seriously, they drive me nuts sometimes. When I live at school, I can do my own thing. Here they get upset if I spend too much time on the computer, sleep in, or am gone longer than I said I would be. I turn 20 in a few weeks, and I just don’t want to deal with this anymore. And now their new thing is calling me a lier. This irks the hell out of me, because I despise lying, and I have NEVER lied to them. I forget to stop at the store, tell them I forgot, “LIER, you just don’t want to help.” I tell them it took me 45 minutes to get to school this morning. My sister #1 informs me I am a lier because it took me only 20 minutes yesterday when she came with me. First off, it was 1pm, not 8am, secondly, we left from a mall 20 minutes from my house, not home.
Now that it is snowing at, my commute annoys me even more. Something about staring at break lights for the first 45 minutes of your day is not good for you. And drivers are just stupid. I hate waking up early, and I figured out I could get up an hour later every morning if not for the damn commute. I’m busy, and freeing an hour and a half up of my time, sometimes more if I have to go in more than once, is appealing to say the least.
I also rarely see my friends living at home. I see the ones from school during classes, and maybe once a week outside classes, but the students living in the dorms see each other all the time.
Finally, the upperclassman dorms are nice. Really nice. I had issues last time I lived in the dorm, but they all revolved around my room mate, and next semester if I live there, I will be an upper classman, with my own room as part of the apartment.
My dad supports my decision to live on campus again, but my mom, quite frankly, is being a bitch about it. She says it’s a waste of money.
My other thing I’m upset about this evening in my sister. Sister #2. No matter what, I cannot get along with this kid. She is 13. Every time we have to spend more than 5 minutes together, we just scream at each other. She is 13. I know that age is tough, but she seriously comes across to me as the most selfish, lazy, bratty person I know. I know this sounds horrible, but she constantly talks about people at school saying things like, “I am cool, she is not cool, so I can’t talk to her. That girl, oh, we used to be friends, but she is a slut now. That person is UGLY.” I hate hearing her talk about other kids like this. And she always talks about how smart she is and says things to my parents like, “Don’t worry if those two are total failures, you still have me to make you proud.” She is lazy too. If she has to work too hard at something, she quits, or cries if she can’t quit. I am constantly driving her around, because she is too lazy to walk. She cried because I wouldn’t give her a ride to school this morning because I was late. Then she tattled, hours later, then said I brought it up again. She has this stupid holier than thou attitude about everything. She drives me nuts. Then this afternoon I was taking a nap, and got woken up to take her to the dentist. It is a mile away. Then I had to take her to church. Driving her around I will not miss.
Now I still have a test tomorrow to study for.
/rant
Now that it is snowing at, my commute annoys me even more. Something about staring at break lights for the first 45 minutes of your day is not good for you. And drivers are just stupid. I hate waking up early, and I figured out I could get up an hour later every morning if not for the damn commute. I’m busy, and freeing an hour and a half up of my time, sometimes more if I have to go in more than once, is appealing to say the least.
I also rarely see my friends living at home. I see the ones from school during classes, and maybe once a week outside classes, but the students living in the dorms see each other all the time.
Finally, the upperclassman dorms are nice. Really nice. I had issues last time I lived in the dorm, but they all revolved around my room mate, and next semester if I live there, I will be an upper classman, with my own room as part of the apartment.
My dad supports my decision to live on campus again, but my mom, quite frankly, is being a bitch about it. She says it’s a waste of money.
My other thing I’m upset about this evening in my sister. Sister #2. No matter what, I cannot get along with this kid. She is 13. Every time we have to spend more than 5 minutes together, we just scream at each other. She is 13. I know that age is tough, but she seriously comes across to me as the most selfish, lazy, bratty person I know. I know this sounds horrible, but she constantly talks about people at school saying things like, “I am cool, she is not cool, so I can’t talk to her. That girl, oh, we used to be friends, but she is a slut now. That person is UGLY.” I hate hearing her talk about other kids like this. And she always talks about how smart she is and says things to my parents like, “Don’t worry if those two are total failures, you still have me to make you proud.” She is lazy too. If she has to work too hard at something, she quits, or cries if she can’t quit. I am constantly driving her around, because she is too lazy to walk. She cried because I wouldn’t give her a ride to school this morning because I was late. Then she tattled, hours later, then said I brought it up again. She has this stupid holier than thou attitude about everything. She drives me nuts. Then this afternoon I was taking a nap, and got woken up to take her to the dentist. It is a mile away. Then I had to take her to church. Driving her around I will not miss.
Now I still have a test tomorrow to study for.
/rant
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Quick Question
What level do you treat a low at? I usually do at 65 during the day, but try to be around 100 at least before bed. I have seen some people treat anything below 90 as low. What do you do?
Saturday, January 21, 2006
These Are a Few of My Favorite Things
The title works better if you sing it sound of music style.
So we all know diabetes sucks. There's nothing new about that. I've seen the question asked "What is the worst thing about diabetes?" But really, why think about that, when you can think about what your favorite thing is? I'm torn on this one, because I have TWO favorite things about diabetes. How about that?
So my first favorite thing: gagetery. In case you can't tell yet...I will spell it out for you. I am a N-E-R-D. Now before you judge to harshly, I KNOW there are other nerds on here. I see you guys talking about the sets for the minimed pumps that will let you use luer lock sets. I also saw some other buzzing about how cool the mutliclix is. I have seen screen shots from software in other blogs. I will admit. I get excited over new diabetes products. I love my freestyle flash. I got the Ultrasmart just to try it. I am ecstatic that accu-chek invented the multiclix. I am getting the new software for my freestyle soon, and I can't wait. Yep, I'm a nerd.
The second thing, of course, is The OC. If not for diabetes, I couldn't enjoy this fine literary cluster.
So there you have it.
Monday, January 16, 2006
Copy Cat
So I'm totally copying Allison on this, but hey, she told us too ;)
Post a comment, and I will reply with something nice about you. Then you can copy cat this into your blog too if you want.
Post a comment, and I will reply with something nice about you. Then you can copy cat this into your blog too if you want.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Travel Time!
Well, my last week of Winter break is upon me. And I get to spend it in Florida. I leave tomorrow. At 6:52am my flight departs. It is now 4:45. And I have just started packing. To help me cope with the huge amount of thoughts fluttering through my mind I made a list of things to do.
1. Replace meter battery. The low battery symbol on my Flash has been on for weeks now. It hasn't died yet, but I am sure it will on vacation. That's just the way things go.
2. Pack- duh!
3. Shave so I look half-way decent in shorts.
4. Do something with nails. If I am going to be wearing open toed shoes, something needs to change.
5. Put another lancet in my meter case, so I can at least pretend I may change the lancet sometime. Also make sure I have enough strips.
6. Add more music to my mp3 player for flight.
7. Make sure I have a half way decent low bs supply food.
8. Actually put on the f'ing id bracelet.
So far I have started packing, I got a manicure (but the pedicurist was not in, darn it), and I have taken care of the meter stuff. I am taking my multiclix, so I threw an extra drum in there. It amazes me that in the space of maybe two regular lancets, the drum holds 6. So by having a drum in the device, and one in the case, I have 12 lancets. A barely a sign of a needle (good for security, though I have never had a problem before). Anyone else amazed with this?
I am looking forward to my trip and a break from the snow, but at the same time, it means the end of break, and I am stressing about starting school again. I have a lot more books to buy too before school starts again. Oh well if I don't have them all the first day of school.
1. Replace meter battery. The low battery symbol on my Flash has been on for weeks now. It hasn't died yet, but I am sure it will on vacation. That's just the way things go.
2. Pack- duh!
3. Shave so I look half-way decent in shorts.
4. Do something with nails. If I am going to be wearing open toed shoes, something needs to change.
5. Put another lancet in my meter case, so I can at least pretend I may change the lancet sometime. Also make sure I have enough strips.
6. Add more music to my mp3 player for flight.
7. Make sure I have a half way decent low bs supply food.
8. Actually put on the f'ing id bracelet.
So far I have started packing, I got a manicure (but the pedicurist was not in, darn it), and I have taken care of the meter stuff. I am taking my multiclix, so I threw an extra drum in there. It amazes me that in the space of maybe two regular lancets, the drum holds 6. So by having a drum in the device, and one in the case, I have 12 lancets. A barely a sign of a needle (good for security, though I have never had a problem before). Anyone else amazed with this?
I am looking forward to my trip and a break from the snow, but at the same time, it means the end of break, and I am stressing about starting school again. I have a lot more books to buy too before school starts again. Oh well if I don't have them all the first day of school.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
How Do You Do It?
There are so many blogs in the OC! I like to try and keep up with what is going on with all of them, but that can be confusing to say the least.
I used to just look at all the links in the OC, or on a blog with a lot of links, but I found I was missing some, plus it was time consuming. So I looked into ways to make it easier. The result: I created a live bookmark for all the blogs I visit. In Firefox you can do this, and then using the RSS feed from the blog, I can just scroll through a list of blogs and see at a glance which ones have new posts.
So what is your way of keeping track of blogs?
I used to just look at all the links in the OC, or on a blog with a lot of links, but I found I was missing some, plus it was time consuming. So I looked into ways to make it easier. The result: I created a live bookmark for all the blogs I visit. In Firefox you can do this, and then using the RSS feed from the blog, I can just scroll through a list of blogs and see at a glance which ones have new posts.
So what is your way of keeping track of blogs?
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
My take on inhaled insulin
I have seen quite a few posts recently surrounding inhaled insulin. I've posted my ideas about it in a few comments, but now a full fledged post about it will exist in my own blog.
I hate inhalers. I know inhalers. I have asthma. I have three inhalers plus two nebulizer solutions. I need to take them. I don't want to inhale insulin too. I want to pump insulin (I don't pump as of yet).
My concerns:
1. How the heck is it going to be dosed? Dosing insulin is a pain in the butt as it is. I need half units. Dosing asthma inhalers that have been around for years is still far from precise. Everyone I know takes a different dose of Lantus, Humalog, Novalog, etc, but with my one inhaler, Advair, there are three doses, 100/50, 250/50, and 500/50. Granted, you can change the amount of times you take it, but still not much flexibility. As far as another inhaler, albueterol, everyone I know who takes it takes teh same amount, 2 puffs as needed. Asthma inhalers are important, obviously, but there is much more danger in underdosing them than overdosing them. The answer? Asthma inhalers don't need to be precise. You take them, if they don't work, you up the dose, if you have to many side effects, you lower the dose or try a different one. I don't want to call it simple, because it is not, but there is not nearly the need for precision there is with insulin. .5 units of insulin is a big deal for me. I need to know that is how much I am getting, and there needs to be a mechanism to allow the person to control how much they take.
2. Accuracy of technique is another concern of mine. Non-asthmatics may not realize this, but you need to take an inhaler correctly for it to work. I didn't realize this for awhile, but I took my inhaler incorrectly, swallowing much of my dose, for the first few weeks taking it. I kept needing to go back to the doctors office for nebulizer treatments, then buy my own nebulizer. I realized I was swallowing a lot of my dose. No, that does not happen much anymore, but still, it was not fun when it did happen. Also, how much of a dose I get varies a lot on how deep I breath in. Varying doses and insulin = not good.
3. Inhalers aren't small. This is a minor issue, but my purse is full! I have my wallet, keys, meter, pens, check book, insulin, syringe, glucose, granola, and inhaler in there. Believe it or not, a vial of insulin and syringe take up less room than an inhaler, and the insulin inhaler pictures I have seen are bigger than asthma inhalers.
4. Lung damage. Of course this has been mentioned repeatedly, but I already have less than perfect lungs that already have to deal with 3 inhalers, two of them steroid inhalers. I can't imagine my lungs taking one more inhaler. Plus, it doesn't seem like steroids and insulin would mix well.
So in short, insulin inhalers may get a niche later on, but right now, I feel it has too many concerns for me to be even remotely excited by the prospect.
I hate inhalers. I know inhalers. I have asthma. I have three inhalers plus two nebulizer solutions. I need to take them. I don't want to inhale insulin too. I want to pump insulin (I don't pump as of yet).
My concerns:
1. How the heck is it going to be dosed? Dosing insulin is a pain in the butt as it is. I need half units. Dosing asthma inhalers that have been around for years is still far from precise. Everyone I know takes a different dose of Lantus, Humalog, Novalog, etc, but with my one inhaler, Advair, there are three doses, 100/50, 250/50, and 500/50. Granted, you can change the amount of times you take it, but still not much flexibility. As far as another inhaler, albueterol, everyone I know who takes it takes teh same amount, 2 puffs as needed. Asthma inhalers are important, obviously, but there is much more danger in underdosing them than overdosing them. The answer? Asthma inhalers don't need to be precise. You take them, if they don't work, you up the dose, if you have to many side effects, you lower the dose or try a different one. I don't want to call it simple, because it is not, but there is not nearly the need for precision there is with insulin. .5 units of insulin is a big deal for me. I need to know that is how much I am getting, and there needs to be a mechanism to allow the person to control how much they take.
2. Accuracy of technique is another concern of mine. Non-asthmatics may not realize this, but you need to take an inhaler correctly for it to work. I didn't realize this for awhile, but I took my inhaler incorrectly, swallowing much of my dose, for the first few weeks taking it. I kept needing to go back to the doctors office for nebulizer treatments, then buy my own nebulizer. I realized I was swallowing a lot of my dose. No, that does not happen much anymore, but still, it was not fun when it did happen. Also, how much of a dose I get varies a lot on how deep I breath in. Varying doses and insulin = not good.
3. Inhalers aren't small. This is a minor issue, but my purse is full! I have my wallet, keys, meter, pens, check book, insulin, syringe, glucose, granola, and inhaler in there. Believe it or not, a vial of insulin and syringe take up less room than an inhaler, and the insulin inhaler pictures I have seen are bigger than asthma inhalers.
4. Lung damage. Of course this has been mentioned repeatedly, but I already have less than perfect lungs that already have to deal with 3 inhalers, two of them steroid inhalers. I can't imagine my lungs taking one more inhaler. Plus, it doesn't seem like steroids and insulin would mix well.
So in short, insulin inhalers may get a niche later on, but right now, I feel it has too many concerns for me to be even remotely excited by the prospect.
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