Your driver's license and *your* state laws:

If you want to read your state laws vis-a-vis your
driver's license, read this material from ADA:

http://www.diabetes.org/advocacy-and-legalresources/discrimination/drivers/pvt-licensemap.jsp

Good news wrt the A1C...

My A1C in May 2004 was 7.9 (high!), in May 2005 7.5 (also
a bit high) and in August 2005 6.8. This is below the
magic figure of 7.0 so my family MD (Dr. Hostetier) and my
optomologist (Dr. Tarwater) are both happy. So was my
Mother when I told her; I wrote two of my brothers but
haven't heard back from them. One will probably say
"that's great!" and the other will probably brag of his
being lower. Oh, well, J and I were always competing...

Perspective...

A couple of nights ago, my wife and I saw an ad on TV that I immediately
mocked. It was a group of people complaining about the stress of having
to fill out the paperwork to get their diabetics supplies and the pure
agony of having to wait in line for their supplies. Then, of course, the
ad mentioned the name of the company that would be their salvation by
doing the paperwork for these folks. They would not have to wait in
line.

I said that obtaining diabetics supplies and waiting in line wasn't much
of a problem for me. My wife said those folks were probably type 1
diabetics and having to test their blood sugar four times a day. That
made me pause and admit that I was probably wrong. (Come to think of
it, this company's offer does sound like a good idea.)

I guess I've gotten spoiled since our family doctor fills out "scripts"
when I phone him and the clinic pharmacy folks fill the forms in for me
and fill the order quickly. The clinic pharmacy also has the cheapest
prices in town; I've checked the "new" drug store, which advertises
having the lowest prices in town and the clinic pharmacy beats them all
by a goodly margin.

I really don't have it too bad.

Sure, I have to test the blood morning and night, Tuesday and Friday.
That is a lot better than four times a day, every day.

I have to take a couple of pills a day. That is a lot better than a
bloody needle, one or more times a day!

My feet are in fine shape. I'm not struggling to get from wheel chair to
wherever like my youngest brother Charlie has to.

While my wife doesn't especially like talking about diabetics, I don't
have the problems that my youngest brother has. He was in hospital with
nearly intractable bacteria infections a number of times and the
surgeons kept whittling off portions of both his legs. (His right leg
ends at mid thigh now and his left foot is basically a stump.) All this
was too much for his wife and they divorced. Oddly enough, after the
divorce, they regained their friendship and are good friends again. (We
might even see RoxAnne again some day but we live in Kansas and they
live in Oregon; visits are rare.)

I am still "young" to this disease and can take metformin without
problems. Our family doctor says it could be 10 or 15 years before I
have to go to stronger medications and he isn't looking for me to go
onto the needle for at least that long! (My 85 year old father-in-law is
on the same dosage of metformin that I am as is another gentleman I
know, who in his middle 70s. A number of my fellow Lions are diabetics
but there is such a conspiracy of silence that I'm barely aware of who
is a diabetic, let along the level of treatment they are receiving!)

I know folks who have survived cancer and some that may not. I think
they'd trade places with me, medicine wise, health wise, if they could.
They might think it would do me good to be in real medical trouble and
to see just how bad bad can be. No thanks! I'll take what God has given
me and be grateful it isn't worst! I can appreciate how bad a bad
situation can be!

I will continue to work out (walk upwards of an hour a day anyway), try
to avoid bad food, try to keep a hopeful mind set and keep seeing the
family doctor when I need to. I read an article by some over
overeducated clown with a PhD who said that folks who actually used
their medical insurance were taking advantage of the system and were
ignoring the costs they were passing along to other folks! Balderdash!
Not going to an MD or dentist when needed ultimately ends up costing
much more. If I'd gone to my MD in June 2004 when I fainted and then had
trouble breathing, I'd have paid a lot less than what the emergency room
charged.

A couple of weeks ago, I was having a bit of trouble breathing because
of a respiratory track infection. I thought about going to the MD and
when my boss said "you shouldn't have come in to work", I immediately
called the clinic and got an appointment. Then, I took the rest of the
day off to rest.

I probably would have had a great deal of trouble sleeping that night
had I not gone to medical and that would have led to many more problems
the next morning. Problems like maybe having a traffic accident. Then, I
would have gone to the MD.

Finally, I have to repeat myself and realize that while I have things
much worst than I did 20 years ago, I know of people who are worst off.
I guess that I can't really "bitch mightily". (No, I don't know the
source of that quote but seem to remember it was said by Saint Abe
Lincoln.

Glorious Landing!!!

We watched the landing of Discovery on the TV at work. The
whole office sat around from about 6:45 am CDT to about
7:15 CDT to watch this.

It was quite a relief to see that everything apparently
went well. As one fellow said "I bet there are no atheists
on there!" He was probably right. Any atheists on-board at
the start of the mission most likely were not at landing
time!

It was glorious and well worth watching!

It's nice to know that NASA can still do stuff correctly.
Now, they just have to come up with a far better orbiter
and I fear that they won't be able to do so...

wrong attitude...

I've simply got the wrong attitude toward "testing my
blood"! That is, I check the blood sugar level twice a
day, twice a week (Tuesdays and Fridays actually). I've
realized that I'm going about this the wrong way but have
not let myself get concerned.

I am treating the testing as if it were a school test or
one of the annual weigh-ins we had to endure in the Navy.
The correct attitude would be to adjust my exercise and
food and see if this is producing the desired results. If
it was, great! If not, then I'd have to adjust the
exercise and food.

I've not been able to get on an "even keel" and I'm not
sure that I could even get my wife to really go along with
a rigid schedule. Actually, that is not quite true: she
has been trying to help me "eat right". (I can't blame
myself, now can I???) It's just that neither of us are
very big on eating a lot of fruit and certainly not big on
eating two or more veggies a meal. We just weren't raised
that way!

She likes to joke about me being a "meat and potato man"
and that is true! I also like a good gravy to go with the
good "meat and potatoes". We haven't had regular deserts
in decades and only very seldom have salads with meals. I
guess my diabetics coach is going to have a lot of talking
to do with me if I want to stay healthy...

Just blathering along as it is near 11 pm and nearly time
for me to get off shift...

ripped up elbows...

This past Saturday, my wife and I were working security at
the local museum. We were checking driver's licenses and
handing out "beer bands", actually. (Folks weren't
supposed to be able to buy beer without one but I was
later told that the serving crew was selling beers to
people who looked old enough any way.) I was placing my
elbows on the surface of the table when I realized that
there was a flap of skin on the table. It seemed the
surface of the table (made of a slightly rough plastic and
marked "LIFETIME") had been rough enough to abrade the
skin off both my elbows.

Neither elbow was bleeding but I asked for and got band
aids to put on both. I put liquid band aid on both elbows
when we got home. That was a good idea as both elbows
seemed to be on the verge of bleeding.

For the next couple of days, it hurt to put pressure on
either elbow and I had to be careful getting out of bed.
(This is even more ridicious that it sounds!)

That was Saturday and it is now Wednesday evening late and
neither elbow is very much healed. Years ago, they would
have scabbed over by Monday. I guess this business of
diabetics screwing up my healing is living down to it's
potential!

Who would have thought it?