test apparachick

apparachick trest

I am a biology lab experiment

Several months ago, my then MD (Dr. Azzi) said my blood sugar was a little too good and was worried that it was just too low for my own good. So he took me off the 5 mg glipizide. I was taking this twice a day. He put me on Artos.

Now, my A1C has gone from 7.0- to 8.1 and my new MD is pissed at me., Said new MD has put me back on 10 mg glipizide once a day (my choice). I bought the glipzide this afternoon and have already taken my first dose. It should be interesting to see just what comes of this.

The good news is he didn't use the "I" word (insulin). 

I also confess I lost the bubble in August when my blood sugsar meter went tits up. I told the VA and they gave me the telephone number of a place to called., That place sent me an envelop to mail in my broken meter. They also sent some calibration liquids and test stripes for calibration. I have been frozen and have not acted on testing this new meter. I will handle this come Sunday.

email to Governor Colyer

Diabetics are horribly aware that the cost of insulin keeps going up without any logical reason for this.

Nevada enacted a law that strongly regulates the cost of insulin. This law reportedly is keeping the cost of insulin from ballooning in Nevada.

 Speaking for the roughly 9% of Kansas people who are diabetics (as I am), I strongly urge you to have this Nevada law researched and then enacted and enforced in Kansas! We are tax paying family folk who have better use of our money than to feed the greed of pharm companies.

 I look forward to you and your staff working to protect the diabetics of Kansas!

August 2018

My first family MD told me to test my blood sugar twice a day on two different days. I took his advise of testing first thing in the morning on Tuesday and Thursday. My VA Doc changed the second "testing time" to two hours after I finished eating dinner. My three family MDs since 2004 and various VA Docs have agreed with this testing plan.

Day  Date AM    PM
Wed    1  ---   1131  
Thu    2  126   165  
Fri    3  ---   ---  
Sat    4  ---   ---  
Sun    5  ---   ---  
Mon    6  ---   ---  
Tue    7  ---   ---  
Wed    8  ---   ---  
Thu    9  170   187  
Fri   10  ---   ---  
Sat   11  ---   ---  
Sun   12  ---   ---  
Mon   13  ---   ---  
Tue   14  ---   ---  
Wed   15  ---   ---  
Thu   16  ---   ---  
Fri   17  ---   ---  
Sat   18  ---   ---  
Sun   19  ---   ---  
Mon   20  ---   ---  
Tue   21  ---   ---  
Wed   22  ---   ---  
Thu   23  ---   ---  
Fri   24  ---   ---  
Sat   25  ---   ---  
Sun   26  ---   ---  
Mon   27  ---   ---  
Tue   28  ---   ---  
Wed   29  ---   ---  
Thu   30  ---   ---  
Fri   31  ---   ---  

¹ I replaced a dead battery and tested my blood sugar 2 hours after dinner to make sure the meter was good.

Dewey Decimal Code for food diary

Sam Shepley looked up some possible DDC codes for the book version of my July 2018 food blog. These are:

920.71  Individual biography of men  (my choice)

641.563 Diabetes Mellitus -  cooking for (Sam's choice)

The winner is: 641l563 - Sam's choice

He did really good in finding me this choice!

July 2018

July 2018  

My first family MD told me to test my blood sugar twice a day on two different days. I took his advise of testing first thing in the morning on Tuesday and Thursday. My VA Doc changed the second "testing time" to two hours after I finished eating dinner. My three family MDs since 2004 and various VA Docs have agreed with this testing plan.

Day  Date AM    PM
Sun    1  ---   ---   
Mon    2  246noon262   
Tue    3  ---   ---   
Wed    4  ---   ---   
Thu    5  137   1352  
Fri    6  ---   ---3 
Sat    7  ---   ---   
Sun    8  ---   ---   
Mon    9  ---   ---   
Tue   10  112   172

Wed   11  ---   ---   
Thu   12  102   164   
Fri   13  1024   ---   
Sat   14  ---   ---   
Sun   15  ---   ---   
Mon   16  ---   230230 Mid aafernoon sugar test in fears of hypoglycemia.  
Tue   17  150   179   
Wed   18  ---   ---   
Thu   19  172172157   
Fri   20  ---   --- 
Sat   21  ---   ---   
Sun   22  ---   ---   
Mon   23  ---   ---   
Tue   24  162   243<sup><b>7</b></sup>   
Wed   25  ---   ---   
Thu   26  ---   ---   
Fri   27  ---   ---   
Sat   28  ---   ---   
Sun   29  ---   ---   
Mon   30  ---   ---   
Tue   31  ---   ---   

^noon I am beginning to despair when I see blood sugar readings this high...

²After dinner, I spent much of the night feeling nauseated and fearing that I was going to vomit. I didn't. My evening score of 135 came after I had felt nauseated post dinner.

³ About an hour after going to bed, the familiar :"fixing to vomit" signals came up so I immediately went to the bathroom and vomited. I then went back to bed and having spared myself hours of misery, went back to sleep fairly quickly,

⁴I wondered if my my sugar would be back closer to where it should be today and it actually was.


²³⁰A test I took in mid afternoon from fears of hypoglycemia

¹⁷²I was horrified to find my AM score was 172! I need to see an endo to get straight!
My evening score was 157.  This blood business is more puzzling thian usual.

⁷I admit defeat! My morning scores are almost 100 point too high and the evening scores are 60 - 70 points too high. I despair. Fortunately, the  VA will get insulin and needles for me cheap.

On the other hand, I am going to switch to Artos (in the morning) and replace the glipisize.

excessively high blood sugar levels

Lately, my blood sugar levels have been way too high.

• AM 129 26 June 2018 should be under 100
• PM 238 26 June 2018 should be under 190
• AM 149 28 June 2018 should be under 100
• PM 230 28 June 2018 should be under 100
• AM 134 29 June 2018 should be under 190

It came to a head last night when I had a very low carb dinner of

• left over steak
• about a quarter of a leftover baked potatoe
• half a roll with butter and grape jelly
• large amount of boiled broccoli with some butter added for flavour
• glass of cold water

and yet my "2 hours post putting the fork down" reading was 230!

I could only conclude that I had fucked up my pill distribution last week.

Then, I remembered I had read the list off of my Kindle since I did not have a printed list. Also, since I did not know how to invoke notepad on this new computer, I could not do my usual checkoff on notepad. (I've since fixed this.) And in my cats running around and yes I fucked up the pill layout. Next week, I suppose I will just have to have the kitchen table cleaned off before distribution and will do the pill layout there.

I ended up going to bed thinking about this matter and this morning, I visually examined my morning pills and realized I had left out the Januvia.

 I will check for Januvia tomorrow morning and the remaining days until this batch of pills is used up.

pills 5 mg glipizide evenings

Morning

D aspirin 81 mg
V clopidogrel bisulfate 75 mg tab
D glipizide 5 mg (new in December 2017)
C Januia 100mg
D lisinopril 20 mg
D metformin 1000 mg
D metoprolol tartrate 12.5 mg (split)
V mometasone furoate inhalation power (pink)
D Ranitidine 150 mg tab

Close mornings

Open evenings



Evening

V atorvastati calcium 40 mg (½ tab)
D glipizide 5 mg
D metformin 1000 mg
D metoprolol tartrate 12.5 mg (split)
D Ranitidine 150 mg
P Finaseride 5mg tab

P tamsulosin 0.4mg ("pee" pill)
V Asmanex Twisthaler - Mometasone Furoate 220 mcg Oral
V Proventil inhaler

P Tamsulon 0.4 mg
O Mucinex Expectorant
O Fexofenadine Hydrochloride

D vitamin D-3 2000 IU (ith the pills Kathie adds.)

C CVS
D Dillions
P Clinic Pharmacy
V VA
O Over The Counter

My MDs:

Gerald Albert, MD PhD (urinology)

Nassif Azzi, MD (Nephrology/Internal Medicine)

Steven Cobble, OD (eyes)

Dana Howerton, APN (VA Clinic Dodge City Kansas)

Abid Mallidck, MD ( VA heart MD)

Jose C. Velasco Di Domenico, MD, Oncology (sadly, this is new...)

diabetic events on the 10th

There was nothing of interest, as far as I could tell, related to diabetes. So, this will be the last report until something of interest occurs.  (I am lazy when it comes to writing at times.)

horrible night (vomiting and cramps) on 8-9 June 2018

In the spirit of an expanded set of reporting daily diabetic related events, I submit this first report. I have started it just before dinner. Let me just day I had an unpleasant night.

First, I got up about an hour after going t6o bed. I couldn’t believe how much I had to piss. This was just an annoyance.

Next, I got up to pee again at about 2:30 am. Actually, I had been burping and feeling nauseated for nearly a half hour and wasn’t surprised when I started throwing up after I peed. I vomited several times and this was not pleasant; still, it was not as unpleasant as earlier vomiting this year. I sat on the toilet and wished I had something to read. Still, I didn’t feel like reading so I went back to bed.

This was not unexpected as I had eaten left over steak for dinner. (The steak came from “Prime on the Nine”. It was very tasty but very expensive and greasy. Late night vomiting was presaged by how I felt after eating only part of the steak. I knew it was coming…)

An alternative hypotheses could be that I had drank two gin-n-tonic after eating the somewhat greasy left over steak. This would have filled my stomach and I know my stomach empties too damn slowly...

Kathie slept through this and I didn’t mention the vomiting until the afternoon.

My third departure from bed was when both of feet cramped. I squirmed and my feet uncramped. Then, my right foot cramped. Finally both legs form the knees down locked up in very painful cramps. I sat up in bed and had the hassle of getting both my feet – especially my left foot – into my crocs. I then stumped my way into the nearest backroom, hoping to walk off the cramp.

It did not work.

So, I pissed while rocking back and forth hoping my cramps would go away. I lost control of the urine stream a time or two. Finally, both feet settled down and I walked to the hallway bathroom to drink some water. This helped.

The rest of the night was uneventful and I had trouble getting out of bed.

Expanded daily "diabetic" reporting

I was reading one of those "how to improve your A1C scores" slide collections on face book and found I should be keeping a diary on events pertaining to my diabetics. So, since this morning was a booming start, I decided to start expanded reporting.

This will be side-by-side with my food blog.

June 2018

June 2018

My first family MD told me to test my blood sugar twice a day on two different days. I took his advise of testing first thing in the morning on Tuesday and Thursday. My VA Doc changed the second "testing time" to two hours after I finished eating dinner. My three family MDs since 2004 and various VA Docs have agreed with this testing plan.

Day  Date AM    PM
Fri    1  ---   ---      
Sat    2  ---   ---      
Sun    3  ---   ---      
Mon    4  ---   ---      
Tue    5  1481   1202   
Wed    6  ---   ---      
Thu    7   97   1193      
Fri    8  ---   ---      
Sat    9  ---   ---      
Sun   10  ---   ---      
Mon   11  ---   ---      
Tue   12  1034  155      
Wed   13  ---   ---      
Thu   14  102   187      
Fri   15  ---   ---      
Sat   16  ---   ---      
Sun   17  ---   ---      
Mon   18  ---   ---      
Tue   19  104   193      
Wed   20  ---   ---      
Thu   21  103   193      
Fri   22  ---   ---      
Sat   23  ---   --- forgot to take evening pills     
Sun   24  ---   ---      
Mon   25  ---   ---      
Tue   26  129   238      
Wed   27  ---   ---      
Thu   28  149   230      
Fri   29  134   1755      
Sat   30  ---   ---      
Sun   31  ---   ---      

¹ I suffered from diarrhea last night and suspect this caused my blood sugar to be so high first thing the morning of the 5th. 

² Experience has shown that a high morning sky will precede a relatively low evening score.

³ I decided to start keeping a diary of my days with emphasis on diabetic events. My first "event" was a rough night. ⁴I suspect I might have a minor urology problem as it took forever to start peeing at 2:20 am and was slow at 6:43 am.

⁵It occurred to me that I had screwed up pill distribution. When I surveyed my pills, I found the Januvia missing in the morning pills and the 5mg glibizide missing in the evening pills. I will have to correct this on a daily basis.

my diabetic history to date

Today is the 14^th Anniversary of when my MD called me and said “Mr. Bell, you are a diabetic!”

(I knew there was a reason I bought some strawberries last week and didn’t break them out, from the refrigerator, until earlier this evening. I also was just a bit puzzled why I had to buy some dark chocolate chips this afternoon.)

My MD sounded a bit shocked when he told me. You see, I had my fasting blood work done that morning and the lab results were not back. So, we waltzed through the annual physical starting with “there probably are no problems in your blood work”.  He was happy with my having lost weight, was walking on the treadmill and “eating better”.

I left and went to work that afternoon. At work, I got that phone call and he said “Mr. Bell, you are a diabetic”!

I freaked out a bit.

My Father, a type 1, had died of congestive heart failure. He was also missing his left from the knee down and his surgeons were whideling on his right foot. My then youngest brother was a juvenile onset type 1. He was working on losing his left leg as well.

I went back to my MD’s office the  coming Monday (10 May 2004) and rolled into our second medicalsession.

“I don’t want to lose my legs!” I don’t think I sounded hysterical…

“You’re not going to lose your legs!”  That calmed me down.

I then got a prescription for a morning 500 mg metformin pill and a prescription for a blood test meter ($85 for the meter) and about $10 for 50 test stripes.

Neither his nurse or I had any experience at using blood sugar meters. We kept adjusting the needle depth and I stabbed myself  16 times before my MD walked in and showed us how to set the lancelet.

Beyond that, my “diabetic experience” has not be much fun.

There have been times when I just blew the measures I was initially taking to control my blood sugar. It is strange gto look back and wonder why I had gotten so tired and had quit. Right now, I hope I am in a hopeful phase of trying to save my ass.

Maybe I need to circle back around to getting dietary information and trying again to do better eating. What have I to lose?

May 2018 blood sugar results

My required blood sugar reading.

Date      AM    PM

Tue   1   93   197   
Wed   2  ---   ---   
Thu   3  128   123   
Fri   4  ---   ---  131U
Sat   5  ---   ---   
Sun   6  ---   ---   
Mon   7  ---   ---   
Tue   8   92   138   
Wed   9  ---   ---   
Thu   10  77   173   
Fri   11  ---   ---   
Sat   12  ---   ---   
Sun   13  ---   ---  Vv
Mon   14  ---   ---   
Tue   15  ---   ---   
Wed   16  ---   ---   
Thu   17  ---   ---   
Fri   18   99   125   
Sat   19  ---   ---   
Sun   20  ---   ---   
Mon   21  ---   ---   
Tue   22   93   131   
Wed   23  ---   ---   
Thu   24  ---   ---   
Fri   25  ---   ---   
Sat   26  ---   ---   
Sun   27  ---   ---   
Mon   28  ---   ---   
Tue   29  ---   ---   
Wed   30  ---   ---   
Thu   31  ---   ---   

The AM reading is taken right after I get out of bed in the morning.
The PM reading is taken 2 hours after "fork down" at the end of my evening meal.

^UAt 4:11 pm, I felt tired, hungry and out of sorts. So, I checked my blood sugar at 4:11 PM. It was 131! This is an amount that should not jack my A1C and could help me in the future.

 Either way, the hunger has a feeling of nausea and is unpleasant! I don't like it!

^vThis is either "vomito ergo sum" or a "Vir Coto Moment".

Londo Mollari: "Vir, we are not biologically equipped to handle fast food."

Vir Cotto: "I know. I know. But it tastes so great going down. Coming up again, it's not so terrific, but-"

Babylon 5: Mediations of the Abyss (#5.14)" (1998)

April 2018 blood test results

I test my blood sugar level upon getting out of bed Tuesdays and Thursdays and 2 hours after "putting down my fork" after my evening meal. Since I am not "on the needle" (using insulin), these tests are simply advisory; being on pills, there is nothing I can adjust.

Day       AM    PM
Sun    1  ---   ---   
Mon    2  ---   ---   
Tue    3  1091  163   
Wed    4  ---   ---   
Thu    5  119   126   
Fri    6  ---   ---   
Sat    7  ---   ---   
Sun    8  ---   ---   
Mon    9  ---   ---   
Tue   10   72   162   
Wed   11  ---   ---   
Thu   12  109   150   
Fri   13  ---   ---   
Sat   14  ---   ---   
Sun   152 ---   ---
Mon   163 ---   ---   
Tue   17  123   266   
Wed   18  ---   ---   
Thu   19  108   188   
Fri   20  ---   ---   
Sat   21  ---   ---   
Sun   22  ---   ---   
Mon   23  ---   ---   
Tue   24   91   121   
Wed   25  ---   ---   
Thu   26   92   ---   
Fri   27  ---   ---   
Sat   28  ---   ---   
Sun   29  ---   ---   
Mon   30  ---   ---   
Tue   31  ---   --- 

¹I kept waking up feeling hungry. I refused to get a snack because I wanted to see how low the night sugar could go. I did not expect something as high as 109. I should have gotten that snack...

²About an hour after going to bed, I awoke gurgling up spit. I finally realized this was the precursor to vomiting and so I went to the hall way bath room, stuck my finger down my throat and vomited several times. I felt much better afterwards...

³I was surprised when I vomited a couple of hours after going to bed. (sigh)

March 2018

I test my blood sugar level upon getting out of bed Tuesdays and Thursdays and 2 hours after "putting down my fork" after my evening meal. Since I am not "on the needle" (using insulin), these tests are simply advisory; being on pills, there is nothing I can adjust.

March 2018

Day       AM    PM
Thu   1   111   114 
Fri   2   ---   --- 
Sat   3   ---   --- 
Sun   4   ---   --- 
Mon   5   ---   --- 
Tue   6    89   1051 
Wed   7   ---   --- 
Thu   8   108   159 
Fri   9   ---   --- 
Sat   10  ---   --- 
Sun   11  ---   --- 
Mon   12  ---   --- 
Tue   13   84   94/952 
Wed   14   743  --- 
Thu   15  117   --- 
Fri   16  ---   --- 
Sat   17  ---   --- 
Sun   18  ---   --- 
Mon   19  ---   --- 
Tue   20   694  133 
Wed   21   925   --- vomiting 
Thu   22  101   244 
Fri   23  ---   ---  vomiting6
Sat   24  ---   --- 
Sun   25  ---   --- 
Mon   26  ---   --- 
Tue   27  118   141 
Wed   28  ---   --- 
Thu   29  104   100 
Fri   30  ---   --- 
Sat   31  ---   1697

AM is a blood test done immediately after I get out of bed (well, after I pee) and PM is the evening blood test done two hours after I lay the fork down at the end of my evening meal.

¹ I had a very light dinner.

² I was shocked by the first evening score (94) and immediately tested again and ended up with basically the same score (95).

³ After an evening score of 95 last night, I had to check my AM reading. I awoke feeling alert and tested immediately. I had dropped to 74.

I suspect that I am now in a period of lower blood sugar levels (I hope!) but will have to wait to either April or May to go to the VA for blood testing. (They may call...)

I know I am scheduled to visit my MD on 17 July 2018. There is sadly plenty of time for fluctuations in my scores...

⁴ This is my lowest AM score this month! I had a small dinner last night...

⁵My dinner lead to me vomiting about an hour after going to bed. I then had a very hard time getting out of bed this morning. My blood sugar reading was higher than days in which I had no trouble getting out of bed. Perhaps hypoglycemia is not such a consistent reason for this and it might be simply insomnia?

⁶ This was the most unpleasant episode of vomiting I have had lately.

⁷I tested my blood sugar 2 hours after finishing dinner, even if it was not a "testing night", because I had eaten a large dinner.

bitching 3

Morning

D aspirin 81 mg
V clopidogrel bisulfate 75 mg tab
D glipizide 5 mg (new in December 2017)
C Januia 100mg
D lisinopril 20 mg...buy more...
D metformin 1000 mg...buy more...
D metoprolol tartrate 12.5 mg (split) ...buy more...
V mometasone furoate inhalation power (pink)
D R anitidine 150 mg tab

Close mornings

Open evenings



Evening

V atorvastati calcium 40 mg (½ tab)
D metformin 1000 mg
D metoprolol tartrate 12.5 mg (split)
D Ranitidine 150 mg
P Finaseride 5mg tab

P tamsulosin 0.4mg ("pee" pill)
V Asmanex Twisthaler - Mometasone Furoate 220 mcg Oral
V Proventil inhaler

P Tamsulon 0.4 mg
O Mucinex Expectorant
O Fexofenadine Hydrochloride

D vitamin D-3 2000 IU (ith the pills Kathie adds.)

C CVS
D Dillions
P Clinic Pharmacy
V VA
O Over The Counter

My MDs:

Gerald Albert, MD PhD (urinology)

Nassif Azzi, MD (Nephrology/Internal Medicine)

Steven Cobble, OD (eyes)

Dana Howerton, APN (VA Clinic Dodge City Kansas)

Abid Mallidck, MD ( VA heart MD)

Jose C. Velasco Di Domenico, MD, Oncology (sadly, this is new...)

February 2018

February 2018

Date      AM    PM

Thu    1  107   1121 
Fri    2  ---   --- 
Sat    3  ---   --- 
Sun    4  ---   --- 
Mon    5  ---   --- 
Tue    6   98   132 
Wed    7  ---   --- 
Thu    8   92   150 
Fri    9  ---   --- 
Sat   10  ---   --- 
Sun   11  ---   --- 
Mon   12  ---   --- 
Tue   13  145   104 
Wed   14  ---   --- 
Thu   15  ---   --- 
Fri   16  172   177

Sat   17  ---   --- 
Sun   18  ---   --- 
Mon   19  108   --- 
Tue   20  127   --- 
Wed   21  ---   --- 
Thu   22  111   2692 
Fri   23  ---   --- 
Sat   24  ---   --- 
Sun   25  ---   --- 
Mon   26  ---   --- 
Tue   27   763  109 
Wed   28  ---   --- 

AM is a blood test done immediately after I get out of bed (well, after I pee) and PM is the evening blood test done two hours after I lay the fork down at the end of my evening meal.

<sup>1 The morning "score" on 1 February (107)  is a touch higher than what I would like to see. The evening "score" (112) is massively lower than what I had expected!  I have the feeling that my upcoming A1Cs might be a touch lower than they usually are and that I will be safe from "the needle" (insulin) for a while longer!

I said "A1Cs" (plural) rather than A1C (singular) as I am getting blood work at both the family MD and the VA in a couple of weeks. (Many things change. When the VA Doc learned that I had blood work done at the clinic, the VA cancelled their blood work. Given the A1C would not have changed much, this was a wise decision...</sup>

² I had a rich dinner and forgot to take my pills until over an hour after starting dinner. We went out to dinner in our annual celebration of getting our income taxes paid off. Where the fuck was our Income Tax cut? We got screwed! 

³  I went back to taking 5 mg glipizide in the evening as well as 5 mg in the morning. We had salmon last night. So, it appears that one or both lead to a rather low morning score on the 27^th: 76. 

test message 20 January 2018

mikebell3

Share 'type_2_reflections_on.doc'

January 2018 blood resujlts

Day       AM    PM

Mon    1  ---   ---   
Tue    2  138   121
Wed    3  ---   ---   
Thu    4   97   250   
Fri    5  ---   ---   
Sat    6  ---   ---   
Sun    7  ---   ---   
Mon    8  ---   ---   
Tue    9   93   130   
Wed   10  ---   ---   
Thu   11  111   140   
Fri   12  ---   ---   
Sat   13  ---   ---   
Sun   14  ---   ---   
Mon   15  ---   ---
Tue   16 126    133   
Wed   17  ---   ---   
Thu   18  ---   ---1   
Fri   19  ---   ---   
Sat   20  ---   ---   
Sun   21  149   120   
Mon   22  ---   ---   
Tue   23  114   129   
Wed   24  ---   ---   
Thu   25  118   148   
Fri   26  ---   ---   
Sat   27  ---   ---   
Sun   28  ---   ---   
Mon   29  ---   ---   
Tue   30   90   162   
Wed   31  ---   ---   

AM is a blood test done immediately after I get out of bed (well, after I pee) and PM is the evening blood test done two hours after I lay the fork down at the end of my evening meal.


¹ I took part in the 2018 Lions Pancake Feast. I ate before 5 pm on the 18th and 19th but didn't get home till after 8 pm. This being more than 3 hours, I could not do the 2 hour test. I probably could have taken my test gear in but keeping up with the batter mixing was more important.