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Month: February 2010

Blocked Eustachian Tube Really sucks

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

You may have noticed that I haven’t blogged in several days and that I haven’t been on Twitter much.  Reason is because I have been sick with a really bad hacking cough and a blocked Eustachian tube.  If you haven’t experienced this yet, well it sucks.  It all started last Sunday, Pro Bowl Sunday, not Super Bowl Sunday.  My right ear began to feel clogged and couldn’t really hear out of it.  I went to the medical clinic and they basicaly put me on amoxicyllin and Mucinex D.  After a week, that did nothing at all.  It has now been over a week and now both ears are clogged and I can’t really hear out of either ear.  I now feel pretty much deaf.  I don’t know what to do because each visit to the doctor is $130 cash.

A few people have suggested to use the Neti Pot, and I think today I am going to try it because nothing else has seemed to work, except make it worse.  I am just nervous to use or try something that I have never used before.  I know that it is good for sinuses, but does it work for a blocked Eustachian tube also?  My nose is not runny or clogged at all, I have no sinus affects in my nose like I usually do.  It is all in my ears, so is this going to work for that?

This post is really short today, but I just wanted to get as much feedback as possible so I know I’m making the right decision.

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Fired Up Friday Vol 2. – “Free Diabetes Supplies”

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

Today is the second volume of Fired Up Friday.  Last week’s first edition was about Share A Story contests.  Remember these posts are my opinions based only upon my own personal experiences.  If what I am saying is wrong, please comment and let me know because I have an open mind and have changed opinions on things once I learned more about them.  Today’s post is going to be about “Free Diabetes Supplies”

We have all heard the commercials on tv about call in now and receive free diabetes supplies.  Sign up for this and get free diabetes supplies.  Fill out this form and get free diabetes supplies.  Honestly, when was the last time you got free diabetes supplies?  Sure, I’ve received a lot of meters for free, but what good does that do for me, it comes with 10 strips!  Guess what, I use 10 strips a day, so thanks your free supplies lasted me a day!  You have now just lost my respect for your company because you’re trying to just sucker me into your customer mailing list.

There are a lot of marketing guidelines when it comes to anything that is medical related, and I know the word Free is a tough word to actually use in the diabetes market.  Usually it comes with a little asterik next to it that has such small fine print that the patients on Medicare can’t read anyway.  Being a marketing consultant myself, I obviously know the benefits of using the word FREE, but there are limitations and certain situations / products that it should just not be allowed.  Diabetes is such an expensive disease to manage that when people see or hear free, their eyes light up and run right over.  They may be in such dire need, that they just sign up for the free supplies and next thing you know, 90 days later are smacked with more supplies with a $400 bill.  Is that really showing that you care about your customers, so that’s why you give things away for free?

When will you manufacturers and supply companies listen.  Stop advertising Free Diabetic Supplies and just sending out a free meter and that’s it.  I think giving away free meters is a great marketing tactic and a great way to get a new customer, but advertise it that you’re just getting a free meter.  It is very confusing, especially to elderly people on Medicare that end up getting stuck with this large bill for the testing strips that go along with their free meter.

Enough of my thoughts, what do you think?  Do you think it is ok for supply companies and manufacturers to always advertise free diabetes supplies?

My Three Words of 2010 – 1 Month Later

Chris Stocker

Back in the first or second week of January, I wrote a post about my three words of 2010.  These words were growth, dedication, and health.  I outlined what all 3 of them meant to me and what my plans were to achieve and live those 3 words all year long.  Today I wanted to take the time and give a monthly update on those three words.  If you have read that post, I encourage you to so this post makes sense to you.  I also encourage you to do your own 3 words and then share them with me, because I would love to see what yours are as well.

Growth

The main reasoning for this was to grow as a person, just become a better person.  Over the last month I have been doing this quite well.  I do not get to flustered over minor things, I don’t let the little things in life get to me and ruin my day like they once have.  If somebody cuts in front of me in the grocery line, I just take a deep breathe and smile.  A lot of times when my blood sugar gets high, my patience goes right out the door, I’m sure you all know what I mean, so I have been trying hard to control that as well.  There have been times in the past that I have been short and snappy with Amanda just because my blood sugar is low, and she doesn’t deserve that because my insulin didn’t work properly.  She understands that if my sugar is high that I am probably not going to be the happiest person in the world.  There is still room for more growth, there always is.

Dedication

I have definitely slacked off here, big time.  I have dedicated myself to my business a lot more.  I am accomplishing more work for current clients, but haven’t spent enough time recruiting more.  Exercise wise, there really hasn’t been any.  I exercise, once or twice a week because I always feel like I have no time, but that is why I have made this one of my words of 2010.  I have not dedicated enough time to cooking healthy meals either.  I have been given a 1-month free trial pass to LA Fitness, so I am going to go there for a month and that should get me back into the motions of wanting to exercise again because of how good it makes me feel.

Health

For those of you that follow me on Twitter, know that my blood sugars have not been that good lately.  I have been sick and have been having really high blood sugars all week long.  There have been a few that hit the 400’s but the average has been around 250 or so.  You can see my 7,14,and 30 day averages in yesterday’s post about not having an A1C test done for a while.  This is my number one concern is my health.  My dedication is going to be the key factor into getting my health better again. 

So enough blogging about it, and time to actually do it!

No A1C Test for a While

Chris Stocker 4 Comments

Not having insurance for some time really sucks.  Sorry to be so blunt about it, but it does.  For those of you in that boat, you know what I mean.  I was insured the entire time I was diabetic, so I had no clue how it would actually feel.  I could only imagine, but now that my COBRA should be kicking in soon (fingers crossed), things may be getting better.  I have not had an A1C test done or seen my doctor since October.  I was seeing her on a regular monthly schedule.  The very first thing that I am going to be doing when I get that confirmation letter that I am covered again is schedule an appointment with her.

I know that my A1C is not going to be good this time around.  I am not even going to try and make myself believe that.  Over the last month, my overall sugars have been crap!  Below are snapshots of my 7 day, 14 day, and 30 day average levels, respectively.  As you will see, not that good.

7 day blood sugar avg

14 day blood sugar avg

30 day blood sugar avg

The 7 day average is mainly due to two bad sites and being sick.  My last A1C was 6.9.  I was happy with that at the time because the one before that was 7.1, so it was declining.  Unfortunately, that is not going to be the case.  At least one of my top 10 goals of 2010 should get accomplished.  These elevated blood sugars can be explained with two simple words: diet and exercise.  Actually, those words may not be as simple as we think.  Let’s get into details.

Diet

If you do a search in the dictionary for the word diet you come up with 11 different varieties of the word.  Yea, 11!  You can choose whichever one you want, but I have decided to go with this one:

“a particular selection of food, esp. as designed or prescribed to improve a person’s physical condition or to prevent or treat a disease: a diet low in sugar.”

That sounds exactly like what I am trying to do.  I select certain foods to make me lose weight and keep my blood sugars normal. That part seems easy to do, but it’s the management of it that gets me every time.  I feel that I don’t have the time to make a healthy dinner every night.  Well that’s just BS because the time that I spend sitting in a restaurant or waiting in line at a fast food joint, I could have spent cutting up some veggies and grilling or boiling some chicken.  One tip that has helped me in the past with this is to just put my laptop next to the grill and do some of my consulting work while the food is cooking.  Getting something accomplished while making a good, healthy meal.

The next part that ruins my diet every time is the cravings.  One craving will kill a whole week’s worth of dieting.  I always get cravings for Chinese food, which is my number one craving.  I used to crave Taco Bell all the time, but I fought that one off, so I know it is possible to do it with this one as well.  A good way to fight off these cravings is to cook up some veggies myself, grill some pork loins and then make my own stir fry with brown rice, there’s my craving fix.

The final struggle to my diet woes is portion control.  Even when I do cook a healthy meal, let’s say for example that stir fry I just spoke about.  It doesn’t make it healthy when I eat 3 plates of it when I should be eating only 1, maybe a half of a second plate.  The way  I always justify it to myself is that, well it’s healthier than eating 3 servings of Chinese food, which that logic needs to go, which I know this, it’s just the fact of actually doing it.

These 3 things are what are killing my diet, but I know what I need to do and will need to work harder to stop doing these things and I should be ok.

Exercise

This one is simple and easy to explain, laziness.  I make way too many excuses because I am so busy.  I work 3.5 days a week on site at Volvo Aero Services and then am doing about 50-60 hours a week worth of consulting or web design work, so there is very little time to fit things in.  I also have season tickets to the Florida Panthers so there are nights that I can’t exercise because I don’t get done working until about 5-5:30 and have to leave for the game at 6:30.  So that gives me one hour to either cook a good dinner or exercise, and typically neither one of those even happen.

I am sure that I share these same problems with everybody.  If it was simple and easy, I’m sure we could all get over these hurdles easily, but they are not simple and easy.  It makes it a lot easier however having the supporting cast on here that we all have.  Every day that I am living with being overweight is just hurting me in the long run.

It all comes back to my 3 words of 2010 and getting it done!

Lack of Sleep Catching Up and A Visit to the Clinic

Chris Stocker

My lack of sleep over the past few weeks is finally starting to catch up on me.  I seem to always be dragging and not at full strength.  I am getting a lot of work done and staying focused on my work, but as soon as I step away from my desk, I can’t seem to funcition.  So I guess it is good for business, but not good for personal.  However, I will need to rest up a bit because I am a tad bit sick.

Last week Amanda’s mom was a little sick with a cold and sore throat, guess who caught it?  That’s right I did.  The other night I was starting to feel a little stuffy and like a sinus cold was coming on because there was a big drop in temperature, so that was normal for me.  Then on Sunday night my ear started to feel like it needed to pop, and when I woke up yesterday morning it felt that same way.  I was told to try some Claritin D because it was probably just my sinuses acting up.  When I woke up this morning and felt even worse, throat hurt more, ear felt more clogged, I decided to go to the clinic. This is where the adventure began.

I am without health insurance right now, I am in the process of getting Cobra, but that’s a whole other story by itself, being held up because my former employer isn’t playing very nice with me and my insurance provider to smooth the process, that’s a different story in itself.  So I called around to see how expensive different clinics were and they all averaged about $100-$150.  I then came across the CVS Minute-Clinic.  It was only $65, so why not go there.  Let’s first discuss this name, should be more like CVS 60 minute-clinic to get seen.

After waiting for nearly an hour, I was finally seen by the person, not sure what her credentials were.  I explained the situation, so she checked my throat and my ears.  She then proceeded to open up an operations and procedures binder and started asking me yes / no questions, like she was just going down a checklist of things I could have done on WebMD.  After about 5-10 minutes of that she started to collection some information from me.  Once I told her I was diabetic, she instantly started to freak.  “Well, I have to follow different procedure since your diabetic, I have to refer you out to another clinic, I can’t prescribe anything for you because you have diabetes.”

She made a phone call to ac colleague I guess and they decided to refer me to an MD Now clinic in Boca Raton.  Guess what, I called that place this morning and it was $130, exactly why I didn’t want to go there in the first place.  After about a total of 90 minutes inside CVS I said, I’m not paying for this visit because you’re referring me somewhere else and I didn’t’ get anything out of the visit, and she agreed and said she wouldn’t charge, finally something good out of that place.

I went over to the MD Now and signed in and was asked for my insurance cards.  “I don’t have insurance, I’m paying out of pocket.”  Receptionist replies with, “Ok that will be $130 and additional fees for any services or tests ran during the visit, I can take your payment now, credit or debit.”  Well, ok good day to you too.  So I paid the $130, even though I was trying to avoid that, but no options here.  I only waited about 5 minutes there and was brought back and was speaking with the doctor within minutes.  So this is what I paid $130 for.

Sinus issue going on with your ear, take Mucinex D to loosen it up.  It looks like it could be turning into an infection so here’s a prescription for amoxicillin.  The best part about it was that I got the prescription for free from Publix (grocery store) because they give free generic prescriptions for up to 14 days.  I was able to save money there which helped out, but still out $130.I guess it is worth it to have that piece of mind to know exactly what the issue is.  Still sucks though because I can barely hear out of my right ear and feels like I have been flying for 24 hours without being able to pop my ear.

Blood Sugars Stayed High All Sunday

Chris Stocker

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, Sunday was just very blah.  Even after I posted the blog, it didn’t get much better.  My blood sugar hit a high of 465, right before I was to go to dinner.  I took almost a 17 unit correction and knew I wouldn’t be eating for about another 30-45 minutes.  Everybody ordered pizza, but I knew that I obviously couldn’t eat that  with a high blood sugar, so I opted out for a Greek salad.  Luckily, the waitress forgot to put my order in and my salad came out 10 minutes after everybody else was eating.  This gave my sugar more time to come down, which it came down to 285 before I ate.  It just felt like crap sitting there not being able to eat the pizza because my sugar was so high.  But this is that’s what goes on sometimes when you’re living a life with diabetes.High Blood Sugar

The salad was good for my diet however, so that was one good thing.  One of the in-laws had asked me, why I was eating salad, was it better for my diabetic diet?  I said, well I’m just on a general diet, nothing special because I am diabetic, I have insulin to take if I eat bad things.  After having a short conversation, I said why don’t you read my diabetes blog on a daily basis, because you can learn a lot about diabetes from it, and from reading one of the other diabetes blogs.  Hopefully you all see your reader base go up by one 🙂

Because of the high blood sugars yesterday, I decided to take a break from my BBQ sauce that I have fell in love with over the past several weeks.  I figured that it would be a good idea to keep that high fructose corn syrup out of my diet for a while.  Somebody sent me an e-mail after I wrote that post about their sauce being the only one approved by the ADA, I’d love to try it, if you are out there listening.

Well it is a Monday, so I should probably start working on some projects that I probably slacked off Golf Courseon over the weekend.  I’d so much rather be doing this again (see picture on left, Par 5, second shot)