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Back From Daytona – Back to Work

Chris Stocker

I am back from Daytona after a really long weekend.  You have not seen me on Twitter, Facebook, or blogging much and there is a reason.  I just have honestly not had enough time to be on there.  I have been more busy these past few weeks then I have ever been in my life.  The worst part is that I don’t even know what the heck I have been doing that is making me that busy.  The main thing is that I have been sick, so I haven’t been staying up late because I just don’t have the energy to do it.  3 day weekend in Daytona took up a lot of time as well.  I am working longer hours on-site so I don’t really have much access to Twitter and blogging while there.  I use my phone from time to time to check what others are saying, but find it hard to actually type up a Tweet.

Onto some more important things.  I am running out of testing strips.  I have about 25 Freestyle Lite strips left, which are my favorite, and I have about 200 TrueTest or TrueRead, or True something, I don’t even know.  Whichever of the Home Diagnostic’s True brand goes with the True2Go.  I like that meter, but not as a primary meter because it doesn’t have all of the other features in the Freestyle Lite that I like.  Like I said before, I love the Contour USB, but the strips are just too expensive for me to continue to use it.  I am grateful and happy that Bayer was kind enough to send a sample to me to try out.  I still haven’t gotten to that blog post yet either, but that was more or less technical difficulties.  I couldn’t get the graphs to work, it was taking too long on my computer at the time, and never got back to it.

Normally, in times like this I take a weekend to sit down and plan out everything that I need to do for the next couple weeks to get caught up and then also get ahead.  This past weekend I couldn’t, this upcoming weekend I will be attending WordCamp Miami all day Saturday.  Friday and Saturday night will give me some time to get caught up on things.  Also, the only thing on this Sunday is the race, so I can do work during that.  I just can’t get too far behind or else I am going to be screwed.  One of the main things that I have on my to do list this week is to figure out my whole supply situation and when I am going to refill and also what brand of strips I want to use.  To be blunt about it, I am going to use whichever brand I can easily get to that costs me the least amount of money.  Over the years I have used just about every single meter that is out there and they all basically do the same exact thing.

Overall, I am feeling better.  My right ear is still clogged and not even the Neti Pot is working now.  I am scared that I am permenately deaf out of that ear because I don’t get the pressure feeling in there that I was getting before.  From time to time I do feel it trying to unclog itself, so that is the only thing that is giving me a positive outlook on it.  Well, enough of this post, it is time to go to bed.  I am typing this Monday night and posting it Tuesday morning.

Have a great day.

Neti Pot Is My New Best Friend

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

After over a week of feeling like crap everyday, having high blood sugars, not being able to hear, coughing, being stuffy, and just plain ole miserable, I am happy to say that I am back.  I am disappointed in the route that had to be taken to get here, but whatever, it’s in the past and there is nothing to do about it now.  Let’s dive into this adventure.

I told you that last week I went to the clinic because of the clogged ear and cough and throat, etc.  Well basically after paying out of pocket for the visit ($130), 2 packages of Mucinex D ($50) and loss of sleep from coughing all night long I still wasn’t fixed yet.  So I decided to spend $14.99 and purchase a Neti Pot.  After about 2 seconds of using it, my left ear was unclogged.  After using it a second time, the right ear was unclogged.  So, spending $180 on doctor and medicine didn’t do anything, but if I would have just purchased the $15 item from the beginning then everything would have been ok.

My right ear is still a little clogged up, but it is getting better everytime that I use the Neti Pot, so it should be ok.  I don’t really like to say that I wasted the money on the doctor’s visit, even though that is how I feel.  Reason I don’t like to say that is because I wasn’t really sure what was wrong with me or what was going on.  I wanted to take every precaution because there is way too many weird things that go on out there and people have no idea what is going on and think it is just something small.  I ignored a sickness for 3 months 6 years ago when I went into the emergency room with an 858 blood sugar, I don’t want to ever live through something like that again.

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)

Just a Blah Sunday Morning

Chris Stocker

This Sunday morning has not had the greatest start to it so far.  For one, I had a high blood sugar all night long.  Partially my fault, and partially because a bad site.  I changed the site this morning and my sugars are still a little high, but slowly coming down.  I hate eating when I have a high and am trying to correct it, but I had just woken up and there was sausage and gravy over biscuits waiting for me downstairs, so I just had to.  The weather outside is not very nice, not bad, just not nice.  It is cloudy and just looks, blah.  I shouldn’t complain though because it is about 75 here today.

To add to that I have this annoying cough that won’t go away.  I’ve had it for about 2 days, but now it is at it’s worst.  Amanda has been sick with a little cold, so I think I am picking that up as well.  I’m hoping it calms down a little for dinner tonight.  It is Amanda’s grandmother’s birthday so the whole family is heading to a local pizza joint for dinner.  Today is also another big day in my sports world, no not the Pro Bowl.  Florida Panthers best player, David Booth makes his return today after being injured with head injuries since October.  The worst part is that the game is home, I have tickets, and I am skipping it for the family dinner.

Speaking about sports, last night my alumni Florida Atlantic University played a women’s / men’s doubleheader in basketball against their rival Florida International University.  This is a big game in itself, but even bigger last night.  Former Piston’s star, Isiah Thomas is now their head coach, so of course the FAU fans were getting on him big time about his little mishap while being the Knicks coach.  FAU kicked butt and won.

One final thing, I watched the Julie & Julia movie last night, it was ok.  I liked the part of the movie when she was blogging, but the France junk I didn’t like.

Well, my coffee is out, so I need a refill and I need to get back to work.  Had a few proposals get denied, so time to get working on some new ones.

Share a Story Contests – Too Many or Too Few – Your Thoughts?

Chris Stocker

From here on out, every Friday is going to be an opinionated blog.  Let’s call it, ‘Fired Up Friday’.  During the week I typically blog about things that are going on in my life, hence the Life of a Diabetic blog name.  I try to detail things that can go on while living with diabetes or living normally with diabetes as I call it.  There are a lot of things out in the D world that you may or may not agree with.  In the case of some of my Friday blogs, you may or may not agree with them, if you don’t I would really appreciate your feedback and comments.  The way I look at every situation is this; I may have an opinion on something because I don’t know enough about the other side to form a positive opinion.

Today’s idea came about because of noticing how many different diabetes story contests there are out there.  STOP!

There are enough story submission, share your story, whatever you want to call it contests and sites around, don’t try to create another one.  This is more geared towards companies than it is the d-bloggers.  I am all about d-bloggers sharing their story; in fact I think that part is awesome.  I think guest-blogging is one of the greatest ideas in the world (I am starting a weekly guest blog on February, so don’t be surprised if you get an e-mail from me soon), but all these contests need to stop.  Find a more creative way to engage us diabetics and your “customers”.

The first share your story type of post I saw was on Kerri’s site.  I submitted my story to her when I first started blogging and she published it on her site and I, still to this day, am very grateful and appreciative of that.  These are the type of story submissions that should stay, but I have seen a few companies recently start collecting stories for gifts, and I think it is just one big ploy to get business.

Majority of you know where I used to work, if you don’t e-mail me and we can discuss it on the side, I wouldn’t give them the recognition on my blog.  Bitter?  No, just know the behind the scenes and not legally allowed to speak about it in a public forum like this.  But reason I bring that up is that there was a story submission contest and at the end of it, I didn’t see the corporate benefits of it.  I can definitely see the benefits for the community, because you get to read a lot of people’s stories that you don’t normally see.  Maybe they don’t have a blog, so they aren’t writing about their daily lives, or maybe they have a blog, but you just don’t know about it.

So, I will end this blog with this.  I am all for sharing your story, but with the diabetes OC, not with corporate contests, because you just become an e-mail on a mailing list.

What are your thoughts?  Do you think that there is too many share your story contests out there or do you think that there is not enough?  I am interested to hear your opinions.