Diabetic Recipes
Cycle day 27: Aunt Flow will arrive in approximately three days. And likely with little warning.
Except for the lows. Oh, man the lows she brings for several days before her arrival. They're not brutal, just surprising. Not like, "Holy &*%$ I'm 29!" More like, "Wow my post-meal is 94."
I actually enjoy the relative lowlessness that she brings, although I have to be much more vigilant about my blood sugar management. For example, this morning it was an incredible 60ish degrees, so I took No. 2 and No. 3 for a walk (No. 1 was camping with The Mr.). While it was roughly two hours since breakfast, I somehow find that I usually don't test when I spontaneously decide to take on physical activity. Something prompted me to check this morning. I definitely didn't expect to see low 90s.
And then there are the cravings. Holy Hell I can't go to the grocery store for two gallons of milk without walking down the baked goods aisle and wanting to bake everything in sight: blueberry muffins, chewy fudge brownies, cake, cookies, lemon bars. I linger in front of the Ghirardelli double chocolate brownie box as if I've never seen it before. Even the round cartons of icing reach out to me. I want to stuff my face with total disregard for what I'm doing to my blood sugar. My insulin requirements dramatically rise during this time. Gotta love "family."
As if this wasn't enough, once she finally shows, she whallops me with days of highs. So, you're thinking at least I have things sort of figured out. If I'm experiencing unexplained lows and/or terrible cravings all I need to do is reference my calendar, right? Wrong. She likes to switch things up on me. Used to be that I'd be unexplainably high for days before she arrived, and then low when she departed. Then she switched to normal before and high during and normal after.
So, sure I have things figured out now, but what about next cycle?
Thursday, October 23, 2008
MEDTRONIC MINIMED PUMPS REVIEW: TERRIBLE!
I have liked the pump itself and have had an easy time using it, however, It has had maybe 6-8 breakdowns in 5 years, but within 24 hours the broken pumps were replaced. This was an inconvenience and made me sick overnight and miss work, but, this is not what made me upset with Minimed.. I would have liked to have another one, however, I have had such trouble with the billing that I am unable to continue using it at all, in fact... I have considered calling the better business bureau.
You see about a year ago maybe a year and a half, I was getting bills for like 2 years earlier. For instance,(and I don't have exact dates anymore but) I would order, say, March, June, September, and December 2004, I would get the bill for March 2004 in December of 2006. Then in March 2006, I would get the bill for June 2004. I mean come on........ A big company like that should do better then that.... I would complain and complain, then they would say, I know this is frustrating and we will fix the billing in January, well.... when January rolled around they sent me the entire 2 years worth of bills all at once leaving me with this huge balance and then they shut off my supplies and wouldn't let me get any more. It took me about 6 months to pay all that money down to 0, and then, after that they would call me up and tell me my check was 3 days late on my payment... All I could say was, "well, at least your billing now." Good grief, this is the way they treat the people who pay their bills. Terrible. All I ever wanted from them was a bill so that I could pay, I have paid every bill that they have sent.
But things are improving, as of now, they are only 6 months behind on their billing, I have called several times, but to no avail. I am still awaiting June's bill. Sadly, I have to look for a new company with which to do business, and for a way to let others know about the bad and rude practices of Medtronic Minimed. I thought perhaps a blog could warn others of these pitfalls.
The most concern that I have received from any of the reps thus far was from the person who does the sales, I guess they wanted me to get another one of their pumps. I would have except their service was so TERRIBLE. Think twice, or maybe not at all about getting one of these pumps, the quality of the pump itself is not worth all the trouble of dealing with the people.