I feel I have a lot to talk about. This is more for me than for anyone reading.

Diabetes update

It’s been almost four years since I was diagnosed with diabetes. It was a big life-changing shocker, but I adapted and changed my lifestyle. I feel I’ve learned pretty well how to be more healthy.

Now I know I need to learn more and work harder.

It’s been over a year since I saw my doctor in Logan for a checkup on my diabetes. I always meant to find a new doctor in or around the Salt Lake valley, but I never got around to it. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find one that was as knowledgeable as Dr. Redd was. I worried my insurance wouldn’t cover a good doctor. I worried about the money I’d need to spend to see a doctor. To top it off, I felt like I was taking pretty good care of myself; I’d be fine for a while without seeing no stinkin doctor.

My mom kept nagging me to see a doctor. She told me to just go see a doctor my brother had started to see because he had the same insurance plan I did. I managed to get an appointment and went. I figured, if this doctor didn’t know much about treating diabetes, I’d just find out who did and go to them.

I didn’t end up going to anyone else. Dr. Raychel Gonzales is awesome. Her accent is a bit thick so I have to work hard to understand everything she says, but she knows a lot about diabetes and how to treat it. For now, I’m happy.

Not unexpectedly, she had me submit to a barrage of laboratory tests to indicate my cholestrol ratios, my long-term blood glucose control, and other stuff.

That was a couple weeks ago. I had a followup appointment with Dr. Gonzales to review my lab results this last Monday.

The good news: my cholestrol levels are not as bad as they used to be. My LDL level could still use some improvement, but it’s not as bad as it used to be. This is probably because I’ve lost some weight and I’ve been, generally, more active than I was a year or two ago.

The bad news: my HbA1C level was 8.4. Ouch!

The HbA1C indicates your average blood sugar levels over the last 90 days. The goal is to have it below 6.5. I used to have a 6.8. Dr. Gonzales says this means my average blood sugar has been around 250 mg/dL when it should be 80-120 mg/dL.

This is completely my fault. I’ve become too lax in my testing habits. This is partly because I didn’t want to keep paying for the test strips. Also, I felt I had a pretty good sense of what my body was going through- I could feel whether I was high or low pretty well... or so I thought.

So, I’ve got to test more regularly and probably adjust my insulin ratios so I don’t go high.

She prescribed an insulin sensitizer medication as well. I’ll probably start that later this week.

She also put me on a trial of Lipitor to help me manage my cholestrol ratios better. The other statins I’ve been on before, Zocor and Advocor, either didn’t help with my cholestrol at all, or fouled with my blood sugar levels. I’ve taken the Lipitor a couple nights now and haven’t passed out or squirted blood out of my eye sockets, so I think it may be fine.

Of course, if it does work well, then I’ve got to worry about how much it’s going to cost to stay on it. *sighs*

She also gave me a prescription for a low dose of a blood pressure medication. My blood pressure isn’t a problem (110/62 at last visit), but the low dose can help protect my kidneys from problematic effects of diabetes in the long term.

So there’s that. Maybe one of these drugs will make me feel light as a feather and convince me I have the ability to read minds and navigate gopher holes with my eyes closed. That would be cool.

I’ll be heading back in to see Dr. G. in October to see how I’m doing. My goal is to get my HbA1c down to 7.5 by then.

Maya’s sixth birthday

Maya turned six on Tuesday.

Wow.

We had a party with her and three of her friends at a big park in South Jordan on Saturday. Aside from a slightly gusty wind, it was perfect weather and everyone had a great time. My mom came to help out.

Then, last night, we met my mom and dad at Panda Express at Jordan Landing for a birthday dinner. Maya loves Chinese food and Panda Express is her favorite place to go for Chinese.

I would put up some pictures of some stuff, but I’ll have to get the film developed.

*sighs* - Still digital camera-less.

Not working

I’ve been sending resumés out to a lot of companies the last couple of weeks. Iodynamics isn’t seeing a lot of work right now, unfortunately. Christine and I agreed we’re getting frustrated with the barely-squeaking-by lifestyle we’ve been living since I got laid off from About.com April 2003.

I’m doing some contract work for a company called ODYC, but it’s a startup with very tight funds. While I have no problem with that, it’s not exactly harmonious with what my needs are right now. Until I find something, though, it’s better than nothing... and it’s fun. Plus, I get to work with my old About co-worker Dave.

Subaru b0rked

My partner Mike has been in Hawaii on vacation, so I’ve been handling things in Salt Lake and in Logan. I mentioned it before, but I ended up driving to Logan and back 4 times in a period of a week. When I returned home on Monday evening after that fourth drive, I was alerted to a fluid leak under the Subaru.

It’s coolant.

Of course, the first thing I check is hoses. Nope. Hoses all look good.

The leak appears to be coming from two places- both along a gasket on the front of the engine, between the engine block and the timing belt cover. One of the leaks is right next to the thermostat housing as well- so it may be a thermostat seal, I guess.

In any case, I decided I can’t use the car until I get it fixed. I’ve got to decide if I want to tackle it on my own (and possibly save some money or mess things up real bad), or find someone to fix it (and spend some money).

For now, I’m just pondering.

Ideas for the website

I had an idea for the FozzilinyMoo.org website: A question and answer area.

See, I know a lot about Linux, web development, networking, and other balogna, but I don’t really feel like picking a topic and writing about it. I was thinking if I could get some topic suggestions in the form of questions, I could write something up as an answer and publish it on the site.

I write up some pretty comprehensive explanations when someone asks me how to do stuff in an instant message conversation or e-mail. I never think to save it and put it online.

So, comment below or e-mail me.