Well, these days it seems like it is me and TDW and Eve around here. That’s fine, we’re good for each other and it gives us a place to work on goals.

Questions: What else should we be doing? I keep thinking I want to do more but I’m just not sure what.

Do you want to stay a part of Wellsphere? To be honest, it is not feeding new folks into DRT and I’m less comfortable with the profit issue there these days. I’m not saying it’s a bad place – just not sure I want to continue to be a part of it. What do the rest of you think?

I’m getting bored with our theme. Either that or it’s a snowy, icy day and I can’t play outside so I want to redecorate the house. At any rate, would anyone seriously object to a new theme?

I didn’t think so. Keep watch and yell out if you see or find something that you’d like around here. I know, I keep threatening to move this to my server so I can do a totally original theme but…..

p.s., this blue theme actually works quite well, don’t you think?

I’ve been meaning to post a little update. I’m really doing quite well. I have been able to sleep on my side again, which is helpful. I have to be a little careful as I move about but it’s doable. The pain, other than that, is pretty much gone – I’m just left with my usual back and knee, etc., pain.

The first couple days I wasn’t hungry at all. If I drank even water even slightly too quickly I felt like I was overly full. The band is not inflated at all at first, just the swelling from the surgery makes you feel as if it is. I’m still on a full liquid diet for another week and I have started feeling hungry. They didn’t really place any restrictions on me except for the liquid but I’m still keeping my calories between 600 and 800. Mostly that’s okay but if I had something solid to digest it’d sure be nice!

I’ve decreased my diabetes meds further and am staying pretty much between 80 and 100. I probably ought to be testing more often than I am but when I do feel low-ish, I test and I’m still in that range. In some ways, I feel like I’m always eating because when it’s not meal time, I’m drinking those protein fruit drinks trying to get my protein for the day. It makes it hard to have a clear window for testing but it also may be keeping my BG pretty steady.

I’ve noticed in the past couple days that it’s easier to get around. Not just it’s easier to get around post-surgery, but it’s easier to get around in general. I think it’s probably a good sign! I feel like I have a bit more energy, too, but I also tire out pretty quickly.

And that’s how I’m doing…

I spoke with Schnukiputz the other night – she is having some further testing but it seems possible that they may have an idea of what is causing all her pain. It will still be a long while before they get anything fixed but it seems to be a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel.

I promised some time ago to keep you updated on the online diabetes group I attended through Stanford. See what a good job I’ve done? Most of the information was pretty basic – and I think it’s intended to be more for the newly diagnosed – but it was all good as a refresher. You know how easy it is to slip into habits that aren’t that good for you.

One of the best things I got out of the class was their approach to goal setting. We’ve talked about goal setting at various times during the different incarnations of the Round Table and Life After Diabetes – but they added a component that really made sense to me.

Each week, when we set the small(ish) goal for the week we had to estimate how certain we were we could accomplish that goal during the week. If you were less than 70% certain that you could succeed you were encouraged to reconsider the goal – the idea is to succeed, not to put up impossible goals that just make you feel like a failure. I found that estimating my confidence in achieving a goal really helped me to see where I needed to break it down further or to set a more realistic challenge – and that helped me to feel more like a success than my usual of setting too large goals and failing or setting too small goals and not feeling I was doing enough.

There is still a lot of good information in the book, Living a Healthy Life with Chronic Conditions, which is available through Amazon. I didn’t have the time or focus to do all the reading I wanted to given my other stress during the class’s timeframe. I hope/intend to bring some more ideas here.

In addition, I’ve invited the folks that I had the class with to join us here. I hope that at least some will visit and hang out with us, sharing their stories and maybe getting us more energized again. Please welcome them if they come!

I heard from our friend Schnuckiputz tonight, she is having increasing problems with her eyes and will likely not be online for considerably longer. I know we were all hoping that she would be doing much better by now. She is in a lot of pain and I guess the docs don’t really know what is going on yet.

I know we are all sending her our best thoughts, positive energy, prayers, and healing energy. Feel better soon Schnuckiputz, we are all thinking of you!

D-Blog Day was started on November 9th 2005, by Gina Capone of Diabetes Talkfest to help unite diabetes bloggers and create awareness about diabetes.

Our little diabetes community has been pretty quiet – but that is our nature for as long as I’ve known us. On this D-Blog day, I’d like to ask about your opinion on getting more involved in the diabetes blogosphere. It seems that the Diabetes O.C. has been quietly reincarnated. There are social networks like Tu Diabetes and we are a small and quiet part of Wellsphere. The OC is apparently represented on Facebook and Twitter as well.

The online diabetes community has been a big part of my diabetes care over the years. I am, personally, not very involved comparatively speaking these days. As I work to improve my self-care I have been thinking about whether I need to be more involved again. Or is diabetes just a part of my life and I need to focus on some of the other changes I’ve been working on?

I’d really like to hear other opinions and ideas.

And in more news – I completed the Stanford study and now they are letting me take their online program and sent me a great looking book – “Living a Healthy Life with Chronic Conditions.”

I just got the email about the program and it looks like it starts next week – oh what stunning timing! Still, I will let you all know about anything interesting.

I was challenged by the program shrink to show that I understood what was expected of me – I’ve spent the past couple days working on a menu plan. It’s true that doing it helped me to understand more clearly. It’s hard to get 60-80 grams of protein + 2 vegetables + 1 fruit + some starches for 600 calories per day. And of course, I have to keep in mind that I won’t tolerate all foods right away. No tomatoes or beef for the first six months.

At any rate, for anyone interested, I created a pdf of the first week of sample menus. Got to finish up another week.

Sample Menu Plan 1

ALSO!

I keep meaning to post that I’ve spoken with our friend Schnuckiputz a couple of times since her surgery. She says that she is doing some better but has to wait until next month to let her eye stabilize before getting new glasses. Right now, the computer is too painful for her to spend any time looking at the screen so we continue to send her good wishes for recovery.

I haven’t written about it here, but have been talking about the bariatric surgery option on my personal blog for a couple of years. I attended a second informational seminar in June and have been in the process of application and evaluation since then. I finally met with the surgeon last week and I’m set up for dietary and exercise consults, a psych eval and a behavioral health class. It looks like surgery will likely be around the end of September or early part of October.

I’m both excited and scared to death. I’ve chosen the lap-band option as it is less invasive, less risky and has an equal degree of success at the 5 year mark. It’s also adjustable and the doc thinks it works better for those of us needing more behavior modification.

It should be interesting to see the effect on my diabetes II. The surgeries both show remarkable improvement in type 2 for many/most patients. I continue to be having issues with high sugars no matter what I eat. It’s possible that I’m moving into insulin dependent status and the weight loss won’t have much impact on my sugars. We’ll see.

Anyway, I’ll be letting y’all know as things progress.

And from today’s mailbox, we have the following note from Amy Liu at Blogged.com

Dear Zazzy,

Our editors recently reviewed your blog and have given it an 8.2 score out of (10) in the Health/Conditions and Diseases category of Blogged.com.

This is quite an achievement!

http://www.blogged.com/directory/health/conditions-and-diseases

We evaluated your blog based on the following criteria: Frequency of Updates, Relevance of Content, Site Design, and Writing Style.

After carefully reviewing each of these criteria, your site was given its 8.2 score.

Please accept my congratulations on a blog well-done!!

Sincerely,

Amy Liu

Marketing Department

Okay…it’s probably a marketing thing for blogged.com but it’s still pretty fun!

See DRT Page