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When my Doc told me I was diabetic in 2005, she wanted me to test 7 times a day. And she hammered it into my brain "Test, don't guess." So she wrote a 90 day supply prescription with 3 refills for test strips and lancets. The billing sent to Medicare for each fill was over $800. But of course, they only paid a small percentage of that. I didn't test that much, and only get a couple of refills.

Two years later, long past the time I should have asked for new prescription, I had an A1c of 12.4%. I saw my Neurologist that day. He looked at my test results and then looked me strait in the eyes and said "It's been nice knowing you." I asked why he said that, and his response was "If you don't your Diabetes under control, you're going to die."

That was when I started riding my bike like a madman. My next A1c was 7.3% (I think) and the one after that was 5.6%. When I asked my PC Doc for a new prescription for 7 test strips a day, she said she couldn't justify that. I asked what happened to "Test, don't guess?" She just said that was two years ago. I said something to my Neurologist about that, and he said "I can justify it." For the next five years, Medicare paid what they always paid without a fight. During that time I put over 20,000 miles on my bottom of the line Trek $300 mountain bike, and stayed in the "Coveted 5% Club" the whole time.
 
Axel Slingerland said:
When my Doc told me I was diabetic in 2005, she wanted me to test 7 times a day. And she hammered it into my brain "Test, don't guess." So she wrote a 90 day supply prescription with 3 refills for test strips and lancets. The billing sent to Medicare for each fill was over $800. But of course, they only paid a small percentage of that. I didn't test that much, and only get a couple of refills.

Two years later, long past the time I should have asked for new prescription, I had an A1c of 12.4%. I saw my Neurologist that day. He looked at my test results and then looked me strait in the eyes and said "It's been nice knowing you." I asked why he said that, and his response was "If you don't your Diabetes under control, you're going to die."

That was when I started riding my bike like a madman. My next A1c was 7.3% (I think) and the one after that was 5.6%. When I asked my PC Doc for a new prescription for 7 test strips a day, she said she couldn't justify that. I asked what happened to "Test, don't guess?" She just said that was two years ago. I said something to my Neurologist about that, and he said "I can justify it." For the next five years, Medicare paid what they always paid without a fight. During that time I put over 20,000 miles on my bottom of the line Trek $300 mountain bike, and stayed in the "Coveted 5% Club" the whole time.
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A1c indicates the average blood glucose over the previous 90-day period (approximately). I think I have mentioned that there are two other glucose indicator tests that are indicators for shorter periods, but these are seldom used--glycated albumin and fructosamine. Only checking glucose once daily can give a misleading picture as @Axel Slingerland has said. If you have the "Dawn Phenomenon" you may get falsely high readings early in the morning. I don't agree with the citation completely, as I think it also occurs in some folks that are in a pre-diabetic state who have completely "normal" A1c readings (usually below 6.0). If you are on meds, you cannot check for this, but if you are not yet on meds, test your glucose in an 8-hour fasting state in the morning, then eat breakfast and test again 2 hours after you finish eating. If your blood sugar is in the "normal range" at 2 hours, I think you suffer form the Dawn Phenomenon. If your blood sugar is below 70 mg/dL (3.9 in mmol/L, you are in a hypoglycemic state. Both conditions are considered (by me) to be pre-diabetic and can usually be controlled by dietary changes.
 
@galty , you are complaining about a mere 80º??? ;) ;) It is supposed to reach 100º here next week with a feels like temperature of 111º. But almost everyone has air conditioning. If I have something to do outside, I do it first thing in the morning before it gets too hot. I do feel sorry for workers who have to work outside in the heat all day.

We complain about the heat and humidity in the summer, but we mostly have mild winters and glorious falls. Our heat is mostly in July and August. September brings a noticeable change in the feel of the air.
 
It's 100° now outside, but dry as a desert bone. But the 7 day forecast has 90° temps every day until next Thursday. I hope they're right. We've been in a heat wave for about two weeks. But fortunately it's been in the 60° range over nights.

It should be about 90° by about 10:00p or so.
 
Pretty good so far. I feel a little guilty, as the truck is passing outside picking up garden waste and I haven't put anything out. But I don't have much right now anyway. Still, I'm paying for it so maybe there's the source of guilt. 😜

Glucose level before eating anything was an even 100 today, just as the two days prior. Such a streak feels dubious, especially given that "even number" which I've seldom seen before. But perhaps everything is working: drugs, diet, activity, sleep (could be better).
 
galty said:
Well in London today the temps hit 80F.
Feeling very unwell with it
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You wouldn't want to be in my room right now then... It's 87°F in here. It would cost me a small fortune for the AC to get it down to 80°F. It's 98°F outside...
 
The day went ok here. Felt good all day. Didn't catch much solar since clouds came in but I can stand a break there. Caught up on sleep with a nap, during which we got some rain. Not a ton but nothing we can't use. Still hot, but milder. I kept things cool inside without much use of A/C during off-peak pricing.

I feel good about getting my rear in gear and putting out that replacement string of solar lights. I like the way they look. I'd always imagined having a long front porch subtly lit from below its front railing, almost an illuminated boat dock look. This gives me a little bit of that feeling.

27 foot string.jpg

Hard to photograph in pitch dark, but here you can see the branches of the Yew hedge above them a little bit.
 
Thankfully it's cooler, so I can sit out under the apple tree and wait for FedEx to make a second delivery attempt. Yesterday I was out back and missed them. I had no clue that I needed to receive from them in person but for my last few FedEx deliveries I guess I was just out front by chance when they pulled up. What a pain for something fairly cheap!
 
Just ran around back to check solar panels and a male Broad-Bodied Chaser was perched on one. This is a dragonfly with black wings and a fat powder blue body. Everything is damp from yesterday's rain so maybe that resulted in the wandering.

The nearest lake is almost half a mile from here and the next almost a mile.
 
I had never heard of that, @Jacob Petersheim ; so I had to look it up and see what they look like. I do not think that I have seen one like that before, just the regular light blue ones with the skinny bodies.
We are not close to any lakes either, although there are some ponds on the arsenal, and some small streams not far from us. we sometimes have had a dragonfly in the back yard, and it was usually when we were out in the pool, so I think the water from the pool attracted it.
Here is the picture I found online , for anyone else who is curious what these dragonflies look like.

IMG_0658.jpeg
 
That's the one.

They are sort of weird if you aren't used to them, @Yvonne Smith and they look pretty big and might give one bumblebee vibes. As insects go they aren't the largest, but they seem "bulky" and appear to have more heft to them than they do.

They fly oddly. Maybe it was the very light breeze but while it flitted it mostly looked quite purposeful, flying in straight lines. When I first saw it and got close it saw me and flitted off, then across the other way, and landed back on almost the exact original spot where I'd first seen it. Like it effortlessly flew a triangle path.
 
Since we live on a small lake, we have lots of dragonflies but I don't try to classify them. I have a grandson who could probably give us the rundown on what is here. Unfortunately, with the dragonflies come the mosquitos upon which they feed. Both have been low in numbers so far probably due to our weird past winter. They are both coming out in good numbers now though.
 
Last night was cooler, but I wasn't out at dusk. However the night before it was pretty good on fireflies. Not the most I've ever seen together, but quite a few.

Mosquitos haven't been bad here yet. To be honest we've done pretty good actually.

I find that blue body color unique. Somehow it seems hard to look at. The impression is "white" but the eye says "blue" and there seems to be some tug-of-war over its perception as if it is glowing or something. We've had them here since I was a kid at least. We just don't see them in large numbers very often.

Thin thinner "damselflies" are more common. While a lot of those are a sort of electric blue I have also seen them in red, orange, almost yellow, green, and I think some shade of violet. They almost look metallic.

When I was a kid we saw a lot of something else we called a dragonfly, and nowhere near any water. These were as thin or thinner than the damselfly, always very black, with the rear body curled in arcing segments down to a sharp point at the end. Very evil looking things. Maybe these were really some sort of wasp?
 
Huh. That (those?) dragonfly is still around. It actually landed and perched on my head for a bit.

While mowing damp grass I saw at least one small frog, much smaller than common pond leopard frogs. I didn't get a good look but tried to watch out for them as I mowed.
 
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Axel Slingerland said:
When my Doc told me I was diabetic in 2005, she wanted me to test 7 times a day. And she hammered it into my brain "Test, don't guess." So she wrote a 90 day supply prescription with 3 refills for test strips and lancets. The billing sent to Medicare for each fill was over $800. But of course, they only paid a small percentage of that. I didn't test that much, and only get a couple of refills.

Two years later, long past the time I should have asked for new prescription, I had an A1c of 12.4%. I saw my Neurologist that day. He looked at my test results and then looked me strait in the eyes and said "It's been nice knowing you." I asked why he said that, and his response was "If you don't your Diabetes under control, you're going to die."

That was when I started riding my bike like a madman. My next A1c was 7.3% (I think) and the one after that was 5.6%. When I asked my PC Doc for a new prescription for 7 test strips a day, she said she couldn't justify that. I asked what happened to "Test, don't guess?" She just said that was two years ago. I said something to my Neurologist about that, and he said "I can justify it." For the next five years, Medicare paid what they always paid without a fight. During that time I put over 20,000 miles on my bottom of the line Trek $300 mountain bike, and stayed in the "Coveted 5% Club" the whole time.
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Thats great Axel.
 
Yvonne Smith said:
I had never heard of that, @Jacob Petersheim ; so I had to look it up and see what they look like. I do not think that I have seen one like that before, just the regular light blue ones with the skinny bodies.
We are not close to any lakes either, although there are some ponds on the arsenal, and some small streams not far from us. we sometimes have had a dragonfly in the back yard, and it was usually when we were out in the pool, so I think the water from the pool attracted it.
Here is the picture I found online , for anyone else who is curious what these dragonflies look like.

View attachment 803
Click to expand...

I don't think I've ever seen one, thanks for the picture, Yvonne.
 
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