Lancet Changing Time

Tags

diabetes, hepatitis, infection, lancet

When to change one’s lancet is a common question among diabetics around the world. The authorities, those diabetic nurses, educators, and various ‘-ologist’ nomenclature all suggest we change our lancets every use, and if you cheat, change them at least daily. Stories exist of radicals in the wild: those nonconformists who dare fate my extending the dates, by pushing the limits of their luck, of diabetics changing their lancets *ghast* weekly.

I will say weekly is wrong. We are at risk of infection. We are at risk of catching one of those invisible little varmints that live in our blood and if left to live without restraint will overrun our internal defenses like a Donald Trump protest. We will become inflamed, turn red, and succumb to nasty foreign fevers and maladies. Extending the life of lancets increases the chances of these devastating complications.

The trouble is, such infections just do not occur. I belong to many diabetes forums and groups. I pay attention to threads. I know many diabetics and have hundreds of virtual friends. I talk about such things with my doctors. I pester my endocrinologists with such questions. My extended anecdotal evidence suggests this hypothesis is true.

Our bodies defend well against such infection, but I think there is more. I suspect we become more attuned to defense with the introduction of foreign bodies. With extended abuse of our fingers through lanceting, by introducing infection after infection, our immune systems learn to repel these amphibious assaults. Lancet tips are also not exactly a penthouse suite for infectious freeloaders. These are sharp tips made of stainless steel. They are typically also shielded by covers. I have never seen lingering blood or suppurated scum on a tip.

There are dangers, though. There are dangers in sharing lancet devices. Never, never, never share a lancet with another person. Hepatitis B and ‘other’ infections are cautioned about by the CDC.  I don’t know how quantifiable the risk is, but I never have shared a lancet and neither should you. Some body fluids we share; blood is not one of them.

Lancets can also become dull. Let your lancet go a year, you might as well use thumbtacks. At least according to the images. I question how true these are; I question the significance of the need for perfect sharpness. Most diabetics will recommend to find your own changing frequencies based on pain. If it hurts more on the second try, then change them each use. If your fingers are chronically sore, then increase the frequency. Our fingers callous, like a guitar player’s. An experienced guitar player with calloused fingers can play all day and all night. A new player’s fingers would bleed long before that. Constant use increases your physical defenses and you can extend your changing times longer and longer. The bottom line on comfort is to experiment with depth settings and changing frequency to find your own comfort zone.

I am writing this post because we just changed our clocks. This is too infrequent for me. I prefer to change on the equinox. Those extra two weeks that have been added on are torture. Not really. I have used lancets over a year before. I have also changed after a month. It’s not something I worry about. It’s not something that has ever caused me trouble. “Oh, that was painful,” might trigger an unscheduled change. But to be safe, I try to change on the equinox, the 21st of March and the 21st of September. I have a week to get ready.

John

Changes

Tags

author, character, diabetes, focus, novel, personality, plot, riptide, story, theme, unemployment, Writing

You can read David Bowie’s lyrics here and listen to his song here.

I’ve seen a lot of changes in my life. I’ve described this diabetes affliction as a ball and chain, an inhibitor of change. I’ve drug the thing around for nearly 37 years, and yes, it is a heavy burden. But I’ve moved forward. I no longer live with unknown blood sugars, hopelessness, 911 calls, constant late night hypos, or fear. Yes, those were the days prior to me pumping, prior to June 26, 2006. I’ve made major changes in my own health care. I’m now my doctors’ best patient. They shake their heads when I leave the room. I still carry the ball and chain, but I swing it like a grandfather watch. I look at it and ask it what time it is, and I slide it in my pocket as the master of a business empire might.

No, things are not now perfect, but they’re good. I have much more focus and much more confidence. I now call myself one of Canada’s best read authors based on my correspondence in various diabetes forums. I’ve made well over 15,000 posts, some of them quite lengthy. Even a mere 100 words each comes out to 1,500,000 words. Some have been read tens of thousands of times, some over a hundred thousand. That many posts times 1,000 reads each is 15 million reads. If this was my novel writing, I’d be rich and famous. I’m obscure at best. Many posts are fluff, but most are serious. I have fans. People have told me I’ve saved their life. I’ve told people they’ve saved my life, and they have. Their words have. The words they spoke when I asked the right questions. The questions I asked when I changed my attitude. The answers I finally heard when I began listening to others, the real experts, the other diabetics out there seeking help, seeking change.

I’ve learned to write, at least that’s what I tell myself. I am a type B personality. I am the furthest person on the scale my university organizational behavior professor had ever seen. I wish I could remember her name. She was hot. She wasn’t hot in the entertainment sense; she was hot as a person. She was strong, confident, yes she was good looking, but she moved forward with power and grace. She was not a woman young men ogled over. She was a woman young men feared. When she walked through the halls full of students, she didn’t fit in. She stood out gracefully. She never smiled in the halls. In class I could feel her words, her message: learn your own strengths; learn to change. I nearly failed that course. I found it distasteful to surgically categorize people, yet I loved it. It’s the one course in business school I use almost all the time when writing fiction: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Herzberg’s Dual-Factor Theory, and Vroom’s Expectancy Theory of Motivation stay with me. Dr. Stuart-Koetze’s textbook is the only one left on my shelf. Oh how that shelf has changed over the years too [blog idea alert]. I learned that I need to communicate. I love working on teams with people. I hate sitting alone working on a project — that didn’t sound right for a writer. I also learned I don’t lead by talking. My ideas come to the surface slowly. They perk like a good cup of Folgers, and my ideas are good to the clichéd last drop. Writing suits my soul. I love sitting alone working on a project when I’m tapped into my mind, when I’m free to let my ideas flow. I do think it’s my strength.

I have never looked negatively on change. I look negatively on stagnancy, even though I’m guilty of wearing boots unfit for trudging in mud. I’m a type B personality. I don’t create change for the sake of change; I simply ride the waves and enjoy the ride, trying to steer my board to a beach rather than rocks. I’m good at riding waves, not at finding new, better waves.

And now I’m faced with a new change in my life. I am no longer employed with the firm that employed me yesterday. Technically I still am, but I’m free to stay home and write blogs, drink rum, and play computer games. It’s not a change I’m upset about. It was expected. We used to be a shop of 150 and now about 30. I’m one of the last to go. I’m happy to be moving forward. I admit I needed a push. I have no idea what I want the new wave to look like or go, no, yes I do know. But that approach, that stretch of sand is filled with big, scary sharks and sharp rocks. It’s almost assured I will crash and be swept out to see, a casualty of this wave called life. I want to write. I want to be a writer. I remind myself it’s not the beach that’s important but the wave. It’s the words and ideas and self expression that matter, nothing else.

I can carry this attitude for a while; then I will have to find new employment. Joy. It’s tough writing these words; because, well, I am not a writer. I have no training, no experience, no supporters. When I tell people I’m writing a novel I get the standard “that’s nice John, but what are you really doing with your life” look. My wife is afraid to read it. She’s afraid of breaking John’s heart. My writing group nods passively — I don’t know if they really like it or if they don’t want to upset me with criticism. My friends think I’m just crazy. Novelists don’t make money; they don’t support their family; they have no hope for success. I admit I’m no Stephen King or Ken Follett. I have an impossible task in front of me.

This writing business is a real ball and chain. It’s not the same burden as diabetes. It’s a load I choose to carry. This is not a culmination of a life of experience; it’s merely another fad hobby in John’s life. It’s not hockey [midget AAA]; it’s not chess [CFC 1900 class A]; and it’s not photography. My infatuation will end like all my other diversions have ended. I no longer play hockey or chess. I no longer photograph much. I could drop writing just like that, couldn’t I? I have said over the years that I have a peculiar strength: I can see patterns others can’t. Playing hockey I could see the whole ice and the movement of every player. I had hands of stone, though. In chess I saw more forces at work than most players could see. I’ve surprised masters with my analysis. I’ve beaten a master. Yet I couldn’t easily see the straight route to the king. I find photography a natural fit. I let the lines and shapes fall into position on their own, yet photographing people posing for the shot is a completely mind-boggling task. I really think my strengths are suited to writing: I can see the plots, themes, motivations, tensions, etc. I am also not suited to writing. My focus on the complex story often leaves good writing technique drowning in a riptide as I walk along looking for shells and lost coins.

I wrote last night, and I think I wrote well. I now have 92,201 first draft quality words with 15,492 left to work through. I am planning on making the time over the next weeks to finish a draft of this thing ahead of schedule, get my wife to read it, then if she doesn’t die from embarrassment, get someone qualified in vetting stories to read it. I have two people in mind, both have suggested they are willing to help. But I need some feedback soon, and I need to get this weight off my shoulders. I also need cup of coffee number two and a shower.

Later.

*One of the drivers of wanting to complete this story is its potential commercial viability. I’ll be honest here: such thinking is wrong. I’m writing these words largely to expel them from my head; because they do not belong in a writer’s head. But it’s a big, attractive story. It’s a story any adult in Canada would turn their head at, and I can’t find any equivalents in my head. It’s not a fluffy character-based story where the plot needs to be extracted and can only be seen at the end. My story is not on the level of Harry Potter or Lord Of The Rings. I’m not that pretentious. The Grapes of Wrath comes to mind: it’s a national story, a story everybody will immediately recognize, but it’s a story with attractive bling not dusty destitution. I won’t claim the writing matches the story. I will need an expensive editor. I may need a new author.

Experiment: Weight Training

Tags

diabetes, exercise, weight loss, weight training

A brief history:
– four years LCHF eating
– down 21lbs and fluctuating up and down
– Blood Sugars fairly good but not best
– Constant ketosis and feeling great
– Not exercising regularly

The last point, no regular exercise, is something I want to tackle. Let’s face it though, I’m a thinker. I’d rather sit in a nice soft chair with a coffee and think random thoughts all day. To get up and say mow the lawn takes a Samsonian effort. Procrastination is my middle name. My Google blog, which I haven’t posted to yet, is called “Hopelessly Delinquent.”

Of course my endocrinologist, God’s gift to diabetics everywhere *that was sarcasm*, harps on me for not exercising more. According to the holy one, it’s the only way I can lose weight. And after these four years of fighting him, I think he may be right. I participate in many discussion forums, and a common thread I hear is “you gotta work!” The time has come for John to work at getting those fifty pounds off, and if that doesn’t work, we’re going to have a serious discussion with the almighty endo.

I have 400 pounds of standard weights, 7ft, 6ft, and a curl bars, and a power rack. You’d think there’d be no excuses for using it. Mind you the room has been filled with junk all summer as we’ve replaced the floors in the house. But there’s no more acceptable excuses. It’s now Grok time!

I’m hitting a routine I’ve used before, a basic full body workout where I perform three sets of 8 to 12 reps, generally. Some exercises like bench press I’ll do 6 to 10 reps, and others like squats, I’ll do 15 to 20 reps. This is a program out of an old Lou Ferrigno book. It has worked for me before, and I plan on following it for three months to build up my all around strength steadily and safely.

I’m starting out very light, extremely light. People will laugh at my weakness. Pfft. Remember, I’m overweight and out of shape. I need to get my muscles used to lifting and I need to find my points of failure. I will add weight rapidly. Anybody who has ever started from scratch knows that you feel like a convoy of trucks ran over you in the early going. Your stiff all over and your body shakes and quakes from the intensity. You really do need to start out light.

I also know I won’t go real heavy. I work out at home alone. I am protected by my power rack — my squats and bench presses are statically spotted. I can drop 500lbs on my chest and know the bars will catch them. They restrict movement slightly, but hey, I’m doing the exercises. It takes me an hour, maybe a bit more. Joining a gym would cost me two to three hours plus lots of bucks I don’t have. The hardcore trainers will of course cringe, but feel good that John performs safely. He doesn’t lift more than he’s capable of, and he practices good form.

I progress steadily. When I hit my max reps, say three sets of 12 reps, the next session I will add weight and drop the reps down to three 8’s, or maybe a bit higher. I will then progress the reps until I max out again. Here’s an example.
– Day 1 100lbs 10 10 10
– Day 2 100lbs 12 11 10
– Day 3 100lbs 12 12 12
– Day 4 110lbs 8 8 8
– Day 5 110lbs 10 10 10 (previous day felt awesome, so I stepped it up)
– Day 6 110lbs 12 11 10
– Day 7 110lbs 12 12 12
– Day 8 120lbs 8 8 8

You can by following this method of progression my resistance increases steadily. The idea is that the final rep on th third set will be very close to failure. For obvious reasons I don’t go to failure, especially for the dangerous exercises such as squats and bench presses. But if I fails on a leg extension, who cares? I might make a long bang, but I won’t drop anything on a body part.

I listen to my body. I’ve never strained a muscle training before, but if something does happen, I know enough to stop, rest, and seek help. I hope.

My first session was Friday Aug 10. I started with two sets of squats using 70lbs. I did 20 reps each. I proceeded through leg extensions, leg curls, calf raises, bench press, bent rows, overhead press, upright row, bicep curls, and tricep curls. I skipped wrist rolls. I performed only one rep of the last two exercises. These are not major muscles, and I already felt worked. Again, we’re talking very light weights here. 40lb bench presses will not impress anybody.

I’m tracking vitals while I do this:
BP 132/71 before and 120/65 after
BG 6.0 before and 9.0 after then 10.0 an hour later

It’s interesting that BP dropped and blood sugars rose. These were actually expected. Another interesting note is I didn’t hypo later. Past sessions have always resulted in major BG drops through the night.

On day 2, Sunday, I upped intensity. I felt stiffness in my calves, but nowhere else. I barely felt stressed, but I didn’t let that go to my head. I upped my reps to three sets of each, and I upped my squats to 90lbs, 3×15. I didn’t fail at anything; though those nasty 40lb bench presses stung. I’ve always struggled with upper body strength. At one point I could squat 350lbs and barely press 120. Pfft.

I felt worked after this session, and my vitals were once again interesting
BP 130/71 to 108/62
BG 6.2 to  8.9 and it kept rising. I changed my pump set and got it around 7 for bed. I woke up around 7, so once again no major hypos following. This morning I’m feeling worked. I’m feeling muscle tingling and tightening in my legs, butt and chest. I feel the work, and that is an awesome feeling.

So we’ll se how this goes. We’ll see if I can continue, if it helps me lose fat, and if it helps me feel better and write better. I’ll revisit after a month.

[Starting weight: 229.6]

My Diabetes is Out of Control: Part 1 – Take Control of Your Ship!

Tags

blogger, control, diabetes, diabetes educator, diabetic online community, dietitian, DOC, doctor, forum, health care team, insulin

I’ve seen a number of posts on forums lately from people who have recognized their diabetes is not in the best control, but they don’t know what to do about it. They are following their health care team’s (HCT) orders, but it’s not working.

Of course without exception whenever such people try to shift blame back on their HCT: what you are telling me to do isn’t working; those HCT members almost always shift blame back to the patient: you aren’t doing it right.

How many of us have experienced this? How many of us have ranted about it? How many blog about it?

Links:
Diabetes Daily
The Bad Diabetic

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear. Manageing diabetes is a personal effort. I, the diabetic, am in charge of my own care. I make my own decisions. I stear the ship.

This idea may seem self-evident, but it’s suprising how many of us defer our responsibility, and it’s even more surprising how so many in our HCT refuse to acknowledge it.

I’ve talked with many diabetics who have never even considered making their own decisions: Linda (the Diabetic Educator or DE) says I have to do it this way. I could never do what you’re talking about. The lady was obese, uncontrolled, and slowly sliding downhill. She might be dead now, or worse. It’s been a couple of years. And there are things worse than death. I have no desire to lose my legs, my eyesight, and be hooked to a kidney machine three days a week. The bottom line is this woman would not take control of her own condition. Everything she did had to be vetted by Linda. Linda deals with 5,000 diabetics. She has no time to provide day-to-day or hour-by-hour care for diabetics. The best she can do is train them and ship them out into their own hells. Should she do differently? Definately. Part of the problem is our HCT does not want us to assume control. It’s too dangerous. Everything major should be approved. Don’t make medication changes. Don’t make dietary changes. And whatever you do, don’t ask other diabetics. Stay away from those dangerous bloggers!

The reality: I make 6 to 10 life and death decisions every day. This is not exaggeration. This morning my BGs were 8.4 mmol/l, rather high. I changed my pump set then bolused 3u. My new set might not have worked at all. Maybe it might send my BGs high and blur my vision while I’m driving to work. I could maybe feel my sugars rising and hurry in so I could correct again, but I’d be putting my life and my wife’s life in danger. Then my meter might have been wrong. It happens. Those 3u might send me hypo on the way to work. I am insensitive to them after my long years of battle, so I’d very likely drift off into shock while driving at speed. Doesn’t that sound like fun? I repeat this several times a day, day after day, year after year. I sometimes think it’s a wonder I’ve only been 911’d nine times.

My HCT cannot be with me when I make my daily life and death decisions, and since I’m the one in danger of dying, I’m the one that needs to take control. And if they don’t like it, tough.

That doesn’t mean I’m flying solo. Taking control of the wheel doesn’t mean I’m firing my HCT. No, a good manager surrounds themself with good people. I want to make the very best decisions I can, so I want the very best information and advice I can find. My HCT sits at my board table and is a key member of my team, but it’s my team.

I include many people at my table. I have bloggers, I have publications, I have scientific studies, I have various forums I visit, I have personal friends with diabetes, and I have my family. The Diabetic Online Community (DOC) is the deputy chairman of my board. The DOC is largely ignored by my HCT — they don’t talk at all — but I listen to them both.

The DOC has a huge strength that my HCT doesn’t have: it’s always at the table. I hold board meetings every day, sometimes several times. MY HCT chair is almost always empty. When I count up the annual attendance, I might come up with three or four meetings they attend each year. But we have decisions to make today. I have a decion to make right now. My two-hour follow-up reads 9.2, higher than this morning. I’ve only eaten a coffee with heavy cream and coconut oil. My body feels even higher. I look around and there is nobody at the table but you and me. I can call the DOC in, and I’ll get different opinions. But I don’t really need their help for this problem  I need immediate oeprational action. I could call my HCT, but they’d question my sanity: this is a day-to-day operational problem. Board memebrs don’t make day-to-day decisons. We’ll discuss the trends during the annual meeting. You’re right, I’ll say to them, what was I thinking?

I need a decion made right now. Waiting an hour for a half dozen opinions will only make things worse. In this situation, I need to take action, and I need to take it right now. I’m assuming my set failed around 5am; though there’s no immediate cut-off. I’ve experienced this before, and I know I need extra insulin. I just bolused four more units. I have sugar tablets at the ready, and I’ll test again in two hours.

Let’s get back to our HCT.

They don’t actually tell me that I’m in control of daily operations. They might assume it, but they don’t like to say it. They are like that retired owner of the business who can’t stay away from his office and can’t resist telling the son what he needs to do to grow the shop. He can’t say “Son, the ball’s in your hands now. Run hard!” He can’t let go. My HCT can’t let go. They can’t be with me, but hey can’t let go: You need to do this, that, and the other things. I’ll make a note and we’ll discuss it next year.

Some of the decisions I make are not so cut and dry. I set my own insulin dosages. I set my basal rates and bolus rates. I decide what diet to follow. My diet looks nothing like my HCT’s plan, and they give me a hard time about it, but they don’t have many patients running a 5.6 A1C with almost no hypos either.

Can you feel the distance between diabetic and doctor? Have you experienced it? Can you see the need to have someone in charge, someone to make those day-to-day and hour-to-hour life and death decisions? Is there anybody better positioned to do this job than you?

Of course you are afraid. You know what a bad decision means. It means at best criticism from your board of directors: you screwed up badly, John. What the hell were you thinking? The company was lucky to survive that one. Yeah, well, how much do you have invested in this company Bob?

Fear is not productive. You will not attain good control if you do not assume control. You cannot make those operational decions that need to be made if you are too afraid to make them. Failure is imminent. 90% of diabetics fail to achieve the desired level of control. I say 90% of diabetics fail to take control of their disease.

Stand up and take control of your diabetes. Take control of your life!

*Part 2 will cover basal insulin
*Part 3 will cover testing
*Part 4 will cover lifestyle changes

Term: Cognitive Dissonance

Tags

alzheimers, cognitive dissonance, conflict, depression, diabetes, diet, food, heart disease, Literary, multiple sclerosis, nutrition, psychology, story, technique, tension, western disease

Definitions:

Wikipedia – a discomfort caused by holding conflicting cognitions (e.g., ideas, beliefs, values, emotional reactions) simultaneously.

Dictionary.com – an uncomfortable mental state resulting from conflicting cognitions; usually resolved by changing some of the cognitions

Discussion:

If you do not understand what this term means, skip ahead to my later reference sections then come back here. This is not a complete discussion by any means. This is an introduction to the concept and hopefully a collection of meaningful resources.

This term is fairly new to me. I’ve written, discussed, and debated much about diabetes, nutrition, and science over the past six years, and I’ve seen this phenomenon regularly. I’ve seen how it impedes logical thinking and created barriers and conflict in people. As a new creative writer, I think it’s an important concept to understand: our character’s actions may seem completely off the wall, but if based in a fundamental dissonance (idea, belief, value, or emotion) and we show [not tell] the situation correctly, then these actions and conflicts and tensions can become wholely believable and authentic.

One of the areas I see it readily displayed is when areguing the lipid and cholesterol theories. You probably fall into this category too, so feel the tension as I write: Saturated fat and dietary cholesterol is not bad for us. There is no demonstrated science showing they are. In fact, there is much demonstration showing they are vital to good health. The real science says carbohydrates are what’s killing us early: obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancers, brain and nervous system diseases [Alzheimers, MS, Depression, etc].

Can you feel the tension? Every researcher knows I’m wrong. Every doctor agrees with you. The government agrees with you. You agree with you. But the facts all say you are wrong. Since American Food Guidelines were first implemented in 1977 directing [The World!] we eat their way, we’ve only gone downhill, and now it’s catching up with us.

That Worked

So either you believe me or you don’t. There are two reasons: the first is I’m wrong, and the second is you don’t want to believe me or cognitive dissonance. Another fact is tens of millions around the world are now discarding their entrenched beliefs and ignoring their doctors’ and dietitians’ advice, and they are becoming healthier. Your still doubting me. You still think I’m crazy. You don’t believe I eat a 70% fat diet with almost none of the so-called “healthy fats.” I eat real butter, grass-fed meats, and low carb veggies. I eat real cheese and very little fruit. Blah, blah, blah.

You can feel your disbelief. You can hear yourself saying I’m a quack. But you can’t completely throw away what I’m saying: “what if he’s right?” There’s tension in the air and it’s called cognitive dissonance. *I can ovewhelm you with science, but I won’t.

I think it’s important to understand the fictional literary significance.

We can create some very powerful characters and siutations using this concpet. Harry Potter is a prime example. He’s a mild, meek, peace loving kid who just wants to get along, yet he’s expected to be the savior of the magical world. He’s always encountering evil and violence, yet he wants none of it. He’s being thrown out of his “comfort zone” and lives in perpetual cognitive dissonace. Do you empathize with him?

This same struggle is even more apparent with Bilbo Baggins who is the professional thief yet wants only to sit in his hole and eat and drink all day. He goes on to perform fantastical deeds all the while fretting over his insignificant self.

In Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code,” we want to believe in this secret society and in this outlandish story of Jesus, and I suppose many do, yet we can’t pull our way from our belief in both tradition and science. Brown maintains this tension with dissonance to the very end.

This is a very powerful concept. It requires you fully understand the source of tension in your work and apply it consistently. It’s not until resolution that these above stories release the tension. These stories are founded on it.

Now that you understand it, you can recognize it, build on it and around it, and write that best selling story.

Go for it!

Explanations:

Wikipedia – In a state of dissonance, people may feel surprise, dread, guilt, anger, or embarrassment.^[1] The theory of cognitive dissonance in social psychology proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by altering existing cognitions, adding new ones to create a consistent belief system, or alternatively by reducing the importance of any one of the dissonant elements.^[1] An example of this would be the conflict between wanting to smoke and knowing that smoking is unhealthy; a person may try to change their feelings about the odds that they will actually suffer the consequences, or they might add the consonant element that the smoking is worth short term benefits. A general view of cognitive dissonance is when one is biased towards a certain decision even though other factors favour an alternative.

About – People tend to seek consistency in their beliefs and perceptions. So what happens when one of our beliefs conflicts with another previously held belief? The term cognitive dissonance is used to describe the feeling of discomfort that results from holding two conflicting beliefs. When there is a discrepancy between beliefs and behaviors, something must change in order to eliminate or reduce the dissonance.

Examples:

About –

Cognitive dissonance can occur in many areas of life, but it is particularly evident in situations where an individual’s behavior conflicts with beliefs that are integral to his or her self-identity. For example, consider a situation in which a woman who values financial security is in a relationship with a man who is financially irresponsible.

  The conflict:

• It is important for her to be financially secure.
• She is dating a man who is financially unstable.

In order to reduce this dissonance between belief and behavior, she can either leave the relationship or reduce her emphasis on financial security. In the case of the second option, dissonance could be further minimized by emphasizing the positive qualities of her significant other rather than focusing on his perceived flaws.

Links:

Wikipedia
Dictionary
About
*OnlyAGame
*Examples
*Skepdic
*Amazon – Films

A Cookie Virgin No Longer

Tags

baking, cookies, diabetes, paleo

I do not follow directions well.

You’d think I’d be able to, afterall, I am a professional accountant, computer programmer, and I write novels — I’ve written two, published none. I can take care of loose ends. I can track down the stubbornest code bug, reconcile the nastiest bank account, and I can see the forrest for the trees. But I can’t do the little things like follow directions.

I think it’s because my mind wanders. It likes to go places and do things while my body is busy doing something else. They call it daydreaming, and they consider it bad. But you know, I’ve solved some of my biggest problems in the shower.

Tonight I should be following directions, but I’m not. I’m baking cookies, and I’ve never done this before. It’s my first time. By the end of writing this blog, I will no longer be a cookie making virgin.

I’ve baked two cakes in my life, back-to-back chocolate cakes. I did them right after each other, not because the first turned out so well, but because side by side with a chunk of pavement, the first was indiscernable. I’d made a giant hockey puck. Looking back over the directions I discovered I’d mis-read the amount of flour I should have put in. For some reason I put in four cups instead of one, or something like that.

Right now my Paleo chocolate chip cookies are baking, but I didn’t follow the recipe exactly.

Uh oh, the wife just drove in. Now I have a witness! But they smell awesome with five minutes left.

First, we had no chocolate chips, so I looked around and found some raisins and pecans. I weighed the options and used a half cup of raisins and a quarter cup of pecans, picked apart first. Approximately. I think things taste better when they are added with approximation. I like to think my intuition is tuned to cooking.

Next I don’t use sugar, so I replaced the half a cup with a bunch of drops of stevia, a sweet herb that isn’t approved by the FDA because there’s nothing they can find wrong with it. More studies are needed.

The recipe called for a cup of coconut flour; which I used, but I didn’t want flaky cookies. My experience with the stuff hasn’t been good. I wanted a little chewiness, so I added a quarter cup of almond flour, or so. And since I added more powder, I needed more liquid, so I added a fifth egg. It also emptied the carton.

Finally the recipe called … done! brb … They called for coconut milk and coconut oil. My experience with other coconut flour baking is that butter offsets the coconut flavor, so I used mostly butter but added some coconut oil. I probably used too much. And I used whipping cream instead of coconut milk.

I guess my recipe is nothing like the one I started with.

Well they smell good and look good. Taste is rather subjective.

They are a LITTLE dry. Coconut flour does that, and they could use more sweetener, much more.

But they are … edible.

Thank God I still have hot coffee in my pot!

Censorship

Tags

blogging, caveman, censorship, diabetes, grok, legal, nutrition, opinion

Ponder some simple questions:
– should your words ever be censored?
– what is censorship?
– are there legitimate cases where you shouldn’t be allowed to write particular words?

Censorship has been a contentious issue ever since we started etching stone slabs. People have always wanted to supress words for moral, religious, security, political, and financial reasons. I think most bloggers are aware that words can stir emotions and impact real world events. Our words can harm as much as they can help. But does that mean we should never be able to write our words? Should I not be allowed to write an anti-holocaust post or an anti-African American post or a post criticizing all of the Pope, President of the United States of America, and judges of The Supreme Court all in one fell swoop?

These topics have been bantered about for ages, and frankly I have no desire to revisit them. Seriously, I don’t. But there is a new case on the block, an interesting and relevant to bloggers case. I don’t know if you realize it or not, but at least one blogger has attracted the attention of his government with his words. He was threatened with litigation, but they backed down. Now he’s turning the tables, and with the help of the Institute for Justice he’s taking them to task. His name is Steve Cooksey, his blog is The Diabetes Warrior

There are a few issues involved in this situation, and I think it’s important to seperate them.

Is nutrition advice medical advice and can it be controlled?

This is not such an easy topic. Dietitians and the USDA claim it is. I claim it can’t be. Food is fundamental to life. It’s essential. Without it we die, and without proper nutrition we get sick. Life has evolved over billions of years on this planet and in all that time life has eaten other life. We have naturally selected the foods that made us grow as a species. And now, particularly when the food being pushed on us by these “offical” bodies is anything but natural — how many of you grow wheat in your gardens or make your own corn and canola oils? — and the results of following such advice have been frankly disastrous, how does it make any sense to censor movements back to our evolutionary good senses?

Should governments be able to restrict speech to specific groups?

Should individuals be allowed to give medical advice to someone? What is the impact and what is the remedy? Someone could take your advice, make a wrong decision, and die. What can their family do about it? They can sue you, and because you have no liability insurance, you are going to lose everything. That’s not good, but is it wrong?

Dialogue is necessary to find the best answers. We need to use words to express ideas, to find truth. If we are not allowed to talk about medicine or food or holocausts, if we are not allowed to challenge convention, regardless of subject matter, then we are in trouble. Ideas then spread unchallenged.

Is advice opinion?

When my doctor advises me to take a statin — which by the way I refuse to take — he states that he’s making that recommendation based on the best experts’ opinions. Nobody knows whether any professional advice will work. Nothing can be guaranteed in medicine, finance, politics, religion, auto-mechanics, engineering, or any other subject matter. All advice is clearly opinion, in my opinion anyway.

In my opinion we should never censor opinion!

Links:

Censorship in Action!
Caveman Video
Video – Should You Need the Government’s Permission to Work?
Interview with IFJ
Blog: reason.com
Blog: Free The Animal
 

Doctor John!

Tags

A1C, diabetes, DOC, Literary, prose, PWD, retinopathy, Writing

I’ve written a lot about diabetes. Most of the time I respond to forum posts. A forum post can serve many purposes. The member can be looking for help and advice, they might be ranting about a problem, or they may be giving advice. I think that probably covers the gammut: input, processing, and output to the old-school IT folks.

My responses usually involve a certain amount of information. I have experienced a lot with my disease — I am a type 1 diabetic in my 37th year of battle — and I think I have a fairly comprehensive view of management techniques. We commonly say “Knowledge is Power!” and I follow through with trying to provide knowledge to the ignorant. Being ignorant and being diabetic is not a good combination. This is not a disease you want to have if you are stupid. Too much can and will go wrong. I am also not afraid to try new things. I consider myself a willing lab rat, and I consider all possible advice.

When I reply to threads, I usually pick one of four formats:
– this is what I did and why
– this is what I think the issues really are and these are your choices
– that’s wrong and this is right (Ye olde debate)
– good luck with that!

One thing I try never to do is tell someone what they should do. I don’t know them, and I am not qualified to make such statements. In fact, anybody who says “you should … ” get’s a big red X put beside their name in my book regardless of subject. Life is not that simple, diabetes is not that simple, and writing is not that simple. Yes I’m writing about writing.

Here’s a post I wrote this morning.

Keep in mind your objectives. The needs of a child are different than the needs of an adult on a ketogenic diet. For a child running high blood sugars, accuracy and ability to get quick samples is important. You are making immediate decisions which impact your child’s life. When I show ketones, and I almost always do, I merely want to know what color purple it is. I know it won’t be dark since DKA doesn’t happen on a ketogenic diet, but too light means I’m cheating too many carbs. I just now tested between 40 and 80 (4 and 8) and last evening I was 40 (4). My BGs this morning were a bit high at 142 (7.9), but I had a late snack while watching hockey last night, and I bolus conservatively before bed.

Here I was informing someone about ketone testing. I did this because most diabetics and health care professionals have limited understanding of ketones. They typically see ketones as bad, and in my opinion, that’s a wrong approach. I didn’t tell this person that. I didn’t delve into all my opinions about doctors and diabetic educators and the evils they bring. I simple told it how it is. I left it open for those interested to research. “Ketogenic diet, what the hell is that? I’ll Google it.” I’m not writing a book here; I’m triggering peoples’ brains. I want them to think!

Later I responded to a dad questioning if it was okay to feel apathetic about his child’s high blood sugars.

I tell diabetics “great things are accomplished in small steps.” Of course the number is important and we don’t want them, but flushing out the reasons is not easy, and applying practical solutions is often harder. It took me over 30 years to figure it out and I still struggle daily

• – current 5.6 A1C, very very few hypos, and no signs of retinopathy
  
• – dx 1975
  – 911’d nine times 1995-2006
  – prolif retinopathy 1994
  – 4000 laser zaps 1994 – 2000
  – vitrectomy 2006

Keep the head up and feet moving forward.

This thread informs, but it’s primarily motivational. I start out telling them there is hope and that losing battles are expected in this war. I let them know it’s alright to feel defeated but victory is still possible, if not probable. I often “show” them my situation and my turnaround. I want them to visualize what I’ve been through and what I’ve accomplished. A diabetic reading those points will see fabulous facts in the first line. They should say “great!” Then the following five points will tell them I’ve been through a war. It should tell them that turnarounds are possible, that we do it every day. If your not a diabetic, you really can’t relate to what four thousand blasts of laser are like. These are not simply bright lights but are little bolts of flame burning the back of my eye. My retinas look worse than any burned and mangled body. If you don’t believe me, Google panretinal photocoagulation someday when you’re pretty sure you won’t throw up. If you can still stand after that, then try Googling Vitreous Hemorrhage  or Vitrecomy and watch the Youtubes.

I then end it with another motivating line. It’s nothing particularly moving; it’s just a  simple message of hope.

Writing like this is different from writing creatively, but I still try to use literary techniques such as showing vs. telling and using active verbs and sentences. For fun, I wondered if I could write a fictional piece about a diabetic child at school with high blood sugars. It rambles a bit, but enjoy anyway 🙂

Billy attempted to walk home from school instead of taking his usual bus. He knew exercise would lower his blood sugars, and it semed like the cure for the 450 his meter showed him. But brains soaked in high levels of blood sugar don’t function well. Before he knew it, he was looking for a bathroom to relieve himself in, but of course there aren’t any public restrooms in West Allis neighbourhoods. He settled on a row of big bushes running between two houses. He remembered thinking he was doing the bushes a service by watering them, and when the branches hit his face, he knew he should swipe them away, but his hands wouldn’t move. He couldn’t feel his hands or his legs or the large roots as his head hit them. Those bushes might have been his last resting place if old Marge hadn’t come home early from work. She opened the door of her big Mercury Marquis and saw the little body laying in her hedge. “Oh My” she thought, and immediately reached in to see if it was alive. Her cell phone was new to her, but she knew enough to dial the simple numbers – 9 1 1 .

Billy spent the night in the hospital and the next morning his parents grilled him about his day then drilled him on making good decisions. Billy looked at them with big eyes that knew his parents’ words did not match his day. That’s when doctor John entered the room. He slid in silently while Billy’s parents prattled on. The doctor stood and listened. Billy knew he was sneaking, that he was on his side, and he knew not to let on after doctor John winked at him. He knew he had a new friend, someone to tell these big mouths to shut up!