Dh's LAST diabetes appt was today. 18 months ago or so his A1C (blood sugar) was somewhere around 11.8 or something like that... high enough that he ended up in the ER, and freaked himself out.
My last update was 6 months ago, where we learned about "partial remission", and with this appointment his A1c was 5.4 (NORMAL) and since it's been that way for a year without meds or surgery... the doc called it "FULL remission" and says she doesn't need to see us anymore!!! He still has to keep
After 1 year his A1C is holding steady at 5.3 (off meds) and has lost 75 pounds (hovering between 75 and 80). Wants to lose 10-15 more ideally, but is currently stalled where he is.
A few newer definitions.... these apparently haven't been around long and are based on the new (to medical professionals) idea that diabetes actually CAN go into remission (what some folks are calling "cured")...
"partial remission" = fasting glucose between 5.6 and 6.9 for at least a year (no meds)
"complete rem
So we had our 9ish month check up... hard to believe that it's really been that long, but it has.
Total pounds lost - 71-75 depending on when he steps on the scale.
Total A1C - 5.3 (normal high is 5.6, anything over that gets you a diabetes diagnosis) Started at 11.6
Total cholesterol - 163 (I think), generally they want it to be under 200. Started around 200.
Blood pressure normal.... started borderline high
Total medications - ZERO!! Started on two different ones for diabetes, with th
So, I usually do not do this, but I have to tell ya'll about a store I went to the other day. It was "Buford Highway Farmer's Market" in Atlanta (Doraville to be exact). It is SOOOOOOOO not a farmer's market, so if you go, don't expect it to be locally grown produce, or really local anything. But let me tell you about this store......
First it's the size of a Home Depot or Lowes. Second it's quite possibly the most wonderful store I've been to in a long time. It's basically a grocery stor
We're back from our whirlwind trip around the US. Went to visit mom in Idaho, via Albuquerque, NM, and Portland, OR. Saw 4 families of relatives, one a brother DH hadn't seen in 30+ years. We now have 6 states left in the continental US that we haven't visited together.
Had to replace two tires on the road.... no biggie since we have a sinking fund for tires. =o)
Stayed within budget.
Had a BLAST! Saw the Painted Desert, ate at a fabulous little restaurant in Albuquerque, drove the ET
So yesterday was our first three month check up. The one where they take his blood and check his numbers again.
His A1C, when we started this journey was 11.6 (which is bad, bad, bad).... It's now 5.8! (normal being between 4.5 and 5.7)
He has lost 43 pounds. (51 left)
His total cholesterol dropped 25%.
His "good" cholesterol rose 33%.
His bad cholesterol dropped 33%.
Blood pressure dropped to "normal" numbers. (from near high)
Doc said that these numbers would indicate that he was
Time to move on. The numbers are now all under control. Exercising moves them even lower... into the too low category, so we take snacks. My vehicles all now have extra snacks... I'll have to change them to something that doesn't melt soon I think. We have figured out how much and what he can have when we go out. We have figured out snacks. We have even figured out what "heat and eat" foods he can eat without bumping his blood sugars. We are holding until the end of the month, when we talk to th
OK, so I'm a little excited!! *LOL*
Those that have been reading know that we were fighting the one hour breakfast number, and simply could not get that number under 140 with his preferred breakfast of cold cereal, although ALL the rest of the numbers were "normal for non-diabetic". That one-hour breakfast number was still in the "normal for diabetic" range, but not low enough to be "normal for normal" range....
So this weekend we went to a fairly large sized town and found a Trader Jo
Life is slowly returning to before diagnosis status. Mostly.... *L*
So his numbers are "normal for normal".... basically all of them. Only one we're still working on is breakfast. His breakfast numbers are "normal for diabetics normal." Which means we ned to drop the numbers another 20-30 points (1 hour reading) before I'm happy. Problem is he LIKES cold cereal for breakfast. And it appears that the only breakfast thing that he can NOT have is cold cereal. I still think he could have it
As with all "life changing" things, there will be a few bumps in the road. Ours has come by way of CALORIES. Let me preface this by saying, I have never in my entire life counted calories. Ever. Now I know why.... they're stupid. *LOL*
Diet... the food you eat regularly, not the fad to lose weight.... He's eating VERY well.... 3 meals, plus 3 snacks. He's still losing about 2 pounds a week. His blood sugars have dropped to "normal".... that's normal, normal, not "normal for diabetic" nor
Is there a song for everything in life, do you think? Changes are in the wind. Big ones, small ones. This post doesn't have much to do with budget stuff.... just stuff I need to get out of my head so I can process it better. =0)
Week one.....DH was diagnosed 2 weeks ago with Type II diabetes. Went to the ER with a blood sugar of 460. For those that are interested "normal" blood sugar is between 80 and 130. What does that mean? Who knows? It meant my savings from shopping last month wen
I debated on putting this on the board side, but since it's all about food, and there are already a few on the boards about that, here it is... And I don't know where I would put it on the other side.... BS6-7 maybe, because that's the step we're on, but really, it's more about life than BSs.
Water Cooler maybe.... It's about budgeting sure, more because of the pantry aspect. I save a lot that way. Buying in bulk. But like everything else it comes with it's own set of "rules". You HAVE to r
It's been kind of quiet on here lately, so I thought I would regale you with my week in review....
Monday, my son tells me he was mugged.... NO conversation that starts out "First of all, I'm FINE!", ever gets better from there.
Tuesday evening, my darling daughter, attending college in a town 45 minutes away and driving to and fro, calls in a panic because her car is "making funny noises"..... then again to tell me that it has died and won't start.
Wednesday morning, my next daughter, on her
Let it be known..... I hate HOAs. Seriously.
On the boards I was reading a totally unrelated topic and came across this statement.....
"my HOA requires white or off white curtains"
Seriously?!?! You let someone who does not live in your house or pay your bills dictate the color of your curtains? WHY?!? What is so wonderful about your neighborhood that you are willing to allow someone else to dictate the color of your curtains? (This is a rhetorical question.)
Never mind the question of
Well it finally happened.... The Dave thing stuck to my child. Here's what happened......
Dh and I are planning on RVing about 6 months of the year (maybe more) once he retires in 10 years. So being the nerd I am, I figure 10 years is enough time to begin researching, seeing what is out there, see what we will need to save up, and what we need to look out for. Start making a plan to have this done by the time we retire. All that stuff. So we spent time last weekend doing exactly that. Goi
For those of you who do not believe in auto repair envelopes, let me tell you about my week.... *sigh*
So my son is starting a new job. I say this to say that he did not have a lot of money, being between jobs at the time. He has been doing the minimum wage thing, April hit him hard since his job with a national corporation decided to cut back to 25 hours per week... and that's all. (Thank you Obamacare) Makes it hard to make a living... anyway, turns out that he did not switch his vehicle r
So when we started this program at the tail end of 2006 (so what's that? 7 years ago...) we had a couple of thousand dollars in a retirement account (singular, only one). I wasn't really looking at retirement yet.... well maybe, but in a very fuzzy way.... like someday, but not today. *LOL*
Adding up ALL debt (that's three houses, and some consumer debt) we owed a quarter of a million dollars.
Yesterday DH updated the info on all three accounts we currently now own, and we have broken
I started to post this in a partial response to a post, then realized that it may be taken wrong, and it got a little bigger than the post itself... since I do not want to take away from any help that that post can generate with a side issue that takes over... I decided to delete my response and post this here instead.
Here is what I pulled from my deleted response to the other post.....
"I know that many have an issue with not tithing.... I have an issue with tithing while so deeply in debt.
So the trip was a success all the way around. But ya'll know me... I could not let this opportunity for real life and school to meet. Besides all the history, PE, etc... ya'll have to know that I would slide a bit of budgeting and finance in there as well.
On the trip, breakfast was provided at each of the hotels they stayed in. In some of the hotels they had a "dinner" as well.... some obviously better than others. But they were on their own for lunch with limited places they could eat,
Warning.... this is a BS7 post. *LOL*
Still no word on the furloughs. So no planning yet. *L* Just flying by the seat of our pants. I hate flying.
I think it's rained every day or every other day for the last month. So the grass in my yards is nearly taller than my youngest child. And who knows when it will stop long enough to dry out and be mowed.
Those are my complaints for the day. *L* Of course the lack of news on the furlough means that we haven't gotten the pay cut yet, and t
So.... there's a lovely young man who hangs out with my kiddos. He's 16, just earned his driver's license, got a job, bought a car, and yesterday... yesterday he showed me his newest step into "adulthood"... a CC in his very own name. To help him build credit he said. *sigh* "Only for gas" he said. *SIGH*
And what did I say? I said, I'm so sorry. *LOL* Be very careful. Never carry a balance. Be very careful. *sigh* And my heart took a little dive. He's so young to be bitten by
Once again, my mechanic was surprised with the selection. *L* (I wish he'd stop that!)
So we went to the car lot to look at a hatchback from 1985. Ya'll have to remember it's a car for a teen, so we weren't looking for a BMW or something. Just a car with good mileage, that ran well, and was cheap! The hatchback fit that.
The minute (or darned close) that we drove on the lot, a dude called the dealer and said he was on his way to pay for the hatchback..... part of me said yeah, sure... but
So week before last we requested a payoff letter, for March 8th. My DH talked to them this time. Apparently the "gentleman" that he talked to refused to tell him the payoff amount over the telephone. Okaaaay. That's not right. Having paid off one BOA already, I knew that there would be problems, really hadn't anticipated this particular problem though. We opted to have them mail us the payoff letter, to keep the additional fees as low as possible... if they do it any other way, they charge
OK, so it was a tax weekend. *sigh*
Can I say that I just want these stupid taxes to be able to be figured out a year ahead of time?!? Like I'd like to be able to guesstimate how much our taxes will be for this year, RIGHT NOW. So that I can budget for them and plan for them and have the correct amount taken out each month. Is that too much to ask? I mean really?
We did the kid's taxes in the first five minutes or so. No biggie. Not difficult or complicated or anything. They get ev
I love, love, love my tenants. I really, really do. They have been living in my house for.... gosh!..... since March of 1998... that's nearly 15 years now. We've been through an overseas assignment with a bad property manager (on both sides), and they have nearly paid off the mortgage (planned for April/May this year). They have taken excellent care of the home, and generally let us know when something has gone wrong or needs to be fixed before it turns into a big problem. We tend to fix th
