Learning to Live with Type 2 Diabetes

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Friday February 18, 2011 · 1:50 PM PST

2011/02/18 · 13:50

I got a gift at the end of July. At the time it didn’t seem like it, but it was.

Last summer, after about 6 months of dragging around feeling totally exhausted and barely able to function a lot of the time, I took myself off to the doctor. When the blood test results came back I had a diagnosis. Type 2 diabetes. My blood glucose was 275 and my A1C was 9.3.

When I heard the news I freaked, but I started on meds, (Metformin and Glipizide), bought myself a blood glucose testing meter and all the supplies to go with it, registered for the Diabetic Education class my doctor referred me to, and starting researching and reading everything I could get my hands on that talked about Type 2 Diabetes. The best book I found, and one I bought for myself after the library needed it back, is by Gretchen Becker, The First Year: Type 2 Diabetes: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed. It's loaded with useful information, and it's written for a thinking adult that wants to know it all. Plus she's funny and engaging, and understands the journey I'm on, because she's on it too.

One strand in my family has Type 2 Diabetes running through it, and my Dad got diagnosed when he was about 50. (I'm 51.) That was back in the dark ages before home blood glucose testing meters existed. He never used insulin or had any major complications of the really scary kind -- like blindness or gangrene. But I'm sure it impacted his overall health and was a contributing factor to the heart disease that caused his death at 78. So I'm taking this seriously and trying to understand and take charge of my Type 2 so it doesn't take charge of me. As a result improving and controlling my diet -- (what and how I eat overall, now and forever) and exercise -- (finding ways to incorporate regular physical activity into my life) have moved up to the top of my list of things to do. The good news is when I eat and exercise in ways that keep my Type 2 under control (and my BG readings are in or near the normal range) I feel great, (better than I have in years actually), and I'm slowly drifting back to my proper weight. I need to drift down about 50 more pounds to be where I want to be.

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Thoughts on the Torture Memos (w/poll)

Hawksana

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Friday April 17, 2009 · 1:15 AM PDT

2009/04/17 · 01:15

Okay- I just sloughed my way through Jay Bybee's Aug 1, 2002 Torture memo and Steven Bradbury's May 10, 2005 memo.

Since these memos have been able to pass for defensible legal opinions instead of immediate grounds for disbarment, it's clear we need a new Anti-torture law, that spells stuff out in plain English.

Executive orders are all well and good, but we need a law on the books that automatically puts interpretations like the memos linked above beyond the pale.

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What do we need to clear the deck on torture?

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What do we need to clear the deck on torture?

We need an idiot-proof Anti-Torture Law.

2 votes

We need an idiot-proof Anti-Torture Law and an accountability process

16 votes

We need an idiot-proof Anit-Torture Law and a Special Prosecutor

38 votes

What? No problem here.

2 votes

Glen Beck co-opting DFA name through Meetup.com???

Hawksana

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Friday March 20, 2009 · 8:24 AM PDT

2009/03/20 · 08:24

This is crazy. There's a new Democracy for America meetup group being formed on meetup.com in Decatur, Indiana by someone who is following Glen Beck's 9 Principles and 12 Values.

Hawksana

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Friday July 20, 2007 · 12:17 PM PDT

2007/07/20 · 12:17

Although we are busy discussing Bush's ursupation of power and what this means for freedom and democracy and what can be done about it, it's worth taking note of what is happening to Professor Ward Churchill and academic freedom at the University of Colorado.

On Tuesday, July 24, the University of Colorado Board of Regents will decide whether to accept the recommendation of CU President (and former Republican senator) Hank Brown, and fire CU Professor Ward Churchill. -- from "University of Colorado Set To Fire Ward Churchill" by Ira Chernus

UDATE: I wrote this diary because all today's recommended diaries primed me on the issue of freedom, and here was a news story where one of the angles was freedom. Little did I know it was a sort of hornet's nest.

It provides an interesting lesson to those of us that are concerned about the direction of the country where the elites in Washington are failing to act and we think that possibly the only thing that can set our country back on the right track will be citizen action.more here

Hawksana

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Wednesday July 18, 2007 · 8:28 PM PDT

2007/07/18 · 20:28

Caroline Arnold wrote a really wonderful piece on Habeas Corpus that was published on CommonDreams.org today.

In it she tells a story about her son, Seth and a piece of buttered toast. And in a surprising twist after the essay has concluded she adds this:

Postscript: My son, now 42, points out that if you secure a piece of toast with the buttered side against a cat’s belly and drop the cat from some height it will spin indefinitely in midair and never land. That’s because, as the necromancers of White House science would tell us, cats must always land on their feet and toast always lands with the buttered side down.

Hawksana

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Monday October 30, 2006 · 5:56 PM PST

2006/10/30 · 17:56

This Hoosier thanks everyone who has donated to Barry Welsh's campaign for the US Congressional seat in Indiana's 6th District. Let's do a little more!

As an added bonus: In addition to sending a great Congressional Representative to Washington, we will be kicking the Chair of the Republican Study Committee out of Congress, putting a big dent in Pence's 2008 Presidential ambitions, and proving that it is indeed possible to run a successful campaign against an incumbent that does not rest on big donors and big money. Read More

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Learning to Live with Type 2 Diabetes

Thoughts on the Torture Memos (w/poll)

Glen Beck co-opting DFA name through Meetup.com???

Academic Freedom Threatened at Colorado University

Of Falling Cats and Buttered Toast

IN-06 --Help Turn Indiana Blue