Ahh! I just saw a commercial where Mr. PotatoHead goes to the grocery store and buys up lots and lots of bags of potato chips, then he and Mrs. PotatoHead drive off into the sunset in a convertible while EATING POTATO CHIPS. It's CANNIBALISM, PEOPLE! LIKE THE M&Ms!! IT'S WRONG.

Jesus, Windi, that is horrid. I'm glad your supervisor came in. That sounds bad.

Nothing compared to what New England has faced this year. But bad driving conditions are bad driving conditions, no matter what kind of winter happens. And I admit to being sore all over from tensing my whole body as I drove. Bosslady felt really bad for me last year when I ended up sleeping on the couch there overnight because of a blizzard that started pretty much the moment I pulled into the driveway. Me, my first concern is getting there safely then second concern is getting home safely. If I have to sack out on the couch and delay in order to get the second, that's ok. It's this business of not being able to make it out of town, car getting stuck and having to abandon it (happened several years ago, before I knew what thunder snow is), that bugs me.

Rental~ma, Strix.

Selling~ma, Plei.

I'm glad your run went well, Pix.

Avocado lovers, after a week of experimentation (grocery store has 'em on sale for $0.68) I settled on a formula for scrumptious chicken avocado salad. 6 oz. chicken breast, diced; 1/2 avocado, mashed; 2 tbs salsa; 2 tbs fat free Greek style yogurt. For the person on a strict calorie restriction, served over sliced cucumbers; for the person who needs to stop losing weight and maybe gain some back, two sandwiches with some really stout whole grain bread. No empty calories and no feeling deprived for anyone.

Also I warned bosslady in case their day program thinks the weird color means the chicken salad has gone off. They will totally kick up a fuss if they don't think they like something. Yeah, as wacky as it has been getting all the staff at the house on board with the new healthy eating protocol, the day program. Is. Not. Helping. One day they sent us a memo saying "How come this person only had a yogurt and some plain iceberg lettuce for lunch today? Don't you think that's taking the diet to extremes? Maybe you should check with a nutritionist." Bosslady responded "How come she left the house with yogurt, fruit, a half sandwich, string cheese, and a salad made of chopped romaine, carrots, and red cabbage plus dressing but then only had her yogurt left by lunch time and apparently got into somebody else's iceberg lettuce? Her physician referred us to a registered dietician, and the dietician looked over the menus here and said we are on the right track." (Ok, she worded it more professionally, and for some reason she wouldn't add "P.S. Here's a fun fact: anyone can claim to be a 'nutritionist'; dieticians have actual qualifications." llike I wanted her to.)

Windsparrow it sounds like getting staff on board with new diets is really hard.

In terms of blood sugar - nothing today was deadly. Even my low of 58 is "concerning". No real long term danger until you hit low 50 or 40s (40s there is a risk of brain damage - not huge risk but significant.) 58 and sixties mainly is a case of temporary impairment of judgement plus extreme irritability. I ended up in 85 which is really a good bedtime number. I am cutting the 24 hour insulin dose again. All this constant adusting of insulin dose is a result of cutting the amount of food I eat. I gradually titerated down from 36 to 16, and finally stopped getting occasional number in the sixties. The problem is that now that I've lost a signifcant amount of weight, the same insulin does that worked fine with the amount of food I'm eating is now too high. I guess less body weight means the insulin does is more concentrated. So I'm not at the point yet where I have to cut food again to keep losing weight. I think that will come if I manage to lose another 15 pounds or so. But I definitely need to cut the insulin dose in order not to increase the food from the amount that has caused weight loss so far.

Typo, you are very right, it is a bit of a PITA to get everyone on the same page. I'm extremely enthusiastic about the chance to shovel more veggies onto people's plates, and I'm willing to follow the orders of medical professionals, but there are aspects of it that even I am not sold on.

I can see you are having an interesting challenge in getting your insulin dosage calculated for your true need. It makes sense to me that as you lose weight, you need less insulin. Sugar is fuel, insulin moves that fuel around in your body. Smaller vehicle, less fuel required to run it; smaller vehicle, smaller fuel lines. Of course, that may be oversimplifying it to the point of inaccuracy.

Windsparrow your analogy is a good model which will yield the right decisions in terms of adjusting my insulin. As long as the model produces answers that let you do the job right, it does not matter whether it is true or not. Maybe you can tell I've spent a lot of time around engineers.

It's not uncommon for insulin to be dosed by weight. There's also fixed-dose insulin (i.e., no matter what your weight, it's always the same dose), but for patients who are more sensitive to it, weight-based dosing isn't unusual. Frankly, I'd be concerned if your doctor isn't dosing it by weight, given that you've lost weight and that you're having such a hard time regulating on the fixed dose.

Also health-related (though more incompetent admin staff-related):

I called the pharmacy to refill my BP meds because I have 2 or 3 pills left, and they told me the doctor's office won't refill it until I come in for a check-up. Now, as it turns out, their policy (or maybe it's a new law? the receptionist was a little unclear about that) is that they can't refill ANY medication if you haven't seen one of the doctors/NPs in the past year, and apparently I haven't been in since February 2014.

I don't object to a yearly check-up, but I do think if they have a new policy that patients need a yearly check-up to get refills, it's incumbent on THEM to let the patients know BEFORE their meds run out. If I didn't know that policy existed, how would I know to call them for an appointment? They have the shittiest admin staff/policies and the best doctors. So weird.

t edit Wait. This is weird. I was refilling 2 Rxs -- one for my BP and one for my IBS. The pharmacy said I could pick up my IBS meds tomorrow. So clearly what the receptionist said about them not refilling ANY prescriptions if you haven't had a checkup in a year is not true, or else the pharmacy wouldn't refill my IBS meds. That's weird.

They have the shittiest admin staff/policies and the best doctors. So weird.

I think this must be a common thing, because it's the same for my family doctor's office. Can't say enough good things about our doctor, but it's a constant battle to get admins to schedule appointments, refill prescriptions, etc. and I don't think I've ever seen the same receptionist twice. The nursing staff is somewhere in the middle of the two extremes—the head nurse is capable but snippy, others are sweet but don't wow with competence, and then one is a longtime family friend who's been doing it since before I was born and can draw blood without any needle sting or leaving a mark.

I am damned lucky; the staff at my GP's office are pretty great. And I LIKE my doctor.

I even edited her husband's sci-fi novel MS.

I just ran into that 'prescription runs out' with my EYEGLASSES. Which, since my old glasses (and prescription) were four years old, and I'm in That Age range, made reluctant sense even though I really didn't want to pay out the $91.

I still have to go back and get my pupils dilated, which I skipped that day.