Monday, April 24, 2006

A new pump

I just saw that MiniMed has received FDA clearance on their new cgms sensor pump. Even though the Nurse tempered my excitement about the new cgms systems at my last appointment I find this pretty interesting.

I am planning on getting the "baby-ready" A1C (6.0) without the use of a cgms system. Until my last appointment - I had been looking at the sensor systems as to final step to the "baby-ready" A1C. But the folks at Joslin assure me that I can do it without the new technology.

But maybe by next winter.....

MiniMed Paradigm REAL-Time

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

A young feminist's reading list

A Book Meme from Julia. I am feeling pretty good right now- but then again I read the majority of these before I finished high school.

Instructions: Bold the ones you've read. Italicize the ones you've been wanting/might like to read. ??Place question marks by any titles/authors you've never heard of?? Plus I'm adding this, as Turtlebella noted that the choice of books by each author is a mite idiosyncratic: put an asterisk if you've read something else by the same author.

Allcott, Louisa May Little Women
Allende, Isabel The House of Spirits
Angelou, Maya I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Atwood, Margaret Cat's Eye
Austen, Jane Emma
??Bambara, Toni Cade Salt Eaters
??Barnes, Djuna Nightwoodde
Beauvoir, Simone The Second Sex
Blume, Judy Are You There God? It's Me Margaret
Burnett, Frances The Secret Garden
Bronte, Charlotte Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily Wuthering Heights
**Buck, Pearl S. The Good Earth
Byatt, A.S. Possession
**Cather, Willa My Antonia
Chopin, Kate The Awakening
Christie, Agatha Murder on the Orient Express
Cisneros, Sandra The House on Mango Street
** Clinton, Hillary Rodham Living History
??Cooper, Anna Julia A Voice From the South
??Danticat, Edwidge Breath, Eyes, Memory
Davis, Angela Women, Culture, and Politics
??Desai, Anita Clear Light of Day
Dickinson, Emily Collected Poems
Duncan, Lois I Know What You Did Last Summer
DuMaurier, Daphne Rebecca
Eliot, George Middlemarch
Emecheta, Buchi Second Class Citizen
??Erdrich, Louise Tracks
Esquivel, Laura Like Water for Chocolate
Flagg, Fannie Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Friedan, Betty The Feminine Mystique
Frank, Anne Diary of a Young Girl
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins The Yellow Wallpaper
??Gordimer, Nadine July's People
**Grafton, Sue S is for Silence
Hamilton, Edith Mythology
Highsmith, Patricia The Talented Mr. Ripley
Hooks, Bell Bone Black
Hurston, Zora Neale Tracks on the Road
??Jacobs, Harriet Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Jackson, Helen Hunt Ramona
Jackson, Shirley The Haunting of Hill House
Jong, Erica Fear of Flying
Keene, Carolyn The Nancy Drew Mysteries
Kidd, Sue Monk The Secret Life of Bees
**Kincaid, Jamaica Lucy
**Kingsolver, Barbara The Poisonwood Bible
Kingston, Maxine Hong The Woman Warrior
??Larsen, Nella Passing
L'Engle, Madeleine A Wrinkle in Time
??Le Guin, Ursula K. The Left Hand of Darkness
Lee, Harper To Kill a Mockingbird
Lessing, Doris The Golden Notebook
??Lively, Penelope Moon Tiger
Lorde, Audre The Cancer Journals
Martin, Ann M. The Babysitters Club Series (Remember #3 where we find out that Stacey was a diabetic)
??McCullers, Carson The Member of the Wedding
??McMillan, Terry Disappearing Acts
??Markandaya, Kamala Nectar in a Sieve
Marshall, Paule Brown Girl, Brownstones
Mitchell, Margaret Gone with the Wind
Montgomery, Lucy Maudâ Anne of Green Gables
??Morgan, Joan When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost
Morrison, Toni Song of Solomon
Murasaki, Lady Shikibu The Tale of Genji
Munro, Alice Lives of Girls and Women
??Murdoch, Iris Severed Head??
Naylor, Gloria Mama Day
??Niffenegger, Audrey The Time Traveller's Wife
Oates, Joyce Carol We Were the Mulvaneys
??O'Connor, Flannery A Good Man is Hard to Find
??Piercy, Marge Woman on the Edge of Time
Picoult, Jodi My Sister's Keeper
Plath, Sylvia The Bell Jar
??Porter, Katharine Anne Ship of Fools
Proulx, E. Annie The Shipping News
Rand, Ayn The Fountainhead
Ray, Rachel 365: No Repeats
Rhys, Jean Wide Sargasso Sea
??Robinson, Marilynne Housekeeping
??Rocha, Sharon For Laci
Sebold, Alice The Lovely Bones
Shelley, Mary Frankenstein
Smith, Betty A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Smith, Zadie White Teeth
Spark, Muriel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
??Spyri, Johanna Heidi
Strout, Elizabeth Amy and Isabelle
Steel, Danielle The House
Tan, Amy The Joy Luck Club
??Tannen, Deborah You're Wearing That
??Ulrich, Laurel A Midwife's Tale
??Urquhart, Jane Away
**Walker, Alice The Temple of My Familiar
Welty, Eudora One Writer's Beginnings
Wharton, Edith Age of Innocence
Wilder, Laura Ingalls Little House in the Big Woods
Wollstonecraft, Mary A Vindication of the Rights of Women
Woolf, Virginia A Room of One's Own

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

It's a start.

For a diabetes screening and outreach program to raise public awareness and provide outreach and education for high risk individuals, including, but not limited to, targeted populations of adolescents and the elderly..................$350,000

Yesterday, Massachusetts passed a comprehensive insurance coverage bill, H.4850. The quote above is one piece. I've been watching the developments for the past year. I think it's good. But we'll have to see what happens to diabetic coverage in the new plans that have been set up. Reason #236 to live in Massachusetts, we have great state mandated diabetic coverage.

The worry about this new bill is that insurance companies might be allowed to cut the diabetic coverage from new stripped down plans that they will be offering.

I'm only a couple of pages through the Bill. It's 146 pages, so give me a few days. Currently I don't even enough time to update the blog - but that's another story.

The Legislation Boston Globe
Massachusetts Sets Health Plan for Nearly All New York Times

On a related note. I am so tired. I have been spending the past few weeks in political discussions about personal issues, gay marriage and diabetes. I don't want to fight for test strips or my marriage license any more. But as I keep reminding myself, I have the ability to - and many do not. So here I am. Weary but fighting.

Thank you for allowing me my little emotional breakdown. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.