In most things we do, the law of diminishing returns apply. I read somewhere that unless you're an ultra-marathoner, the added benefit you get beyond 65 miles per week is so slight that it's often not worth it, given the time it takes to add on more miles and the wear and tear it creates on your body.
But more specific to this post, I've been considering some diabetes-related items, and how they may contribute to the law of diminishing returns.
The first is Apidra insulin, which I've been on for several months now. In terms of is it a "better" insulin than Novolog, my immediate answer is, "Yes." The reduced occlusions in an insulin pump create truly flat line blood sugars between meals and the faster reaction time is helpful, too.
That being said, this "super" insulin has been more sensitive - I'm assuming to temperature - for me. I've thrown out three vials that simply lost their "oomph." One I left in a hot car for one hour and the other two, I have no idea why they went bad, but they did.
And I'm also wondering about the Omnipod. No doubt about, my blood sugars are in better control on the Omnipod. Not dramatically, but a little. That being said, it seems I'm accidentally ripping out at least one pod per week. When I was on the pump, I'd rip out maybe six infusion sets per year.
All of which means, I'm a diabetic who's in a little bit better control, but who also needs to keep fresh insulin bottles and pods at the ready. It's not enough to make me switch, at this point, but it's enough to make me think about how obsessive I want to be about keeping my blood sugars under control. I'm a big believer in having my diabetes be the MacGuffin in my life, not a scene-stealing co-star. And dirty insulin vials and torn out pods have a way of stealing limelight I'm not very interested in.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Friday, July 02, 2010
To Catch a Thief
Disclaimer: Not a post about running or diabetes.
So this week some jerk made off with 4 of the 8 solar footlamps around our fishpond. Not a huge deal, mind you. If memory serves, we paid $35 for all of them and I'd much rather lose a few lights than have the fish messed with.
But here's the thing: my 11 year old son was pretty pissed about it.
To be certain, it's been an interesting summer for the kiddo. Heading into it, this sort of became one of those years that we wanted him to do more with his time than stare at screens and he's responded very well. We've sealed the deck, weeded the yard, pressure washed the house and built the fish pond together. While each of these activities were accompanied by the usual adolescent whining, they all culminated in what I could tell was a sense of accomplishment for him. So when he realized that some moron had made off with some of the lights, his response wasn't "Let's go buy more." Instead, it was, "We worked so hard on it."
And interesting response, as anyone who's built a fishpond with solar footlamps will tell you that 98% of the labor ain't in the footlamps. But still, to him they represented a project we'd put a lot into.
My response? We installed a motion sensor floodlamp and hooked up a webcam that captures all motion around the pond. I customized the motion sensor on the webcam so that it won't alert us when cars drive by, but will alert us when someone ventures near the pond. Yes, to be clear, I spent $60 to prevent the theft of $35 of lights.
But it's cool. In fact, you can view the streaming of webcam of pond Grimm here (we still need to put the remaining footlamps back outside). And hopefully, it will make my son feel good to preserve the work he did. And if I catch the twit, well that would be alright, too.
So this week some jerk made off with 4 of the 8 solar footlamps around our fishpond. Not a huge deal, mind you. If memory serves, we paid $35 for all of them and I'd much rather lose a few lights than have the fish messed with.
But here's the thing: my 11 year old son was pretty pissed about it.
To be certain, it's been an interesting summer for the kiddo. Heading into it, this sort of became one of those years that we wanted him to do more with his time than stare at screens and he's responded very well. We've sealed the deck, weeded the yard, pressure washed the house and built the fish pond together. While each of these activities were accompanied by the usual adolescent whining, they all culminated in what I could tell was a sense of accomplishment for him. So when he realized that some moron had made off with some of the lights, his response wasn't "Let's go buy more." Instead, it was, "We worked so hard on it."
And interesting response, as anyone who's built a fishpond with solar footlamps will tell you that 98% of the labor ain't in the footlamps. But still, to him they represented a project we'd put a lot into.
My response? We installed a motion sensor floodlamp and hooked up a webcam that captures all motion around the pond. I customized the motion sensor on the webcam so that it won't alert us when cars drive by, but will alert us when someone ventures near the pond. Yes, to be clear, I spent $60 to prevent the theft of $35 of lights.
But it's cool. In fact, you can view the streaming of webcam of pond Grimm here (we still need to put the remaining footlamps back outside). And hopefully, it will make my son feel good to preserve the work he did. And if I catch the twit, well that would be alright, too.
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