I'm laying here recovering from minor surgery, and I've been trying all
afternoon to catch up with the one news group I allegedly track:  ASD.
It's been two weeks since I made time to be here, and you all have
produced over 3000 posts!

STOP IT!  :-)

Anyway, two weeks ago I had my third quartly post-dx appointment with
the doc.  He was rather happy.

As a prelude to lab tracking:  I'm a 40 year old Male diagnosed DM-T2
May 2005. 1000mg Metformin 2x day.

    May/05     Aug/05   Nov/05   Feb/06
BP      104/88    112/60   102/80   102/80
wgt     171       155      164.5    158.8
pulse    78        70       84       68

a1c      10.1       5.8      5.0      5.8
trigl.  319       143      129      114
hdl      44        43       63       47
ldl      99       110      131      107
vldl     53        24       22       19
tot.cl. 196       177      205      173
glucose 266       101      101      114

personally, I think the cholesterol/a1c tradeoff worked for me.  As long
as my A1c stays below 6, I'm happy.  But that reduction in cholesterol
is sweet!

My February numbers are more interesting for several reasons:
  1.  Early in December I got too busy, so I got off my bike.  So no
      "real" exercise during most of the 3 months preceeding the test.
  2.  Of course in December, with Christmas and New Years, people tend
      to fall off whatever wagon they're on -- to some extent anyway.
      This was true for me -- I loosened up my eating rules.. and I have
      kept them looser -- after noon.
  3.  Testing has led me to believe my greatest concern was with
      breakfast.  So, my TC above 200 back in November being of great
      concern to my Doc, I asked around and ended up making some
      changes:  my breakfast now consists of a serving of low-carb
      special K with 2% milk, one regular fat sausage patty, and one
      vegetarian sausage patty.  Veggie only doesn't keep the spike
      down so I have to continue the meat.  But no low-fat:  apparently
      there's a link between the nitrates or nitrates they put in turkey
      sausages and cholesterol.

My doc still thinks my cholesterol is too high -- I wish I could
remember what med he was recommending.  10mg a day of a generic statin.
 But, since I'm moving in the right direction, he didn't argue when I
resisted.  His goal is my LDL cholesterol should be below 70.

It's also been a period of considerable stress at work, at home and at
church.

1.  Work:  management started off the first full week of the new year by
announcing layoffs.  And for the first time in a long time, I was
directly affected.  I work for a major semiconductor manufacturer, and
our little group of 25 is split between here in metro Phoenix and a
sub-group up in Boston.  They decided to shut down the Boston ops, and
handed us 4 new people to replace the 4 they're letting go in Boston.
These 4 new people are good, but they don't know our sub-specialty.  In
addition, I started with the company up in Boston, so I was hired by the
guys up there, before getting transferred down to Phoenix.  And the 4
guys work directly with me.  Further, because of the demographics of the
layoffs, and comments by senior management followign the layoffs,
there's significant concern that our jobs are in immediate jeopardy.
So, I've submitted my resume to two locations.  No news there yet.

2.  Home:  in-laws are in town.  They're nice, but slovenly.  It's
frustrating.  It's particularly frustrating that they come once a year
for a month...sort of.  They own a timeshare in the Berkshires, and
normally they come out for a month, but go away for a week via a
timeshare swap.  This time they came out and were telling us that they
hadn't been able to arrange a swap.  Fortunately, they arranged one at
the last minute.  They leave tomorrow morning for a week.  They leave
permanently on March 16.

3.  Church:  I'm one of 3 soundboard operators for my church.  at the
beginning of the year, one of the others took a break because he had
shoulder surgery.  So that meant more work for me and the head of the
tech crew...especially since the head is now having to run video
sometimes as well as sound.  Other soundguy is back, but he's gone now
on a business trip to Mexico.  So, 4 days after my vasectomy (no ED for
me!) I'm going to be arriving at church at 6:30 or so to setup for band
practice...for a service starting at 9.  THEN, we have a special speaker
this weekend; he'll be doing something all afternoon, so I don't get to
leave church until 6.  Fortunately, soundboard is mostly deskwork, so I
shouldnt' be moving around too much.

For good news, the annual review period ended Friday at work with
sharing the results of "rewards planning."  I'm getting a 6% raise
(effective in July), plus a 20% bonus.  My boss gave me the maximum
raise he was permitted.  He was permitted to give me up to a 30% bonus.
 So I've done very well with my boss.

mt