Friday, April 25, 2008
Juggling sickness and work
How long should a person have bronchitis? I thought it was supposed to be 12 days max. I have been hacking my head off for a month now. I am so sick of having everyone say "Are you still sick?" ARRRGGGHHH! It's not fun sounding like McGruff the crime dog. Apparently I sound so much like I'm on my deathbed that I have complete strangers praying for my health on the phone. That's not good Vern. I have been to see the doc every week for the past month. Two courses of antibiotics, three bottles of cough syrup with Codine, and a decongestant later and I still sound like our fearless crime fighting friend. Any suggestions?
Monday, April 07, 2008
Diabetes, Smoking, and Project Management
A new post every six months. That's so up to date. LOL. It's been a busy six months though folks. I have a new project that is vital to my existence. After the incidents in my last post, I found a Dr. here in Jefferson City. Dr. Moline and his wonderful nurse practitioner Dr. Marty. I love both of them to death. Dr. Marty is pretty astute too. She found out that my diabetes had reappeared. This prompted a battery of tests that I have been going through for six months now. I have been my own Discovery channel special with a colonoscopy, seen the inside of my own bladder, been ultrasound-ed, poked and prodded. But I am excited to say that my sugars are now down in the normal range after having averaged around 350 per day. (Normal is 70 to 130). I also discovered that I have what the Urologist calls an "Impressive" kidney stone that I get to have blown apart on the 18th of this month. I have quit smoking .... again, but this time it feels different. This time I am not doing it to appease my husband, kids, or mother. This time I am doing it because I want to. I did the patch for one day, then got tired of trying to keep it on and threw it away. I haven't really felt too many cravings. That's very odd for me. I'm usually ready to rip someones head off by day three. This time is .... different.
So, other that obsessing on my medical conditions, why am I rambling on about all this? It has occurred to me that Diabetes Management and Quitting Smoking are two of the most important "Projects" that I have ever been assigned. If you step back and think about it, the diabetes management follows all of the steps involved in a continuing life cycle project.
The initiation stage occurs when you doc tells you your HBA1C (The test that tells you what your blood sugar has averaged over the past three months. It should be under 6.0.) came back with a 7.9 and that the dreaded diabetes is back in your life full force. You make a plan with your doctor as to the initial medicine you will take to try and bring your blood sugars back into control. (There is a lot of praying that you won't need to take the shots again.) There is also planning as to how many times per day you will test and when you will test. What foods you will eat and avoid. When you will come back to re-evaluate the medicine and take the tests again.
The planning phase occurs over the next two weeks after the initial visit. You have to plan on getting your medicine. How will you keep track of what you have taken and when? How will you take you blood sugar at work and on the weekends? How will you track your blood sugars once you take them so that you can see trends and share the results with the doctor? How is the cost of the extra medicine and testing supplies going to impact your medical budget? What about the cost of the extra doctors visits? What are the risks associated with certain behaviors that you currently have? (E.G. smoking.) How will you mitigate these risks? Will you need someone to help you around the house? Will you need someone to take you to the doctors? What are you going to do about eating lunch at work? What are you going to do about eating at home? All aspects of the PM planning can be accounted for over the next two weeks as you try to find answers and plans for all of these questions and more.
Executing and Controlling come as you record your Blood Sugar levels and make adjustments to medicine, exercise, diet, etc. in order to maintain the quality of the readings you get. I could go into a lot of detail here about charting, modifying diet and exercise to bring the levels down, adding medicines, taking medicines away,etc, but I am running out of time.
There are so many aspects of our lives that we can apply Project Management to if we just step back and look for the opportunities. And by applying these principles we can improve the quality and possibly the quantity of our lives.
So, other that obsessing on my medical conditions, why am I rambling on about all this? It has occurred to me that Diabetes Management and Quitting Smoking are two of the most important "Projects" that I have ever been assigned. If you step back and think about it, the diabetes management follows all of the steps involved in a continuing life cycle project.
The initiation stage occurs when you doc tells you your HBA1C (The test that tells you what your blood sugar has averaged over the past three months. It should be under 6.0.) came back with a 7.9 and that the dreaded diabetes is back in your life full force. You make a plan with your doctor as to the initial medicine you will take to try and bring your blood sugars back into control. (There is a lot of praying that you won't need to take the shots again.) There is also planning as to how many times per day you will test and when you will test. What foods you will eat and avoid. When you will come back to re-evaluate the medicine and take the tests again.
The planning phase occurs over the next two weeks after the initial visit. You have to plan on getting your medicine. How will you keep track of what you have taken and when? How will you take you blood sugar at work and on the weekends? How will you track your blood sugars once you take them so that you can see trends and share the results with the doctor? How is the cost of the extra medicine and testing supplies going to impact your medical budget? What about the cost of the extra doctors visits? What are the risks associated with certain behaviors that you currently have? (E.G. smoking.) How will you mitigate these risks? Will you need someone to help you around the house? Will you need someone to take you to the doctors? What are you going to do about eating lunch at work? What are you going to do about eating at home? All aspects of the PM planning can be accounted for over the next two weeks as you try to find answers and plans for all of these questions and more.
Executing and Controlling come as you record your Blood Sugar levels and make adjustments to medicine, exercise, diet, etc. in order to maintain the quality of the readings you get. I could go into a lot of detail here about charting, modifying diet and exercise to bring the levels down, adding medicines, taking medicines away,etc, but I am running out of time.
There are so many aspects of our lives that we can apply Project Management to if we just step back and look for the opportunities. And by applying these principles we can improve the quality and possibly the quantity of our lives.
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