Recent Posts - DAFNE Online

Jun 5, 2015

Hightower 8 posts

Topic: General Discussion / think I cracked dawn phenomenon

Would agree with Andrew a pump is worth considering. Good results are always welcome Very Happy

Jun 5, 2015

Hightower 8 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Low GI bread

The Staffords one I eat is approximately 10g of Carbs per slice

Jun 5, 2015

Phil Maskell 194 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Low Carb

Has anyone tried a Low Carb High Fat diet? Nutritional Ketosis?

https://lowcarbrn.wordpress.com/diabetes/type-1-diabetes/

I am a keen cyclist (therfore avg to low weight for my height, this isn't to loose weight) and struggle on long rides, from about the half way point with low BG, I have to have a bar bag or pockets full of sugar, I was hoping something like this would mean I could function on less sugar, but I have also read that Low Carb is only really good for endurance sport and you loose some of the kick type power you get from glucose as an energy.

Anyone tried this, any sporty people had a go?

I am currently doing a more halfway house and lowering gradually my carbs, but not increasing my fat intake too much as this worries me.

What are peoples thoughts, is High Fat a bad idea?

Jun 5, 2015

Phil Maskell 194 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Cyborg Times (new BG meter)

I have had it since October (ish) last year, I've had a few teething troubles (Abbott have been brilliant). I had my last sensor pack up 6 days early last week (Abbott replaced it, without any issue), but this caught me off guard without a sensor for 2 days, I felt lost.

I know I shouldn't, but I only really test my blood at meal times now, so gone from 10 to 15 finger prick tests a day to 3, my fingers appreciate the relief

With seeing the overnight highs I have been unknowingly having my HbA1c has gone from 7.9 to 6.8

The drop in HbA1c and less finger prick test the NHS have to pay for, surely there are cost benefits? Its more of a known cost too, if it doesn't fail, they know it will cost X amount per 14 days, not a guess as to how many finger prick tests someone will need to do in a day.

I love it, and will continue to pay (I justify it by the fact I don't smoke and rarely drink so why not), but would rather get it on prescription, if nothing else for the ease of being able to go into the pharmacy and collect it, rather than waiting on DPD deliveries!

Jun 5, 2015

Phil Maskell 194 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Freestyle Libre

Type1Bri, I have had it since October (ish) last year, I've had a few teething troubles (Abbott have been brilliant). I had my last sensor pack up 6 days early last week (Abbott replaced it, without any issue), but this caught me off guard without a sensor for 2 days, I felt lost.

I know I shouldn't, but I only really test my blood at meal times now, so gone from 10 to 15 finger prick tests a day to 3, my fingers appreciate the relief Very Happy

With seeing the overnight highs I ahve been unknowingly having my HbA1c has gone from 7.9 to 6.8

Hope it works for you.

Jun 5, 2015

Rafa 99 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Low GI bread

Hi, the low GI bread that I eat here in Ireland is 13.5 per slice.

Jun 5, 2015

Caspar Aremi 6 posts

Topic: General Discussion / QA:CP and QA:BG? BI? Help!

Hey Tans,
speak to your Diabetes consultant and get on a DAFNE course! It's five days long - either all in one week, or one day a week for 5 weeks. it sounds like a lot - and I really thought there was no way there could be enough content to last so long - but it's invaluable. You do repeat a lot of stuff a couple of times, but it helps drill it in. Like you I used to just run high all the time and just thought there was nothing I could do about it, how my levels ran were a mystery.

QA is quick acting. BI is background insulin. BG is blood glucose levels. CP is carb portions - usually 1 per 10grams of carbs in food. So QA:CP is the ratio of insulin to carbs you take - for most people, it's one unit of QA per 1 carb portion (10g carbs) so it's in your diary as 1:1.

The user guide is really the course, so get yourself on it asap and let us know how it goes. I've found threads on here which clarify almost everything I had trouble getting my head around.

Jun 5, 2015

Caspar Aremi 6 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Ratio settings

I saw you've posted in the iPhone thread previously. In the app click on Settings, then Set Glucose Targets, then you can set the ratio depending on whether it's breakfast, lunch, dinner or bed time. That will stick to the level you set. Changing it manually when entering diary information only changes it for that single entry.

Jun 5, 2015

Caspar Aremi 6 posts

Topic: General Discussion / morning blood sugar rise

I forgot to add - as James mentioned, splitting your BI into two doses can be a huge help. I used to take all of mine in the morning, and was often going hypo overnight, but waking up high on days i wasn't. Since splitting I've bene able to balance it and it's also reduced the total I take by over a third, because I can work out whether I'm taking too much int he morning or at night. It would definitely be worth talking about doing this with your DAFNE leaders.

It is an extra injection each day, but you'll be able to avoid night time hypos by reducing your night time insulin, and hopefully also avoid them during the day too. A carb free day will teach you if your day time one is at the right level, and then monitoring overnight with a 3am check and then what level you are at breakfast will teach you about the night time dose too.

It's one of those things I'd never have even considered without doing DAFNE! Good luck Smile

Jun 5, 2015

Caspar Aremi 6 posts

Topic: General Discussion / morning blood sugar rise

Since doing DAFNE and knowing what to look out for, I've found the same. Yesterday I skipped breakfast. I was 7.8 when I woke up. I was 18.1 a couple of hours later! An increase of 10. I know if I have breakfast and use a 1.5:1 ratio, i'm level at lunchtime.

I saw my DAFNE leader earlier this week and someone else mentioned the same thing. She suggested it was the dawn phenomenon (and the same reason many of us take a higher ratio with breakfast) - so on days we are going to skip breakfast, test with a couple of units of insulin to see if that keeps you level (but make sure you've got hypo treatment, just in case).

Before doing DAFNE I rarely tested, and rarely ate breakfast. Since doing it, and realising I need to take extra QA in the morning anyway, I've stuck to having muesli or at least belvita biscuits every morning, and now things are much more level.

Jun 4, 2015

actLiz207 2 posts

Topic: General Discussion / morning blood sugar rise

thanks. its good to know its not just me. I am going to check my BI dose, although I have to be careful as i tend to get night time hypos

Jun 4, 2015

JamesW 24 posts

Topic: General Discussion / morning blood sugar rise

Hello. From personal experience, I find that I will see a rise by lunchtime if I don't take a small amount of QA if I have not eaten earlier. A 1u dose appears to do the trick for me to maintain the status quo although I have found that this approach is fine in the first part of the week but not, seemingly, in the second half. If it is a Thursday or Friday, I generally don't bother with the dose at all if I haven't eaten when I wake up. Not sure what that could be attributed to but I won't go off topic.

Are you confident that your BI dose is as correct as it ever will be? I split my dosage (of Lantus) between breakfast time and evening meal. I believe the theory is that you should be able to go a whole day without eating and not see a change in readings if your BI dose is right but we are all different and therein lies the fun.

Hopefully some other people will pipe up with their views too, I wouldn't want to be the lone voice on this for your sake. It'll probably come down to experimenting. Start small, 0.5u if you have that option and ensure you have the hypo-remedy of choice to hand, just in case.

Jun 4, 2015

actLiz207 2 posts

Topic: General Discussion / morning blood sugar rise

hi all. I have my background dose in the morning, my morning ratios are 3:1. if I skip breakfast my BG rises. today it went up from 7 on waking to 12.2 at lunchtime. it doesn't do this if I have breakfast with insulin. should I have some QA insulin in the morning even if I don't eat?
Liz

Jun 4, 2015

Caspar Aremi 6 posts

Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Backdated entries, diary view and Watch app

Hi guys,

I use the app on an iPhone 6 Plus. I love the latest updates with the graphs, and having the data go in to the Health app is a great move, I like having it on my health dashboard along with all my other data from other apps - my runs and steps, my calories eaten etc. Over time I think it's going to help build up a really powerful picture of the steps we can take to improve our health.

I have a few suggestions -

Some days, I don't enter my results as I test (I do try to, but sometimes you're on the go all day and don't have time). I find the date picker to be really fiddly and it's quite a lot of work to put in results for more than one entry.

I'm not sure how I'd suggest it gets improved, but I think one of the main suggestions would be to automatically update the 'Type' based on the time you input. If I put in an entry for yesterday at 7am, the Type stays set to whatever time it is I do the adding rather than guessing breakfast, like it does when you first go to add a new entry.

Perhaps also when adding one backdated entry, then you go to add another, it could automatically pick the same date as the first one you entered. If you wanted to add a new 'now' entry, I assume most people would do that first so it shouldn't get in the way.

My other suggestion is the diary view - could there be an option to have the latest entry at the bottom, and you scroll up to view older ones? I find having the newest in the top to be a bit illogical, and is the reverse of how they're displayed on the site!

Finally, I'm a new Apple Watch user, and it would be amazing if there was an app on there, so you could just hit 'New entry' and put in the numbers. I wouldn't want to view past results or anything on there.

Jun 2, 2015

AMcD 38 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Low GI bread

Typically a slice of bought brown bread has 15 to 17g of carbohydrate per slice. Or 40g of carbs per 100g of bread. Hope this helps. Andy

Jun 2, 2015

Joan29 3 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Low GI bread

Does anybody know how many carbs are in a low GI bread?

Jun 1, 2015

Shafiq 6 posts

Topic: Site Development / Import Diary Entries

Hi All
I've been pretty complacent with putting my BG readings etc into my DAFNE diary, I've been relying on my meter to calculate and log my insulin doses.
I've exported the data from the meter and have converted it into the same format that is seen when you export diary entries from DAFNE online.
Is there any way of being able to upload this CSV onto the DAFNE diary?
Thanks!

Jun 1, 2015

Warwick 434 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Salted Nuts

Yes, nuts will shoot my BGs high too if I don't take QA for them too.

Jun 1, 2015

Warwick 434 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / pearl barley

A quarter of a cup is not going to be a lot though. Is that across the whole soup? If yes, and there are 5 or 6 servings of soup, then the carb count will be negligible. If it is per serving, then weighing the amount in one portion it is probably the best for determining the carb content.

Jun 1, 2015

Warwick 434 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Triathlon Event

Hi Adam,

I carry a small pack of jelly beans in my swim cap. Other triathletes I know have carried gels in their wet suit sleeve. I've not yet had a hypo during the swim leg of an event, so I don't know how successful either of these are, but I generally never notice the JBs in the swim cap. You might want to get one of the support staff to assist you in opening whatever you use. Wet hands aren't particularly conducive to opening packets of jelly beans or gels. :-)

I tend to start high >8 and usually finish in the fives. It does depend on the distance though. I do half ironman events so 2 km swims, but if you are doing shorter events, then you may not need to be so high. Trial and error during training is generally the best way.

All the best with it. It is an addictive sport.
Warwick.

May 31, 2015

Garry 328 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Ratio settings

Which diary do you want to change them in wim. My Blood Glucose Diary here? Or is it within your iPhone app?
Regards
Garry

May 28, 2015

adamrea 3 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Triathlon Event

Evening all

I was just curious regarding the swim section of the event. During the running and cycling I have a vest/belt for glucose gel though for the swim what do I do in terms of carrying these bits???

This is my first event of this type and am thinking to start with slightly higher levels for the event as I find swimming has the biggest drop on my levels.is this correct?

Any advice would be great.

Many thanks

Adam ,27,London

May 28, 2015

wim 3 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Ratio settings

I wish to change my ratio default settings - can you please help me?
If I change them on the day they revert to the old ratio
With BI I think it changes automatically once I have changed the doses in one given day.
Thank you
Wim

May 28, 2015

wim 3 posts

Topic: Site Development / DAFNE Online iPhone application - help with content/design needed

Simon said:
You can indeed - go to the settings tab in the app, enter your username and password and set Diary Upload to On, whenever you save an entry it will automatically upload to the site. You can download entries from the site to the app by swiping down in the Diary tab (like you do to check for new emails)

Hi Simon - thank you for your help - that worked for me!

Thanks wim

May 28, 2015

Marissa 2 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / pearl barley

Damian Powell said:
It's a grain like rice or wheat so I would say, yes we should count it.

Okay thanks ðŸ˜€ðŸ˜€ðŸ˜€

Jun 5, 2015 Hightower 8 posts	Topic: General Discussion / think I cracked dawn phenomenon Would agree with Andrew a pump is worth considering. Good results are always welcome

Jun 5, 2015 Hightower 8 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Low GI bread The Staffords one I eat is approximately 10g of Carbs per slice

Jun 5, 2015 Phil Maskell 194 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Low Carb Has anyone tried a Low Carb High Fat diet? Nutritional Ketosis? https://lowcarbrn.wordpress.com/diabetes/type-1-diabetes/ I am a keen cyclist (therfore avg to low weight for my height, this isn't to loose weight) and struggle on long rides, from about the half way point with low BG, I have to have a bar bag or pockets full of sugar, I was hoping something like this would mean I could function on less sugar, but I have also read that Low Carb is only really good for endurance sport and you loose some of the kick type power you get from glucose as an energy. Anyone tried this, any sporty people had a go? I am currently doing a more halfway house and lowering gradually my carbs, but not increasing my fat intake too much as this worries me. What are peoples thoughts, is High Fat a bad idea?

Jun 5, 2015 Phil Maskell 194 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Cyborg Times (new BG meter) I have had it since October (ish) last year, I've had a few teething troubles (Abbott have been brilliant). I had my last sensor pack up 6 days early last week (Abbott replaced it, without any issue), but this caught me off guard without a sensor for 2 days, I felt lost. I know I shouldn't, but I only really test my blood at meal times now, so gone from 10 to 15 finger prick tests a day to 3, my fingers appreciate the relief With seeing the overnight highs I have been unknowingly having my HbA1c has gone from 7.9 to 6.8 The drop in HbA1c and less finger prick test the NHS have to pay for, surely there are cost benefits? Its more of a known cost too, if it doesn't fail, they know it will cost X amount per 14 days, not a guess as to how many finger prick tests someone will need to do in a day. I love it, and will continue to pay (I justify it by the fact I don't smoke and rarely drink so why not), but would rather get it on prescription, if nothing else for the ease of being able to go into the pharmacy and collect it, rather than waiting on DPD deliveries!

Jun 5, 2015 Phil Maskell 194 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Freestyle Libre Type1Bri, I have had it since October (ish) last year, I've had a few teething troubles (Abbott have been brilliant). I had my last sensor pack up 6 days early last week (Abbott replaced it, without any issue), but this caught me off guard without a sensor for 2 days, I felt lost. I know I shouldn't, but I only really test my blood at meal times now, so gone from 10 to 15 finger prick tests a day to 3, my fingers appreciate the relief With seeing the overnight highs I ahve been unknowingly having my HbA1c has gone from 7.9 to 6.8 Hope it works for you.

Jun 5, 2015 Rafa 99 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Low GI bread Hi, the low GI bread that I eat here in Ireland is 13.5 per slice.

Jun 5, 2015 Caspar Aremi 6 posts	Topic: General Discussion / QA:CP and QA:BG? BI? Help! Hey Tans, speak to your Diabetes consultant and get on a DAFNE course! It's five days long - either all in one week, or one day a week for 5 weeks. it sounds like a lot - and I really thought there was no way there could be enough content to last so long - but it's invaluable. You do repeat a lot of stuff a couple of times, but it helps drill it in. Like you I used to just run high all the time and just thought there was nothing I could do about it, how my levels ran were a mystery. QA is quick acting. BI is background insulin. BG is blood glucose levels. CP is carb portions - usually 1 per 10grams of carbs in food. So QA:CP is the ratio of insulin to carbs you take - for most people, it's one unit of QA per 1 carb portion (10g carbs) so it's in your diary as 1:1. The user guide is really the course, so get yourself on it asap and let us know how it goes. I've found threads on here which clarify almost everything I had trouble getting my head around.

Jun 5, 2015 Caspar Aremi 6 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Ratio settings I saw you've posted in the iPhone thread previously. In the app click on Settings, then Set Glucose Targets, then you can set the ratio depending on whether it's breakfast, lunch, dinner or bed time. That will stick to the level you set. Changing it manually when entering diary information only changes it for that single entry.

Jun 5, 2015 Caspar Aremi 6 posts	Topic: General Discussion / morning blood sugar rise I forgot to add - as James mentioned, splitting your BI into two doses can be a huge help. I used to take all of mine in the morning, and was often going hypo overnight, but waking up high on days i wasn't. Since splitting I've bene able to balance it and it's also reduced the total I take by over a third, because I can work out whether I'm taking too much int he morning or at night. It would definitely be worth talking about doing this with your DAFNE leaders. It is an extra injection each day, but you'll be able to avoid night time hypos by reducing your night time insulin, and hopefully also avoid them during the day too. A carb free day will teach you if your day time one is at the right level, and then monitoring overnight with a 3am check and then what level you are at breakfast will teach you about the night time dose too. It's one of those things I'd never have even considered without doing DAFNE! Good luck

Jun 5, 2015 Caspar Aremi 6 posts	Topic: General Discussion / morning blood sugar rise Since doing DAFNE and knowing what to look out for, I've found the same. Yesterday I skipped breakfast. I was 7.8 when I woke up. I was 18.1 a couple of hours later! An increase of 10. I know if I have breakfast and use a 1.5:1 ratio, i'm level at lunchtime. I saw my DAFNE leader earlier this week and someone else mentioned the same thing. She suggested it was the dawn phenomenon (and the same reason many of us take a higher ratio with breakfast) - so on days we are going to skip breakfast, test with a couple of units of insulin to see if that keeps you level (but make sure you've got hypo treatment, just in case). Before doing DAFNE I rarely tested, and rarely ate breakfast. Since doing it, and realising I need to take extra QA in the morning anyway, I've stuck to having muesli or at least belvita biscuits every morning, and now things are much more level.

Jun 4, 2015 actLiz207 2 posts	Topic: General Discussion / morning blood sugar rise thanks. its good to know its not just me. I am going to check my BI dose, although I have to be careful as i tend to get night time hypos

Jun 4, 2015 JamesW 24 posts	Topic: General Discussion / morning blood sugar rise Hello. From personal experience, I find that I will see a rise by lunchtime if I don't take a small amount of QA if I have not eaten earlier. A 1u dose appears to do the trick for me to maintain the status quo although I have found that this approach is fine in the first part of the week but not, seemingly, in the second half. If it is a Thursday or Friday, I generally don't bother with the dose at all if I haven't eaten when I wake up. Not sure what that could be attributed to but I won't go off topic. Are you confident that your BI dose is as correct as it ever will be? I split my dosage (of Lantus) between breakfast time and evening meal. I believe the theory is that you should be able to go a whole day without eating and not see a change in readings if your BI dose is right but we are all different and therein lies the fun. Hopefully some other people will pipe up with their views too, I wouldn't want to be the lone voice on this for your sake. It'll probably come down to experimenting. Start small, 0.5u if you have that option and ensure you have the hypo-remedy of choice to hand, just in case.

Jun 4, 2015 actLiz207 2 posts	Topic: General Discussion / morning blood sugar rise hi all. I have my background dose in the morning, my morning ratios are 3:1. if I skip breakfast my BG rises. today it went up from 7 on waking to 12.2 at lunchtime. it doesn't do this if I have breakfast with insulin. should I have some QA insulin in the morning even if I don't eat? Liz

Jun 4, 2015 Caspar Aremi 6 posts	Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Backdated entries, diary view and Watch app Hi guys, I use the app on an iPhone 6 Plus. I love the latest updates with the graphs, and having the data go in to the Health app is a great move, I like having it on my health dashboard along with all my other data from other apps - my runs and steps, my calories eaten etc. Over time I think it's going to help build up a really powerful picture of the steps we can take to improve our health. I have a few suggestions - Some days, I don't enter my results as I test (I do try to, but sometimes you're on the go all day and don't have time). I find the date picker to be really fiddly and it's quite a lot of work to put in results for more than one entry. I'm not sure how I'd suggest it gets improved, but I think one of the main suggestions would be to automatically update the 'Type' based on the time you input. If I put in an entry for yesterday at 7am, the Type stays set to whatever time it is I do the adding rather than guessing breakfast, like it does when you first go to add a new entry. Perhaps also when adding one backdated entry, then you go to add another, it could automatically pick the same date as the first one you entered. If you wanted to add a new 'now' entry, I assume most people would do that first so it shouldn't get in the way. My other suggestion is the diary view - could there be an option to have the latest entry at the bottom, and you scroll up to view older ones? I find having the newest in the top to be a bit illogical, and is the reverse of how they're displayed on the site! Finally, I'm a new Apple Watch user, and it would be amazing if there was an app on there, so you could just hit 'New entry' and put in the numbers. I wouldn't want to view past results or anything on there.

Jun 2, 2015 AMcD 38 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Low GI bread Typically a slice of bought brown bread has 15 to 17g of carbohydrate per slice. Or 40g of carbs per 100g of bread. Hope this helps. Andy

Jun 2, 2015 Joan29 3 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Low GI bread Does anybody know how many carbs are in a low GI bread?

Jun 1, 2015 Shafiq 6 posts	Topic: Site Development / Import Diary Entries Hi All I've been pretty complacent with putting my BG readings etc into my DAFNE diary, I've been relying on my meter to calculate and log my insulin doses. I've exported the data from the meter and have converted it into the same format that is seen when you export diary entries from DAFNE online. Is there any way of being able to upload this CSV onto the DAFNE diary? Thanks!

Jun 1, 2015 Warwick 434 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Salted Nuts Yes, nuts will shoot my BGs high too if I don't take QA for them too.

Jun 1, 2015 Warwick 434 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / pearl barley A quarter of a cup is not going to be a lot though. Is that across the whole soup? If yes, and there are 5 or 6 servings of soup, then the carb count will be negligible. If it is per serving, then weighing the amount in one portion it is probably the best for determining the carb content.

Jun 1, 2015 Warwick 434 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Triathlon Event Hi Adam, I carry a small pack of jelly beans in my swim cap. Other triathletes I know have carried gels in their wet suit sleeve. I've not yet had a hypo during the swim leg of an event, so I don't know how successful either of these are, but I generally never notice the JBs in the swim cap. You might want to get one of the support staff to assist you in opening whatever you use. Wet hands aren't particularly conducive to opening packets of jelly beans or gels. :-) I tend to start high >8 and usually finish in the fives. It does depend on the distance though. I do half ironman events so 2 km swims, but if you are doing shorter events, then you may not need to be so high. Trial and error during training is generally the best way. All the best with it. It is an addictive sport. Warwick.

May 31, 2015 Garry 328 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Ratio settings Which diary do you want to change them in wim. My Blood Glucose Diary here? Or is it within your iPhone app? Regards Garry

May 28, 2015 adamrea 3 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Triathlon Event Evening all I was just curious regarding the swim section of the event. During the running and cycling I have a vest/belt for glucose gel though for the swim what do I do in terms of carrying these bits??? This is my first event of this type and am thinking to start with slightly higher levels for the event as I find swimming has the biggest drop on my levels.is this correct? Any advice would be great. Many thanks Adam ,27,London

May 28, 2015 wim 3 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Ratio settings I wish to change my ratio default settings - can you please help me? If I change them on the day they revert to the old ratio With BI I think it changes automatically once I have changed the doses in one given day. Thank you Wim

May 28, 2015 wim 3 posts	Topic: Site Development / DAFNE Online iPhone application - help with content/design needed Simon said: You can indeed - go to the settings tab in the app, enter your username and password and set Diary Upload to On, whenever you save an entry it will automatically upload to the site. You can download entries from the site to the app by swiping down in the Diary tab (like you do to check for new emails) Hi Simon - thank you for your help - that worked for me! Thanks wim

May 28, 2015 Marissa 2 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / pearl barley Damian Powell said: It's a grain like rice or wheat so I would say, yes we should count it. Okay thanks ðŸ˜€ðŸ˜€ðŸ˜€