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Apr 7, 2014
Warwick 425 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Needles

I switched from 8 mm to 4 mm a couple of years back and had no issues from doing it. As long as you allow the insulin long enough to absorb (min 6 seconds I think), there shouldn't be any issue.
 
Apr 6, 2014
Stew B 125 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Needles

Thanks alturn, good plan. My main concern is whether the shorter needles might affect absorption and thus effectiveness. I guess I'll give them a go and see what happens!
 
Apr 6, 2014
alturn 78 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Needles

I've gone from 8 to 6 to 4mm in 9 years. Main reason for smaller needles was lack of fat to inject into, less of a problem now, and to reduce bruising, which I think has worked. On our DAFNE course I think some users said that injecting large (not defined) numbers of units with smaller needles was painful sometimes, but max I inject is 13 which I don't consider large. Injection can sting a bit sometimes, but that could be technique and doesn't happen often

8mm needles now look massive and I think "How could I have used them Question "

I would try them and see how you get on, but possibly it might be a supply issue with manufacturer or NHS/GP policy.

Happy injecting Very Happy
 
Apr 6, 2014
Stew B 125 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Needles

Ever since I was diagnosed in 1999 I've been prescribed and used 6mm needles. My GP practice/ pharmacy seem to have switched suppliers, and the last box of needles I got were from a different manufacturer and are 5mm. I'm tempted to think "what's a mm here or there?", but I wonder if anyone else has a view and whether I should take it up with my GP?
 
Apr 4, 2014
GR8 5 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Alcohol, carb counting and insulin doses

Cheers mate much appreciated
 
Apr 4, 2014
GR8 5 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Alcohol, carb counting and insulin doses

Cheers mate much appreciated
 
Apr 4, 2014
Garry 328 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Need to lower BI in the morning, is it a problem?

Don't think that, not too good to be true - 9.0 is good. Progress toward sound HbA1c results evident.
Strive on!
Been doing this for 34+ years now...albeit only the last 4 under DAFNE guide lines!
Here are April results so far........
Not too impressive Huh.
Thanks for your reply.
Regards
Garry
 
Apr 4, 2014
Morganite 4 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Moderate changes, retinopathy

Thanks Vickyp. I''ve decided to ask to be on the waiting list for the pump, Seems to be the way forward for better diabetes control. In the meantime I've got back into recording my CPs and ratios to try and keep BG level
 
Apr 4, 2014
dunkers7 24 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Need to lower BI in the morning, is it a problem?

Nah, it was 9.0!

Relatively BGs are a lot better though, and BI held with a fasting BG of 7.8 this morning. so I'm happy with those results.

Have to say the green BGs through the day struck me as too good to be true, suppose the 9.0 added a realistic edge. Cool
 
Apr 4, 2014
Vickyp 137 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Moderate changes, retinopathy

Would recommend the DAFNE, this really helped maintain the tight bs control I am expected to have.
I attend preconception clinic and need to keep hba1c around the 6% mark...which is the target for a healthy pregnancy.
I have background retinopathy, which was diagnosed 2 months after my diabetes diagnosis. I am on the omnipod pump and find it so much better than MDI, both for control and coping with sensitivity. Definately worth looking into
 
Apr 4, 2014
Garry 328 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Need to lower BI in the morning, is it a problem?

I think that in the 4+ years since DAFNE I have had 3 green days. Good progress Very Happy
Like to know what your bedtime BG was and look forward to congratulating you if it was another green.
Regards
Garry
 
Apr 3, 2014
JayBee 587 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Carbohydrate Intolerance?

To be honest, I get the opposite responses usually. Carb frees are hard work for my energy levels. Sad

A brief google search suggests a possible link to celiac disease. Have you been tested for this?
Some times docs do a celiac test as part of the routine 3 or 6 monthly blood checks, but not all.
Maybe worth having a chat with your team if not.

Best wishes.
 
Apr 3, 2014
dunkers7 24 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Need to lower BI in the morning, is it a problem?

Thought it was worth an update to say I tried moving my morning QA site to Stomach, where the QA works faster. After that, the pattern changed and I initially started having a few hypos in the morning between 11 and 12am.

It seems part of the problem with the afternoon hypos was the morning QA taking longer to work than anticipated, which made it difficult to see the wood from the trees.

Glad to say today's BGs have been much better so far. A second pair of eyes definitely helped!
 
Apr 3, 2014
LadyNovo777 9 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Carbohydrate Intolerance?

Has anyone ever experienced or heard of carbohydrate intolerance? When I take very little carbs or have a carb free meal I feel good but when I eat 20g or more I feel very tired very quickly. I thought carbs gave you energy??? I just feel I don't want to eat carbs at all. Any advice?
 
Apr 3, 2014
Warwick 425 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Moderate changes, retinopathy

Going on a pump is likely to assist with dropping your HbA1c and give you greater control. There can be a bit of a learning curve, but once you are over that, it is likely that you would have better control.

Cheers,
Warwick.
 
Apr 2, 2014
Morganite 4 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Moderate changes, retinopathy

Thanks Warwick,

It's encouraging to hear your approach and I will definitely take your advice on finding out as much as possible and doing what I can to prevent the condition worsening. I had attended the DAFNE course 4 years ago but I was also doing my final university exams and with the stress I was under didn't follow the programme exactly. I'm now trying to have a different take on things and see my health as a priority over everything else and have started to record my BG and work out any patterns.

I'm also considering asking to be put on the pump as I have heard this can help improve control? Thanks again for your comment, I feel a bit calmer about the whole thing now and I think that taking action as you said will help stop me worrying so much!
 
Apr 2, 2014
Phil Maskell 194 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Wrong injection

Been there, on a 1:1 QA ratio I had 16 units of QA instead of BI, had quite a few snacks that day Wink
 
Apr 2, 2014
JennyNZ 29 posts

Topic: Questions for HCPs / Gilluian Barre Syndrome (GBS)

hi, all. this is not a specific topic related to DAFNE but in December last year, I was diagnosed with GBS and spent 2 weeks in hospital then 2 weeks in rehab to help with my walking. it has affected in in a lot of ways but for my diabetes it has completely changed my insulin needs. before I was sick, my background insulin was 10 in the morning and 10 at night. oddly enough that has completely changed. In Hosp it was 9 in the morning only but is now 12 in the morning and 3 at night.. has any one else had GBS or knows of any diabetics who have had it? I would be interested to know how you were affected by it GBS is an auto immune response where the body destroys its own nerve endings (hence loads of pain and problems with walking/hands etc.)
 
Apr 2, 2014
Warwick 425 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Moderate changes, retinopathy

Hi Morganite,

The damage already done to your eyes will be irreversible, but looking at these websites:

http://www.webmd.com/diabetes/tc/diabetic-retinopathy-topic-overview

and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetic_retinopathy

"There are three major treatments for diabetic retinopathy, which are very effective in reducing vision loss from this disease. In fact, even people with advanced retinopathy have a 90 percent chance of keeping their vision when they get treatment before the retina is severely damaged. These three treatments are laser surgery, injection of corticosteroids or Anti-VEGF into the eye, and vitrectomy."

Based on that, I think you can feel positive about reducing the amount of vision loss if you can get your blood glucose under tighter control. If you can get on a DAFNE course, then you would likely find it easier to control your blood glucose levels. My HbA1c dropped from 7.2 to 6.1 after doing the course and I'd highly recommend it.

I can't answer about pregnancy and retinopathy. Having good control is a really good idea before getting pregnant anyway, as I am sure you already know. I would suggest seeking professional advice from your GP about this, and if they don't know, then ask them to refer you to someone who can help.

There are teams that deal with expectant diabetic mothers, and you should be able to referred to a team member to ask your questions and get knowledgeable answers. They will likely be delighted that you are being proactive about it before getting pregnant rather than getting pregnant and then seeking assistance.

High blood pressure also seems to make this condition worse. If you have high blood pressure, then see your GP about getting medication to bring this down. I had to try three different medications before my endo found one that brought my blood pressure down to acceptable levels, so keep on persevering if you need to get this under control.

All the best with it. Be proactive and make a list of what you can do to get help, and you will likely soon stop feeling so worried about it. With diabetes, I've done everything I can to find out as much as possible about it, because if I know what I am up against, then I can fight it more effectively. Get as much information as you can about the retinopathy, and what you can do to fight it, and I'm sure that things will work out better than you think.

Cheers,
Warwick.
 
Apr 1, 2014
alturn 78 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Wrong injection

This is something I've almost done several times, so you are not alone.

I think I would probably test every couple of hours for up to 24 hours, depending on results and how I felt. If the extra QA was taken when the previous QA still in your system, then your BG might drop more than normal. If minimal QA present, then take some carbs to soak up the extra QA – just handle as an extra meal, using most suitable ratio. Action might also depend on number of units taken - eg if your BI is 20 but your QA is 4 then 20 units of QA would have larger effect than if the numbers were closer Question

You don't say if you took the missed BI. If you didn't, then you'll probably be high for several hours which might need several corrections to bring back to normal.

I did something similar (just once!) - combination of QA's too close and/or miscalculated units. After about 2 hrs, BG dropped dramatically and all I could do was counteract with cartons of juice & carbs (not in a fit state to test). But I think I over-corrected and after another 2 or 3 hrs ended up feeling really ill and with ketones. Treated these for next 24-hrs as in DAFNE (test and inject QA every 2 hours) and then returned to normal. Felt really bad as lost an entire night's sleep with horrendous thumping headache. Sad Sad Sad

Hope this makes some sense and helps
Alturn
 
Apr 1, 2014
HelenP 218 posts

Topic: General Discussion / my feet and hands

Shazell,

There is a heap of support available on this site and most comes from people who have been there, done that!
Stay in touch. Helen
 
Apr 1, 2014
HelenP 218 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Wrong injection

lel,

We all do it ONCE!

When this happened to me (about 15 years ago!) my endocrinologist told me that I would be very alarmed and would probably not be able to sleep…I didn't ...well not very well. Advice was to eat an extra meal (as soon as I realised based on the size of the dose) and to test every two hours. I (apart from being scared silly) was fine in the morning as you obviously were! I think it also depends on the size of the dose and a heap of other things as well. My endocrinologist also arranged for someone to call me in the morning to see if I was OK…he would have put into train a plan if I didn't answer the phone.

Valuable lesson!
Helen
 
Apr 1, 2014
shazell 4 posts

Topic: General Discussion / my feet and hands

Thank you all for replying, stephenbrowne, thank you too, Im at the moment in the process of trying to find anthor doctors, all I have been told about my hands and feet is to get better control! and to maybe up my insulin 2 units!! (that's all they say, every time I go as my Hb1c is normally around 65! (just in the "poor" area) my diabetic tteam at the hospital are in the middle of moving offices and have canceled my app and cannot give me a date yet for a new app! I was also told today by email, that the fact I have been diabetic for 17 years and not been on a course of any sort was because I live out of the area! Right now I have no support, maybe in a few weeks I will, and to be honest that's why I came on here, its very lovely to hear from diabetics that have putting up with this for 40 years!! I don't think ill make that! Im just trying to get as much information as I can to arm myself as I feel that's the only way, nobody else is going to do it for me, so thank you all for your support, and suggestions atleast now I have something to go on (creams) and names ie peripheral neuropathy thanks again
 
Apr 1, 2014
JayBee 587 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Wrong injection

Long and short of it, it would depend on how many units you took and what your body's specific insulin needs are at the time you took the QA dose. I think you'll probably need to eat something with either option.

1. To go with missing your long acting (BI) dose would be slightly problematic later on with any during day QA doses it normally supports, but it may be worth while for a one off error in the name of life safety. This choice is more of an issue if you take your BI once a day, rather than split it, since then it's most of your daily background support gone if not taken.

2. That said, if you took your BI with the accidental QA anyway, if you knew of a high carbohydrate content snack and had good idea of your QA meal ratio at the time of the dose error (say, if evening, possibly your evening meal ratio), you could possibly eat to compensate for the error. The great thing about QA (Humalog or Novarapid) is they have a working time of 2-5 hours so if you can eat within your ratio okay, you will minimise disruption of your BG control.

It's hard to say for sure when I don't know your specific individual insulin needs. I am also assuming that you are not using a pump (I don't either). Glad you got through it okay though. I hope it didn't throw your control out too much and that you're feeling better now.
Best wishes.
 
Apr 1, 2014
lel 1 post

Topic: General Discussion / Wrong injection

For the first time in 32 years the other night I injected my short acting insulin instead of my long acting insulin, as this had never happened before I was wondering (just in case it happens again) what is the course of action to take.