Recent Posts - DAFNE Online

Mar 20, 2013

jackyperky 3 posts

Topic: General Discussion / New Blood Test Device

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21841829 what does everyone think of this?

Mar 20, 2013

Warwick 425 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Unexplained high bg

It sounds like your BI need to increase. Are you able to post again and share your diary for the last week or so? It will help us to help you.

Thanks,
Warwick.

Mar 20, 2013

Mags2101 4 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Unexplained high bg

I always test by blood, no sign of ketones but still high! Haven't had single figures for 3 weeks

Mar 20, 2013

Warwick 425 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight?

Hi Numo,

Welcome to the club :-)

I think that the book will be extremely helpful to you as it deals with different types of exercise including yoga, and how to expect your BGs to behave during and after yoga and how to dose for that. Your experience of going high before a yoga class to lower the risk of a hypo is a common strategy, but Ginger goes into how to take care of this without doing that, or hypoing. As with all experiments, there may be a couple of unwanted outcomes, but in general, you should be able to get on top of this quite quickly.

I have set up the new forum thread here:

http://dafneonline.co.uk/forums/1/topics/2098

If you send me your email address via private message, I will send through electronic copies of the notes that I received on the diabetic exercise conference. They are good, but I think the book is even better. Some of the lectures were taken by Gary Scheiner who wrote the foreword of Ginger's book, and is the author of "Think Like a Pancreas" which is my next read.

Cheers,
Warwick.

Mar 20, 2013

Warwick 425 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Your Diabetes Science Experiment - Experiment 1

WARNING: Long post follows!

BACKGROUND

I have recently been reading Your Diabetes Science Experiment by Ginger Viera (available from Amazon) ISBN 9781481062008. It is highly recommended as it reinforces DAFNE principles, but also goes further in depth and is especially aimed at type 1 diabetics who exercise and want better control of their blood glucose levels before, during and after exercise. The paperback edition appears to be in a better format than the Kindle edition according to the reviews for those interested in purchasing this book.

Along with in-depth knowledge, the book also has a number of experiments to determine correct dosage of BI and QA. The experiments deal with:

General background insulin doses.
Insulin to carb ratios
Correction factors
Dosing for Exercise.

The general idea is that BI doses, insulin to carb ratios, correction factors etc can all change depending on time of year, body weight, stress levels, type of exercise, menstrual cycles, sickness, types of food, amount of food etc.

Based on the fact that another DAFNE graduate and I have found this book so helpful in managing our recent blood glucose levels, we thought that it would be a good idea to start a new forum thread for each of the experiments to get feedback on them, see if they work, and encourage each other in getting the best results out of each experiment.

Experiment 1:

The goal is to identify if the BI dose is appropriate for a specific period of time. This experiment will involve a fast of 7 hours. (The test is for a period of up to 5 hours and begins 2 hours after the last meal making 7 hours in total.)

1) Choose a period of time to test your BI. It could be a time that you find troublesome with regular unexplained highs or lows.

E.g:

Midnight to 5 am
5 a.m to 10 a.m.
10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
3 p.m. to 8 p.m.
8 p.m. to 1 a.m.

2) Test your BGs at the start of the period. Remember that the start of the period should be at least 2 hours after the previous meal.

3) Test your BGs at the end of the period. Stop the experiment early if you hypo or you find that your BGs are rising too high during the experiment and you need to take QA.

Important notes:

1) No exercise other than normal daily activity should occur during this 5 hour period.

2) The time frame for actual testing should not be more than 5 hours.

3) The experiment should not happen with two days of changing a BI dose from its regular dosage.

4) The experiment begins 2 hours after the previous meal.

5) BI dose changes should not be more than 10% of the dosage as per DAFNE guidelines.

6) If QA has to be given during the experiment because of high BGLs, then it is void, and a retest needs be done at a later time.

7) Be prepared for lows and have quick acting carbs available for lows and hypos.

The goal is to see if the BI remains relatively constant. If it increases during the period, then an increase in BI may be indicated. We can discuss ways of checking this if this happens. If BGs significantly drop during this period, then it may indicate that BI is too high.

If you want to take part in this experiment, can you please reply to this post stating:

Times of experiment start and end.
BGs at start and end of experiment.
Whether you needed to take carbs or QA during the experiment.
What type of BI you take and when (note, pump users are welcome too - just put what your basal rate is at the time of the experiment).
Anything else that you think may be relevant to the results observed - e.g heavy day of exercise the day previously etc.

I hope to run this experiment at the weekend. Unfortunately I am following sick-day rules at the moment and have had to change BI for that, but hopefully I'll be back to normal by the weekend.

Thanks,
Warwick.

Mar 19, 2013

JayBee 587 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight?

How exciting! It's going to be good to have us all bouncing ideas!

I haven't even started on the exercise stuff yet, but before applying the information I gained from this book, I used to struggle to keep my levels stable and sometimes I would have no idea where a result came from - this was despite strict carb counting and recognised good understanding of DAFNE principles. I'd hit a wall but now I've learnt how to deal with additional information involving protein and fibre, my levels have improved so much so quickly, it is not even funny.

I really look forward to the thread. If my above issus are common, I think the DAFNE course in the UK at least needs some adjustment. People need to know this information.

Mar 19, 2013

mum2westiesGill 502 posts

Topic: General Discussion / 7-day waking average

4.9 - bedtime
6.3 - this morning

- 18.26pm - tea & QA
- 22.41pm - hypo 3.0 treated with 4 jelly babies
- 23.00pm - bedtime test was done
- supper was sandwich 2 slices/skips

Mar 19, 2013

NuMo 28 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight?

I also ordered the book on JWo and Warwick's recommendation and am hoping it will arrive today. I think Amazon will have noticed the interest!

I am very interested in your conference on diabetes and excerise Warwick. I am finding it very hard to balance Bg, excerise and weight gain. I was still teaching my evening classes (Yoga) whilst on the Dafne course and had a hypo during one of them. This has made me very cautious, and I tend to leave my Bg high before class hoping to survive that and have enough left to drive home afterwards ( I don't fancy sitting in an iced-up car awaiting a legal level). I can't think this is right, but have yet to find a balance.

I would very much like to join your thread when you set it up.

Mar 19, 2013

Warwick 425 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight?

Will set up the new forum thread soon. The first experiment is on testing BI doses, but I have a cold, and so my BGLs aren't being nice to me right now, so it will be in a couple of days I think.

Warwick.

Mar 18, 2013

JayBee 587 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight?

Great stuff marke! Will be good to know your thoughts on the book too. Smile

Mar 18, 2013

marke 681 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight?

Just ordered the book too, I like experiments Very Happy

and reading the extract on amazon it seems to be an interesting read by someone who has experienced it first hand !

Mar 18, 2013

Rach101 3 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Pump Accessories Questionaire

Thanks for your Simon, I will check that website now!

SimonC said:
Rach101

There is a site called shootuporputup.co.uk, which is dedicated to pump users - you may get additional research there. I'm not a pump user - want to be, but can't as they won't put me on one as my control is good - better stop before I start on another rant...

Mar 18, 2013

Rach101 3 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Pump Accessories Questionaire

Thanks a lot for your help!

HelenP said:
1. Sometimes especially in the hot weather.
2, I wear a band made from a flexible lycra material around my waist.
3. Local producer.
4. I have tried a baby sock pinned to the side of T shirts for bed. I have also tried a phone sock that you wore around your neck similarly to a lanyard. Hopeless.
5. Enough.
6. Yes
7.Does not matter.
8. Smaller pump. I think the secret is battery size with better batteries we ought to be able to reduce the size of the pump. The issue is wearing it to bed... especially when you wear little or no clothing to bed! Daytime does not bother me although the pump occasionally bungee jumps when getting out of the car etc.

Mar 18, 2013

mum2westiesGill 502 posts

Topic: General Discussion / 7-day waking average

Sat 16/03
14.6 - bedtime
17.0 - this morning

- 19.13pm - tea & QA - sandwich 2 slices with cheese before a night out & 3 pints of smooth beer
- 01.41am - bedtime test was done - after arriving home and before supper - small amount of fried rice - checked BS whilst out - 15.2 - BS seem to rocket up when having a night out.

Sun 17/03
6.3 - bedtime
12.0 - this morning

- 19.14pm - tea & QA
- 23.15pm - bedtime test was done, before having supper instead of after
- supper was sandwich 1 slice

Mar 18, 2013

Warwick 425 posts

Topic: General Discussion / BACKGROUND INSULIN

Hi Plumcious (Great user name!)

I don't know that an entire carb-free day is actually necessary. A carb-free day for me would make a lot of what I do such as riding to work dangerous, so for me it wouldn't be helpful.

I definitely find that if I go for 3 or more days without exercising, that my BGLs will rise. I try and ensure that unless I am sick, that exercise happens every second day if not every day.

I think that determining the correct basal dose is reasonably easy to do by comparing the before bed BGL with the waking BGL. Testing during the day can be done as long as you start testing when the QA has been completely used - varies for each QA type, but for me on Humalog is about 3-4 hours. Most foods will also no longer be releasing glucose from that time, so you can begin fasting at that point, and then stop fasting when you have reached the end of the period that you are tying to test. So for example, if I wanted to check my afternoon levels, then I would still have breakfast about 7 am, then test at 11 am, and again at say 3 pm to see whether my BGs have risen or dropped or stayed the same over that period and work out whether I have my BI correct or whether it needs to be reduced or increased.

This gives a rough check of whether your BI is correct. There are plenty of other factors that could increase or decrease BGs though. Stress, sickness, menstruation, climate are just some of them.

Also, (I am vegetarian too), some foods are very slow-release and if I had had foods like beans, lentils chickpeas etc for breakfast in the above test, then I know that my BGs would keep on rising throughout the day, because these foods for me raise my BGs for 8-10 hours after consuming them.

Cheers,
WArwick.

Mar 17, 2013

Plumcious 11 posts

Topic: General Discussion / BACKGROUND INSULIN

Hi

I've found that how much BI I'm on is affected by how fit I am - the fitter i am the less I need, although currently am on 9 units am and 9 pm and am not that fit.
Have you ever done the no carb day to check whether your BI dose is right?
You do your test on waking and if low treat as normal and don't have your breakfast insulin. If high correct as normal.
Then through the day you check your blood sugar as usual and don't eat any carbohydrate at all (unless dealing with a hypo). Obviously this means pretty much no fruit, no bread or biscuits, no cereal, no pasta etc (I know you know this, I'm just saying because I found it much harder to do that I'd imagined it would be)!
Then your tests show you whether your BI amount is holding your BG level or whether it's too high (which would be shown by hypos) or too low (you needing to correct).
I've never managed a whole day (I'm vegetarian and practically everything I eat seems to have carbs in) - I think when I do it again I'll make some carb free soup beforehand, and may buy sweeteners.

Mar 17, 2013

Annette Bell 72 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / iPhone app carbs list

marke said:
Hi, I have now been sent version 10 of the Carb book that apparently came out last year but didn't get sent to us. This increases the carb value of a Jacket Potato to 10.5 from 10, it doesn't decrease it to 7 !! I am told there is a version 11 being worked on for release later in the year, Either way no one has ever told me its actually 7. When you say they gave you 'changes' where these printed and by whom since the course literature is supposed to be fixed and controlled by DAFNE Central which is why we can only publish what they send us. Any changes would have to come from them not from local HCP's making their own changes, thats not how its supposed to work.

Hi! At our course, (run by Carolin Taylor and I'm afraid I can't remember the name of the dietician!) we were asked to manually change the values in our books for a few of the items, as they had been "changed" since printing, and also to add a couple of extras that weren't included (e.g. parsnips). I'll go with the values given in the app then. Thanks for checking this out for me! Smile

Mar 17, 2013

Plumcious 11 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Recommended reading??

Has anyone ever read Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal, by Rachel Naomi Remen,, M.D., Riverhead Books, 1996? I would be very interested to know what it's like.

I saw it recommended on this web page: http://www.diabetesstories.com/my_research.html where there are others - anyone seen any of them?

Thank you very much

Mar 17, 2013

Plumcious 11 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Advised to not have basal insulin

Thank you all.
The next morning the nurse on duty knew all about DAFNE and was completely relaxed around me!! I'd heard the staff expressing consternation during their handover about the idea of adjusting your dose according to what you eat! It makes total sense to me after all!

I had to have a operation in 2006 and "my" nurse was someone whose daughter had Type 1 - it was so reassuring as she understood everything and let me get on with it. The hypo thing is so scary - especially when high BGs will impact on recovery and also make the staff look at you all horrified Very Happy

It's bad that it seems to be luck and chance and there doesn't seem to be a protocol to follow - the staff will of course be much more used to people with Type 2 but that's not the same at all .

Mar 17, 2013

Plumcious 11 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Medicines diabetics are not meant to take

I was recently prescribed an antibiotic Clarithromycin (trade name Klaricid) which had a big impact on my blood sugars; they made me more sensitive to insulin and I had a series of hypos and in the end one which resulted in paramedics attending. Sheeeesh Shocked

. My GP had warned me to stop taking statins but didn't realise that this antibiotic also has an effect on insulin action.
After the paramedic hypo I reduced my background/basal insulin by just over 20% (both doses) but think 30% would have been even better as I still had another. Thing was I felt so ill (hence the antibiotics) that I'm not sure I was ever so competent (needed my hand holding a bit!!).

Cough and cold wise - people keep recommending Echinacea to me which is a herbal remedy and available in health food shops and chemists.
When we've had really bad dry coughs; Pavacol-D is a sugar free cough medicine which is really nice, aimed at dry irritating coughs. (http://healthpharm.com/medicines/colds-coughs/pavacol-d.html).

Mar 17, 2013

SimonC 78 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Pump Accessories Questionaire

Rach101

There is a site called shootuporputup.co.uk, which is dedicated to pump users - you may get additional research there. I'm not a pump user - want to be, but can't as they won't put me on one as my control is good - better stop before I start on another rant...

Mar 17, 2013

JayBee 587 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight?

Warwick said:
The book is highly recommended, Small correction though - it is called Your Diabetes Science Experiment, not My Diabetes Science Experiment.

LOL whoops! ^_^; My bad!

The book suggests that a great time to lose weight is early morning using a 30 minute walk before breakfast if you are affected by the dawn phenomenon - waking up with high BGLs. You don't need extra carbs because your BGLs are already quite high, and the exercise should bring them down into a normal range.

This does sound like a good idea, but often DP causes you to wake up high too so dealing with the rise before it starts would be good too... unless she means going for a run sometime around 4am shortly after the reasonable BGs of 2 or 3am..? :/

I planned to chat about this on the book discussion thread - unless you want to make this thread it? I don't mind, haha. Razz

Edit: If we do that, shall I link the dietary fibre stuff from my personal diary thread here too?

Mar 17, 2013

Warwick 425 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight?

The book is highly recommended, Small correction though - it is called Your Diabetes Science Experiment, not My Diabetes Science Experiment.

The book suggests that a great time to lose weight is early morning using a 30 minute walk before breakfast if you are affected by the dawn phenomenon - waking up with high BGLs. You don't need extra carbs because your BGLs are already quite high, and the exercise should bring them down into a normal range.

I was on a diabetic exercise conference a couple of weeks ago, and the recommendation for losing weight is to exercise in the couple of hours after a meal. The reasoning is that by doing this, you can lower your QA dose to handle the drop in BGLs that cardiovascular exercise will produce without needing to eat extra carbs. If you exercise several hours after a meal, then your BGLs are likely to drop, but the only way you can deal with that is to eat carbs which prevents you from losing as much weight.

One of the lecturers was asked how high is too high to exercise? His response is that there is no such things as a BG reading that is too high to exercise, as long as there are no ketones present. If there are ketones present with a high BG reading, then do not exercise. Get the ketones down first using the techniques described in the DAFNE handbook, or get medical assistance if you can't do that yourself.

Hope this helps.
Warwick.

Mar 20, 2013 jackyperky 3 posts	Topic: General Discussion / New Blood Test Device http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21841829 what does everyone think of this?

Mar 20, 2013 Warwick 425 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Unexplained high bg It sounds like your BI need to increase. Are you able to post again and share your diary for the last week or so? It will help us to help you. Thanks, Warwick.

Mar 20, 2013 Mags2101 4 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Unexplained high bg I always test by blood, no sign of ketones but still high! Haven't had single figures for 3 weeks

Mar 20, 2013 Warwick 425 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight? Hi Numo, Welcome to the club :-) I think that the book will be extremely helpful to you as it deals with different types of exercise including yoga, and how to expect your BGs to behave during and after yoga and how to dose for that. Your experience of going high before a yoga class to lower the risk of a hypo is a common strategy, but Ginger goes into how to take care of this without doing that, or hypoing. As with all experiments, there may be a couple of unwanted outcomes, but in general, you should be able to get on top of this quite quickly. I have set up the new forum thread here: http://dafneonline.co.uk/forums/1/topics/2098 If you send me your email address via private message, I will send through electronic copies of the notes that I received on the diabetic exercise conference. They are good, but I think the book is even better. Some of the lectures were taken by Gary Scheiner who wrote the foreword of Ginger's book, and is the author of "Think Like a Pancreas" which is my next read. Cheers, Warwick.

Mar 20, 2013 Warwick 425 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Your Diabetes Science Experiment - Experiment 1 WARNING: Long post follows! BACKGROUND I have recently been reading Your Diabetes Science Experiment by Ginger Viera (available from Amazon) ISBN 9781481062008. It is highly recommended as it reinforces DAFNE principles, but also goes further in depth and is especially aimed at type 1 diabetics who exercise and want better control of their blood glucose levels before, during and after exercise. The paperback edition appears to be in a better format than the Kindle edition according to the reviews for those interested in purchasing this book. Along with in-depth knowledge, the book also has a number of experiments to determine correct dosage of BI and QA. The experiments deal with: General background insulin doses. Insulin to carb ratios Correction factors Dosing for Exercise. The general idea is that BI doses, insulin to carb ratios, correction factors etc can all change depending on time of year, body weight, stress levels, type of exercise, menstrual cycles, sickness, types of food, amount of food etc. Based on the fact that another DAFNE graduate and I have found this book so helpful in managing our recent blood glucose levels, we thought that it would be a good idea to start a new forum thread for each of the experiments to get feedback on them, see if they work, and encourage each other in getting the best results out of each experiment. Experiment 1: The goal is to identify if the BI dose is appropriate for a specific period of time. This experiment will involve a fast of 7 hours. (The test is for a period of up to 5 hours and begins 2 hours after the last meal making 7 hours in total.) 1) Choose a period of time to test your BI. It could be a time that you find troublesome with regular unexplained highs or lows. E.g: Midnight to 5 am 5 a.m to 10 a.m. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. 2) Test your BGs at the start of the period. Remember that the start of the period should be at least 2 hours after the previous meal. 3) Test your BGs at the end of the period. Stop the experiment early if you hypo or you find that your BGs are rising too high during the experiment and you need to take QA. Important notes: 1) No exercise other than normal daily activity should occur during this 5 hour period. 2) The time frame for actual testing should not be more than 5 hours. 3) The experiment should not happen with two days of changing a BI dose from its regular dosage. 4) The experiment begins 2 hours after the previous meal. 5) BI dose changes should not be more than 10% of the dosage as per DAFNE guidelines. 6) If QA has to be given during the experiment because of high BGLs, then it is void, and a retest needs be done at a later time. 7) Be prepared for lows and have quick acting carbs available for lows and hypos. The goal is to see if the BI remains relatively constant. If it increases during the period, then an increase in BI may be indicated. We can discuss ways of checking this if this happens. If BGs significantly drop during this period, then it may indicate that BI is too high. If you want to take part in this experiment, can you please reply to this post stating: Times of experiment start and end. BGs at start and end of experiment. Whether you needed to take carbs or QA during the experiment. What type of BI you take and when (note, pump users are welcome too - just put what your basal rate is at the time of the experiment). Anything else that you think may be relevant to the results observed - e.g heavy day of exercise the day previously etc. I hope to run this experiment at the weekend. Unfortunately I am following sick-day rules at the moment and have had to change BI for that, but hopefully I'll be back to normal by the weekend. Thanks, Warwick.

Mar 19, 2013 JayBee 587 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight? How exciting! It's going to be good to have us all bouncing ideas! I haven't even started on the exercise stuff yet, but before applying the information I gained from this book, I used to struggle to keep my levels stable and sometimes I would have no idea where a result came from - this was despite strict carb counting and recognised good understanding of DAFNE principles. I'd hit a wall but now I've learnt how to deal with additional information involving protein and fibre, my levels have improved so much so quickly, it is not even funny. I really look forward to the thread. If my above issus are common, I think the DAFNE course in the UK at least needs some adjustment. People need to know this information.

Mar 19, 2013 mum2westiesGill 502 posts	Topic: General Discussion / 7-day waking average 4.9 - bedtime 6.3 - this morning - 18.26pm - tea & QA - 22.41pm - hypo 3.0 treated with 4 jelly babies - 23.00pm - bedtime test was done - supper was sandwich 2 slices/skips

Mar 19, 2013 NuMo 28 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight? I also ordered the book on JWo and Warwick's recommendation and am hoping it will arrive today. I think Amazon will have noticed the interest! I am very interested in your conference on diabetes and excerise Warwick. I am finding it very hard to balance Bg, excerise and weight gain. I was still teaching my evening classes (Yoga) whilst on the Dafne course and had a hypo during one of them. This has made me very cautious, and I tend to leave my Bg high before class hoping to survive that and have enough left to drive home afterwards ( I don't fancy sitting in an iced-up car awaiting a legal level). I can't think this is right, but have yet to find a balance. I would very much like to join your thread when you set it up.

Mar 19, 2013 Warwick 425 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight? Will set up the new forum thread soon. The first experiment is on testing BI doses, but I have a cold, and so my BGLs aren't being nice to me right now, so it will be in a couple of days I think. Warwick.

Mar 18, 2013 JayBee 587 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight? Great stuff marke! Will be good to know your thoughts on the book too.

Mar 18, 2013 marke 681 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight? Just ordered the book too, I like experiments and reading the extract on amazon it seems to be an interesting read by someone who has experienced it first hand !

Mar 18, 2013 Rach101 3 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Pump Accessories Questionaire Thanks for your Simon, I will check that website now! SimonC said: Rach101 There is a site called shootuporputup.co.uk, which is dedicated to pump users - you may get additional research there. I'm not a pump user - want to be, but can't as they won't put me on one as my control is good - better stop before I start on another rant...

Mar 18, 2013 Rach101 3 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Pump Accessories Questionaire Thanks a lot for your help! HelenP said: 1. Sometimes especially in the hot weather. 2, I wear a band made from a flexible lycra material around my waist. 3. Local producer. 4. I have tried a baby sock pinned to the side of T shirts for bed. I have also tried a phone sock that you wore around your neck similarly to a lanyard. Hopeless. 5. Enough. 6. Yes 7.Does not matter. 8. Smaller pump. I think the secret is battery size with better batteries we ought to be able to reduce the size of the pump. The issue is wearing it to bed... especially when you wear little or no clothing to bed! Daytime does not bother me although the pump occasionally bungee jumps when getting out of the car etc.

Mar 18, 2013 mum2westiesGill 502 posts	Topic: General Discussion / 7-day waking average Sat 16/03 14.6 - bedtime 17.0 - this morning - 19.13pm - tea & QA - sandwich 2 slices with cheese before a night out & 3 pints of smooth beer - 01.41am - bedtime test was done - after arriving home and before supper - small amount of fried rice - checked BS whilst out - 15.2 - BS seem to rocket up when having a night out. Sun 17/03 6.3 - bedtime 12.0 - this morning - 19.14pm - tea & QA - 23.15pm - bedtime test was done, before having supper instead of after - supper was sandwich 1 slice

Mar 18, 2013 Warwick 425 posts	Topic: General Discussion / BACKGROUND INSULIN Hi Plumcious (Great user name!) I don't know that an entire carb-free day is actually necessary. A carb-free day for me would make a lot of what I do such as riding to work dangerous, so for me it wouldn't be helpful. I definitely find that if I go for 3 or more days without exercising, that my BGLs will rise. I try and ensure that unless I am sick, that exercise happens every second day if not every day. I think that determining the correct basal dose is reasonably easy to do by comparing the before bed BGL with the waking BGL. Testing during the day can be done as long as you start testing when the QA has been completely used - varies for each QA type, but for me on Humalog is about 3-4 hours. Most foods will also no longer be releasing glucose from that time, so you can begin fasting at that point, and then stop fasting when you have reached the end of the period that you are tying to test. So for example, if I wanted to check my afternoon levels, then I would still have breakfast about 7 am, then test at 11 am, and again at say 3 pm to see whether my BGs have risen or dropped or stayed the same over that period and work out whether I have my BI correct or whether it needs to be reduced or increased. This gives a rough check of whether your BI is correct. There are plenty of other factors that could increase or decrease BGs though. Stress, sickness, menstruation, climate are just some of them. Also, (I am vegetarian too), some foods are very slow-release and if I had had foods like beans, lentils chickpeas etc for breakfast in the above test, then I know that my BGs would keep on rising throughout the day, because these foods for me raise my BGs for 8-10 hours after consuming them. Cheers, WArwick.

Mar 17, 2013 Plumcious 11 posts	Topic: General Discussion / BACKGROUND INSULIN Hi I've found that how much BI I'm on is affected by how fit I am - the fitter i am the less I need, although currently am on 9 units am and 9 pm and am not that fit. Have you ever done the no carb day to check whether your BI dose is right? You do your test on waking and if low treat as normal and don't have your breakfast insulin. If high correct as normal. Then through the day you check your blood sugar as usual and don't eat any carbohydrate at all (unless dealing with a hypo). Obviously this means pretty much no fruit, no bread or biscuits, no cereal, no pasta etc (I know you know this, I'm just saying because I found it much harder to do that I'd imagined it would be)! Then your tests show you whether your BI amount is holding your BG level or whether it's too high (which would be shown by hypos) or too low (you needing to correct). I've never managed a whole day (I'm vegetarian and practically everything I eat seems to have carbs in) - I think when I do it again I'll make some carb free soup beforehand, and may buy sweeteners.

Mar 17, 2013 Annette Bell 72 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / iPhone app carbs list marke said: Hi, I have now been sent version 10 of the Carb book that apparently came out last year but didn't get sent to us. This increases the carb value of a Jacket Potato to 10.5 from 10, it doesn't decrease it to 7 !! I am told there is a version 11 being worked on for release later in the year, Either way no one has ever told me its actually 7. When you say they gave you 'changes' where these printed and by whom since the course literature is supposed to be fixed and controlled by DAFNE Central which is why we can only publish what they send us. Any changes would have to come from them not from local HCP's making their own changes, thats not how its supposed to work. Hi! At our course, (run by Carolin Taylor and I'm afraid I can't remember the name of the dietician!) we were asked to manually change the values in our books for a few of the items, as they had been "changed" since printing, and also to add a couple of extras that weren't included (e.g. parsnips). I'll go with the values given in the app then. Thanks for checking this out for me!

Mar 17, 2013 Plumcious 11 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Recommended reading?? Has anyone ever read Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal, by Rachel Naomi Remen,, M.D., Riverhead Books, 1996? I would be very interested to know what it's like. I saw it recommended on this web page: http://www.diabetesstories.com/my_research.html where there are others - anyone seen any of them? Thank you very much

Mar 17, 2013 Plumcious 11 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Advised to not have basal insulin Thank you all. The next morning the nurse on duty knew all about DAFNE and was completely relaxed around me!! I'd heard the staff expressing consternation during their handover about the idea of adjusting your dose according to what you eat! It makes total sense to me after all! I had to have a operation in 2006 and "my" nurse was someone whose daughter had Type 1 - it was so reassuring as she understood everything and let me get on with it. The hypo thing is so scary - especially when high BGs will impact on recovery and also make the staff look at you all horrified It's bad that it seems to be luck and chance and there doesn't seem to be a protocol to follow - the staff will of course be much more used to people with Type 2 but that's not the same at all .

Mar 17, 2013 Plumcious 11 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Medicines diabetics are not meant to take I was recently prescribed an antibiotic Clarithromycin (trade name Klaricid) which had a big impact on my blood sugars; they made me more sensitive to insulin and I had a series of hypos and in the end one which resulted in paramedics attending. Sheeeesh . My GP had warned me to stop taking statins but didn't realise that this antibiotic also has an effect on insulin action. After the paramedic hypo I reduced my background/basal insulin by just over 20% (both doses) but think 30% would have been even better as I still had another. Thing was I felt so ill (hence the antibiotics) that I'm not sure I was ever so competent (needed my hand holding a bit!!). Cough and cold wise - people keep recommending Echinacea to me which is a herbal remedy and available in health food shops and chemists. When we've had really bad dry coughs; Pavacol-D is a sugar free cough medicine which is really nice, aimed at dry irritating coughs. (http://healthpharm.com/medicines/colds-coughs/pavacol-d.html).

Mar 17, 2013 SimonC 78 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Pump Accessories Questionaire Rach101 There is a site called shootuporputup.co.uk, which is dedicated to pump users - you may get additional research there. I'm not a pump user - want to be, but can't as they won't put me on one as my control is good - better stop before I start on another rant...

Mar 17, 2013 JayBee 587 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight? Warwick said: The book is highly recommended, Small correction though - it is called Your Diabetes Science Experiment, not My Diabetes Science Experiment. LOL whoops! ^_^; My bad! The book suggests that a great time to lose weight is early morning using a 30 minute walk before breakfast if you are affected by the dawn phenomenon - waking up with high BGLs. You don't need extra carbs because your BGLs are already quite high, and the exercise should bring them down into a normal range. This does sound like a good idea, but often DP causes you to wake up high too so dealing with the rise before it starts would be good too... unless she means going for a run sometime around 4am shortly after the reasonable BGs of 2 or 3am..? :/ I planned to chat about this on the book discussion thread - unless you want to make this thread it? I don't mind, haha. Edit: If we do that, shall I link the dietary fibre stuff from my personal diary thread here too?

Mar 17, 2013 Warwick 425 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb counting & how to lose weight? The book is highly recommended, Small correction though - it is called Your Diabetes Science Experiment, not My Diabetes Science Experiment. The book suggests that a great time to lose weight is early morning using a 30 minute walk before breakfast if you are affected by the dawn phenomenon - waking up with high BGLs. You don't need extra carbs because your BGLs are already quite high, and the exercise should bring them down into a normal range. I was on a diabetic exercise conference a couple of weeks ago, and the recommendation for losing weight is to exercise in the couple of hours after a meal. The reasoning is that by doing this, you can lower your QA dose to handle the drop in BGLs that cardiovascular exercise will produce without needing to eat extra carbs. If you exercise several hours after a meal, then your BGLs are likely to drop, but the only way you can deal with that is to eat carbs which prevents you from losing as much weight. One of the lecturers was asked how high is too high to exercise? His response is that there is no such things as a BG reading that is too high to exercise, as long as there are no ketones present. If there are ketones present with a high BG reading, then do not exercise. Get the ketones down first using the techniques described in the DAFNE handbook, or get medical assistance if you can't do that yourself. Hope this helps. Warwick.