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Sep 3, 2011
swirlygirly
3 posts
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Topic: Questions for HCPs / Menstrual Cycle, BI Hi LadiesThis is like a breath of fresh air for me to read this. I've been Diabetic 16 years and have mentioned this numerous times to my Diabetic team, consultant ,nurses ect and have just got "yes, it happens to some ladies" but no practical help on how I could possibly help my control with these Blood sugar plunges and peaks. I find, like some of you that my insulin needs start to go up 10 days before a period arrives .Three days before and my insulin needs are a third more than usual ,both Basal and bolus to when I do actually start my cycle....Then if I am not quick to drop them back I Hypo all day  I have experimented with this just to prove it is my cycle and have stuck religiously to the same foods day in day out ,with the same level of exercise for a couple of Months (gosh that was boring), to try and limit variables. But my control is so obviously effected by my Monthly cycle, in fact I would go as far as to say it is ruled by my Monthly Cycle  ....So even though the DAFNE course is great. I do still struggle with this issue and it would be good if it was covered for us Ladies who do struggle with this issue.It was not covered on my course ,even when I mentioned it, it was just sort of acknowledged with a "yes" but not discussed , also in a mixed sex group it might be difficult maybe for open discussion. One lady came up to me afterwards and said on the quiet she was the same and only wanted to speak about it with me as she felt awkward in front of the Men.  Maybe she would have felt more comfortable if it had been part of the official agenda and not just brought up by one of the patients...who knows  The DAFNE is great and it has helped me a lot but I thank you ladies for being open and talking about your period and Diabetic control. I understand it is not that way for a lot of ladies but I do know it is for many of us and we do tend to suffer in silence with it. |
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Sep 3, 2011
KeithCl
43 posts
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Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Feedback from Android beta testing
John, Not too late - sounds like a problem that needs fixing. It may be hard for me to reproduce though which is the first step to fixing. I'll set up an emulator running Android 2.2 and using the same screen resolution as your HTC Desire and see if I can. Won't be until the week after next though... Keith |
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Sep 3, 2011
John Syer
19 posts
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Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Feedback from Android beta testing Hi Keith,I hope I'm not too late (or being too much of a pain) but I have just found another issue Phone: HTC Desire A8181 Android version: 2.2 Beta version: 1.3.r265 BETA Bug #9 (continuing from my previous list) - Comments are not visible when being entered Reproduce: Add a new diary entry and enter text into the comments field. The text being entered does not appear in the text box (but is added to the entry). Further information: This is a problem on my phone when in portrait mode, when holding the phone in landscape I get an expanded text entry box which works fine. I can also view the text breifly in portrait mode if I press on the text box - the text will display in the box then disappear again. Regards, John |
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Sep 3, 2011
KeithCl
43 posts
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Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Feedback from Android beta testing The beta testing period is now over and the app will be published on the Android Market around 14 September. (The delay is because I'm away on holiday next week.)Thanks to everyone who provided feedback or just tried it out. As listed above over 10 important fixes have been made as a result, and there are several ideas that should make it into future versions. Thanks again, Keith |
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Sep 2, 2011
Peter
109 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / DAFNE Myths What is the "floor" if it isn't 4? And what is that "treat or eat" thing all about? The treatment for a hypo IS eating.Lizzie, I believe the point that Carolin was trying to get across is that in the early days of DAFNE the instruction was to treat any BG below 4 as a hypo - hence 4's the floor. That advice has now been changed, but the easy to remember phrase has lived on. Hence the attempt to explain the current advice, which says treat as a hypo below 3.5 with rapid acting carbs. In the range 4.5 - 3.6 then the treatment should be with a smaller dose of carbs (1 CP instead of 1.5-2) which should "normal" rather than fast acting. Having said all that, this is yet another area that varies not only from person to person but on other factors. For me a rapidly dropping BG will prompt hypo symptoms above 4.5, and I will treat that with rapid acting carbs to stop the BG dropping below 3.5 maybe half an hour later. This works for me, but may be different for you. These myths were aimed at the Educators, to try to ensure that the latest advice is passed on to people going through the DAFNE course for the first time. For those of us who were trained earlier, and were taught some of what are now considered myths, then I would suggest you should continue what you were doing if it worked for you, but consider changing if it didn't. As ever it has to be a case of trial and error to understand how any advice works for our unique metabolic system. Finally, regarding you last comment "these slides seem confusing without the accompanying explanation", there is not much we can do to give access to the words used with the slides, but if there are one or two points which are still troubling you then post them here, and I will ask Carolin to provide the explanation. |
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Sep 2, 2011
melpessoa
7 posts
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Topic: Questions for HCPs / Do I delay my BI insulin time when I have to do a blood test in the morning?  kkkk ahhh and so do I!!!but I think I made it!!! thank you, mel |
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Sep 2, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: Questions for HCPs / Do I delay my BI insulin time when I have to do a blood test in the morning? I hope the results are good.............
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Sep 2, 2011
melpessoa
7 posts
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Topic: Questions for HCPs / Do I delay my BI insulin time when I have to do a blood test in the morning? Hiiii!!! Thank you for the reply! Well! Those things that we used to believe in the past!I come from Brazil and there my doctor used to tell me to have insulin only after the HbA1c being done... and so now that I started splitting my BI dose I got confused about it! I had forgotten to ask my diabetic nurse! I will do the blood test on Monday then! Take care, mel |
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Sep 2, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: Questions for HCPs / Do I delay my BI insulin time when I have to do a blood test in the morning? Hi Mel...............I can only assume the blood test you are referring to is the HbA1c, the most significant for us Diabetics.......... If it is then you should never have to stop or delay taking your insulin, your finger test/real time blood glucose will never effect the result of you HbA1c result....... So in my non professional opinion, take your background on the normal time you usually do, no blood test should risk the control of your blood sugar levels.... Did a health care professional tell you to not take your insulin till later previously? |
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Sep 2, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: Questions for HCPs / high glucose at night Hi Claire and welcome..........From what you have described it would seem that your 20:30 background dose is not enough to carry you steady overnight......... Thats what DAFNE would assume anyway......... Also, because you are having your dinner late or going to bed early you dont know accurately if your dinner ratio had done its job......try and leave a maximum of 5 hours between your dinner injection and you pre bed test, this way you can be sure its right and then eliminate that ratio from your investigation........... 
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Sep 2, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / DAFNE Myths Its a tricky science that I am not completely clued up on, but I personally would not start exercise with a BG over 12.......If the 12 was a spike 1-2 hours after eating I would wait till it came back down, however in theory if I started exercise 1-2 hours after eating my BG should not go up as all the energy I just put in from my dinner is accounted for and can be passed on to the cells of my body with the insulin I injected........its only when you dont have enough insulin to process the higher requirement of glucose during exercise that your BG would rise.......... So it really depends on what time your doing the activity, I wouldn't put in more insulin 1-2 hours after a meal, as then I would have too much and I would go low.......unless I covered that insulin with carbs......which is not what I want to do if maintaining/losing weight...... |
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Sep 2, 2011
Lizzie
87 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / DAFNE Myths
But I have always been told to correct for BSLs higher than 13 before exercise. When I did not my BSL kept rising and was 18 after exercising. I don't know what would have happened if I had left it but 18 is too high for me so I had to correct. It certainly did not seem like it would be going down any time soon, the only effect exercise had was to make it higher. |
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Sep 2, 2011
Claire119
1 post
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Topic: Questions for HCPs / high glucose at night Every night the same pattern happens (you would think that therefore there is an easy way to identify whats going wrong). I eat my dinner around 18:30 -19:00 and correct if need be. By 22:00 before bed my glucose are high (almost always above 15.0) i correct and set an alarm for about 2-3am. I check my bloods and my glucose wont have moved at all. I check with several meters. I then correct that, but with less as I worry i will go hypo. I then wake up on a normal number. This, however, affects the rest of my day. Im high most of the time (above 10.0) and am happy to get under 10 let alone within the dafne targets. I take levemir at 8:30 and 20:30.I was wondering whether this is a form of insulin resistance as i also have PCOS, but am not overweight? Claire. |
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Sep 1, 2011
melpessoa
7 posts
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Topic: Questions for HCPs / Do I delay my BI insulin time when I have to do a blood test in the morning? Hi there, I have to do a blood test at the walk in centre tomorrow and I wonder if I have to delay my BI insulin dose in the morning, or do I take it as normal(at around 730am) and do the blood test at around 9am?Before the dafne course I used to have my insulin after the blood test being done,,, and now... should I have it on time or after the blood test has been done? Thank you for your help, mel |
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Sep 1, 2011
marke
686 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / DAFNE Myths lizzie,The point of posting the presentation was to provoke discussion which is has done I'm sorry but I don't think I agree with what I perceive is your view that doctors know best and always have the answer. The truth is, with something like diabetes there are no correct answers because everyone is different and have differing experiences. In addition different studies and research are revealling things that were thought to be true are not necessarily. Hence this thread gives people a chance to discuss if they ARE myths and what their experiences are. Not a scientific study but an interesting experiement just the same, what are graduates experiences on these things ?Personally I don't believe that night-time lows cause high's in the morning. If I was low in the night I would know and have often woken in the night when my BG is too low. I think I far more likely culprit is dawn phenomeon, like a number of people I find my insulin ratio is higher in the morning than later in the day. I think the point about alcohol was it was taught that it always lowered BG and as said at the collaborative if that was true why bother with insulin when alcohol was a far more attractive alternative
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Sep 1, 2011
KeithCl
43 posts
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Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Feedback from Android beta testing PS I notice that the iPhone app defaults the automatic "Diary Upload" to off and I had it defaulting to on. I'll change the default to off for the Android app too. |
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Sep 1, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / DAFNE Myths
If BI doses should not be 12 hours apart, what is the ideal length between doses? Background insulin's dont always last 12 hours, and some even last longer, its effects are different in everyone...........its perfectly acceptable to have it 12 hours apart, i personally have mine 9 hours apart, one at night, one in early in the morning, this is to help combat the dawn phenomenon......... If 4u is not the maximum correction dose, what is? The possibilities are endless really, it all boils down to insulin sensitivity..............if my blood is over 17mmol/l, I have established that 1 unit drops me by 1mmol/l...........so if I was 20mmol/l which isn't that often... ], to get down to 5.5mmol/l I would take 15 units [14.5]........this is a long way off 4 units maximum.......If high BG prior to exercise should not always be corrected with QA, how should it be treated? Depends when the exercise is taking place, if it was within 5 hours of CP/QA then you would have no need to do so... If you do not need a 1:1 ratio for snacks, what is the correct ratio? If its closer to your lunch, use your lunch ratio, if dinner, use dinner, if not........somewhere in between, its all about trial and error....... If alcohol does not raise and then lower your blood sugar what effect does it have? And what is it that coincidentally causes the raising and lowering of blood sugars in people who have drunk alcohol if it is not the alcohol itself? Depends on what you are drinking, if its just alcohol [spirits] then your BG will not go up, it will however go down either at the time of drinking, overnight and/or into the next day, everyone is different.........and by different I mean everyone's liver has different response times to dealing with the toxin....... If its beer, cider, alcopops, some wines, then they will have carbs in them, to which you should account for...............in this case and the previous one a reduction in BI that night and sometimes into the next day are required......... If an overnight hypo does not cause high morning BGs what is the cause? I would say overnight hypos can be the cause of morning highs, but the next obvious one which myself and many others suffer from is dawn phenomenon, where a cocktail of hormones are released in order to raise blood sugar levels to assist in starting the day off............ What is the floor; if it isn't 4? And what is that treat or eat thing all about? The treatment for a hypo IS eating. I would say 4 is fine for verging on hypo............... Not sure about the treat or eat thing, its been a while since i looked at the myths and misconceptions, it may be referring to, if your hypo immediately before a meal, and then the question would be, do you treat it, or just eat your meal with a reduced QA.........I would always treat, then eat........just in case i was dropping quickly and there was no quick acting carbs on my dinner plate...........safety first and all that...................... |
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Sep 1, 2011
Lizzie
87 posts
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Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Kendal Mint Cake You can get it without the chocolate on, it is mainly available in outdoors type shops except in the Lake District. I have emailed the manufacturers about precise carb values and will report back if I get a response. |
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Sep 1, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Kendal Mint Cake Might need to try this out, the fact that its set in some kind of fatty [all oil is kinda fat] coating then it will be slowed, but maybe not as much as normal chocolate with lots of saturated fat........... |
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Sep 1, 2011
Lizzie
87 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / DAFNE Myths I have looked at this again and still don't understand it. I was taught many of these on my DAFNE course and most have been proven by my own experience. Can someone who was there please go through these and explain what the truth apparently is and why we were misinformed so comprehensively? Not just on the DAFNE course but by our specialist doctors, nurses and dietitians for many years - at least in my case many of these things have been passed on to me as facts.For example: If BI doses should not be 12 hours apart, what is the ideal length between doses? If 4u is not the maximum correction dose, what is? If high BG prior to exercise should not always be corrected with QA, how should it be treated? If you do not need a 1:1 ratio for snacks, what is the correct ratio? If alcohol does not raise and then lower your blood sugar what effect does it have? And what is it that coincidentally causes the raising and lowering of blood sugars in people who have drunk alcohol if it is not the alcohol itself? If an overnight hypo does not cause high morning BGs what is the cause? What is the "floor" if it isn't 4? And what is that "treat or eat" thing all about? The treatment for a hypo IS eating. With regard to this one "BG should be tested at 3am to make sure a hypo isn’t the cause of high fasting BGLs" - does that mean you should never check your BGLs during the night? Surely this is a sensible action to take to find out what is happening? Why is it a myth or misconception that you need to do it? "A 2-hr post-prandial BG is helpful to assess QA:CP ratio" - why not? Is this reading any use at all? If so what for? If not why have doctors been advising us to check it for so many years? "High GI foods are in & out of the bloodstream very rapidly" and "Low GI foods can still be affecting your BG up to 5hrs after eating" - I thought that was the point of GI - it was a measure of how fast the food reacted in our bloodstream. These slides seem confusing without the accompanying explanation. |
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Sep 1, 2011
Lizzie
87 posts
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Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Kendal Mint Cake Thanks. I think the peppermint oil is just a flavouring, it is basically pure glucose set in a bar. I just found it to be more palatable than glucose tablets and easier to carry around than lucozade. |
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Sep 1, 2011
Simon
578 posts
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Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Kendal Mint Cake The oil is probably in the chocolate surrounding it - you can get varieties without choc so they might be slightly faster acting. |