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May 24, 2011
chrisinbrum
41 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Diabetic Survey Well for a 'quality of life' questionnaire to be useful it needs to ask detailed questions about your life. I'm happy to be fully involved in the research and if that helps to make a better questionnaire so that in the future services for diabetics are better able to understand the impact they have on our quality of life I think that's a good thing. |
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May 24, 2011
Garry
328 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Diabetic Survey I agree...and as a consequence unwilling to supply further info. |
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May 24, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Diabetic Survey
 They seemed a tad emotional to me..........did you complete the extended section..........?
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May 24, 2011
Garry
328 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Diabetic Survey Done....a little surprised by some questions however! |
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May 24, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Some advice please There could be many reasons for this, but if it was me, on ratios as high as that, I would, as I have ranted on before, get the BI up , right up, dont be scared..........You can get help with resistance, like metformin, but that comes with a whole load of other problems/side effects............ Any chance of not eating lunch, and no correction, and posting dinner time readings..............? |
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May 24, 2011
derekh1965
95 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Some advice please this is a joke!!looking at all the insulin I had this morning and my BS before breakfast, which was 1 slice of toast and 2 boiled eggs. Just tested before lunch and I am 13.4!!! Just how insulin resistant am I!! |
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May 24, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Some advice please I am on Levemir Insulin, been on Lantus and Humilin I, Lantus didn't last 24 hours and I tried Humilin I to tackle DP as it has more of a peak, but it didn't help.......I admitted defeat to DP purely because I didn't KEEP upping my dose as it wasn't having an effect, I was still high in the morning, so I stopped increasing, it took a fresh look from my DSN to get me to try and keep increasing it, that is the step wise approach we have been taught at the DAFNE courses, it sometimes easy to forget that..... Its all a process of elimination, and it may be the case that your morning highs just wont be beaten and a pump will be needed, but you need to try increasing first, starting wit the overnight dose, our BI requirements can change all the time, sometimes quite considerably, its a pain, but that's Diabetes for you........ |
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May 24, 2011
NiVZ
82 posts
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Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Android app
Hi Simon, Sorry, been busy as usual - moving house this Friday! Most phones out there are Android 2.x so it's probably best to aim for Android 2.1 that way it will work on all Android 2 and above phones. Biggest difficulty with Android is coding UI for different screen sizes and densities. Here's a quick guide I wrote to get the SDK all setup and ready to compile your first program: Setup Android Development Environment ------------------------------------- 1. Download and Install JDK 1.6 2. Download and Install Android SDK (if JDK not found, press back then next) 3. Use Android SDK to download required APIs (these are emulators of the Android OS - I just chose Android 2.1 and the Sample API Demo programs) 4. Create an Android Virtual Machine (AVD) - this is your emulator and can be configured to different screen sizes 5. Download Eclipse for Java (Helios) and unzip Eclipse to C:\Program Files\eclipse 6. Add Android ADT plugin to Eclipse by starting Eclipse and: Click Help -> Install New Software Click Add Enter Name: ADT plugin Enter URL: https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/ (can try http:// if https:// fails) Click OK Click checkbox next to 'Developer Tools' Click Next Click Finish 7. Configure ADT Plugin in Eclipse Click Window -> Preferences Select Android from left panel Click Browse and choose Android SDK location Click Apply Click OK NiVZ |
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May 24, 2011
derekh1965
95 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Some advice please Thanks for your reply novoraoidboi26. I am 19.5 stone and was under 19 before dafne, was trying to loose weight cutting out most carbs but diabetes nurse "streesed" to me my body needed carbohydrates, so I am taking carbs now and you can see the result, high BS and over 7lbs weight gain.You can see last nights bedtime BS, CP and insulin taken at 11.45 and I woke at 8.45 with a BS of 13.9!! I've tried taking upto 22 BI at night and still high. On sat 21/5 had 22 BI at 11.45, bed at 1am with an 8.4 BG and tested at 7.50am with a BG of 17.9!! What type of BI do you take? I had been on Humilin Isophane for years with the same high BS in the morning, put me on Lantus and had greater control but didn't feel right on it and asked to try animal insulin. Been off lantus for a couple months now and don't feel any better so it probably wasn't the lantus that was making me feel bad. Got DAFNE review on 6th June so see what they say. Bests regards Derek |
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May 24, 2011
MelissaF
56 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Levemir versus Lantus Hi Claire,Just another idea for you... I've been having the same problem recently (OK at 3am tests and then high in the morning) and I assumed that it was dawn phenomenon and that I needed to up my BI to compensate. I currently have a very good diabetes nurse who said that, looking at other hypos I'd been having over the course of the day, she thought that it might be too much BI and nightime hypos between the 3am reading and waking at 7am that were causing the highs on waking. I've been doing some experiments and she was absolutely right so I've dropped the nightime Lantus right back down again. This may well not be the case with you but it's something to think about if things still don't seem to be working. Not sure how you'd know - maybe test a bit later than 3am and see if it's dropping or rising then? Maybe if you're splitting your Lantus then there's a bit of an overlap somewhere between doses that's making you low? Good luck. Melissa xx |
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May 24, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Some advice please You cant really compare, but I am about 16-17 stone, so overweight and my BI requirements are 30 in the morning and 38 at night, with a 3:1 carb ratio at breakfast, the remainder are 1.5:1........So, although we are not the same, my point would be, get your BI doses up, and continue to do so until you hold steady, you may be resistant to insulin but I suspect you could do with more BI, BI does lower your blood sugar if the dose is too high for your livers rate of glucose secretion........... The theory of rising BGs/liver dump when there are no carbs present is correct, or at least for me, but this wouldn't normally happen overnight when your body knows it should be asleep, only when the internal clock goes off and tells the liver to start dumping glucose in the morning (Dawn Phenomenon) would carbs help in turning off/suppressing the dump........... I realised this last week when I decided to go carb free at breakfast for a few days, BGs went up until lunch......... 
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May 23, 2011
derekh1965
95 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Some advice please Hi markeThanks for your reply. The HCP told me BI does not lower your BS, although I suspected it did. You are right about me having to take a lot of insulin, never used to be like that. I would never have dreamed of taking that amount of insulin. If I have a portion of rice (200g) I need 24 units. Before I would have maybe taken 14. Last night bedtime you can see what carbs and insulin had and I woke this morning with a BS of 13.7!! This is really p^^ing me off, Tonight my BS was in the normal range, had 2 CPs and 8 units of QA so will see what my BS is in the morning. If it is high then I am very confused and clueless. I took 18 BI last night and 18 tonight as you are right I was chopping and changing too often. thanks and best regards Derek |
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May 23, 2011
marke
686 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Some advice please Hi, well BI won't affect Dawn Phenomenon so don't try to use it to do that. Also I'm a bit worried about the variations in your BI in the evening. You shouldn't be changing it that radically and that often. You won't see a pattern if you keep changing it so much so quickly. You need small changes and slowly (2-3 days at least between changes).The tues/weds/thurs you hypo-ed and so this could case fluctuations in your BG's. You need to settle on getting your BG right and changing it slowly. A few days of high BG's is NOT going to cause any damage and it will let you get things under control slowly. ALL insulin affects your BG, thats its whole purpose so I don't know who told you BI doesn't affect it. Yes BI is primarily to keep you BG steady not cover CP's but it does have an effect and it is the key to good control. Get it correct and you will find things much easier. It does look though from your readings that you are insulin resistant, you seem to need a lot of insulin for not much CP and if I injected that much QA I would be straight to A&E ! Have your Diabetes team not discussed insulin resistance with you ? |
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May 23, 2011
marke
686 posts
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Topic: DAFNE Graduate Group (DGG) / DUAG and Hospital Staff Hi wullie, as the DAFNEOnline DUAG Rep I will take your suggestion to the relevant people. I'm not totally clear what you mean in point 1. In theory all DAFNE educators receive the same training and are all quality assessed, so the course should be the same regardless of where and when you do it. How do you mean there were differences in the way people where trained. With regard to point 2, it sounds like a good idea in theory how easy it will be to achieve in reality is hard to say but I will certainly take the suggestion forward and let you know what feedback I get. One of the objectives of the DUAG is to increase awareness of DAFNE and this certainly fits in that description. By the way I too had similiar experiences in hospital, fortunately/unfortunately depending on your viewpoint no one tells me how to treat my Diabetes. A Nurse did try and found out pretty quickly I wasn't going to do what she said rather than what I wanted. Without exception all medical staff I encountered had never heard of DAFNE and found the idea of a Diabetic managing their own care an unusual concept. I did my bit to educate them  I would urge anyone who has done DAFNE and is told by medical staff not to follow it, stand your ground and insist unless they can provide a clear and reasonable explination as to why you should not. This is 2011 and nowadays doctor doesn't necessarily know best. |
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May 23, 2011
JayBee
587 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Diabetic Survey Consider it now done! ^_^ |
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May 23, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Diabetic Survey On my way over now..............
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May 23, 2011
marke
686 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Diabetic Survey All,We have been requested by someone at University College London to post a link to a survey they are conducting on Type 1 Diabetes. The link is here and we would encourage everyone to follow the link and do the survey. The results of this survey may not benefit us immediately however it is a chance to express your opinions to people that want to listen and compile results besed on what we say. It might not make a difference to anything, but then again it just might and unless we try we will never know. so go on click on the link you know it makes sense
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May 23, 2011
JayBee
587 posts
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Being knocked off track feels like a common theme for 2011. I do wonder when I'll be back on track - my body has been hypoing a lot since being ill, I feel like Im a different creature. I would be on 7 MORN 14 EVE BI with the newly found ratios if I was fine, but Ive had to pull back all ratios back to 1:1 and my BIs are currently 5 MORN and 12 EVE. This past weekend has been very hard due to hypos. I look forward to being well again. Its amazing how much mess stomach flu can cause even when you feel better! >_< |
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May 23, 2011
Athena
52 posts
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Topic: Questions for HCPs / Information on menstrual cycle I also hope you are feeling better. Obviously this has mucked up looking for patterns etc. so another thing to take you off track. I think I am lucky in that I have quite a discernable pattern. I am now in the tricky part which is the gradually moving the doses up until I hit the all time high of the pre-menstrual one.this is the worst part for me. I think the problem is that the step -wise approach is too slow. You are trying to get a dose and your requirment have shifted on again. I intend to be a bit more gung ho this month and just go for it without waiting for a pattern. Next month I am considering using ratios to sort thing s to see if that helps. I just want to test the difference between the two methods. Of course that wiil mean eating regular carbs and losing the benefits of DAFNE but I have to keep trying things. Anything to feel well. Good luck to all ! PS WOuld be interested in hearing how people on the pump are doing with this. I remember the girl who was about to try it. If you are on line still, pleae let us know how you get on. |
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May 23, 2011
tweety
13 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / So what do you do? Thanks Wullie, I know what u mean. I have spoken to so many line managers as they change so frequently for me. I have noticed that the ones who do understand only understand when it suits them, I've even had to produce letters from my opthamologist to get time of for clinics as im unable to c or drive after my appointment! (I've had laser done a few times now). They are a total nightmare, novorapidboi is right as soon as you mention DDA they couldn't be more helpful although it doesnt last very long. If it werent for my union fightin for me all the time i prob wldnt be there now, bn with company for 13yrs. |
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May 22, 2011
JayBee
587 posts
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Topic: DAFNE Graduate Group (DGG) / DUAG and Hospital Staff I understand what you mean, even if my circumstances weren't the same - I went into hospital only last week because I got hit by stomach flu that was making me very sick and I became seriously dehydrated. I had done a great job of keeping things like ketones at bay and my sugar levels somewhat good despite the sickness, but it was only after I'd started recovering that it became clear that my BI doses were wrong because in the morning, my BGs started dropping (unusually, but this may be due to be illness and it's effects on my body afterwards).Fair enough, but while I was being taken care of, I had explained what times I took my BI doses as soon as I got into the ward because they asked - one at 9pm and one at 7am - and when I showed signs of a hypo in the morning, the staff asked me to wait until a doctor had come to see me after 9am before I took my next BI. I wasn't impressed with what was being asked but I did as asked initially. If I'm going to hypo, I'm going to hypo - I know to put my overnight dose down instead. -_-;;; I did hypo in the end - before I even took my morning BI dose. However, considering it was almost 10am before anyone came, I thought "sod this" and took my morning BI at about 9.45am. I even felt bad that I had to apologise to the nurse for my "naughty" decision but at the same time, I knew full well that my BI overlap is needed in the morning and if I didn't take it, I would be paying for it later. I hope that no one gets me wrong considering they did help me get out of the situation of serious dehydration because I couldn't keep anything down, but in reference to my diabetes care, it was frustrating because I was asked to explain what I do to help myself but I felt I was not taken serious enough. They were overly worried about me hypoing because of taking my next BI dose which was frustrating and did hint at some lack of education. Thankfully a nurse from my DAFNE team did come see me and confirm that I had done very well with dealing with my short term illness but this was after 10am... The diabetes team are a small dedicated team from what I can tell, there doesn't seem to be on ward staff easily available to see patients at non-office hours when the team seem to be in when it comes to DAFNE. I think this is a shame to come across this after many years of not needing assistance like I did last week.... and I'm sorry to hear that your situation was just as frustrating (I would've gone mad if I'd had to put up with it for more than one day I think). I do hope that your idea can go ahead but how well it can be rolled out is another problem of it's own... especially in these harder times, when you start to see news like this (dated yesterday): Diabetes UK: False economy as 200 frontline Diabetes Specialist Nurses go in NHS cost cutting Absolutely shocking.  I shall be continuing to follow Diabetes UK's Twitter feed to see how their fighting response to this news turns out.
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May 22, 2011
derekh1965
95 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Some advice please Hihoping someone can advise me on my diary. My morning BG is always high, no matter how much evening BI I take. Was told the BI would not lower your BS. I knows about the dawn phenomenon and 3am testing. I have tried taking more BI insulin to cover any liver dumps, or less case it was lowering my BS. Last night I took 22 units of BI to see if it would cover the dawn phenomenon. Went to bed at 1am at 8.4, had a carb free supper. The lat QA was at 10.30pm and that would've been in my system upto 3am. But I woke up with a BS of 17.9!! A couple od weeks ago I thought I had it sorted, that didn't last long. The HCP told me it was because I was eating no carbs and my body was craving glucose so sending a message to the liver to give it some. If my sugar is high why is the brain asking for some? am having 2 slices of toast for supper tonight to put that theory to the test. You can see how confused |I am, I hope. thanks in advance and best regards Derek ps weighed myself tonight and I have gained 10lbs since graduating from DAFNE. I blame the massive amount of insulin I am having to inject. |
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May 22, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / What are you reading?
LOL, i have now........... .....unfortunately i dont read many books so wont be posting here on a regular basis...............
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May 21, 2011
AK
16 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Old habits die hard...
I can understand why you hate them Wullie, but as someone who has several a day  I can give you some advice. Firstly, you may not treat them early enough if they have such a memory-wiping effect etc, there are tips on the RunSweet website on how to reclaim your early-warning signs. This might make you less afraid of them. Secondly, the Dafne rule about 2.5 - 3 CPs being sufficient really does work! That was a revelation to me as I used to have a similar problem after hypos. I find that if you drink a lunchbox carton of fruit juice (eg Ribena, even Asda own brands) this is the best hypo treatment (although rinse your mouth out as the acid isn't good if you hypo frequently). These not only say they have the correct CP in carb grams on the box so you can rest assured that a whole packet is all you need, they are absorbed rapidly into the bloodstream making recovery quicker. I've tried many hypo treatments in my time and they are by far the best. The usual disclaimer that everybody's different applies of course, but there are good objective reasons for this to work for you! Thirdly, look after yourself, don't make yourself carry on after treating a hypo. Take it as me-time and rest somewhere quiet where you won't be afraid of offending anyone etc and take the time you need to recover. I actually find I don't need to rest if I take juice as opposed to glucose tablets etc. Liquids better than solids, and especially those with a fast GI. Sorry if you know all this already! |
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May 20, 2011
WullieIrvine
27 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Old habits die hard... All you talk of over correcting but I still do both pre and post DAFNE over compensate on hypo's.I hate being hypo, usually can't remember whats happened, what I've done, who've I up-setted and so on. I HATE IT! So when I hypo I munch, munch, munch, drink and munch..... needless to say I end up high for a few days. Any advice? Wullie (RNA) |