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May 3, 2011
deanna
8 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Help ! Any Thoughts Please. I have been a diagnosed diabetic on insulin for over 2 years now, however recently i have been finding it extremly difficult to control my Blood Glucose Levels.I have been becoming extremely sensitive to my insulin, having to experiment, and trial and error with doses, ( Quick activing - Novorapid, Humulin S, Humalog. Background - Insulatard, Levemir). The reaction i am getting at the moment is not so much sensitive but a burning feeling under the skin, which has become agonising. I am told this is not common. If anyone should possibly know of a reason for this please let me know, i am at a loss at the moment. Any ideas are welcome, i would try anything. Thank you. |
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May 3, 2011
Karl
83 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Id cards have a look at this post http://www.dafneonline.co.uk/forums/1/topics/419 |
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May 3, 2011
Carolin
83 posts
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Topic: Questions for HCPs / Help with insulin and ratio Hi Derek,With BI that you take twice a day (i.e. anything other than Lantus), it's recommended that you take your first dose on getting up in the morning and your second dose as you go to bed. The main thing to be careful of is that the doses are no closer than 7hrs apart. This will mean that you get an overlap of the doses through the morning, however this is beneficial to help counteract the Dawn Phenomenon. Most health professionals who do not 'use' DAFNE (and some who do it has to be said) don't understand how to get the best out of the insulin regimen in Type 1 diabetes, so don't feel that you've missed out or been misinformed. I think the majority of people (apparent from the posts on here) realise that what they've been taught previous to DAFNE often has to be 'unlearned' when they begin to apply DAFNE principles. I'm sure you'll get there in time, Carolin 
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May 3, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: Questions for HCPs / Help with insulin and ratio Hi Derek...................I would of suggested you ignore the maximum correction unit of 8, as I have been successful taking more, fortunately you have not needed to exceed 8, and yet your still high.....Are you confident your BI is correct......by looking at you results from bed to morning the majority of them are steady or going down with only a few rising. You should try 3 consecutive days eating your evening meal then having no carbs till breakfast the next day, you should then see what your current PM BI dose is doing, it may need tweaking, however you may need to increase your AM BI, this unfortunately need some testing, so more carb free meals im afraid..................getting more BI in might let you drop your QA ratios............ I seen you were using an analogue and animal insulin, have you been told to do this, using one would be a good place to start to see whats most effective, you may need both though, I can only speculate.... Being on a 4:1 all day is quite resistant, have they offered any other oral medications to help with this, increased muscle activity will help with that. Even the smallest of movements like lifting a small weight, going for a walk............ I hope we can help you a bit........... |
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May 3, 2011
derekh1965
92 posts
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Topic: Questions for HCPs / Help with insulin and ratio Hi CarolinThanks for your reply. I have noticed my breakfast BGs being high and wasn't sure whether to increase BI. I increased from 14 to 16 and then I tried 18 last night but it bwas stilll high this morning 12.9. Thanks for informing me about the best times to take BI at night, I will take it later tonight. The conhfusion I have is when |I wa on Humiklin Isophane ws told to take it at dinnertime and with that being an isophane. So I suppose best time is at bedtime? I am taking 20 units of Isopohane first thing in the morning (9am), would you say that is correct time? This morning at 9am I was 12.9, had 3.5 cps and took 14+10, also 20 units of BI and by 1.30pm my bs was 9.8!! thought I would have been a lot lower than that. I will try a 5:1 ratio tomorrow at breakfast and see how that goes, allso a carb fre meal at lunchtime. best regards Derek |
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May 3, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Hay fever - BG's gone high It is a pain they cant make these medications without it, it must be an active ingredient......Theoretically you should not need to snack overnight, if you do then its likely you need to drop your BI dose, in the evening if split............the DAFNE targets say you should be higher before bed but a 5.0 is ideal for me... Have a look round and investigate other possible meds that can be prescribed or bought that might limit the impact or eliminate the undesirable diabetic effects.... |
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May 3, 2011
Carolin
83 posts
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Topic: Questions for HCPs / Help with insulin and ratio Hi Derek,Sorry, you don't appear to have had any feedback since your post on 24th April (people too busy with bank holidays & weddings no doubt  )I'd advise you to just keep going, following the step-wise approach as you appear to be doing. One thing I would comment on is that with Isophane Background Insulins it is best to try to take your evening dose as late as possible and I notice (maybe just coincidence) that your morning BGs have tended to be higher when you've taken your BI earlier the previous evening. I wouldn't be surprised if you end up needing a higher ratio in the morning, compared to other times of the day as your BG does go up between breakfast and lunchtime even on 4:1, but re-evaluate this once you're taking your night BI later more consistently. Another useful thing to do to assess your morning BI is to try missing a meal (or doing carb-free). This is a good strategy to ensure you're doing right in increasing ratios, rather than needing more BI. Good luck, Carolin |
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May 3, 2011
DFH_17
22 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Hay fever - BG's gone high Me too - although I think I spoke too soon as my BG's have been rubbish all day today :-( My BG was a bit low before bedtime yesterday - was 5.0 so I had a 1CP snack and this morning my BG was 11.7 - was disappointed - I think it would have been better to have not had the snack and lunchtime's was 10.1 even though I corrected at breakfast. I'm thinking maybe the Loratadine is still in my system so will need a few days to calm down. Plus am back to work today so that's added to the stress.I looked up Loratadine on the internet yesterday evening and it basically said that in Type 1 diabetics it causes insulin resistance/blood glucose intolerance so thats answered the issue. As said each time I take these tablets I'll need to adjust my insulin - find it really annoying - why cant the manufacturers of antihistamines create a tablet that doesnt contain lactose!! |
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May 3, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Help I like to have something to eat before bed as well, but I have to choose wisely in order to dampen the effects of dawn phenomenon, I often find myself having slowly absorbed carbs, like crispbread with banana on top, doesn't sound to good but its actually nice, other than that 2 slice of toast is usually my next choice.What would you have that's carb free at night, if you can get the dose and timing right you could have anything theoretically, so better choice of more lower calorie items........... |
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May 3, 2011
derekh1965
92 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Help Thanks for your replies.Novorapidboi your right |I shoulfd concentrate on my HbA1c first. I have always took less insulin to hopefully help with not gaining weight, well that approach obviously doesn't work. I am not a big eater and don't have many snacks, recently been trying low carb/high fat and obviously too high fat calorie wise, hence the difficuklty losing any weight. Since doing dafne I realise | have not been taking anywhere near enough insulin , last night before dinner at 7pm I was 7.7, had 24 units for 6 CPs, previously i would have taken around 14 units, and by bedtime at 11:45 my BS was 8.3. I thought I would have hypo with all that insulin. One very bad habit I have is eating at bedtiome and it is something I have done since I was old enough to make my own supper. t is a very hard habit to break, I can have my dinner at 6pm and have nothing to eat all night, until bedtime and I psychologically/mentally have to eat something. Perhaps cognitive therapy or something along those lines would help? The bedtime snack has always been carb free in the past 6 months, not that it's an excuse it's still calories. You will be getting fed uip reading my woes lol. All the best and be happy Derek |
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May 3, 2011
Simon
578 posts
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Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Android app I'm going to have a look at this now - what version of the Android OS is everyone using? NiVZ - perhaps you, Mark and I could work together on it, sharing the workload? I've done some Java dev in the past, just need to get my head around the Android SDK. |
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May 3, 2011
Simon
578 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Id cards I've used Medicalert - you pay an annual fee but they maintain your medical information on a database, and you get an ID card with basic info, then medical professionals can call the number on the card to get your full profile. You can also get ID bracelets/necklaces from them (I always forgot to put my bracelet on though...) |
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May 3, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Hay fever - BG's gone high Im glad your sugars have came down...................It may just be a case of upping your BI dose whenever symptoms occur and your on medication, just the same as fighting virus or infection only you are providing the ingredients/fuel orally instead of automatically by the body........ |
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May 3, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Id cards Your clinic can provide cards, they just say that your an insulin dependent diabetic..........if you are looking for something more personal a Google search will give you some routes to go down........
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May 2, 2011
JayBee
587 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Help Nice change to your results! Keep working at it - try not to get disheartened. This may take you a while. It has me with my doses!I think that if you try to do both weight loss and insulin working out at once, it's clearly only going to cause confusion. Concentrate on perhaps changing eating habits (like less snacking between meals for example) and getting your doses right before worrying about losing weight. Use carb free meals to see if your BI is working for you too - and use the 5hours QA working time to help you as well. This does mean carb free only between this time if you must eat. Try to carb count the best you can so you don't have to extend your dose working out times more than a few days. Guesswork can mess up the picture (as we all know I'm sure). Perhaps don't have a snack before bed every night... have one every other night until you feel confident that you don't need to)... if you're worried about over night hypos, look at testing around 3am - that is the most common time when hypos occur after the QA has finished and if you do hypo, you know to put your over night BI dose down. Once you know what insulin your body needs to remain stable and in a good range, you can plan for weight loss so much better - after all, if you exercise and adjust your doses for the exercise, then your body will start to lose weight (as covered on the exercise pages of the DAFNE guidebook). If you're not sure what doses you need, you cannot do this as easily as you could be doing. Not accommodating correctly for exercise is only going to cause more problems as well - I should know, I've had plenty of times where I haven't and hypo'd a lot! Hypos can also lead to weight gain because you end up eating more than your body has exercised for! On this note, when you do hypo, do not worry about the weight stuff - and do not correct 24 hours after a hypo, this can cause another hypo! Let your BI bring you back down from a hypo's high. As long as you plan ahead, you should be fine! Best of luck!
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May 2, 2011
grace080919
2 posts
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Topic: Questions for HCPs / Blood Glucose range whilst pregnant Caroline, i had my baby 8 months ago and i'm pretty sure bg should be no more than 7.9 before bed. I will try and find my diaries as i did record it! You will probably find that your insulin doses re quire more frequent adjustments, i was doing mine every week in the last trimester. I remember the hospital were particulary focussed on preventing a hypo as it takes a lot for the baby to recover from. I also remember my insulin requirements were nearly treble towards the end of my pregnancy and it took several monhs before i got them partially stable again. Good luck |
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May 2, 2011
grace080919
2 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Id cards HelloDoes anyone where you can obtain diabetic id cards please? 
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May 2, 2011
DFH_17
22 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Hay fever - BG's gone high Thanks to both of you to replying to this. I did wonder if the tiny amount of lactose would have an effect or not. It seems to have taken 4 days of taking these tablets for an effect to occur.I decided to stop taking the tablets this morning and already my BG's have gone back to normal but that may have coincided with me upping my BI insulin. I've looked at the various antihistimine medication and all of them seem to contain lactose. so it makes it pretty difficult for GP's to sort out us diabetics on this issue by the looks of things. Thanks again. I'll check on the lactose content in the Loratadine. |
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May 2, 2011
grandma carol
61 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Dawn Phenomenon glad I could help. I have been a lot better with the 0.5 at dinner times but as you I sometimes need the 1-1 so I do change it now and them. It dose take a bit of getting useto but think I am getting there been diabetic for 36 years and just would have the same injectons everyday but now with the different ratios and the carb counting I dont seem to hypo like I did the big drop in the BI was the thing I could not get my head around and even now I still want to put it up when I am high in the mornings but dont.And things seem to settle down and I go back to having good days . Hope things work out for you soon it did take me from last September till now to get my BGs down and in single figers but not to bad now good look with the 0.5 unit
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May 2, 2011
Alan 49
284 posts
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I think the word 'lactose' is derived from 2 Latin (I think) words meaning 'milk' and 'sugar', so it looks as if it's bound to have some effect. I wouldn't have thought there would be much in 10mg tablets. Your GP should have spotted this. |
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May 2, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / porridge as others have said, if your happy with your weighing of the oats, and the negligible milk count, and you consistantly get above target readings at lunch, the step wise approach would indicate your ratio is not enough, so crank it up and see how it goes..........
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May 2, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Help I suppose deciding on wether you want a good HbA1c or a slim figure has to be made, I chose a good HbA1c over weight................I thought there was a direct link with weight and insulin but the mechanics are not that straight forward..............any excess energy/glucose left over is stored as fat, this process is completed with the use of insulin so I believe so getting the dose as accurate as possible is a good idea....................obviously the normal what goes in/out in terms of calories applys to us too..................
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May 2, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Hay fever - BG's gone high I would definetly try and find out whats in these tablets, amounts if possible, even though they may be small, there may be a cumulitive effect if your taking them regularly..........i dont actually know the active process of antihistimine medication but it may also be effecting the livers normal production of energy............ |
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May 2, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / latest figures
I would recommend investigating your BI doses in that case....... |
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May 2, 2011
novorapidboi26
1,819 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / carb counting Apps I havent heard any of any apart from the carbs and cals book version, might need to google some now...................probably wont use it though as the longer you carb count the more self able you become at counting them, its always a stab at the dark when eating out, but an app would help in these situations..... |