Recent Posts - DAFNE Online

Mar 8, 2010

JayBee 587 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Is life expectancy limited for diabetics?

From the sounds of it, you're well on your way to living a long life!
With that, best wishes to you too Mike. Smile

Mar 7, 2010

Paul Orton 2 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Ratios tryed them all

Paul- I see that your BG is above 11 for all but one reading. There is a discussion elsewhere in this forum about insulin requirements with high BGs. I know myself that it requires an enormous amount of insulin to bring my blood sugar down to normal levels, but this was something that I wasn't taught about in the Dafne course.

Mar 7, 2010

Paul Orton 2 posts

Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Rationale - Please read

I am a new user to the website and use a Samsung Tocco Lite. So far the site seems to work, although I haven't tried entering data yet. If there is any specific testing I can do please let me know.

Mar 7, 2010

marke 681 posts

Topic: Questions for HCPs / Hypo recognition.

my explination would be before I developed diabetes I had days like that and it obviously was nothing to do with hypos since I wasn't a diabetic. Some days you just feel cr*p, it doesn't have to be your Diabetes its just life ;-) I think we can fall into the trap of over analysing everything and expecting there to be any answer for everything. Sadly life's not like that, sometimes there is just no explination. Somedays my BG can go high for no apparent reason, it just happens, somethings has kicked off in my body and has caused my BG's to rise with no apparent reason. The next day things are back to normal. The only thing I do is shrug my shoulders and accept it happens.
I guess thats part of the problem with Hypo warnings, sometimes they are not warnings at all they are something else. All we can do is test, test and test again since thats the only way we can be sure.

Mar 7, 2010

Simon 578 posts

Topic: Site Development / DAFNE Online iPhone application - help with content/design needed

Hi all,

I'm currently finishing my learning with regard to making iPhone applications, and am looking to start making an iPhone app for DAFNE Online very soon. As I'm starting from scratch I'd like to ask for your help in how it should look and work.

First of all - I think the two key features are the Carb Counting list, and Diary. Does anyone have anything else that they would like to see in the first version of an iPhone application?

Next - iPhone users are all familiar with the User Interface of the phone, and I'd like some guidance as to how you'd like to interact with the CP List and Diary on the phone - what navigation mechanisms have worked well in other applications, and what makes it easiest for you to get around (if you have any application examples you really like then let me know too).

Finally - if anyone have iPhone development experience and would like to get involved, by all means drop me an email ([email protected]) or private message.

Let iDiscussions commence!

Simon

Mar 6, 2010

vic demain 87 posts

Topic: Questions for HCPs / Hypo recognition.

To develop this thread a little, may I offer my experiences this morning. Breakfast reading of 11.9 @ 09:10, which is way higher than normal, first thing. By 11:00 I had hypo symptoms, listless, irritable, tested and was 13.4. The tiredness continued through the morning and at lunch, I got a 4.9 reading - green result - but now some 40 minutes after lunch, I still feel low.
Perhaps it's just a bad day but very confusing. Anyone care to offer an explanation please?
Thanks, Vic.

Mar 4, 2010

Simon 578 posts

Topic: Site Development / Forum improvments

It depends on which web browser you use - Firefox and Google Chrome both have this feature, whereas Internet Explorer doesn't (I don't think). I'll have a look into what we can do to help though Paul.

Cheers

Mar 4, 2010

vic demain 87 posts

Topic: Site Development / Forum improvments

Hi Paul, think there already is one as mine logs in itself.

Mar 4, 2010

Paul Ked 2 posts

Topic: Site Development / Forum improvments

Hi

I would like to say that the forum is great and has loads of excellent features but can i ask for one update (one for now);

Could you have a remember me bit at the log in so i do not need to keep logging in?

Thanks
Paul Keddie

Mar 2, 2010

NiVZ 82 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Bayer Contour USB Meter

Hello,

Yeah sorry I should have said to ask your clinic about these as thats how most people get their meters.

It does look a good meter, and as a bloke it would be great to have a meter that fits in your pocket.

NiVZ

Mar 2, 2010

marke 681 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Bayer Contour USB Meter

thanks for pointing this out, but I would NEVER pay for a meter. The meter companies make a lot of money from test strips and its in their interest to get you using their meters so you use their test strips. If they are giving them away it might be attractive, but if they want me to pay and then make a profit from me on the test strips then its not so attractive.

I don't know for sure the 'list' price for contour strips but the retail price for 50 is around the same price as a meter. Yes, I know we don't
pay for them but the NHS does.

Mar 2, 2010

NiVZ 82 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Bayer Contour USB Meter

Hello,

Just to let everyone know a new meter has been released by Bayer.

It's very small, has colour screen and recharges via USB. It also has all the software stored on the USB drive part (plus 500mb for your own files) and works on both PC and MAC.

http://www.bayercontourusb.co.uk

NiVZ

Mar 1, 2010

Simon 578 posts

Topic: Site Development / Meter Upload Development

Yep - if you click on an entry on the diary display you can edit it from there. Not sure how well it works with our RESTful XML side of things so I'll test it out and let you know.

Cheers

Mar 1, 2010

NiVZ 82 posts

Topic: Site Development / Meter Upload Development

Hello,

If anyone wants a look at the DEMO version to get an idea of how the program is shaping up, you can download it at the following link:

http://www.mediafire.com/?ftdimtymgmu

At the moment it uses a 'dummy' meter to generate random data, and it doesn't actually perform the upload (don't want to put random data in your real accounts) but everything else is just how it will work with a real meter.

All constructive criticism gladly accepted.

Thanks,

NiVZ

Mar 1, 2010

NiVZ 82 posts

Topic: Site Development / Meter Upload Development

Hello,

If anyone wants a look at the DEMO version to get an idea of how the program is shaping up, you can download it at the following link:

http://www.mediafire.com/?ftdimtymgmu

At the moment it uses a 'dummy' meter to generate random data, and it doesn't actually perform the upload (don't want to put random data in your real accounts) but everything else is just how it will work with a real meter.

All constructive criticism gladly accepted.

Thanks,

NiVZ

Mar 1, 2010

NiVZ 82 posts

Topic: Site Development / Meter Upload Development

Hi Simon,

For problem 1, I thought it was overwriting - I'll re-test this.

Problem 2 I need to think some more about.

Also, just wondered (might be me being very thick as I've had a long day!) but is there anyway online to EDIT an entry. I did look but couldn't see it anywhere. This would definitely be needed for all meters that don't store insulin and carb data (ie everything except OneTouch UltraSmart)

Thanks,

NiVZ

Mar 1, 2010

Simon 578 posts

Topic: Site Development / Meter Upload Development

NiVZ,

Re problem 1 - the diary should merge the data, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Problem 2 - it may be worth adding an 'updated at' field to each diary entry so that we can record when it was last updated - will this help?

Simon

Mar 1, 2010

NiVZ 82 posts

Topic: Site Development / Meter Upload Development

Hello,

I've not had as much time to work on this lately (apologies) and I'm starting to struggle to think about the best way to make this work and also I'm the first to admit I'm not great at making a pretty user interface.

The bit I'm struggling with the most is how people will use this, which can cause some problems with the data. Don't want to get too technical, but at the moment the program works as follows:

1. If it's the first time the program has run, it asks for your Dafne username & password, meter type, com port (auto detected where possible) and proxy settings (for if you are using it at work) Otherwise it reads the saved settings

2. It then waits for you to press the 'Get Meter Data' button

3. When you press the button it checks the latest BG date it has in my programs LOCAL database and then reads all the data from the meter, only adding new data to the database (this makes it quicker)

4. Once it has finished it asks you if you want to upload the data to DAFNE online.

5. If you click OK it goes and gets the latest BG date from DAFNE online

6. It then uploads all the data from the LOCAL database to DAFNE online that is newer than the date it got in step 5.

After the program has uploaded your BG data you can then go and add your insulin and carb data manually via the website.

The problems I'm thinking of are:

1. If you add a snack entry which is later than the last date you uploaded, there is a chance it could get overwritten if your meter has a BG reading for the same date and time

2. If you uploaded all of your data 2 days ago, and continue to test in the next 2 days, but then manually enter a reading for today the program will NOT add the data for the two days in between.

I'm not sure how much of aproblem this would be but better to be safe than sorry. I don't want people to lose data by mistake.

Any suggestions, or ideas about this please feel free to get in touch. I could even make a demo version available for people to let me know what they think.

I'm also waiting for Lifescan to get back to me on some of the questions I have asked them.

Thanks,

NiVZ

Mar 1, 2010

Simon 578 posts

Topic: Site Development / exporting diary entries

Thanks for the info Karl - it may be worth us adding a CSV export function onto the diary too to make things easier, rather than requiring a download of something else.

John - not sure about this, I'd assumed as it was an HTML table excel would handle it nicely, obviously not so my apologies. I'll work on the above to make it simpler.

Simon

Feb 28, 2010

Karl 83 posts

Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Rationale - Please read

Yokel
i have a app called dropbox on my iphone - its prime use is to sync files between computers but i have set the pdf of the CPs as a favorite which saves it locally for off line reading. Has coming in handy.

Simon - work mate has a couple of Iphone Apps under his belt - if you need help with anything I sure I could twist his arm :-)

Feb 28, 2010

Karl 83 posts

Topic: Site Development / exporting diary entries

Hi John
Done some web reading and testing - if you download
http://www.brothersoft.com/a7soft-xml2csv-download-69269.html and unzip to a folder on your c: drive say c:\diary put your downloaded diary in here also . go to a command prompt - start - run - type cmd - enter - select the folder as earlier by cd c:\diary enter then paste (right mouse paste) xml2csv diary.xml diary.csv "entry_time,blood_glucose,carbohydrate_portions,quick_insulin,background_insulin,ratio,entry_type,target_min_bg,target_max_bg,comments" and press enter. This will make (hopefully) a csv comma-separated values file with the name diary.cvs in your diary folder on your c drive - any version of excel will open this file :-) hope this helps. if you have a problem either email me at karl at addrison dot co dot uk are reply / message here

Feb 28, 2010

Diana 7 posts

Topic: General Discussion / "Balance" letter about injecting in public

Hi Richard

I usually inject anywhere when travelling, including on planes. I think it should be fine as long as you make a point of being upfront about it when checking in. It also depends where you're flying. A couple of years ago I had my insulin confiscated for the duration of a 4 hour flight in Asia with Tiger Airways - they wouldn't close the plane doors until I had given it to them.

I also tried injecting on a crowded tube a couple of times recently as I only had time to grab a cereal bar in the morning on the way out the door and was v surprised to see that nobody seemed to notice/care! Smile

Diana

Feb 28, 2010

richard_g 14 posts

Topic: General Discussion / "Balance" letter about injecting in public

As i'm about to do some international travel I wonder what people think about injecting in your seat on an aeroplane. I used to do this without thinking but in the light of recent events are you likely to get jumped on by half the passengers and an air mashall if you get your insulin pen out? Or is it a question of retreating to the loo again.

Mar 8, 2010 JayBee 587 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Is life expectancy limited for diabetics? From the sounds of it, you're well on your way to living a long life! With that, best wishes to you too Mike.

Mar 7, 2010 Paul Orton 2 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Ratios tryed them all Paul- I see that your BG is above 11 for all but one reading. There is a discussion elsewhere in this forum about insulin requirements with high BGs. I know myself that it requires an enormous amount of insulin to bring my blood sugar down to normal levels, but this was something that I wasn't taught about in the Dafne course.

Mar 7, 2010 Paul Orton 2 posts	Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Rationale - Please read I am a new user to the website and use a Samsung Tocco Lite. So far the site seems to work, although I haven't tried entering data yet. If there is any specific testing I can do please let me know.

Mar 7, 2010 marke 681 posts	Topic: Questions for HCPs / Hypo recognition. my explination would be before I developed diabetes I had days like that and it obviously was nothing to do with hypos since I wasn't a diabetic. Some days you just feel cr*p, it doesn't have to be your Diabetes its just life ;-) I think we can fall into the trap of over analysing everything and expecting there to be any answer for everything. Sadly life's not like that, sometimes there is just no explination. Somedays my BG can go high for no apparent reason, it just happens, somethings has kicked off in my body and has caused my BG's to rise with no apparent reason. The next day things are back to normal. The only thing I do is shrug my shoulders and accept it happens. I guess thats part of the problem with Hypo warnings, sometimes they are not warnings at all they are something else. All we can do is test, test and test again since thats the only way we can be sure.

Mar 7, 2010 Simon 578 posts	Topic: Site Development / DAFNE Online iPhone application - help with content/design needed Hi all, I'm currently finishing my learning with regard to making iPhone applications, and am looking to start making an iPhone app for DAFNE Online very soon. As I'm starting from scratch I'd like to ask for your help in how it should look and work. First of all - I think the two key features are the Carb Counting list, and Diary. Does anyone have anything else that they would like to see in the first version of an iPhone application? Next - iPhone users are all familiar with the User Interface of the phone, and I'd like some guidance as to how you'd like to interact with the CP List and Diary on the phone - what navigation mechanisms have worked well in other applications, and what makes it easiest for you to get around (if you have any application examples you really like then let me know too). Finally - if anyone have iPhone development experience and would like to get involved, by all means drop me an email ([email protected]) or private message. Let iDiscussions commence! Simon

Mar 6, 2010 vic demain 87 posts	Topic: Questions for HCPs / Hypo recognition. To develop this thread a little, may I offer my experiences this morning. Breakfast reading of 11.9 @ 09:10, which is way higher than normal, first thing. By 11:00 I had hypo symptoms, listless, irritable, tested and was 13.4. The tiredness continued through the morning and at lunch, I got a 4.9 reading - green result - but now some 40 minutes after lunch, I still feel low. Perhaps it's just a bad day but very confusing. Anyone care to offer an explanation please? Thanks, Vic.

Mar 4, 2010 Simon 578 posts	Topic: Site Development / Forum improvments It depends on which web browser you use - Firefox and Google Chrome both have this feature, whereas Internet Explorer doesn't (I don't think). I'll have a look into what we can do to help though Paul. Cheers

Mar 4, 2010 vic demain 87 posts	Topic: Site Development / Forum improvments Hi Paul, think there already is one as mine logs in itself.

Mar 4, 2010 Paul Ked 2 posts	Topic: Site Development / Forum improvments Hi I would like to say that the forum is great and has loads of excellent features but can i ask for one update (one for now); Could you have a remember me bit at the log in so i do not need to keep logging in? Thanks Paul Keddie

Mar 2, 2010 NiVZ 82 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Bayer Contour USB Meter Hello, Yeah sorry I should have said to ask your clinic about these as thats how most people get their meters. It does look a good meter, and as a bloke it would be great to have a meter that fits in your pocket. NiVZ

Mar 2, 2010 marke 681 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Bayer Contour USB Meter thanks for pointing this out, but I would NEVER pay for a meter. The meter companies make a lot of money from test strips and its in their interest to get you using their meters so you use their test strips. If they are giving them away it might be attractive, but if they want me to pay and then make a profit from me on the test strips then its not so attractive. I don't know for sure the 'list' price for contour strips but the retail price for 50 is around the same price as a meter. Yes, I know we don't pay for them but the NHS does.

Mar 2, 2010 NiVZ 82 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Bayer Contour USB Meter Hello, Just to let everyone know a new meter has been released by Bayer. It's very small, has colour screen and recharges via USB. It also has all the software stored on the USB drive part (plus 500mb for your own files) and works on both PC and MAC. http://www.bayercontourusb.co.uk NiVZ

Mar 1, 2010 Simon 578 posts	Topic: Site Development / Meter Upload Development Yep - if you click on an entry on the diary display you can edit it from there. Not sure how well it works with our RESTful XML side of things so I'll test it out and let you know. Cheers

Mar 1, 2010 NiVZ 82 posts	Topic: Site Development / Meter Upload Development Hello, If anyone wants a look at the DEMO version to get an idea of how the program is shaping up, you can download it at the following link: http://www.mediafire.com/?ftdimtymgmu At the moment it uses a 'dummy' meter to generate random data, and it doesn't actually perform the upload (don't want to put random data in your real accounts) but everything else is just how it will work with a real meter. All constructive criticism gladly accepted. Thanks, NiVZ

Mar 1, 2010 NiVZ 82 posts	Topic: Site Development / Meter Upload Development Hello, If anyone wants a look at the DEMO version to get an idea of how the program is shaping up, you can download it at the following link: http://www.mediafire.com/?ftdimtymgmu At the moment it uses a 'dummy' meter to generate random data, and it doesn't actually perform the upload (don't want to put random data in your real accounts) but everything else is just how it will work with a real meter. All constructive criticism gladly accepted. Thanks, NiVZ

Mar 1, 2010 NiVZ 82 posts	Topic: Site Development / Meter Upload Development Hi Simon, For problem 1, I thought it was overwriting - I'll re-test this. Problem 2 I need to think some more about. Also, just wondered (might be me being very thick as I've had a long day!) but is there anyway online to EDIT an entry. I did look but couldn't see it anywhere. This would definitely be needed for all meters that don't store insulin and carb data (ie everything except OneTouch UltraSmart) Thanks, NiVZ

Mar 1, 2010 Simon 578 posts	Topic: Site Development / Meter Upload Development NiVZ, Re problem 1 - the diary should merge the data, so that shouldn't be an issue. Problem 2 - it may be worth adding an 'updated at' field to each diary entry so that we can record when it was last updated - will this help? Simon

Mar 1, 2010 NiVZ 82 posts	Topic: Site Development / Meter Upload Development Hello, I've not had as much time to work on this lately (apologies) and I'm starting to struggle to think about the best way to make this work and also I'm the first to admit I'm not great at making a pretty user interface. The bit I'm struggling with the most is how people will use this, which can cause some problems with the data. Don't want to get too technical, but at the moment the program works as follows: 1. If it's the first time the program has run, it asks for your Dafne username & password, meter type, com port (auto detected where possible) and proxy settings (for if you are using it at work) Otherwise it reads the saved settings 2. It then waits for you to press the 'Get Meter Data' button 3. When you press the button it checks the latest BG date it has in my programs LOCAL database and then reads all the data from the meter, only adding new data to the database (this makes it quicker) 4. Once it has finished it asks you if you want to upload the data to DAFNE online. 5. If you click OK it goes and gets the latest BG date from DAFNE online 6. It then uploads all the data from the LOCAL database to DAFNE online that is newer than the date it got in step 5. After the program has uploaded your BG data you can then go and add your insulin and carb data manually via the website. The problems I'm thinking of are: 1. If you add a snack entry which is later than the last date you uploaded, there is a chance it could get overwritten if your meter has a BG reading for the same date and time 2. If you uploaded all of your data 2 days ago, and continue to test in the next 2 days, but then manually enter a reading for today the program will NOT add the data for the two days in between. I'm not sure how much of aproblem this would be but better to be safe than sorry. I don't want people to lose data by mistake. Any suggestions, or ideas about this please feel free to get in touch. I could even make a demo version available for people to let me know what they think. I'm also waiting for Lifescan to get back to me on some of the questions I have asked them. Thanks, NiVZ

Mar 1, 2010 Simon 578 posts	Topic: Site Development / exporting diary entries Thanks for the info Karl - it may be worth us adding a CSV export function onto the diary too to make things easier, rather than requiring a download of something else. John - not sure about this, I'd assumed as it was an HTML table excel would handle it nicely, obviously not so my apologies. I'll work on the above to make it simpler. Simon

Feb 28, 2010 Karl 83 posts	Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / Rationale - Please read Yokel i have a app called dropbox on my iphone - its prime use is to sync files between computers but i have set the pdf of the CPs as a favorite which saves it locally for off line reading. Has coming in handy. Simon - work mate has a couple of Iphone Apps under his belt - if you need help with anything I sure I could twist his arm :-)

Feb 28, 2010 Karl 83 posts	Topic: Site Development / exporting diary entries Hi John Done some web reading and testing - if you download http://www.brothersoft.com/a7soft-xml2csv-download-69269.html and unzip to a folder on your c: drive say c:\diary put your downloaded diary in here also . go to a command prompt - start - run - type cmd - enter - select the folder as earlier by cd c:\diary enter then paste (right mouse paste) xml2csv diary.xml diary.csv "entry_time,blood_glucose,carbohydrate_portions,quick_insulin,background_insulin,ratio,entry_type,target_min_bg,target_max_bg,comments" and press enter. This will make (hopefully) a csv comma-separated values file with the name diary.cvs in your diary folder on your c drive - any version of excel will open this file :-) hope this helps. if you have a problem either email me at karl at addrison dot co dot uk are reply / message here

Feb 28, 2010 Diana 7 posts	Topic: General Discussion / "Balance" letter about injecting in public Hi Richard I usually inject anywhere when travelling, including on planes. I think it should be fine as long as you make a point of being upfront about it when checking in. It also depends where you're flying. A couple of years ago I had my insulin confiscated for the duration of a 4 hour flight in Asia with Tiger Airways - they wouldn't close the plane doors until I had given it to them. I also tried injecting on a crowded tube a couple of times recently as I only had time to grab a cereal bar in the morning on the way out the door and was v surprised to see that nobody seemed to notice/care! Diana

Feb 28, 2010 richard_g 14 posts	Topic: General Discussion / "Balance" letter about injecting in public As i'm about to do some international travel I wonder what people think about injecting in your seat on an aeroplane. I used to do this without thinking but in the light of recent events are you likely to get jumped on by half the passengers and an air mashall if you get your insulin pen out? Or is it a question of retreating to the loo again.