Recent Posts by Alan 49

Jun 28, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Travelling with insulin

Allan

The good thing about the Frio packs is that you only need a bowl or basin with cold water in it to get them working. The inner pouch contains special crystals - you soak the pouch in the cold water for 10 to 15 minutes, until the crystals soften and then they will stay cool for around 24 hours. So if you've got a couple of Frio pouches and access to cold water, they will keep your insulin supplies cool.

Gosh! I sound like a Frio rep.

Alan

Jun 26, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Travelling with insulin

Richard
I think the recommendation is not to put insulin into luggage that goes in the hold, because it may freeze and become unusable. I always keep my supplies in Frio pouches (as mentioned in earler postings on this topic) - in my hand luggage. These pouches keep the insulin cool for 24 hours or more, so are fine for flights to Os.

Jun 25, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Travelling with insulin

Thanks for that, Helen. I think the conclusion is 'don't trust airline food'. Next time I fly, I will take some sandwiches and fruit - something I know and trust. The trouble was that it was a 'package' holiday, and the package included flight meals, so we were reluctant to turn down something we'd already paid for. I'll know better next time.

Jun 24, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Travelling with insulin

Is there any way of finding out the carbohydrate content of airline meals? I recently flew back from holiday and over-estimated the amount of carbs in the meal. Consequently, I had a hypo as we were coming in to land. I should have asked the cabin crew, I suppose - but would they have known?

Jun 21, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Eye Screening

I have my eyes checked for retinopathy twice a year at my local hospital and so far there has been no need for laser surgery. A couple of years ago, the opthalmologist noticed some a slight worsening and I had to go in for a different sort of test. This involved putting a drip into the back of my hand and feeding in a flourescent yellow dye. The opthalmologoist then put the drops in my eyes to dilate the pupils and looked at the back of my eyes with one of the special viewing thingies, to see if any of the dye had leaked out. Thankfully, it hadn't. On the way out of the hospital, I went to the toilet and noticed that my pee was flourescent - I'm sure it would have shown up in the dark. It was alarming at first, but then I realised that it was the dye and I was quite amused.
Because of the pupil dilation, I had to get the bus home and when I got there, my wife was alarmed at the way I looked. There were yellow streaks down my face - when I had the drops in my eyes, they gave me tissues to wipe my eyes, which obviously spread the dye over my face - I wondered why I was getting some funny looks on the bus.

May 27, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Changes to the NHS

I am very concerned about all the changes the government are proposing to make and the speed of the reforms. I sent a list of questions I had to my MP, but she never answered any of them, she just said they were a good thing. I wrote back and she replied that she would pass them on to Andrew Lansley (the Health Secretary). Eventually, I got a letter from Earl Howe (remember him?) He didn't answer any of my questions either; instead, he referred me to the 'Listening Exercise'. I didn't even know there was such a thing - has anybody else heard about it?

If anybody's interested the website address is www.dh.gov.uk/healthandcare

Its name doesn't actually give any clues that it is a Listening Excercise, does it? It smacks of a political ploy, so that they can say that they listened, before implementing the changes.

This 'Listening Exercise' closes at the end of May, so if you want to have your say, you'd better do it quick.

May 2, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Hay fever - BG's gone high

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.

Apr 6, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: Site Development / Glossary of Terms

I think you're just the man for the job, Novorapidboi. The trouble is, we to be that we seem to be the only ones in favour of it - apart from Mark who also warned of the amount of work involved in it.

Perhaps you could start with 'sticky thread' - what does that mean?

Apr 5, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: Site Development / Glossary of Terms

Thanks for all the explanations - of course we all know CP, QA, BG and BI etc, but I didn't know what MDI and CSII meant (thanks Carolin). I was thinking more of a central repository where any diabetes-related terms or abbreviations could be accessed to get explanations. If you Google 'MDI' you get a multitude of results - including Merseyside Dance Institute (!) so that's not much help.

As Mark pointed out, a Glossary of Terms would take someone a lot of effort to compile - so it couldn't be done quickly. Nevertheless I think it would be a useful addition to the dafneonline website.

Apr 4, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: Site Development / Glossary of Terms

So, no need for a Glossary of Terms, then?

Mar 31, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Mentoring

I think it was the idea of the DSN at my GP surgery and was tried experimentally. I don't know whether they are going to pursue it.

Mar 30, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: Site Development / Glossary of Terms

Would it be worth putting a Glossary of Terms on the website? Searching the Handbook for 'bolus' or 'basal' yields no results, so I'm still not sure which is quick-acting and which is background insulin. Abbreviations could also be there, so a newcomer to the site could find out what CP or BG mean or non-medical abbreviations, like 'lol' - which I only recently found out means 'laugh out loud'.

What do you think?

Mar 28, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Mentoring

A couple of weeks ago there was a news item about diabetic mentoring, where an experienced Type 2 diabetic was mentoring a newly-diagnosed T2 person (or was it someone who was liable to become a T2?).

A couple of months ago the DSN at my GP surgery asked me if I would be willing to mentor a Type 1 diabetic who was having trouble with his control. Of course I agreed. The first session went well, I thought; the DSN and a GP were also there to monitor it. My first recommendation (predictably) was that he should get himself on a DAFNE course. This is proving to be a bit of a problem (an effect of the cut-backs already?) I made some more recommendations - relevant to his current control (or lack of it) and a follow-up meeting was arranged. Due to a mix up with appointments, he didn't show up and has not requested another session. Obviously, to be mentored, the 'mentoree' has to be a willing partner. Perhaps the first session didn't go as well as I thought it had.

Has anybody else had experience of mentoring?

Mar 23, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Blog: "DIY DAFNE" - An Diabetic Outsider's View

Yes, I remember these - terrible things! And that 'shunk' noise they made - OUCH!

Mar 18, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Blog: "DIY DAFNE" - An Diabetic Outsider's View

I was diagnosed 47 years ago and spent a week as in In-Patient at King's College Hospital - being 'stabilised'. We were taught the basics of carb-counting - an egg-sized potato was 10g of carbohydrate, as was an apple and an orange and various other foods were also covered. Does this ring a bell? 10g of carbohydrate was called a 'portion' and we were given a diet sheet - say 4 portions for breakfast, 5 for lunch and 6 for dinner. Our meals were prepared in the Diabetic Wing's own kitchen and were really nice. We were taught how to inject and told how much (twice a day - before breakfast and dinner). Of course there were no blood sugar meters in those days - testing consisted of dipping testing strips in urine and you hoped that it showed 'no sugar'. There was nothing you could do if it showed the presence of sugar.

I was quite amused when I went on the DAFNE course and found that the 10g portion had made a come-back. So in my opinion, carb-counting is not new at all.

Mar 13, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: Site Development / Last

Of course! What a dummy! Sorry about that.

Mar 13, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: Site Development / Last

Can someone tell me why the word 'Last' sometimes appears next to the title of a topic? When I first saw it, I thought that the topic had been closed by the administrators or by the system, but I found that I was able to add a comment to a topic that had been 'Lasted'. It seems a bit pointless to me.

Mar 10, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Census Form

The question is directed at each individual on the census form, so it is that person's opinion about whether it limits his or her activities. We should't be answering it on behalf of other people. In any case, there is no way of linking answers to medical conditions such as diabetes. The question does say 'day-to-day activities', which, for me anyway, does not include climbing up mountains.

Mar 9, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Census Form

I agree with novorapidboi, I like to think that I control my diabetes - not the other way round. DAFNE has been a great help in this. I do much the same things as other people of my age who don't have diabetes. I put 'No' to this on the census form.

Mar 3, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: General Discussion / 4mm needles

My HCP told me recently that 5mm is now the recommended needle length for most diabetics.

Feb 22, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: General Discussion / LOL

I often see 'LOL' in various postings but have no idea what it means.

Litres of Lager?
Levemir or Lantus?
Lack of Learning in my case, I think.

Feb 1, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Eat Versus Treat - Hypos

Athena
It looks to me as if you need to take some rapid-acting carbs - even for BGs between 3.6 and 4.0. Then, if you don't feel an improvement after 5 minutes - repeat the dose. Not quite sure what you mean by 'eat instead of treat'.

Jan 30, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Weight

My HCP told me that the best way to lose weight is to eat less. Obviously, if your intake of carbs goes down, then so should your insulin dose. This might not work for everybody, I accept, but it also seems obvious that if you eat more than you need to, the body will store the excess as fat. Eating less certainly worked for me, anyway.

Jan 27, 2011

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Type 1 Diabetes 'Cure'

I'm more than a little sceptical about this, Simon. What we need is a response from one of our HCPs.

Alan

Dec 28, 2010

Alan 49 284 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb Free Breakfast

Yes, I was a bit doubtful about "proteins counteracting carbs". Surely, if a meal contains carbohydrates, you have to count them to calculate your QA dosage, regardless of what you're having with them.

Jun 28, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Travelling with insulin Allan The good thing about the Frio packs is that you only need a bowl or basin with cold water in it to get them working. The inner pouch contains special crystals - you soak the pouch in the cold water for 10 to 15 minutes, until the crystals soften and then they will stay cool for around 24 hours. So if you've got a couple of Frio pouches and access to cold water, they will keep your insulin supplies cool. Gosh! I sound like a Frio rep. Alan

Jun 26, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Travelling with insulin Richard I think the recommendation is not to put insulin into luggage that goes in the hold, because it may freeze and become unusable. I always keep my supplies in Frio pouches (as mentioned in earler postings on this topic) - in my hand luggage. These pouches keep the insulin cool for 24 hours or more, so are fine for flights to Os.

Jun 25, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Travelling with insulin Thanks for that, Helen. I think the conclusion is 'don't trust airline food'. Next time I fly, I will take some sandwiches and fruit - something I know and trust. The trouble was that it was a 'package' holiday, and the package included flight meals, so we were reluctant to turn down something we'd already paid for. I'll know better next time.

Jun 24, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Travelling with insulin Is there any way of finding out the carbohydrate content of airline meals? I recently flew back from holiday and over-estimated the amount of carbs in the meal. Consequently, I had a hypo as we were coming in to land. I should have asked the cabin crew, I suppose - but would they have known?

Jun 21, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Eye Screening I have my eyes checked for retinopathy twice a year at my local hospital and so far there has been no need for laser surgery. A couple of years ago, the opthalmologist noticed some a slight worsening and I had to go in for a different sort of test. This involved putting a drip into the back of my hand and feeding in a flourescent yellow dye. The opthalmologoist then put the drops in my eyes to dilate the pupils and looked at the back of my eyes with one of the special viewing thingies, to see if any of the dye had leaked out. Thankfully, it hadn't. On the way out of the hospital, I went to the toilet and noticed that my pee was flourescent - I'm sure it would have shown up in the dark. It was alarming at first, but then I realised that it was the dye and I was quite amused. Because of the pupil dilation, I had to get the bus home and when I got there, my wife was alarmed at the way I looked. There were yellow streaks down my face - when I had the drops in my eyes, they gave me tissues to wipe my eyes, which obviously spread the dye over my face - I wondered why I was getting some funny looks on the bus.

May 27, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Changes to the NHS I am very concerned about all the changes the government are proposing to make and the speed of the reforms. I sent a list of questions I had to my MP, but she never answered any of them, she just said they were a good thing. I wrote back and she replied that she would pass them on to Andrew Lansley (the Health Secretary). Eventually, I got a letter from Earl Howe (remember him?) He didn't answer any of my questions either; instead, he referred me to the 'Listening Exercise'. I didn't even know there was such a thing - has anybody else heard about it? If anybody's interested the website address is www.dh.gov.uk/healthandcare Its name doesn't actually give any clues that it is a Listening Excercise, does it? It smacks of a political ploy, so that they can say that they listened, before implementing the changes. This 'Listening Exercise' closes at the end of May, so if you want to have your say, you'd better do it quick.

May 2, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Hay fever - BG's gone high 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.

Apr 6, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: Site Development / Glossary of Terms I think you're just the man for the job, Novorapidboi. The trouble is, we to be that we seem to be the only ones in favour of it - apart from Mark who also warned of the amount of work involved in it. Perhaps you could start with 'sticky thread' - what does that mean?

Apr 5, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: Site Development / Glossary of Terms Thanks for all the explanations - of course we all know CP, QA, BG and BI etc, but I didn't know what MDI and CSII meant (thanks Carolin). I was thinking more of a central repository where any diabetes-related terms or abbreviations could be accessed to get explanations. If you Google 'MDI' you get a multitude of results - including Merseyside Dance Institute (!) so that's not much help. As Mark pointed out, a Glossary of Terms would take someone a lot of effort to compile - so it couldn't be done quickly. Nevertheless I think it would be a useful addition to the dafneonline website.

Apr 4, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: Site Development / Glossary of Terms So, no need for a Glossary of Terms, then?

Mar 31, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Mentoring I think it was the idea of the DSN at my GP surgery and was tried experimentally. I don't know whether they are going to pursue it.

Mar 30, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: Site Development / Glossary of Terms Would it be worth putting a Glossary of Terms on the website? Searching the Handbook for 'bolus' or 'basal' yields no results, so I'm still not sure which is quick-acting and which is background insulin. Abbreviations could also be there, so a newcomer to the site could find out what CP or BG mean or non-medical abbreviations, like 'lol' - which I only recently found out means 'laugh out loud'. What do you think?

Mar 28, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Mentoring A couple of weeks ago there was a news item about diabetic mentoring, where an experienced Type 2 diabetic was mentoring a newly-diagnosed T2 person (or was it someone who was liable to become a T2?). A couple of months ago the DSN at my GP surgery asked me if I would be willing to mentor a Type 1 diabetic who was having trouble with his control. Of course I agreed. The first session went well, I thought; the DSN and a GP were also there to monitor it. My first recommendation (predictably) was that he should get himself on a DAFNE course. This is proving to be a bit of a problem (an effect of the cut-backs already?) I made some more recommendations - relevant to his current control (or lack of it) and a follow-up meeting was arranged. Due to a mix up with appointments, he didn't show up and has not requested another session. Obviously, to be mentored, the 'mentoree' has to be a willing partner. Perhaps the first session didn't go as well as I thought it had. Has anybody else had experience of mentoring?

Mar 23, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Blog: "DIY DAFNE" - An Diabetic Outsider's View Yes, I remember these - terrible things! And that 'shunk' noise they made - OUCH!

Mar 18, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Blog: "DIY DAFNE" - An Diabetic Outsider's View I was diagnosed 47 years ago and spent a week as in In-Patient at King's College Hospital - being 'stabilised'. We were taught the basics of carb-counting - an egg-sized potato was 10g of carbohydrate, as was an apple and an orange and various other foods were also covered. Does this ring a bell? 10g of carbohydrate was called a 'portion' and we were given a diet sheet - say 4 portions for breakfast, 5 for lunch and 6 for dinner. Our meals were prepared in the Diabetic Wing's own kitchen and were really nice. We were taught how to inject and told how much (twice a day - before breakfast and dinner). Of course there were no blood sugar meters in those days - testing consisted of dipping testing strips in urine and you hoped that it showed 'no sugar'. There was nothing you could do if it showed the presence of sugar. I was quite amused when I went on the DAFNE course and found that the 10g portion had made a come-back. So in my opinion, carb-counting is not new at all.

Mar 13, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: Site Development / Last Of course! What a dummy! Sorry about that.

Mar 13, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: Site Development / Last Can someone tell me why the word 'Last' sometimes appears next to the title of a topic? When I first saw it, I thought that the topic had been closed by the administrators or by the system, but I found that I was able to add a comment to a topic that had been 'Lasted'. It seems a bit pointless to me.

Mar 10, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Census Form The question is directed at each individual on the census form, so it is that person's opinion about whether it limits his or her activities. We should't be answering it on behalf of other people. In any case, there is no way of linking answers to medical conditions such as diabetes. The question does say 'day-to-day activities', which, for me anyway, does not include climbing up mountains.

Mar 9, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Census Form I agree with novorapidboi, I like to think that I control my diabetes - not the other way round. DAFNE has been a great help in this. I do much the same things as other people of my age who don't have diabetes. I put 'No' to this on the census form.

Mar 3, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: General Discussion / 4mm needles My HCP told me recently that 5mm is now the recommended needle length for most diabetics.

Feb 22, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: General Discussion / LOL I often see 'LOL' in various postings but have no idea what it means. Litres of Lager? Levemir or Lantus? Lack of Learning in my case, I think.

Feb 1, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Eat Versus Treat - Hypos Athena It looks to me as if you need to take some rapid-acting carbs - even for BGs between 3.6 and 4.0. Then, if you don't feel an improvement after 5 minutes - repeat the dose. Not quite sure what you mean by 'eat instead of treat'.

Jan 30, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Weight My HCP told me that the best way to lose weight is to eat less. Obviously, if your intake of carbs goes down, then so should your insulin dose. This might not work for everybody, I accept, but it also seems obvious that if you eat more than you need to, the body will store the excess as fat. Eating less certainly worked for me, anyway.

Jan 27, 2011 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Type 1 Diabetes 'Cure' I'm more than a little sceptical about this, Simon. What we need is a response from one of our HCPs. Alan

Dec 28, 2010 Alan 49 284 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Carb Free Breakfast Yes, I was a bit doubtful about "proteins counteracting carbs". Surely, if a meal contains carbohydrates, you have to count them to calculate your QA dosage, regardless of what you're having with them.