Saturday 8 September 2012

Diabetes memes

So theres a group on Facebook (Fac-e-book?) called Type 1 diabetes memes and for those of us with diabetes or those with close loved ones with diabetes it show the lighter side of this disease.

With those popular memes created frequently which never fail to disappoint - I mean quite frankly I find them hilarious!

Anyway I decided I would create on for myself after reading this ridiculous comment on a social forum relating to 'curing' diabetes.

Said comment from someone clearly with limited information on diabetes

So this is what I came up with: 

Tuesday 4 September 2012

My Treatments

I apologise for the HUGE lack of posts on this blog. I mean I was going to do another video but I recorded it outside and all the sound was rubbish and I don't really have time right now to sit down and record another one due to being very busy.

So today I wanted to talk about what different things I use to either treat or help treat my diabetes. There are a whole multitude of different things I use because of the complicated disease this is. (This post may turn into 2 or more due to that!)

The Accu-chec mobile
BG meter
So the first thing that I use and can not even leave the house without (I am very attached to it - maybe too much!?) is my BG tester, I am currently using the Accu-chec mobile which is awesome as everything is all in one little machine that is just bigger than the size of a mobile phone. The Accu-chec mobile has a cartridge containing 50 tests in it as opposed to having a bottle of those pesky little strips, so it also means that strips that always get EVERYWHERE well just don't anymore. The tester also has a small cartridge of 6 finger pricks as opposed to having all those lancelets and lids that always seem to stray away from their holding pouch. I am lucky enough to currently have about 5 of these testers and so they are kept everywhere from beside my bed incase I'm low in the night to in my car incase I accidentally forget to take one out with me. Due to the fact they are everywhere I seem to do almost twice the number of tests that is recommended (I do around 10-12 a day!), I am not entirely sure whether this is a good thing but I always feel uneasy about not knowing where I am at with my BG level. Now if they could just combine this tester to use as a pump remote everything would be brilliant!

The animas 2020 Insulin pump
Moving on the second thing that is obviously very important in treatment of type one diabetes is that insulin stuff. I am currently using Apidra insulin in an animas 2020 pump which is working really well. When I was first diagnosed I was on two injections daily of a mix of insulin, I did this for about 6 years. Then once I was settled in secondary school I was moved over to a basal bolus system involving one injection of the  basal, long-acting insulin Lantus and three injections of the bolus, fast-acting insulin Humalog, this worked well for a few years but starting losing control of my diabetes slowly but surely and getting to the point as shown in previous blog posts where diabetes was stopping me doing things and ruining some important days. So around 6 months ago I started to think seriously about the idea of an insulin pump and mentioned it to my doctor, he told me it would be a good idea to go for it now whilst I'm still at the children's clinic. So I began carbohydrate counting and kept on at my nurse about how much we were struggling and about 2 months ago I was started on the pump with the new type of insulin. I have found that this was a brilliant decision as my life isn't the same day to day and so the flexibility the pump gives is just amazing! I mean I think someone would have to prise it out of my dead hands to take it away from me now!

I think that is a long enough post for now and I will carry on telling (typing?) you guys about how I treat my diabetes next time (maybe soon) including useful tools and apps I use on a day to day basis. I might also get around to recording another video soon so you can see my lovely face (?) at some point!

Danielle.