[Diabetes] General Chat and Support Thread

Buford T. Justice XIX

robinph wrote: »

Cannula, a catheter would go somewhere else entirely. :eek:

I knew it wasn't quite right but I was running a bit behind time so went with the wrong one, it turns out:p

banie01

Had a full day in UHL this morning. Great news from the Podiatry clinic in that my feet are grand and I have been discharged from their clinic Endo referred me over there at last clinic.

Then it was off to the Endo, had to make a new appointment as my BG control has totally blown since being taken off Jardiance @6weeks ago.
My morning averages have gone from between 6-8 before being taken off Jardiance to 10-13 since stopping it.

As my feet are good, with no ulceration or issues the Endo restarted the Jardiance.

Also got "final" confirmation of my diabetes as being Type 2. UHL are now running the full 3 antibody tests rather than just the GAD

So it is just my pancreas being bloody lazy...

Harry Palmr

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Back for my check up this week, was switched from Levemir to Tresiba while that the pharmacy my Ezetrol has been replaced by Ezetimibe Teva at the behest of the dept of health (15 euro a pack difference I was told), also had my eyes photographed, two or three weeks before I know the results.

Ezetimibe Teva comes with instruction on the sticky name label to not take grapefruit juice - did some googling and the fruit acts to create buildup of the active ingredient which can cause things like muscle pain at the low end to kidney failure at the high.

My HBA1c is 7.1 which is okay, needless to say the consultant wants it a bit lower, the switch to Tresiba should help with ironing out the peaks of lows and highs.

Got the letter this morning (Saturday post!) I have background diabetic retinopathy but no further info from the scan just that no need to panic keep taking the tests, maintain good control etc.

Oh well, it was going to happen at some point I suppose.

pew

I have a quick question. I'm heading in to the Mater on Wednesday to get my eyes checked out. After the retina screening back in May they wanted me to get checked for Glaucoma so now I finally get my appointment. I had been in specsavers in the mean time and they had done the tests etc and said everything looked great.

Of course I've been going out of my mind thinking I'm going blind, I'm not even 30 yet. I'm not too sure what to expect.

Has anyone had to go in before?

Also had anyone here been diagnosed with reniopathy by any chance?

gerrybbadd

pew wrote: »

I have a quick question. I'm heading in to the Mater on Wednesday to get my eyes checked out. After the retina screening back in May they wanted me to get checked for Glaucoma so now I finally get my appointment. I had been in specsavers in the mean time and they had done the tests etc and said everything looked great.

Of course I've been going out of my mind thinking I'm going blind, I'm not even 30 yet. I'm not too sure what to expect.

Has anyone had to go in before?

Also had anyone here been diagnosed with reniopathy by any chance?

I have glaucoma for years in one of my eyes.

I take an eye drop called Travatan, and never have any real problem with my eyes. These drops help reduce the pressure in the eyes and you take them at night.

Buford T. Justice XIX

pew wrote: »

I have a quick question. I'm heading in to the Mater on Wednesday to get my eyes checked out. After the retina screening back in May they wanted me to get checked for Glaucoma so now I finally get my appointment. I had been in specsavers in the mean time and they had done the tests etc and said everything looked great.

Of course I've been going out of my mind thinking I'm going blind, I'm not even 30 yet. I'm not too sure what to expect.

Has anyone had to go in before?

Also had anyone here been diagnosed with reniopathy by any chance?

I have a small bit of reinopathy in both my eyes since I first had them tested. Very little change in the last 25 years but maybe I'm just lucky?

banie01

Have background retinopathy in both eyes.
Was referred to my local opthalmology clinic for further investigation and monitoring and was reviewed there every 6 months for 2 years.

My retinopathy stayed as is, and I discharged back to the DRS scheme for continued monitoring.

Retinopathy and more what it "can' lead to is scary.
That said, good glucose and blood pressure control aswell as being sure to engage with the DRS and opthalmology services will go a long way towards prevention and mitigation of any further issues.

Good luck at your appt Pew.

pew

gerrybbadd wrote: »

I have glaucoma for years in one of my eyes.

I take an eye drop called Travatan, and never have any real problem with my eyes. These drops help reduce the pressure in the eyes and you take them at night.

Does it affect you driving at all.

pew

My housemate works for specsavers and he did say they would have picked up on it but that it's easier to think the worst when you have to go in.

I wouldn't say it's in the bad of my mind but I am thinking of it and trying my best to control everything.

IrishHomer

I have type 2 diabetes past year, there was glaucoma I'm my grandfather's eyes and a few years ago specsavers referred me to an eye specialist because of frequent high pressure test levels in my eyes. For past few years I'm being tested by the specialist every six months and fingers crossed so far all ok but my reading sight is deteriorating band this is due to getting old I'm now 50yrs old

Galbin

I had bloods done at the end of November, which was a few months after I was hospitalised and put on massive doses of steroids. In the hospital my blood glucose numbers were a mix of diabetic and pre diabetic, and they stayed that way for a month afterwards. Anyhow, my fasting blood sugar came back at 4.3. Insulin unfortunately was a bit raised, but given that I have had PCOS for twenty years that is just the way it is. I have seen it go up and down over the years, so I think it will go down again. It was 18 (<10).

All in all, my experience proves that steroid induced diabetes is a real thing and that in most cases it does go away.

Harry Palmr

Anyone got the flu jab done? I used to be laxed but now I have it done as I get older and decrepit.

I think I've got on top of my new basal insulin regime, nearly all my readings are now between 5 and 8 through out the day. It took a while to adjust to the fact it's uptake in the system has a modest peak and is the same after 24 hours as when it's injected.

CathyMoran

I got the flu jab on the second day it was out here - I get the flu jab every year. I am a Type 1 since childhood.

banie01

I've had actual Flu once in my 40 years on this earth.
I now look on one of the few perks of Diabetes being early and free access to the vaccine.
Not missed it in 13 years

Royal Legend

Just about finished the trial with Atlantia, having the meter for 3 months was enlightening and informative. Will get the flu jab early January and get my HbA1c done as I have yearly appointment for St James for end of January for NAFLD checkup.

Wishing everyone on the thread a Happy Christmas and an even better 2020

Xofpod

Royal Legend wrote: »

Just about finished the trial with Atlantia, having the meter for 3 months was enlightening and informative. Will get the flu jab early January and get my HbA1c done as I have yearly appointment for St James for end of January for NAFLD checkup.

Wishing everyone on the thread a Happy Christmas and an even better 2020

My suggestion - don't wait to get the flu jab if possible. Flu is likely to peak over Xmas this year.

CramCycle

Xofpod wrote: »

My suggestion - don't wait to get the flu jab if possible. Flu is likely to peak over Xmas this year.

I was chatting to a friend in the NVRL this year and the flu season has hit alot earlier this year, 100% don't wait, I got mine a month ago. They do it in work so I am alot better than I use to be about getting it.

CramCycle

First hypo of the year, 2.7 as I got into work, stupid exercise, Happy new year every one.

Harry Palmr

That's not a hypo - THIS is a hypo (pulls out a meter that shows 1.2!).

Royal Legend

Xofpod wrote: »

My suggestion - don't wait to get the flu jab if possible. Flu is likely to peak over Xmas this year.

Thanks, got it done at the weekend, first chance i got. Wife had flu over the Christmas and she never gets sick, for some reason i managed to avoid it.

Alanstrainor

echo beach wrote: »

Alanstrainor wrote: »

So back in November I posted here to say that I had moved to a new insulin in my pump. FIASP claims to be the fastest acting insulin on the market taking affect after 2 minutes and helping to reduce spikes and making correction bolusing much quicker.

When I started I felt I could notice a difference immediately. Correction boluses would see my sugars fall rapidly after, and it seemed that it was exactly what was promised. I did have some trouble with my basals, as the new insulin would require a quite different basal profile which I had to figure out. All of this was expected and I tried my best to adapt.

However in the last 6 weeks I noticed my daily intake of insulin was increasing, bolusing was no longer as rapid, and my bolus dosages started to go through the roof. On top of this, I began having site issues, sites would not last 3 days any more, and would become irritated and sore after a relatively short time. This week I was forced to swap back to my tried and tested Novorapid. Despite having a vast supply of FIASP in the fridge.

So in conclusion, it started well and then went all tits up over time. To the point of being unuseable. It's a shame really.

Bumping this as Fiasp has come up again

It's been a long while since posting or reading here. And I saw the above post of mine coming up in the recent-ish past. So I figured an update was in order.

So after going back to Novorapid, I stayed on it for 2 weeks or so and decided to go back to FIASP as a last chance. The 2 weeks on Novorapid (an insulin I had used for 11 years or more pumping) made me realise that FIASP was still faster, and that perhaps my issues were workable.

I've used FIASP ever since, and can say that it has been going well. My time in range using my pump CGM data is better than ever before. My HbA1c is the best it has every been (40, or 6.0) and I would attribute this to the better responsiveness of the insulin.

I have now changed when my pump alerts me to a high to 10.0mmol, which is much lower than Medtronic recommends for T1's, but it allows me to catch stray readings and correct them immediately. I now rarely see glucose readings over 12mmol, looking at my CGM data 2% of my readings over the last month were over this, and my low control has improved too.

The only issues I note are that sites should be changed on the button at 3 days. Any longer and I start to see absorption problems. But this is in line with Medtronic spec and is not a hassle. Otherwise my sites are all good.

johnnie T2

Was able to obtain my bloods from my Endocrinology appointment in Beaumont.
My Hba1c was 55 in june when i was sent by my GP & told i had Type 2 Diabetes, on the bloods taken by Endo in October it is now 33.
Can i safely assume i am not diabetic as i'm still waiting until march to be seen again.

my testosterone was <0.3 and is now 22.8 nmol/l, I'm unsure what normal range is - and it seems unusual for it to fluctuate so much as could be back to zero again now, im seeing another GP tomorrow to take my bloods for testosterone and if its low again he mentioned testoserone gel. Anyone any experience of this?

Wanton

Hi Folks,

Looking for some guidance.

I have travelled to the US a number of times in the past, but naively never really gave my T1D condition much thought.
I am travelling in a group, for 3 weeks and plan on splitting 3 months supply across our luagage.

I always have travel insurance, but again, never really gave any thought to if I need "more".
Does anyone have any recommendations for what kind, or who I should get insurance with?
Obviously one of my biggest concerns is the cost of insulin, should i for any reason find that I lose or damage my entire supply.

Any advise would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

ohnonotgmail

one piece of advice is to not put your insulin in other peoples baggage.

BlackEdelweiss

Royal Legend wrote: »

Thanks, got it done at the weekend, first chance i got. Wife had flu over the Christmas and she never gets sick, for some reason i managed to avoid it.

Just to add a bit of weight to this suggestion I will tell a bit about our current situation.

My 19 year old Type 1 son went to Paris for a few days with his girlfriend an Janusry 4th. He was not feeling great the day he arrived and got worse over the next two days. He thought it was just a regular dose of something but spent 2 days feeling terrible in a hotel room. He thought he was feeling better that night but on the third day he felt even worse. Being teenagers they did not realise the severity of this and decided to wait until they got home to Ireland the next morning before going to the doctor.

I got a call from his girlfriend on Wednesday night at 9pm, she was in a terrible state, crying and hard to get any information out of her. We eventually established that my son was in very bad shape and had been vomiting all day and was now screaming in pain. We told her to get him to a hospital straight away which thankfully happened within 30 minutes of the call.

After several hours of not knowing what was happening we eventually got word at 1.30am that he was in DKA and had severe dehydration. They managed to stabilise him that night and we got word the next morning that he was out of immediate danger.

They have since established that he got the flu and this led to the DKA and dehydration. He got moved out of ICU yesterday but had a bit of a relapse on the way to the diabetes ward but they have got him stable again. He is still in the diabetes ward and we still dont know when he will be discharged. He is still in pain and is sleeping most of the time.

I know a lot of this was preventable however when dealing with teenagers diabetes or anything really is not so straight forward, especially when they are old enough to go and do things on their own.

Moral of the story, a flu jab may have prevented this.

EDIT: I got a call from his girlfriend not his daughter, corrected now.

ddarcy

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

Just to add a bit of weight to this suggestion I will tell a bit about our current situation.

My 19 year old Type 1 son went to Paris for a few days with his girlfriend an Janusry 4th. He was not feeling great the day he arrived and got worse over the next two days. He thought it was just a regular dose of something but spent 2 days feeling terrible in a hotel room. He thought he was feeling better that night but on the third day he felt even worse. Being teenagers they did not realise the severity of this and decided to wait until they got home to Ireland the next morning before going to the doctor.

I got a call from his girlfriend on Wednesday night at 9pm, she was in a terrible state, crying and hard to get any information out of her. We eventually established that my son was in very bad shape and had been vomiting all day and was now screaming in pain. We told her to get him to a hospital straight away which thankfully happened within 30 minutes of the call.

After several hours of not knowing what was happening we eventually got word at 1.30am that he was in DKA and had severe dehydration. They managed to stabilise him that night and we got word the next morning that he was out of immediate danger.

They have since established that he got the flu and this led to the DKA and dehydration. He got moved out of ICU yesterday but had a bit of a relapse on the way to the diabetes ward but they have got him stable again. He is still in the diabetes ward and we still dont know when he will be discharged. He is still in pain and is sleeping most of the time.

I know a lot of this was preventable however when dealing with teenagers diabetes or anything really is not so straight forward, especially when they are old enough to go and do things on their own.

Moral of the story, a flu jab may have prevented this.

EDIT: I got a call from his girlfriend not his daughter, corrected now.

This is good he’s grand now.

One thing which I think a lot of people forget is to get an EHIC. You don’t necessarily need one if you have a passport (but id still advise getting one and having it on you), but should help you if you get into trouble. Sometimes people think treating will be expensive, so having this in place and knowing what to do in the country beforehand would be the best advice.

BlackEdelweiss

ddarcy wrote: »

This is good he’s grand now.

One thing which I think a lot of people forget is to get an EHIC. You don’t necessarily need one if you have a passport (but id still advise getting one and having it on you), but should help you if you get into trouble. Sometimes people think treating will be expensive, so having this in place and knowing what to do in the country beforehand would be the best advice.

My son lay in his hotel room for 3 days getting sicker and sicker. He said one of the reasons he did not go to a hospital was because he was scared of the cost. It turns out we had one of these cards previously from when he was younger so he was covered anyway. It has been a big wake up call for us about flu vaccinations and travel insurance. We are awaiting the bill for a 5 day stay in a Paris hospital. I think we are covered for up to 80% but not sure about that. No idea what 20% of the bill is going to be either bit its a hell of a lot better than 100% of it.

BlackEdelweiss

Can anyone recommend an insurance company who provide travel insurance cover for diabetics without totally robbing me?

ddarcy

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

Can anyone recommend an insurance company who provide travel insurance cover for diabetics without totally robbing me?

I’ve used all clear travel. For the whole world including the USA it comes in at 112 for the year. Really should cover everything. Should be cheaper if not going to the USA etc. I’ve never had to make a claim etc. So about double of what you’d get as standard. Anything my employer does subsidise it for me as well. But that’s probably the best you’ll get.

BlackEdelweiss

I got a quote from Chill Insurance for €29. Then I saw your recommendation for All Clear Travel and got a quote from them for €98. I had already bought the Chill policy but now I'm concerned that I am missing something. All the questions were the exact same and both seem to offer the same cover.