[Diabetes] General Chat and Support Thread

banie01

naasrd wrote: »

I’ve using glicklazide and metformin for over a year now. After a few difficult months I’m seeing extraordinary results lately. Have even cut down from 4 to 3 glicklazide a day. Anyone else on this?

Well done, it's great to see some more good news on here

How are you finding the risk of hypo with the Diamicron?
Any issues?

banie01

Eircom_Sucks wrote: »

you need a prescription for these ?

Yes, it's the generic of Diamicron.
It carries risks that are not associated with the newer meds and especially with regards to Hypoglycemia.
AFAIK it also needs to be disclosed to NDLS.

pew

naasrd wrote: »

I’ve using glicklazide and metformin for over a year now. After a few difficult months I’m seeing extraordinary results lately. Have even cut down from 4 to 3 glicklazide a day. Anyone else on this?

I was on it for about a year. My sugars were great on it, the only side effect i had was weight gain so i was taken off it. That was the only downside i had but it was grand to be.

calfmuscle

So my team are bringing in a covid "screening" process. As part of it we are all asked to fill in a questionnaire that rates our risk level for playing. I was rated high risk for having type 1 and told I couldn't play unless I saw my gp.

I was really upset by this and think its very unfair. I work in healthcare and was quite forceful and they did back down in my case. But I hope other ppl don't have to go through this.

Has anyone else had this experience yet?

Xofpod

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jul/23/israeli-firm-says-micro-pancreas-to-cure-diabetes-ready-for-uk-trials

Potential game changer?

banie01

calfmuscle wrote: »

Has anyone else had this experience yet?

No experience of similar that I've encountered as yet.
It may well be an over enthusiastic implementation of a risk assessment policy.
I hope that they have at least made an effort to explain things to you at this stage.

CramCycle

I had a slight experience of it where my boss thought they were doing me a favour by flagging me intermally as people were asked to highlight if they were high risk.

I was a tiny bit disjointed, my control has been incredibly tight of late, I am not having any issues.

I decided not to give out, I just informed them that my control was good and that I was not in the at risk group.

If my control was poor, I probably would have just stayed at home for the lockdown and worked on it though.

calfmuscle

Thanks guys, what upset me isnt the asking its the telling. I think we all agree our diabetes is in our control and we make decisions for ourselves.

Thankfully diabetes Ireland and the ICGP were really helpful. The app developer has taken on my feedback and changed their stance to advice rather than exclusion until seeing a gp.

I have prepared a letter to the sporting organisation too and will send it on tomorrow. Hopefully this doesn't happen going forward. Its not nice to feel like you're being treated differently or being excluded because of diabetes and definitely upset me at the time. Glad to say the app developers took on the recommendations tho.

banie01

@Calfmuscle, I didn't realize this was imposed on you as part of an app.
TBH, if I'd known that my advice would have been pretty much what you have done, along with an email to the IHREC for their review as to whether a breach of the equal status act had taken place.

I had thought it was a case of overreach by a club administrator who was aware of your condition?
Rather than what appears to be a request for protected info, and then a disqualification if you answered honestly.
If the app requests such info, it really needs to be ran past a compliance specialist before being left out of beta.

calfmuscle

banie01 wrote: »

I had thought it was a case of overreach by a club administrator who was aware of your condition?
Rather than what appears to be a request for protected info, and then a disqualification if you answered honestly.
If the app requests such info, it really needs to be ran past a compliance specialist before being left out of beta.

No it is the latter not the former. The app excluded you from play based on an elevated risk profile.
As I said tho the software is being changed and I'll email in my letter to the sporting organisation today. The most important thing is that this doesn't happen again with other apps/screening tools.

Galbin

Can anyone recommend a good blood sugar metre? I used to have One Touch Ultra and found it great, but the company sent me out One Touch Verio a few years back and it doesn't at all correlate with my blood tests. It always reads way, way higher than it should.

What is the most accurate one?

thehorse

Galbin wrote: »

Can anyone recommend a good blood sugar metre? I used to have One Touch Ultra and found it great, but the company sent me out One Touch Verio a few years back and it doesn't at all correlate with my blood tests. It always reads way, way higher than it should.

What is the most accurate one?

I’ve used a lot of different ones over the last 20+ years. I find the accu-check mobile is one of the best and it comes in a self contained unit which means the strips are stored in a cassette.

davork

Galbin wrote: »

Can anyone recommend a good blood sugar metre? I used to have One Touch Ultra and found it great, but the company sent me out One Touch Verio a few years back and it doesn't at all correlate with my blood tests. It always reads way, way higher than it should.

What is the most accurate one?

Ah! So it isnt just me with the One Touch Verio!

Galbin

davork wrote: »

Ah! So it isnt just me with the One Touch Verio!

Nope. I used one touch for years*, and it was always very accurate, matching up with my blood tests. I nearly got a heart attack when I started using the One Touch Verio though as was getting very high post-meal spikes. I then had a series of fasting bloods and A1C done, and found how just how crazy off it was. I googled it and found loads of folks saying the same.

*I am not diabetic, but have PCOS with ensuing insulin resistance. So, many years ago I got a meter and use it occasionally to keep an eye on things, in conjunction with my annual blood tests.

CramCycle

As a matter of interest, inaccurate compared to what, are you comparing it to another machine at the time or what?

Roberto_gas

Gents what is the best way to get diabetes treatment in Ireland. Asking on behalf of a friend who has just move in to Ireland. Is it GP first or direct to any hospital? Also any cost of day today medications and monitors etc?

ohnonotgmail

GP first. For people who are ordinarily resident the cost of medications is covered under the long term illness scheme.

Galbin

CramCycle wrote: »

As a matter of interest, inaccurate compared to what, are you comparing it to another machine at the time or what?

Compared to my fasting blood tests and A1C. I measured my fasting number on the Verio metre just before I had the blood drawn. As for the A1C, it would have had to have been way off if it were the same as the numbers I was getting on the Verio. OTOH, the One Touch Ultra correlated nicely with bloods I had done at various times over the years.

CramCycle

Galbin wrote: »

Compared to my fasting blood tests and A1C. I measured my fasting number on the Verio metre just before I had the blood drawn. As for the A1C, it would have had to have been way off if it were the same as the numbers I was getting on the Verio. OTOH, the One Touch Ultra correlated nicely with bloods I had done at various times over the years.

Cheers, you can't compare A1c to any singular blood test and maybe I misread it but I though you had said you were talkng about spikes after meals, which would be normal for many. There are very few meters that are precise and accurate, most are accurate in that they shoot a bit above or below randomly but few are accurate and precise in my experience. The Contour Next plus has been the closest so far and they are all getting better. I am also biased in that its one of the neatest looking ones in years. I never liked the Verio but that was aesthetic than anything important. This said, making wild assumptions about the Verio and their stupid prong strips which often bent, I could see several ways that errors above the norm could be introduced with ease.

EDIT: Googled it just in case I mixed up meters, thank fully no, but I did then regoogle it with issues in the search and this was the first hit, glad to say my Contour holds up, and while the dat isn't presented, it does look like you are right about it being far from the most accurate, would love to see if they released the data to see do they see what you do with consistentl above or was it just scattered all over the place

Roberto_gas

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

GP first. For people who are ordinarily resident the cost of medications is covered under the long term illness scheme.

Thanks..so GP will just refer them to diabetic clinic or do a blood test ?

ohnonotgmail

Roberto_gas wrote: »

Thanks..so GP will just refer them to diabetic clinic or do a blood test ?

do a blood test first.

calfmuscle

So I got bounced out of the eye and ear hospital and am now back with the retina screening clinic. They have offered me an appointment at their digital surveillance clinic in Dublin.

Has anyone ever been and know what it's like?

ohnonotgmail

calfmuscle wrote: »

So I got bounced out of the eye and ear hospital and am now back with the retina screening clinic. They have offered me an appointment at their digital surveillance clinic in Dublin.

Has anyone ever been and know what it's like?

pretty straightforward. they call you and give you drops to dilate your pupils. they leave you for 10-15 minutes to let those do their job. then they call you back in for the actual scans. similar equipment to what they have in opticians. all takes a few minutes. bring a pair of sunglasses as bright light can be painful afterwards. you cannot drive afterwards until the drops wear off.

calfmuscle

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

pretty straightforward. they call you and give you drops to dilate your pupils. they leave you for 10-15 minutes to let those do their job. then they call you back in for the actual scans. similar equipment to what they have in opticians. all takes a few minutes. bring a pair of sunglasses as bright light can be painful afterwards. you cannot drive afterwards until the drops wear off.

Oh great so is it just like a normal screening clinic then? Bit annoying to have to travel so far if it is. Although they said on the phone my old screening clinic has not reopened yet.

Galbin

CramCycle wrote: »

Cheers, you can't compare A1c to any singular blood test and maybe I misread it but I though you had said you were talkng about spikes after meals, which would be normal for many.

EDIT: Googled it just in case I mixed up meters, thank fully no, but I did then regoogle it with issues in the search and this was the first hit, glad to say my Contour holds up, and while the dat isn't presented, it does look like you are right about it being far from the most accurate, would love to see if they released the data to see do they see what you do with consistentl above or was it just scattered all over the place

Yes, you cannot compare A1C to any singular blood test. However, what I meant was that I took my fasting blood sugar on the metre and then had a fasting blood glucose done at my GP surgery. So I could see that the metre was way off. I also took many post-meal numbers on the metre - everything from 30 mins to 2 hours postpradial. If the metre had been accurate then I 100% would have had a high A1C, as the numbers were all high. However, my A1C was not even pre-diabetic, let alone diabetic.

CramCycle

Galbin wrote: »

Yes, you cannot compare A1C to any singular blood test. However, what I meant was that I took my fasting blood sugar on the metre and then had a fasting blood glucose done at my GP surgery. So I could see that the metre was way off. I also took many post-meal numbers on the metre - everything from 30 mins to 2 hours postpradial. If the metre had been accurate then I 100% would have had a high A1C, as the numbers were all high. However, my A1C was not even pre-diabetic, let alone diabetic.

Sorry, my point was, the best to do would have done the Verio while sitting in the GPs clinic, as they done their test, preferably on the same finger at the same time (different hands will have different numbers, different timepoints, even mere minutes the same). Needless to say, it does look like a sh1t Glucometer, I was more wondering how you came to the conclusion, I had though you were only measuring post prandial and then saying it didn't correlate to your HbA1c

Galbin

CramCycle wrote: »

Sorry, my point was, the best to do would have done the Verio while sitting in the GPs clinic, as they done their test, preferably on the same finger at the same time (different hands will have different numbers, different timepoints, even mere minutes the same). Needless to say, it does look like a sh1t Glucometer, I was more wondering how you came to the conclusion, I had though you were only measuring post prandial and then saying it didn't correlate to your HbA1c

I did it just before I left the house for the bloods. I always tried different fingers too as I was alarmed by the high numbers. I measured fasting, pre, and post prandial. It's crazy to me that the same company that made the great One Touch Ultra also made the terrible Verio.

CramCycle

Galbin wrote: »

I did it just before I left the house for the bloods. I always tried different fingers too as I was alarmed by the high numbers. I measured fasting, pre, and post prandial. It's crazy to me that the same company that made the great One Touch Ultra also made the terrible Verio.

I really think its the strip design for the Verio, as my memory is of those prongs deflecting/bending at the slightest error in insertion, as the chemistry behind most of the strips is quite basic, I even made up my own glucose testng assay in work in my first year out of college. If it makes you feel better, the accuracy and reproducibility appear to have come along way in only a few short years. Its only a few years ago here we were talking about the range that was acceptable for BG readings. It also is great for you in that you noticed it, I don't think I ever paid enough attention for the first 20 years I would have noticed thet discrepancy, your a better Diabetic than me (not a high bar I'll admit).

calfmuscle

Is any one else getting fed up with having to get a repeat prescription every 6 months when their endo only sees them once a year. Disclosure my gp recently started charging 30 euro for writing a repeat prescription. So on top of the hassle of getting the repeat prescription I now have a cost on top. There is no clinical need for my meds to be reviewed. It feels like a tick box exercise and I'm really sick of it

xeresod

calfmuscle wrote: »

Is any one else getting fed up with having to get a repeat prescription every 6 months when their endo only sees them once a year. Disclosure my gp recently started charging 30 euro for writing a repeat prescription. So on top of the hassle of getting the repeat prescription I now have a cost on top. There is no clinical need for my meds to be reviewed. It feels like a tick box exercise and I'm really sick of it

At least your GP charges the reduced repeat prescription fee, mine charges the full consultation fee!

My endo appointment doesn't line up with when I need my prescriptions (long story) so I need to get my GP to give me a prescription twice a year.

I have health insurance so my GP referred me to the endo as a private patient but at least I'm only out of pocket for €25 for him after reimbursement.