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[Diabetes] General Chat and Support Thread

tbh

Hey guys - I've created a single "chat" thread for all the diabetics for any topics of conversation that don't fit in the existing threads.

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faganlesley

Hi everyone, just wondering if anyone could help me go in the right direction. I’m looking to get a CGM. Tallaght hospital seem to be pushy towards the libre but that’s self funded @€;120 per month. A family member of my partner has the Guardian Medtronic on the LTI. I’m not sure how to go about finding out how to get it on the LTI. Has anyone done this and would you be able to point me in the right direction. My nurse just didn’t want to talk about the Medtronic at all really so couldn’t get the information from her.

Thanks in advance

Royal Legend

Royal Legend wrote: »

Just back from the Diabetes Ireland day in the Rochestown Hotel in Cork. Some good seminars and advice.

Bit of a wake up call on the day of the seminar. Type 2, Had been poor for the last few years in regards to minding my health, eat everything, never checked my bloods as I knew they would be high. Was waiting on blood results from my doctor at the time, but they did it there and then on the day HB1AC was 9.4 so not great. got a new blood glucose meter on the day, also a free Liver check, which i went for in the Beacon the following week

They checked for NAFLD (Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease) which apparently is a silent killer, causing sclerosis of the Liver. Test found that I had some scarring of the liver and NAFLD, told that it is caused by being overweight. Lose the weight and you stop the damage.

Since then I have lost about 2 stone, (18 down to 16 stone, was probably around the 20 stone mark over the last few years) without going on a mad diet, mainly by cutting out all cakes, chocolate etc, even over Christmas, (did eat Christmas pud though

) So Breakfast in the morning, mainly porridge with cinnamon, nuts and fruit during the day for snacks, (cashews and oranges) and a normal dinner in the evening, plus exercise most days. Fasting bloods down to under 8 on average after starting out at 10, target is to get them under 6.

Not finished yet, need to get down to under 13 stone for my height.

I did follow the Newcastle diet some years ago and lost a lot of weight, with the target of reversing my type 2, when it didn't happen went back to old ways, plus i did it on my own without any guidance or help from GP, which I know now was a mistake.

My goal is different now, its to reduce weight and get healthy, and i can guarantee that i will never go back to that kind of weight ever again

not yet

Royal Legend wrote: »

Bit of a wake up call on the day of the seminar. Type 2, Had been poor for the last few years in regards to minding my health, eat everything, never checked my bloods as I knew they would be high. Was waiting on blood results from my doctor at the time, but they did it there and then on the day HB1AC was 9.4 so not great. got a new blood glucose meter on the day, also a free Liver check, which i went for in the Beacon the following week

They checked for NAFLD (Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease) which apparently is a silent killer, causing sclerosis of the Liver. Test found that I had some scarring of the liver and NAFLD, told that it is caused by being overweight. Lose the weight and you stop the damage.

Since then I have lost about 2 stone, (18 down to 16 stone, was probably around the 20 stone mark over the last few years) without going on a mad diet, mainly by cutting out all cakes, chocolate etc, even over Christmas, (did eat Christmas pud though ) So Breakfast in the morning, mainly porridge with cinnamon, nuts and fruit during the day for snacks, (cashews and oranges) and a normal dinner in the evening, plus exercise most days. Fasting bloods down to under 8 on average after starting out at 10, target is to get them under 6.

Not finished yet, need to get down to under 13 stone for my height.

I did follow the Newcastle diet some years ago and lost a lot of weight, with the target of reversing my type 2, when it didn't happen went back to old ways, plus i did it on my own without any guidance or help from GP, which I know now was a mistake.

My goal is different now, its to reduce weight and get healthy, and i can guarantee that i will never go back to that kind of weight ever again

Be careful of Carbs, Youtube Keto, some serious results in Blood sugar levels.

silverharp

Royal Legend wrote: »

So Breakfast in the morning, mainly porridge with cinnamon, nuts and fruit during the day for snacks, (cashews and oranges) and a normal dinner in the evening, plus exercise most days. Fasting bloods down to under 8 on average after starting out at 10, target is to get them under 6.

oatmeal can be a problem

https://twitter.com/drsteventucker/status/1081964662495666176

Alanstrainor

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.

wakka12

When she says 'oatmeal' is this some kind of pre packed microwavable added sugar product in america? or plain porridge oats? Why would so many health industries and doctors constantly reinforce the point of how healthy porridge is if it apparently spikes blood sugar so much?

CramCycle

Any ideas yourself on why? Reading up a bit on it myself but there isn't much in the way of studies on it yet, but alot of theories which I am skeptical against repeating, as even novorapid doesn't work for some people, so the few stories may just be that the outliers like to write blogs.

silverharp

from following people's experiences online it can be quite personal, one person tested a whole bunch of foods and some where you would expect a high jump simply didnt. i dont know about particular brands]types of oatmeal, some or worse that others but not really picking up a vibe from these guys that any kind of oatmeal should be without question in the good camp, at the end of the day all carbs and starch foods convert to sugar in your body so the quantity maybe the poison.

CramCycle

I have porridge occasionally and never see the spikes shown around on twitter. It is a slow burner with me and my bloods will rise but I bolus early and it comes back in range in a reasonable timeframe. Every food is slightly different. Not saying it is the issue but I suspect alot of the issues are American in nature. I eat bread in America and the volume of Sugar in it, I may as well have just eaten a Chocolate bar with sugar/nougat filling.

Buford T. Justice XIX

I would have porridge for breakfast every morning but I would be very active for two or three hours after it so it's burned off easily.

When I'm not active, they can spike to 17 unless I remember to bolus again.

CramCycle

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

I would have porridge for breakfast every morning but I would be very active for two or three hours after it so it's burned off easily.

When I'm not active, they can spike to 17 unless I remember to bolus again.

True, I cycle every morning so it probably helps. Would yours come down eventually if you didn't bolus again or would it remain high?

Buford T. Justice XIX

CramCycle wrote: »

True, I cycle every morning so it probably helps. Would yours come down eventually if you didn't bolus again or would it remain high?

It would remain high. The basals would have to be adjusted and I'd just increase the basal if I knew I wasn't doing much activity for an hour or two. Most often I'd just do a normal bolus of 2-3 and it works fairly well for me.

In fairness, Spring is the busiest time for me so I'd be much more likely to have lows than highs. I'd often be 3-4 when I'd finish up and it's difficult to keep any worthwhile foods with me in the evenings so I might have to have a biscuit of some chocolate to get me finished.

Royal Legend

silverharp wrote: »

oatmeal can be a problem

https://twitter.com/drsteventucker/status/1081964662495666176

Is this a strange one, oatmeal??? I would have thought that it was the spoon of honey that spiked the readings?

wakka12

For instance, just looked up this article, and among the highest GL foods instant oatmeal is listed, so this might be the type of oatmeal the twitter people witht he high readings are referring as opposed to the raw oats you cook with water that most of us are probably referring to? Which are traditionally considered low GL

https://dlife.com/high-glycemic-index-foods-to-avoid/

Just on a side point though its so irritating that so many producers ruin otherwise healthy foods unnecessarily with so much excess salt and sugar that nobody asked for. I go out of my way to buy healthy and then find out what Ive been eating is packed with hidden unhealthy ingredients, itd drive you mad. Its so difficult to be really healthy unless you spend a lot of time ,money and effort on it, Id say a huge amount of people who think they have a healthy diet eat nowhere near as healthy as they think

not yet

wakka12 wrote: »

For instance, just looked up this article, and among the highest GL foods instant oatmeal is listed, so this might be the type of oatmeal the twitter people witht he high readings are referring as opposed to the raw oats you cook with water that most of us are probably referring to?

https://dlife.com/high-glycemic-index-foods-to-avoid/

If you read the back of the pack on Oatmeal It reads 70gr carbs per 100gr approx. Although some of that is Fibre it's still a lot of carbs and they will spike sugar unless your really active. Funny enough a banana will spike your sugar as nuch as a bar of chocolate, It's a minefield..

CramCycle

not yet wrote: »

If you read the back of the pack on Oatmeal It reads 70gr carbs per 100gr approx. Although some of that is Fibre it's still a lot of carbs and they will spike sugar unless your really active. Funny enough a banana will spike your sugar as nuch as a bar of chocolate, It's a minefield..

I think alot of people did not realise that most foods will spike your sugar until recently, they were checking an hour or two after, in fact up until recent times, most diabetics were only checking before meals or when feeling unwell. Even if I get the insulin right, I still get a spike, and then it comes down and to be honest, i imagine that this is OK for non diabetics as well. The truth is if the human body couldn't handle the pH shift, osmotic pressure etc. diabetics in general would never have survived even with treatment. The human body could always take these extremes, the only difference we provide is holding it to these for longer than regular people.

I still meet people today who think with the CGM that their blood should not go above 10 after a meal as it is unhealthy. Not realising due to poor teaching in their youth that it is perfectly normal for both Diabetics and non diabetics alike.

not yet

CramCycle wrote: »

I think alot of people did not realise that most foods will spike your sugar until recently, they were checking an hour or two after, in fact up until recent times, most diabetics were only checking before meals or when feeling unwell. Even if I get the insulin right, I still get a spike, and then it comes down and to be honest, i imagine that this is OK for non diabetics as well. The truth is if the human body couldn't handle the pH shift, osmotic pressure etc. diabetics in general would never have survived even with treatment. The human body could always take these extremes, the only difference we provide is holding it to these for longer than regular people.

I still meet people today who think with the CGM that their blood should not go above 10 after a meal as it is unhealthy. Not realising due to poor teaching in their youth that it is perfectly normal for both Diabetics and non diabetics alike.

Some of the stuff I'm reading and looking at is scary. I've gone low,low carb in the past 6 months and lost well over a stone, I feel so much better, much sharper and would not go back to heavy carb life..

Kurtosis

I read the oatmeal/porridge and sugar spike article when it was posted a few weeks back. If I remember correctly, the author had added honey or similar and fruit to the porridge. These may not have made a huge difference but worth bearing in mind. I certainly paid less heed to the results as someone who has unsweetened/unfruited porridge for brekkie.

Buford T. Justice XIX

There's an Australian doctor who got reprimanded for promoting a low carb regime there and received a lot of abuse. I was just reading earlier today that he was completely exonerated and apologised to during the week.

Low carb is something I'd like to try but I wonder about the long term issues it may cause. There really isn't a whole lot of information about diabetes management with low carb, is there?

CramCycle

not yet wrote: »

Some of the stuff I'm reading and looking at is scary. I've gone low,low carb in the past 6 months and lost well over a stone, I feel so much better, much sharper and would not go back to heavy carb life..

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

There's an Australian doctor who got reprimanded for promoting a low carb regime there and received a lot of abuse. I was just reading earlier today that he was completely exonerated and apologised to during the week.

Low carb is something I'd like to try but I wonder about the long term issues it may cause. There really isn't a whole lot of information about diabetes management with low carb, is there?

My diet at the minute would be considered low carb by modern lifestyles but the truth is, it is probably just normal carb by a species standard. We are living in an age where people can get the same amount of sugar and carbs in a breakfast than their ancestors 100 years ago would have gotten over a day, if not two. Most low carb diets are in fact not low carb, the ketogenic ones are but the rest are just pulling people down to normality, something the first and second world have not experienced for quite some time.

wakka12

But theres nothing necessarily wrong with a moderate card diet if its from complex carbs?

not yet

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

There's an Australian doctor who got reprimanded for promoting a low carb regime there and received a lot of abuse. I was just reading earlier today that he was completely exonerated and apologised to during the week.

Low carb is something I'd like to try but I wonder about the long term issues it may cause. There really isn't a whole lot of information about diabetes management with low carb, is there?

Low Carbs is about fitting it around your lifestyle and needs. It can be anything from Full Keto 20 or less up to 100 which is very sustainable. At one point I was taking in over 300gr of carbs a day, Overloading my system with Glucose which it couldn't handle.

Gone is the Pasta,rice Spuds etc, replaced with Cauliflower, Spinach, asparagus, and other greens.

silverharp

there are a few low carb doctors in the UK that you can interact with on Twitter, Ill ask what their opinion is of oatmeal with their patients and does the quality of the oats matter. If you think about the diets humans evolved on, for several months of the year there wouldn’t have been a whole lot of carbs to eat as they didn’t store food. No fruit in the winter and spring for example , no grains , I assume at most they would have eaten in a way where they would put on some weight during the summer with the sugar that was available and then lean out over the winter where they just had meat and fish to eat.
The latest addition to this space is the “carnivore diet” , Joe Rogan had a few guests on where going carnivore turned their lives around and its given it some publicity. I’d treat it as a break glass in case of emergency if you had underlying conditions like IBS or other inflammatory conditions where nothing else was working as it’s a good elimination diet.
For me its just a mix of low carb and Intermittent fasting,

Alanstrainor

CramCycle wrote: »

Any ideas yourself on why? Reading up a bit on it myself but there isn't much in the way of studies on it yet, but alot of theories which I am skeptical against repeating, as even novorapid doesn't work for some people, so the few stories may just be that the outliers like to write blogs.

Honestly, I think it would be foolish for me to even try and say why. I'm a diabetic, but I know nothing of medicine. I'd be very skeptical of anyone who claims to know why. A lot of the reports I read when I started were by people who had been using the insulin for a very short time (days to a week), which is not enough time to bed anything and give judgement.

CramCycle

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Honestly, I think it would be foolish for me to even try and say why. I'm a diabetic, but I know nothing of medicine. I'd be very skeptical of anyone who claims to know why. A lot of the reports I read when I started were by people who had been using the insulin for a very short time (days to a week), which is not enough time to bed anything and give judgement.

That's very much the impression I got as well, five days in and they are saying it is not working or they are taking to much bolus and very little basal in comparison but the truth is without a comparative of the structural changes and ingredients in the mix, its comparing apples to oranges. They are both fruit, brightly coloured, hold in the palm of your hand, buy in most local shops, contain roughly the same carb count etc. but they are not the same and to say they should or would do the same thing is not appropriate.

Xofpod

So, I attended the 3-day Berger workshop in the Diabetic Clinic in St.James. I thought it was excellent; it taught me a lot of stuff I didn't know (carbohydrate ratios, insulin stacking) and showed me that some of the stuff I thought I knew was wrong (actual life span of fast acting insulin, absorption rates of food in the stomach). There was also some good stuff on hypo management, and adjusting insulin around exercise. The course is run by the regular staff from the clinic, so there's plenty of opportunity for following up on any issues that arise.

I would definitely recommend the course for any T1, whether you're particularly interested in carb counting or not. It's held in various clinics around the country.

Whereisgalway

Can anyone tell me how many carbs there is in a movical?

not yet

Whereisgalway wrote: »

Can anyone tell me how many carbs there is in a movical?

NOT ENOUGH TO KEEP IT IN YOUR SYSTEM...:D

CramCycle

Whereisgalway wrote: »

Can anyone tell me how many carbs there is in a movical?

Movicol is mainly salts so really should have no carbs at all AFAIK Make sure you drink loads of water as well. If badly blocked, go for one of the rectal pill things, look like cod liver oil tablets, I found the rectal neurofen to work marvelously on my kids.

arybvtcw0eolkf

CramCycle wrote: »

I found the rectal neurofen to work marvelously on my kids.

Just a little laugh on that.

I was injured during my first fight on the morning of a Judo competition and thought I'd have to pull out and sit out the comp until I was offered a Difene suppository.

Of course all eyes turned to me, I could imagine the questions in their heads 'will he do it', 'ha, he's going to finger himself' lol.. One of the girls in the club is a nurse, but a good friend too. She kindly offered to insert it

Anyway gingerly off I went into the toilets with her instruction 'you'll feel like you want to pass it (poo) or fart. DON'T. Give it five minutes to dissolve.

When I walked back out to the competition arena walking like John Wayne after a long hard day in the saddle it was to a round of applause from both spectators and competitors alike lol

It worked and I fought on for the rest of the competition