Recent Content by kegstore

Ring your local council - in most areas they provide a clinical waste collection service, which includes sharps bins. They provide empty ones too, no need to involve the surgery at all. Round 'yer it's free but I've heard some councils do make a small charge. You'll still need to see the "Quack"...

Carb counting is definitely a pre-requisite, and part of DAFNE I think. Some PCTs are stricter than others in terms of pump qualification. Ignoring the pump for a moment, how T1s manage WITHOUT carb counting on any kind of insulin therapy is a total mystery to me... :?

I'll never forget the diagnosis date, it's imprinted on my memory but normally passes without any fuss. A few years ago I was participating in a lecture to dental students about diabetes on the actual day, something I never expected to be doing back in 1982, I guess the significance meant more...

Try eating some breakfast! It may sound odd, but that's probably what you need to do (along with your normal insulin as appropriate). If you're up and out of bed charging around on an empty stomach your liver will compensate by releasing glycogen which raises your blood sugar. This used to...

I've only ever become detached at night as a result of a bad hypo, during which all hell breaks loose and all bets are off anyway...

If you Google "diabetes complications", look at the list and decide for yourself whether you could cope with one or more of what's on the list (blindness, kidney failure, amputation, the list goes on). Bg levels in the 10-15 range will greatly increase the chance of you getting said...

Re: Diabetes entiltlments Stuart There ARE benefits available, but they tend not to be advertised at all! Disability Living Allowance (DLA) was recommended to me by a friend with similar mental health issues to you, I was amazed I had not been told about it before. The form is lengthy and...

Rebecca I go skiing every year and don't really think about it being a special circumstance, what I mean is I regard it the same way as any form of exercise. Saying that, I am a very lazy skier so maybe "exercise" is stretching it somewhat! Make sure you have your emergency kit is easily...

Have a read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin_pump

As I was already diabetic when I applied for my first licence, I can't really comment on how much worse DVLA are when informing them of diabetes, but they've always seemed pretty rubbish to me. It was always a series of hoops I was required to jump through every 3 years. Insurance companies...

Bayer Contour can be set to display either mmol/l or mg/dl, along with other Bayer/Medtronic devices.

I suppose I don't have any kind of attitude towards being diabetic, I just am so I get on with what I do, end of story. I know I have to do things differently from other people, if I didn't I would feel very ill very quickly, maybe that's my motivation, but I honestly don't think about it I just...

I've had a pump for 5 years and can't remember what life was like without it. The advantages to being on a pump are so many and varied, they totally outweigh any possible downside (for me anyway). I certainly don't feel "more diabetic", in fact I'm not really sure what that's supposed to...

I tend to deal with each fasting slot separately, I don't necessarily do them in strict order or even on consecutive days. What you change - if you need to - depends to a great extent on the insulin you're using, because there will still be a delay you need to account for. For example with...

Fortuna, I had stage 3 CKD thrown at me last year with an eGFR of just 40. Very scary, but by really tightening up on blood glucose and pressure control I'm heading out of the danger zone, with the most recent eGFR reading of 52. Still not great maybe, but a lot better than 40 and certainly...