i've come to my senses and that why i'm here :o)

are you showing your age Lucie?! :lol: :lol: :wink:

Actually, I think I joined the Diabetes train when they had just moved away from exchanges and were more about mini mars bars!

I don't remember exactly what our 'name' for a portion was when I started (1973) but I do remember an egg sized potato being 10g cho. I also remember lines, exchanges, portions etc. over the years. I had a plastic beaker which measures a 10g portion of milk, 10g portion of cornflakes, 10g portion of fruit juice! A digestive was 10g and a penguin biscuit was 10g. A bag of crisps was 10g and so on.

Looking back I think it was all a bit primitive but definitely the basis of better things to come. Also, I'm guessing that way back then there wasn't so much food choice, ie 1% milk and full fat, s-skimmed etc or quite the range of fruit juices!

I'm still trying to guesstimate although I do rely heavily upon the kitchen scales. If only an egg sized potato was still 10g!!

Debloubed said:

are you showing your age Lucie?! :lol: :lol: :wink:

Actually, I think I joined the Diabetes train when they had just moved away from exchanges and were more about mini mars bars!

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I was only 9 at the time!!! :wink:

Vikki1981 said:

How on earth do you's know so much about this? i feel clueless ...lol :?

i have been wondering when i have a hypo i have been eating 5 jelly babies and then when i get back to 'normal' i have been having a slice ov bread with butter, but is there any other suggestions to replace the jelly babies, like can tangerines or some other fruit (apple juice instead of coke etc...) do the same? or is this not quick enough?

again thankyou for all the advice your keeping me on the straight and narrow :wink:

Vikki X

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Fruit isn't quick enough, other options are x5 fruit pastilles, x10 jelly beans or one of those teeny tiny cans of full fat coke or Sprite or similar?? or the old favourite, x5 glucose tablets 8)

Can I see a pattern maybe in your response above? Your looking for what sound like healthier alternatives to sweets and sugary pop?I too steer away from sweeties and such like for hypos and find that 100 - 200ml of most fruit juices (not from concentrate by choice) are adequate for quick recovery. i.e., 100ml orange juice is about 10g. Because I'm on the pump I tend not to have the long term carbs as well as this messes things up for me but I remember back to injection days where I would have a slice of toast or a biscuit. I think the thing to remember is that when a hypo situation occurs you have to take whatever might be available.

I always keep lucozade in the fridge because the kids drink the fruit juice and never tell me it's all gone!!

Fluids will always be better than solids for quick response to a hypo and the stomach will process them quicker. It works a bit like a sieve and the liquid passes through first.

The reason I know so much? I've been type 1 for 37 years and I have a curious nature? I have grown up with this condition (I don't like to use the word disease although I know it is correct) and rebelled and such along the way. I've discovered my boundaries and rediscovered them as my life has changed as does my control. I think that to remain ignorant of the condition is a form of denial but there are so many places where knowledge can be gained it can become confusing at times. Personal experience was my best teacher and still is. That and I've had some very understanding healthcare professionals along the way!

I'm always happy to share what I know but it is mostly from my personal experiences and it's not always the same for all diabetics.

roo.be

there may be a pattern but it is because I was advised by a Diabetes specialist to go fruit pastilles etc as they offer a quick, easy 15g quick acting response to a hypo - nothing healthy about that! I would never think that anything sweet and sugary was healthy anyway?! I have lists from my carb counting course of quick acting 15g options, some of which I have detailed above. It's advise given to me which I am sharing with the group, it's not compulsory that you follow it

I refer to pattern re Vikki1981's comment re alternatives. I would have problems with 5 sweets of any kind as I don't keep sweets in the house, ever. I do always have fruit juice though! I think as well the solid food option is only useful if you're treating your own hypos. If your hypo has reached a stage where another person needs to be involved solids are hard to get in. Often the muscles in the jaw will tighten and the mouth not open so liquid is the only thing that can be delivered effectively.

oh sure, if I was treating someone who was out of it, I would get the glucogel out for fear of choking them with a jelly baby! or a drink for that matter, swallowing reflexes are often compromised in situations like that :? case by case really, my boyfriend tells me that when he's had to treat me when I've been out of it I've always chewed and been responsive to the food he's given me (although I did throw up once, so he called for reinforcements )

what was he giving you that made you throw up?

Or was it just a reaction to food being put in?

they hypo was making me throw up! has that never happened to you? it's happened to me on a couple of occassions when very, very low - nausea is often a symptom for me but at the throwing up time I had very little awareness - got it back now though, phew! Now, on that cheery note, I'm going to try and eat my mid-morning banana! :lol:

I am amazed people can be noncompliant for such a long time, just because when I ever spent time not taking insulin I ended up with very bad hyper in hospital/ketoacidosis. It happened twice during my teens and in one of them I "nearly died".
I have diabetes since I was 8y/o and am now 30. I have had complications after those teens' years (neuropathy, retinopathy).
I am also surprised that lots of people who don't have what doctors call "perfect control" have had babies. I have been thinking about, and I am worried that not having a HbA1c around 5-7 the risks for the baby are huge!
In another note, I am not much into exercising, therefore I have not much choice a part from eating just a little...

Interesting article here, related to the topic.

Skipping injections, Risk factors.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/177451.php

Glucogel is a form of glucose in a sachet or bottle and of a gel consistency.

I don't know if its possible to get it prescribed but I buy mine quite cheaply form sports or cycling shops. Each sachet is a bout 15g cho so ideal for a quick response to a hypo. JJB/ Sport Direct stores tend to stock a lucozade one for a bout 89p.

I have also bought something similar in the USA which comes in a bottle and is more of a liquid. They are cheaper over there and I am fortunate to have someone who can ship them out to me.

debloubed: I have never experienced sickness with hypo. The idea is positively scary! That I might throw up whilst not being in control of my body. I usually have a fit similar to epilepsy and when I've hypo'd during the night and not awoken 'til morning I know its happened by the trail of dry blood from the corner of my mouth and one side of my tongue being 3x its normal size where I've bitten it!

Juma: I think that each individual experiences there life with diabetes differently and what is told to us by our healthcare professionals, whilst being very valid, is not necessarily going to be the case. I did not achieve perfect control throughout much of my pregnancy but I was advised that perfect control during this time would be between 3-5. I was hospitalised twice in that 9 months after having really bad hypos and both times caused myself severe physical injury. I had a C-section but not because my baby was too big but because it is a more controlled delivery method from the healthcare perspective when considering the complications which can arise during child birth. I also know other diabetics who have had children and similarly have had no major problems, natural births and couldn't maintain perfect control throughout.

Maybe I have been fortunate that my rebellion in my teens, lies to my doctor at this time also, unusual lifestyle choices and prolonged periods of not having care from a clinic or doctor had not impacted badly upon me now in later life. I am approaching 40 with 37 years of diabetes behind me. I do not have any problems with my feet, liver, eyes or any other organ which could have been affected but I know others who do and they say if they'd have known they'd have looked after themselves better or done things different.

I am not obsessive about my condition but I would never let the condition rule my life and determine what I would and wouldn't do or where I'd go, when and how etc. I think, and have witnessed first hand in others, that an obsession to such an extent that it dictates your lifestyle can also have a detrimental effect long term also. People who will not exercise for fear of going hypo whist doing so may run the risk of foot problems later through not exercising enough. And I'm not advocating that we should all become exercise freaks either!! I certainly am not. people who will not eat out because of the fear of not being able to count the carbs effectively. Your life becomes a bit of a sentence then.

A happy medium must be found on an individual level.

These are my own opinions, which are accepted by my healthcare team as such.

Thanks roo.be! I am very happy for joining this forum and getting to know a bit about "real-life-diabetes"

Not a problem.

I recently joined a 'social' group (for lack of a better word) which was formed by a fellow diabetic for the pump users of my area. At first I wasn't interested although the diabetic nurse who supported them from the start encouraged me every time they met. My fear was that I would be mixing with victims who wanted to complain about their restrictive lives yet not do anything about it for fear or the risks they run by doing so. Eventually I did go; my reason was as a support to a good friend who recently got her pump and was keen to go. I went as her 'crutch'.

I was not surprised to find that a vast majority of this group did seem a little like victims and had lifestyles dictated to them by the text book and theoretical approach to control. After a brief round of ".... hi, my name is ... and I'm a diabetic" we broke for a coffee and individual conversation. The woman who had instigated the group came to me and said how she admired what I had said and that was slightly envious of how I cope with my condition now and had done previously. She coped by having periods of extreme denial followed by extreme keenness, followed by denial and so on. She had suffered a stroke a few years ago due to this. She is lucky to be alive.

I hope I inspired her into acceptance and ultimately to understand her condition and live with it harmoniously. I am not a heroic kind of person nor am I sanctimonious about life with diabetes. How could I be? I've messed up so many times I don't have enough fingers!! I'm just very lucky in many ways.

I'm not sure of the point of what I've just written above but I hope someone else does!!

roo.be x

P.S. of those who let diabetes dictate their lives few actually had the perfect control and non of them had 'lives' in the sense of what I would consider living.

Hi Vikki

While you are waiting for your DAFNE course (and it can be a VERY long wait) I found there are some excellent resources out there to help you get started on carb counting and dose adjustment.

In the first few weeks after I was diagnosed last year I found BDEC site very useful: http://www.bdec-e-learning.com/

It gets you started. Don't worry if it all seems totally overwhelming at first, just getting the hang of carb counting takes a while. Then there is all the maths involved though oddly its not as bad as you may think.
It turns out us humans are creatures of habbits and you will find that for most meals you usually eat the same amount of carbs without realising it... its the naughty treats the mess it all up.

On that subject the hardest thing I found was giving up on the snacks between meals. It takes some serious willpower but the cool thing about DAFNE is that if you REALLY have to have that yummy slice of cake then you just accept the extra injection and enjoy the cake

Good luck.

A