Lighting Diabetes

[Jen&Khaleb]

I found these little finger lights in what you would call a Pound Shop. They are great for night testing and fit on all sorts of diabetes stuff.

 

[leggott]

They look really good - will defo have a look around to see if I can get one here.

Our meter does have a little light at the end but too often or not it has timed out by the time I'm ready!

Leggott

 

[Jen&Khaleb]

Yeah, I think one meter available here has a light on the end near the test strip but that doesn't help when trying to prick. I usually have a little book light that I put between my teeth when doing the 2am check. Must say that I haven't had to do a lot of night testing for the last 12 months or so. It can't be avoided sometimes but getting sleep feels so good.

How do you go with night testing Leggott? Now the kids are pumping have you got more sleep or less?

 

[Antnliv]

Those lights look like a great idea, will definitely look out for those!
Thank you for your post.

Livi

 

[leggott]

Jen, having the pumps has made a huge difference but i still do a lot of night time testing!

We seem to go through several weeks of good overnight control and then things go wrong and we are then back to testing through the night. Having 2 children to check makes it worse as when one seems to be ok at night, the other one doesn't!

Then, of course there is the issue of eating at friends or out and eating later than normal, which often means more sleepless nights for us!

I shouldn't complain though as having the pump does make it easier to correct and administer small doses at night without having to inject them. I know of several families who are currently fighting to get pumps for their kids.

How are things with Khaleb?

 

[Jen&Khaleb]

Khaleb is much the same. We go through times that I don't do much night time testing and then everything falls in a heap and have a few nights of once or twice a night testing. It is Summer here so Khaleb has been healthy so that has made life easy. I hate the end of Autumn when the colds and flus begin.

We have a couple of families in our local group with 2 kids and a parent all T1. The kids are getting older now and starting to take a bit of control themselves. The teenage years appear to be quite terrible even though they have had diabetes since toddlers and are on pumps they seem to think they do not need to test and know what their level is without doing so and can calculate carbs with a glance of the plate.

It isn't difficult for people to get pumps here. Kids can get subsidies through JDRF or anyone can take out Private Health Insurance, get a loan pump for a year during the insurance waiting period and then get their own pump. I know Khaleb wouldn't put up with it being attached to him but he's not elligible anyway. We have good levels on MDI so I'm not worried now but it will be interesting to see what happens when he starts school next year.

 

[smaragdi]

Yeah, I think one meter available here has a light on the end near the test strip but that doesn't help when trying to prick. I usually have a little book light that I put between my teeth when doing the 2am check. Must say that I haven't had to do a lot of night testing for the last 12 months or so. It can't be avoided sometimes but getting sleep feels so good.

How do you go with night testing Leggott? Now the kids are pumping have you got more sleep or less?

My daughter is on a pump since the first month of her diagnosis. The first five months I would check her every two hours during the night. Now I usually check her every three or four hours. There have been a couple of nights that I didn't manage to wake up due to my being so tired.

 

[Jen&Khaleb]

I think it is really important to try and look after ourselves. I noticed that even with the strictest of diets I was putting on weight with the lack of sleep. Part of it might have been the lack of energy to be active and I am slowly trying to improve my own health. I haven't had any hassles not testing Khaleb at night. Maybe once last year I had planned to check him at 2am but he actually woke me up at about 12.30am with a hypo. If he is the slightest bit restless in his sleep it wakes me and I'll get up and test. His sleep is disturbed if he is either high or low. I'd still check him if we were away, done a lot of exercise or something wasn't right as those are the times he will get quite low in his sleep.

 

[smaragdi]

I think it is really important to try and look after ourselves. I noticed that even with the strictest of diets I was putting on weight with the lack of sleep. Part of it might have been the lack of energy to be active and I am slowly trying to improve my own health. I haven't had any hassles not testing Khaleb at night. Maybe once last year I had planned to check him at 2am but he actually woke me up at about 12.30am with a hypo. If he is the slightest bit restless in his sleep it wakes me and I'll get up and test. His sleep is disturbed if he is either high or low. I'd still check him if we were away, done a lot of exercise or something wasn't right as those are the times he will get quite low in his sleep.

My daugther seems not to realise when she is low, her behaviour is the same and she has never woken up because of a low.And yes I agree that we should take care of our selves because we need a lot of energy every day. I used to sleep quite a lot before diabetes, some times I believe I am punished for being a little lazy!(kidding) How many times do you check your sun during the night?

 

[Jen&Khaleb]

I am only checking Khaleb once during the night a couple of nights of the week. It depends on what his level is when I go to bed at 10pm. If he was sick or I was concerned for some other reason I would check much more often. He is pretty stable most nights and I am glad he seems to be somewhat hypo aware. Funnily enough I have just treated what my meter said was 2.9mmol but he was not symptomatic of a hypo at all. I think he is still absorbing his carbs from breakfast but the Novorapid has just worked a little too fast.