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Research project. Insulin and alcohol. Public spaces

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owen474

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Hey guys my name is Owen Kelly i am product design student in my final year of university, i am undertaking a project to help people adapt to diabetes. I have a younger brother with type 1 diabetes who is 14 years old, there are a few gaps within his regime at the moment that i am basing my project upon to try and fill. I have a couple of areas that i am concentrating upon and would really appreciate it if some people could reply with how they have dealt or are dealing with the situation.

The areas are,
Discharge from hospital: How did you find getting home and storing or adjusting to the new medications given.
What do you do when it comes to taking your insulin in public? Have there been any problems?
What do you do on a night out when consuming alcohol?
What are your processes for dealing with carbohydrate consumption in relation to insulin dose?

If anybody could give me any feedback or information it would be greatly appreciated.
Thankyou
Owen Kelly
 
Hi and welcome to the forum Owen :)

1) Got brought home by my father so getting back wasn't a problem. Really found it hard adapting to life taking insulin and testing my urine for glucose (I was diagnosed 31 years ago before bg meters became widely available) and thought my world had come to an end, insulin storage was in the fridge and my syringe for injecting the insulin was kept in a container filled with industrial spirit.

2) I just inject but don' make it too obvious, had a few stares but nothing really said as such. I did one time shy away from injecting in public but the more you do it the more comfortable it becomes.

3) Check bg wherever possible and eat something carby before bed.

4) Like many on the forum I dose adjust to the carbs in the food, so if the meal has 60g of carbs and my insulin to carb ratio is 1 unit to 10g of carbs then I'll inject 6 units of insulin, depending what type of food is on the plate and bg I'll inject 10-20 mins before eating, just before or soon after finishing the meal.

Good luck with your project!
 
Thank you for the reply Noble head, the gaps I've found came from my little brother coming home from hospital and the family wondering what to do with the medication due to there being soo much of it. i am maybe looking into a way of making a kit that contains everything given at the hospital but it also educates people into how to use and where to store the medication if it needs to be refrigerated,hopefully something like this would break down the initial confusion at home especially for young families new to the condition.

The food and insulin consumption is also a big thing in our house at the moment trying to judge portion sizes on weighing scales to then work out the dose of insulin. This was especially terrifying in the first few weeks just in case we got it wrong. I am maybe also thinking of designing a product that eases this process and could try to incorporate children into the process for education.

I just thought i would post some of my current insights in response to the information given to show my intentions with the reply's and info given. Thankyou for the reply again noble head i shall put it to good use :D :D
 
- How did you find getting home and storing or adjusting to the new medications given.

Bought a big sealable plastic container and kept in fridge. After some problems with insulin, got a fridge thermometer and discovered the back of the fridge was too cold. Moved the insulin to the bottom of the fridge and keep the thermometer there.

- What do you do when it comes to taking your insulin in public? Have there been any problems?

Initially I did it in private, but after a while developed a "screw everyone" attitude and just did it discreetly in public. Generally people don't even notice or pretend not to.

- What do you do on a night out when consuming alcohol?

I don't drink.

- What are your processes for dealing with carbohydrate consumption in relation to insulin dose?

Since I eat low-carb, I count both carbohydrates and protein in the food I eat. I use a ratio to determine my insulin dosage based on what I eat, however I adjust these ratios frequently as my insulin needs change inexplicably (the changes do not seem to be due to diet, exercise, sickness, or stress as far as I can tell). I'm developing an Android app to make accurate carb and protein counting of meals easier because it's a right pain in the #$&*.
 
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