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Type 1'stars R Us

hh1 said:
I'm aghast, thank whoever I managed to miss that bit! Instruments of torture sounds more appropriate. A serious question - where did you stick 1 1/2 inch needles if you were skinny?
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My belly was my favorite(?) place. I had horrendous lipohypertrophy because of those needles.....same place day in day out as it was less painful!
 
porl69 said:
Instruments of pain. These were the 1st needles I can remember. The pack had to last a month......View attachment 30547
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@porl69, another hats off, these make me want to hide behind the sofa
Off for my 2nd scan in a month. I've got to drink 2 pints of water an hour before. Sorry forgot I wouldn't mention numbers and these aren't that important anyway:)
 
porl69 said:
Hehe I forget about that aspect :) Never knew how much insulin had gone in!! Just reattach and push the plunger and hope for the best
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Lol, I learned not to ram it home too fast. Nice steady action. Problem was with the glass syringes occasionally there was a little resistance with the plunger encountered in the glass syringe barrel which needed a little extra exertion, breaking the steady flow & "bottle necking" the needle?

With leg injecting rotation, I had this diagram with days of the week. Alittle like a butcher's cut, wall hanging or miniature car parking spaces mapped out on both legs...
 
Hello everyone!! Hope you all had a great new year and Christmas!

I have a quick question, I’m trying to do a low carb diet, (yes another new year resolution!) not for weight loss but just to try and improve my health in general, but obviously it’s quite difficult to do a really low-carb diet without having hypos at the start? What type of foods do you eat when you’re having a hypo but trying to avoid carbs?!? Currently I’m drinking Lucozade which seems to be working but thinking I might grow tired of that and it goes flat if you open a bottle and then don’t use it for another few days!

Any ideas would be most appreciated!! :)
 
XCheesyToastyX said:
Hello everyone!! Hope you all had a great new year and Christmas!

I have a quick question, I’m trying to do a low carb diet, (yes another new year resolution!) not for weight loss but just to try and improve my health in general, but obviously it’s quite difficult to do a really low-carb diet without having hypos at the start? What type of foods do you eat when you’re having a hypo but trying to avoid carbs?!? Currently I’m drinking Lucozade which seems to be working but thinking I might grow tired of that and it goes flat if you open a bottle and then don’t use it for another few days!

Any ideas would be most appreciated!! :)
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Hi,

Firstly? Basal test. Whatever the amount of carbs or not in a diet you bolus for, get the groundwork sorted first before the building.
https://mysugr.com/basal-rate-testing/

Secondly, don't avoid carbs if you are low. A couple of Jelly babies or the same number from a more covienient pack of fruit pastels do it for me..
Insulin is a ride you can't get off. So if it goes adrift? Don't feel you failed at LC. Treat that hypo. :)

Edit, I'll tag in @Mel dCP she's a recent pumper & LCs.
 
XCheesyToastyX said:
Hello everyone!! Hope you all had a great new year and Christmas!

I have a quick question, I’m trying to do a low carb diet, (yes another new year resolution!) not for weight loss but just to try and improve my health in general, but obviously it’s quite difficult to do a really low-carb diet without having hypos at the start? What type of foods do you eat when you’re having a hypo but trying to avoid carbs?!? Currently I’m drinking Lucozade which seems to be working but thinking I might grow tired of that and it goes flat if you open a bottle and then don’t use it for another few days!

Any ideas would be most appreciated!! :)
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I would suggest Glucotabs - you can have a measured amount to quickly bring you out of a hypo and they don't 'go off' quickly. You're also unlikely to be tempted to neck the whole tube of them. :D

@Jaylee makes a great suggestion to do some basal testing - as it's perfectly possible this and your ratios will change as you adapt to a new diet.
 
I was DX'd in 1997, so missed the torture tools and chemistry sets, but did use plastic syringes, 12mm needles, and drawing up from vials of insulin, and very early on pee dip strips and matching the colour on the side of the pot. I can't remember my first proper blood meter but I know it seemed to require a lot of blood. I can't remember ever being told about CP, or anything else really - it was start at this dose eat that amount, speak to the nurse and we'll adjust the dose as and when. But I do remember that first dose of insulin was like a magic bullet. But the steel needles look horrendous - physically and psychologically life scarring!

How many of us will be dreaming tonight about 12 ft needles chasing us around an impossible maze of Mars bars (fun sized ones at that)! o_O
 
helensaramay said:
I was diagnosed 15 years ago ... at least my 15th diaversary is in 10 days time ... and had thought the diabetes technology and treatment had barely changed until recently.
But, now, I am wondering if I was on the cusp of pen, lancet, test strip, basal/bolus ... introduction and only just missed the torture age.
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20 years for me, and I think the same re the torture age. I was put on MDI, given novopens and a medisense meter (possibly with a small cost) - test strips on the NHS, needles weren't for a while. The stab-u-like device wasn't a horror. I was also given a vial of each insulin and a handful of syringes - I still have the syringes :-) They didn't try anything with exchange units or carb counting at all. I remember asking the consultant when diagnosed what to do with different readings (since it was obvious to me that I could use them as a guide to tweak things) and he dismissed me saying I should treat them as random! I worked it out for myself...
 
evilclive said:
20 years for me, and I think the same re the torture age. I was put on MDI, given novopens and a medisense meter (possibly with a small cost) - test strips on the NHS, needles weren't for a while. The stab-u-like device wasn't a horror. I was also given a vial of each insulin and a handful of syringes - I still have the syringes :) They didn't try anything with exchange units or carb counting at all. I remember asking the consultant when diagnosed what to do with different readings (since it was obvious to me that I could use them as a guide to tweak things) and he dismissed me saying I should treat them as random! I worked it out for myself...
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When I lived in Leeds, around 2001-2002, I was being taught carb counting for the first time under the team at LGI, as I had just made it onto the pump waiting list. Alas, I didn't get the pump (as I was moving away), but I adjusted my MDI doses accordingly, and loved the flexibility. When I saw my suburban GP for something unrelated, about a year later, he tried to convince me that I should not be carb counting, nor should I be varying my doses. Seems he was of the old school where fixed doses and constant snacking to balance the insulin were the norm. I politely nodded and ignored his advice...
 
helensaramay said:
Seems all this talk of insulin torture implements has scared my body.
There I was this morning, on a conference call, and I started feeling "funny". Whilst continuing my presentation, I took a BG reading and came up with 3.0. Hmmm. Not good. I can talk whilst pricking my finger and I can talk whilst reading the results. I can even talk whilst opening the tub of Glucotabs but I can't talk whilst stuffing them in my mouth. Eventually, after what felt like hours (but was probably only seconds), I came up with a question to start my colleague talking and was able to correct.
Unfortunately, the distress did not end there - my new tub of 50 Glucotabs, which is labelled "Juicy Raspberry Fast Acting Glucose" is full of 50 ... well, 45 now... fake orange flavoured Glucotabs. Yuk!
I can eat fake berry flavour but fake orange and banana taste nothing like the original flavours and cause my stomach to turn.

I could think of no reason for the hypo (which was one of the ones which got worse before it got better) as I had weighed, calculated the carbs and eaten my breakfast less than an hour before.
The only explanation is my body was trying to find ways to avoid having insulin via any of the harrowing implements photographed above.

All fine now ... provided I don't scroll up to the photos.
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Ooooops.....apologies to you. There are worst implements BUT there maybe be youngsters on here and we dont want them to have nightmares :bag::bag:. Ewwww fake orange taste is the pits, they would have been spat out,,,,,,,conference call or not lol
 
XCheesyToastyX said:
Hello everyone!! Hope you all had a great new year and Christmas!

I have a quick question, I’m trying to do a low carb diet, (yes another new year resolution!) not for weight loss but just to try and improve my health in general, but obviously it’s quite difficult to do a really low-carb diet without having hypos at the start? What type of foods do you eat when you’re having a hypo but trying to avoid carbs?!? Currently I’m drinking Lucozade which seems to be working but thinking I might grow tired of that and it goes flat if you open a bottle and then don’t use it for another few days!

Any ideas would be most appreciated!! :)
Click to expand...
Not strictly low carb, but if I can catch a low early enough, I try an apple, orange or banana. I figure it is a good opportunity to get some fruit onboard. I think you have to go a little bit easy on yourself while you adjust your insulin to your new regime.
 
Oh this thread make me giggle :hilarious:

All this trip down memory lane is fun. :writer::snaphappy:

BUT hindsight is a wonderful thing. Yes syringes, needles and testing kits were interesting and fun to use some 20+ years ago, BUT at the time that was all that was available and it was simple a case of use or...…..well I like life and cake...….

Things have moved on, all for the better, but they do with all aspects of medicine and treatments and dealing with long term conditions has improved greatly over the years no matter how bad your GP/DSN/Medical Team may seem to you. Plus it will only improve as we move forward in time.

I get the whole "glad I was not diagnosed when I was younger...……" where as I am the opposite, I really do admire people who in the later years get this wonderful condition we enjoy and share because as I have seen it is a very BIG change in the way you live your life after diagnosis.

T1D is not rocket science, yes, I get the reason why people are scared of it and fearful of it.
But there are plenty of us out there that have had it for a very long time, before all the various diet fads, carb counting, MDI, pumps, fitness regimes, technology etc etc and some are walking wounded some are still intact with just flesh wounds but we are still here to offer (dubious :hilarious:) advice and sometimes a realty check, plus a shoulder to cry on.

These days with the amount of information on offer plus the advances made in care, blood testing, nice lovely thin needles and variety of insulins it has never been easier to keep a track of this T1D malarkey and should NOT stop you from enjoying life (cake, chips, booze, rumpy pumpy, full fat anything) and stop you from doing anything.

Having said that it at times, T1D does things I have no idea why, annoys me, frustrates me and many *** moments however it does not stop me doing anything and tomorrow will ALWAYS :couchpotato: be better.

OK that might upset the apple cart, not meant to but you might get my drift. As I said in the rant I sometime see thing in a different way to other. :pompous:
 
Jaylee said:
Hi,

Firstly? Basal test. Whatever the amount of carbs or not in a diet you bolus for, get the groundwork sorted first before the building.
https://mysugr.com/basal-rate-testing/

Secondly, don't avoid carbs if you are low. A couple of Jelly babies or the same number from a more covienient pack of fruit pastels do it for me..
Insulin is a ride you can't get off. So if it goes adrift? Don't feel you failed at LC. Treat that hypo. :)

Edit, I'll tag in @Mel dCP she's a recent pumper & LCs.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the replies, yes I only got the insulin pump back in September so still adjusting the basal rates, my biggest annoyance is at night! A few nights on the trot night my BS shoots up, so increase my basal to counteract or try a temp basal, the following night I’m hypoing! My control is rarely above 10 during the day but nights are a pain!! Think I need to invest in a Miaomiao!

I’ve seen a lot of people post about low-carb diets helping them so thought my New Years resolution could be to give it a go, but do tend to have hypos quite regularly...I do like jelly babies!

As much as I could do with losing some weight due to other relating health conditions (Addison’s Disease), I’m fed up of feeling rubbish so feel it’s worth a shot!

Been diabetic 24 years (since 8 months old) so you would think I’d be a pro at this by now but still learning everyday!
 
kitedoc said:
Good afternoon here, G'd Morning there.
I was the tender age of 27 (in 1980) when I met Stan Clarke in Sydney.
Stan was an expat Brit working in electronics. His daughter also had T1D and in response to a request from the Sydney Children's hospital he had set about and made the first fully portable, battery-operated glucometer in 1978.
Yes, he used the Ames glucostix in his device and set up a home factory to make more of these devices which cost AUD 35 back then.
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Was it basically a colour -> number converter?
 
@Knikki here here! with you all the way.

So we've looked back at the past and shuddered at the archaic devices and protocols some of us had to endure, do you think in 20yrs time we'll be looking back and laughing at the fact we had to inject using 4mm ultra-thin pen needles, stick funny looking CGMs and clunky pumps to ourselves - what would you image would be de rigueur by then?
 
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