Type 1'stars R Us

[hh1]

Just over the border Scotland

Thanks @Cumberland, had forgotten you were so close to the line

 

[Cumberland]

Thanks @Cumberland, had forgotten you were so close to the line

Yes I try to disguise my very thick northern accent by greeting the bandits with ‘See You Jimmy’

 

[kitedoc]

Was it basically a colour -> number converter?

Hi, @evilclive, I am not sure of the technology but it had a galvanometer- type face and one read the BSL from where the needle settled after about a 15 second delay. His later models had the more familiar lit up numbers on a screen and a 10 second delay.
I think the technology went step in step with the development of the strips.

 

[kitedoc]

Oh this thread make me giggle

All this trip down memory lane is fun.

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 ) 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 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.

Right on, brother !!

 

[kitedoc]

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.

Hi @helensaramay, I wonder whether your New Year resolution to be more physically active has caused this?
Nothing is worse than being on the spot when a hypo hits. And keeping one's wits about one and no giving the game away requires great finesse!!
Occasionally in the past it would happened to me in the middle of some delicate suturing despite all preventive precautions being taken.. Fortunately I could ask an assistant to kindly slip a straw dipped into a cup of OJ in through the corner of my surgical mask and I would use the pause whilst saying "we all get thirsty during times of great concentration" to recollect and re-suagr myself.
In fact I got so good at keeping myself 'topped up' in operating theatre during my training that in the midst of a long operation, the chief surgeon would stop for morning tea and leave me holding the fort whilst he and the surgical registrar traipsed off to the tea room.

 

[Jaylee]

I was just about to post the same thing. All this talk of heres what it was like 30 years ago, got me thinking how much things have improved in past 10 years or so.

The next question will be what will type 1 look like in 10/15 years time. Will we we look back in horror at the fact that we had to inject ourselves numerous times per day. The primitive finger prick testing we did maybe 10 times a day. The constant struggle with highs and lows.

Amazing progress has been made in past 10 years, with insulin pumps, CGM, even better insulins, long may the progress continue

I'm still waiting for the "Marilyn Manson" contact lense CGM thing.. The one that make the eye look like a PCB?!
I already have a natural HUD at around 4.5 to 3.8mmol regarding HA.. (My hello, I'm going low alarm.)

The cynic in me suggests the more diabetics there are to develop the "market" on products. The more innovative it will all get...

Edited to add; I discovered a new CGM device today. (Mooching about the net.) Surgically Implanted under the skin, lasts 3 months. A patch is worn over the under skin location of the sensor as a transmitter.

 

[Jollymon]

...Edited to add; I discovered a new CGM device today. (Mooching about the net.) Surgically Implanted under the skin, lasts 3 months. A patch is worn over the under skin location of the sensor as a transmitter.

Eversense. I can’t find an endo willing to cut my arm and insert it so that I can try it out. My endo says that she’s not a surgeon. It’s go some neat features, but incase it goes bad there isn’t a quick exit plan to remove it- at least not a do it at home exit plan.

 

[evilclive]

Edited to add; I discovered a new CGM device today. (Mooching about the net.) Surgically Implanted under the skin, lasts 3 months. A patch is worn over the under skin location of the sensor as a transmitter.

Have you seen the price?

 

[karen8967]

Goodmorning everyone its been a long week enjoy your day im so glad its friday

 

[karen8967]

 

[Fairygodmother]

Good morning everyone. Yesterday and the day before were looooong ones, and I really don’t think being awake right now’s a good idea.
Back in the day I could work a 12 - 13 hour day and get going again for the next one but I really couldn’t do it now. Maybe it’s the lack of exercise imposed by my knee, maybe age?
I feel really concerned about everyone facing the raised age of retirement!
On that happy note it’s time to check BG again, a bit more snooze - have a good day all.

 

[smc4761]

@slip probably you and lots of more experienced/aka long suffering T1s here might remember me seriously asking if the length of the needles increased with time. I was certainly worried and was thankfully reassured by yous. I don't seem to be able to come up with a term to define all you great people who have been dealing with T1 for so long without causing offence so I'm trying out a few
How about.....?
wise T1s (but us new ones on the block can be wise too)
permanent prickers (but that's wrong coz you've moved onto pumps now

Give up, ideas on a postcard

Hi @SueJB still plenty of us on MDI, including myself but I am on waiting list for pump. Think in my area at least pumps are like golden unicorns.

Think the best terms are defor colanders, teabags

 

[smc4761]

I'm still waiting for the "Marilyn Manson" contact lense CGM thing.. The one that make the eye look like a PCB?!
I already have a natural HUD at around 4.5 to 3.8mmol regarding HA.. (My hello, I'm going low alarm.)

The cynic in me suggests the more diabetics there are to develop the "market" on products. The more innovative it will all get...

Edited to add; I discovered a new CGM device today. (Mooching about the net.) Surgically Implanted under the skin, lasts 3 months. A patch is worn over the under skin location of the sensor as a transmitter.

Spooky or what. I was talking with my son last night about CGM and he mentioned this. He was putting in his contact lens and I said I dont know how you can do that at which point he replied I dont know how you can inject each day.

I had never heard of this before and it sounds very interesting, will need to dig a bit deeper and find out more

 

[Jaylee]

Eversense. I can’t find an endo willing to cut my arm and insert it so that I can try it out. My endo says that she’s not a surgeon. It’s go some neat features, but incase it goes bad there isn’t a quick exit plan to remove it- at least not a do it at home exit plan.

Yep, that's the one.. About the size of a 3A fuse implanted under the skin.
You'd probably need an appointment with an "body modification" parlour to get it done?

Have you seen the price?

The price? No, I didn't look that far...
They never seem to push the price up front & I guessed I would be led down a "rabit hole" finding out..

 

[Knikki]

I'm still waiting for the "Marilyn Manson" contact lense CGM thing.. The one that make the eye look like a PCB?!
I already have a natural HUD at around 4.5 to 3.8mmol regarding HA.. (My hello, I'm going low alarm.)

Why do I see this?

However note that the eye colour is changing from red to green so maybe he is coming out of a hypo

 

[Jaylee]

Why do I see this?

However note that the eye colour is changing from red to green so maybe he is coming out of a hypo

Unless it was a very old Clinitest developed prototype? & he's going into the Orange....

 

[slip]

The price? No, I didn't look that far...
They never seem to push the price up front & I guessed I would be led down a "rabit hole" finding out..

So latest Dexcom is about £160/month, 3 months then cost £480, the eversense it's about £3k if memory serves me right.

So I've had my Libre on for 5 days now and it is always reading at least 2mmol lower than blood, makes my averages look good! But the trend isn't.............particularly around my evening meals, I'm seemingly always having to do a correction before bed but at least I can see the insulin working and then levelling out and staying stable the rest of the night - Time to try some tweaking!

Edited to add: @therower, your rumpy pumpy comment, you crack me up, I wanted to hit the funny, informative & optimistic buttons all at once.

 

[kitedoc]

Eversense. I can’t find an endo willing to cut my arm and insert it so that I can try it out. My endo says that she’s not a surgeon. It’s go some neat features, but incase it goes bad there isn’t a quick exit plan to remove it- at least not a do it at home exit plan.

Some one will be trained up once the reps are active, the usual default for such things is to the GP here in Oz. !!

 

[Jaylee]

Some one will be trained up once the reps are active, the usual default for such things is to the GP here in Oz. !!

I reside in rural Wiltshire. The local tree surgeon/farrier/midwife would probably do it....?

 

[Knikki]

Hey @slip do you use one of these smart phone contraptions?

If so you could use Glimp, xDrip or Spike which has the ability to 'calibrate' the junk that Etch A Sketch sometime throws out, least it would give you reading closer to the good old finger prick ones.

Might make things easier to predict of an evening time