Hariboglobin

http://talk.nhs.uk/blogs/diabetes/default.aspx

Take a look

And quite a lot has happened really.

Completed my first placement through uni at a local hospital, had a new HBa1C result of 6.4% (yay).

Currently enjoying a month off uni, 2 more weeks to go. I have used the time to do assignments and kick my exercise regime up a notch, training twice a day most days now, Gym/Swim in the morning and some form of martial arts in the evening, lost another kilo in 2 weeks and I’m feeling pretty good.

This leads me onto the meat of this post as it were. I have started using protein shakes for recovery, and they make one hell of a difference to how you feel the morning after a hard training session. I am using whey isolate protein and I mix this with some superfine milled oats for carbohydrate and a little bit extra energy. With a bit of trial and error I’ve found I need about half the usual amount of insulin to account for the carbs in these oats, I guess because they are fairly low GI and are quite slow release. I’m mixing them myself and tend to go for a 500 Kcal shake in the morning and a 300 Kcal version in the evening keeping protein constant and altering the carbs. Works quite nicely and they are quite filling.

I bought the bits and pieces from www.myprotein.co.uk and £40 got me a couple of months worth I would estimate. Quite pleased with that as they are replacing 2 meals a day (I eat 4x daily when training morning and evening) plus with a but of sugar free crusha milk shake syrup they taste awesome!

…Since my last update and things have certainly changed.

Had a few ups and downs, the usual rollercoaster of living this sugary existance but the major change in my life has been packing in the day job and going back to uni to study Nursing. I am enrolled on a Graduate Diploma in Nursing at BCU doing the adult branch of nursing.

Only been on the course for a few days and so far its been mostly admin but its ok, workload is agreeably busy, The Grad Dip is a 3 year course condensed into 2 years, the idea being that those who have already done a degree can cope with the intensity.

First placement in 6 weeks and I’ll be visiting the hospitals to the south of Birmingham.

Can’t wait! Roll on injection practice and the lectures on diabetes.

Also as promised in an earlier entry I have my thoughts on the Sanofi Avensis Solostar pen, its a huge improvement over the Autopen 24 I was using before, the action is nicer with more control over how quickly a dose is administered, I can dose in 1 unit increments and can dial back if I make a mistake with dialing it up.

Also it looks much cooler. This is an important consideration! Purple and grey is much nicer than the sickly blue I had before.

Made a slight error with my dose this evening, reading my book, replying to a text and answering a colleague bothering me on my dinner break, I dialed the dose up to 8 units by mistake and meant to adjust it to 6 (my pen allows me to dial back).

I did the the clicks whilst looking at my colleague (attempting to shame them into desisting from interrupting my precious dinner hour) and stuck myself. It was only when I depressed the plunger and it clicked in much more than I thought it should that I realised I had clicked the wrong way and injected 10 units. Erk!

I ate my “low banana” and waited it out. 90mins later the low symptoms arrived (legs feel hot and tingly) and I started to drink full sugar fanta in small sips, testing regularly and topping up if I started to drop.

I managed to ride out the symptoms in this way and was absolutely fine.

Today goes in the book as a success!

No, not this one, although I am an expert on my own diabetes.

You can find the new weblog (for which I am a contributor) here:
http://dhtoday.typepad.com/diabetes/

“We have invited people who treat diabetes and people who live with diabetes to blog about their lives and thoughts. If you want to know what is the most progressive treatment or just how to get on with your day, come and keep track of our blog.”

Had a hypo last night at around 2am (2.2 mmol), memory is fuzzy. Went downstairs and consumed everything in sight that wasn’t nailed down (some cereal a banana and some juice).

The hypo wasn’t so bad but the rebound high is kicking my backside. I hate being hyperglycemic, the headache etc and thirst. Suffice to say its a good job I’m on a late today and can mope around in my dressing gown until the afternoon.

Got back yesterday afternoon and I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent over there.

Did a fair bit of skiing (my first time so I had a couple of lessons and some practice days) which kept my exercise topped up, hard work going slow! Did some exploration of the local towns as well on foot, racking up the miles as we would park up and explore on foot.

Skiing helped to keep my insulin sensitivity up and although the food was different I coped with estimating my units, I found the food over there to be much higher quality than we get here, bread and meats particularly, even the smallest supermarkets had a bread/vegetable selection that would put most places over here to shame.

One problem I did have was keeping the meter warm enough to work whilst on the piste, that and cold fingers bleed quite reluctantly.

I did have some grief on the way back being allowed to take a carton of juice onto the plane, in the end I showed the security woman my insulin prescriptions and she let me take it aboard.

Daily mail

:@!

Is my latest Hba1c which is pretty win, quite pleased about that particularly since I was fairly  unwell over christmas and had the associated high blood sugars that go with that.

Off to Switzerland on saturday, looking forward to that. Dad had a skiing lesson and has a large bruise for a body. He is reluctant to give it another go so I might be doing it on my own.

Because he knocked up a far superior CP:insulin table to mine and you can find it here

Sadly the laminating you have to do yourself.