A few interesting facts.

16 November 2008
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I got an email from the IDF (International Diabetes Federation) last week and it had some interesting (and, I warn you, a little depressing) facts, so here they are, verbatim.

>> Every 10 seconds a person dies from diabetes-related causes.

>> Every 10 seconds two people develop diabetes.

>> Over 250 million people live with diabetes worldwide. In 2025, this figure will reach 380 million.

>> Over 500,000 children under age 15 worldwide live with type 1 diabetes.

>> More than 200 children a day develop type 1 diabetes.

>> In developing countries, close to 75,000 children live with diabetes in desperate circumstances.

>> Type 1 diabetes is increasing fastest in pre-school children, at a rate of 5% each year.…

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By Nic on 16 November 2008 at 2.58 pm
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Happy World Diabetes Day!

14 November 2008
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Hi all – well it’s World Diabetes Day today, a day which I’ve never acknowledged or even given any thought to. Today I celebrated being diabetic by getting up at 5:20am to do a spin class, checking my blood sugar midway through, realising it had hit 16.9 for some unknown reason (I was wondering why I was struggling a bit: no energy going to the muscles!), leaving the class halfway through to shoot up, and hoping it would come down. No such luck yet – I’ve now got to 18.1 almost two hours later and taken another 5u. Hmmmm. Think it’s going to be a while before I can eat any breakfast.

Anyway – check out the awesome pic…

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By Nic on 14 November 2008 at 7.16 am
Posted in Community, Exercise, Hypos & Hypers
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Things I’ve learnt this week.

13 November 2008
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I went for my regular appointment at the hospital yesterday, and learnt a couple of things I’d not previously known before.

1. Apparently sugar free sweets and other items which contain malitol or sorbitol (or other ‘ol’’s) will still raise your blood sugar because of the sugar alcohol they contain. More info on this here.

2. I’ve not had a chance to try this out yet (and I’m sure all of us are different, so take care if you do and don’t over-do it) but my specialist was saying that for some of her patients, when their BG is 14 or over, they need to double the amount of insulin they use as a correction factor.…

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By Nic on 13 November 2008 at 8.21 pm
Posted in Food, Hypos & Hypers
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Aren’t people lovely part II: cakes and plastic cows.

13 November 2008
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This week, my Mum was showing some of the women at her work the latest issue of diabetes magazine, which I have an article published in. The article talks about my experiences with the Dexcom CGMS (see all the posts on this here) and mentions that I’m moving to a pump. Mum’s talked to these women before about the expense of the pump and how I’m still paying it off, and one of her work friends piped up all of a sudden and said “Right – this is what’s going to happen – we’re going to all cobble together and bake lots of cakes and sell them on behalf of your daughter and raise…

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By Nic on 13 November 2008 at 8.06 pm
Posted in CGMS, Funding, Insulin Pumps
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Yes we can.

11 November 2008
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Sorry to come over all Obama on you (Yes we can), but I have to return momentarily to my main reason for setting up this blog: to show people that anyone, even someone with a busy and spontaneous life, even someone who likes a drink from time to time and has been in denial for years at a time about her diabetes – can do it.

Today I got my HbA1c result back from the docs and I’m now at 6.8%. This is the best result I have ever had, since I was diagnosed 14 years ago. I have come down from being in the 8s last year, and the 9s the year before.

I’ve also managed…

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By Nic on 11 November 2008 at 7.24 pm
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