BeingDiabetic.co.nz » Hypos & Hypers

Aaron: The statistics

Aaron — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:02:12 +0000

As I approach my 20th anniversary of diagnosis started thinking about how much diabetes I must have ‘done’ during that time so I’ve done a rough calculation based on what I have at hand and here it is.

I think it makes for an interesting read!

38,764 x injections
36,400 x fingerpricks
100+ bloodtests
185 x cannula changes
5000+ hypos
5000+ highs
200+ Dr visits
50+ hospital trips
2 x hospitalisations
756,864,000 x heartbeats

I’m not even going to try and start to calculate the amount of hypo treatments I’ve eaten in it’s various forms in KGs sorry!

- Aaron

Aaron: Beer, bear and bare.

Aaron — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 21:10:20 +0000

Being essentially on holiday, I have found myself doing a lot of things in Canada that normally just wouldn’t be a part of my life in New Zealand.

Generally speaking I’ve been getting a lot more exercise than previously by walking and biking all over the city (no car you see), I’ve been going and doing decent hikes of 4 hours plus at least once every three weeks and I’ve also been drinking a lot more alcohol too to take just three examples.

All of these can be attributed to still being in a tourist mindset and as such, walking around this amazing city with ‘tourist goggles’ on as I like to call it – getting out to a…

Diabetes on a dartboard.

Nic — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 22:14:57 +0000

Some days it feels like diabetes is Public Enemy Number 1. It’s days like these I would be tempted to sketch out what my diabetes would look like if it were a person, stick it on a dartboard and take aim at it with a nice sharp dart (or perhaps a syringe, just to make a point).

I had a night like this last week. Had one of those hypos which you know is going to be bad news. I took a reasonably large amount of insulin to go with my dinner, and by only 40 minutes in I was already at a 3.4. Ran to the kitchen and started loading up on glucose. In the meantime I felt the…

Aaron: #bgnow

Aaron — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 20:01:06 +0000

This last week has been a mixture of diabetes good and diabetes hell with a whole heap of random highs and lows plaguing me at various points day and night inciting more than one moment of cursing diabetes to hell I have to admit even though I’m not really one to sit around feeling sorry for myself (which I hope comes across!).

Moaning aside though, I’ve put the spikes and troughs down to the change in seasons again, me fighting a tickly throat for the last two days and a little bit of stress chucked in with too little sleep and the odd bottle of beer as I’ve transitioned out of my current job into a new one which is…

Aaron: The trick to trick-or-treating

Aaron — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 20:00:38 +0000

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Today is Halloween in Canada and man do they get into it!

Every shop you look at is full of displays with pumpkins and ghouls and decorations, supermarkets are selling autumn wares, huge pumpkins, tiny pumpkins and gourds are filling the shelves and streets outside shops. Party invites are being sent out left right and centre and people are all a flutter talking non stop about what their costumes are going to be. At times I honestly feel like I’m back at high school listening to the girls talking about their ball dresses!

Seriously though, it seems to me that after Christmas, this holiday is the biggest in Canada and people absolutely love getting into it in…

The perils of baking.

Nic — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 22:00:22 +0000

It wasn’t until I was pregnant and had to avoid uncooked eggs that I realised how bad I am when I bake at licking cake batter off my fingers. I’m fastidious about washing my hands frequently when baking or cooking though I’ll add!

As you can see from the pic on the right, I was baking up a storm last week as it was my son’s first birthday, and we had a party for him on Saturday (what you see isn’t even the half of it). I was pretty well behaved this time around and didn’t eat any sweets or even batter, and in fact went low on blood sugar as I was decorating the kiwi (it’s a kiwi, not…

Aaron: Tramping the Laurentians – basal rate success!

Aaron — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 21:15:26 +0000

You know how sometimes it’s the little victories that make the difference to your diabetes day?

Well, I had one of these on the weekend of the 20th September when I went hiking in the Laurentian mountains north of Montréal and, being quite chuffed with myself I wanted to share it with you all.

As I mentioned in my catch up post, the past 4 weeks have been a diabetes HELL for hypos for me and I was starting to get quite annoyed about it. When we arrived, I purchased a 2KG pack of white sugar for hypos at home and there is no more than 750G left of that pack now so that might give you a…

Thursday poll: do your sugars change with your menstrual cycle?

Nic — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 23:14:35 +0000

Sorry guys – this one’s not applicable to you. Ladies – I’d love to know what your answer to this question is (and I suspect the comments area is going to be more useful for this particular poll). I ask because I’m still trying to nail my approach to my own situation, which is huge spikes overnight for about a week of every month. My overall insulin resistance climbs too. So much so that I actually have two quite different basal patterns programmed in to my pump.

Aaron: Diabetes and Montréal, Canada.

Aaron — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 21:15:24 +0000

Wow. Canada.

It has been almost six full weeks since we left New Zealand now and what an eventful six weeks they have been!

I’ve already posted about our time in America and a little bit about the trip via Tahiti so it’s about time I get you all up to date with Canada!

Of course, the first couple of weeks were busy with lots of time spent basking in the 30+ degree heat and taking an initial look around town. My former workmates in NZ had given us a gift of bikes which we immediately put to use tripping all over the city enjoying the parks, festivals and summer activities that Montréal has to offer.…

Come along summer!!

Nic — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 21:07:47 +0000

Well hellloooo there BeingDiabetic friends! Spring hiatus is over, but unfortunately my Spring break is still underway [status update: cast comes off on Thursday, will then need to wear a brace thingee for a couple of weeks, but thankfully I'm back into typing with two hands and can even unclip my cannula on my own again! I am also thrilled that I should be back to normal in time to create an awesome first birthday cake for my little buddy Hugo in mid October]. How have you all been?

I’ve been a busy little beaver, mainly with moving house. This was a first for me on many counts: first move…