BeingDiabetic.co.nz » Insulin Pumps

She gon’ blow this joint up!

Nic — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 21:32:29 +0000

I went on a last minute work trip last week, to Adelaide for a few days. I used to travel a lot more frequently before I had a mortgage and a family (!) but these days (judging by the lack of stamps in my passport), an overseas trip is more of a once a year type thing.

Dunno about you, but airports (and all the personnel which go with ‘em) always make me feel a bit nervous. Not nervous as in shaking in my boots, but I always feel like I have this fake smile plastered on my face as I go through customs and the scanning areas which is supposed to convey a sort of, “HI GUYS, I’m just…

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…

Summertime.

Nic — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 21:45:57 +0000

Ahhhh – after that weekend I think it’s fair to say summer is definitely on the way. With this comes summer wardrobes and new challenges for us diabetics (mainly the girls, although boys I know you have your own wardrobe challenges).

For me, it’s all about being able to wear nice floaty dresses. I had a little dream the other day about buying one of the two pumps in the NZ market which are remote control-operated, so I could just throw on a dress and not worry about having to wear my pump in a leg garter/down my top, plus the added hassle of needing to retrieve it without looking completely brazen/inappropriate. (for example, I was in a meeting with…

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: How often do you test your ISF/Basal rates?

Aaron — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:55:32 +0000

With the move to Canada and the ensuing chaotic BGs, I’ve found myself testing all my insulin sensitivity factors and basal rates this week in the hope that the information might help me get some control back.

How often do you guys test your ISF and if you are pumping, your basal rates?

- Aaron

Diabetes with one arm.

Nic — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:35:43 +0000

OK so I’ve blogged before about having T1 with a baby, but basically because I fear boredom, I’ve added a broken wrist in to the mix just to keep things fresh and exciting.

Things I have discovered about having diabetes with one bung arm (my good arm):

Make the most of the first 24 hours of the injury, before the swelling and bruising pain sets in – change your cannula, fill your cartridge etc Get used to doing BG tests on your sore hand because doing it in reverse is too painful If you don’t enjoy attention from your colleagues/the general public, you’re gonna hate it: doing a blood test in an awkward way to get

…

Not the Spring break I had in mind.

Nic — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 20:04:02 +0000

A picture tells a thousand words, and one-handed typing takes a thousand years, so I’ll summarise.

1. Awesome! Husband takes me with him on work trip to Queenstown.

2. Haven’t been on a snowboard for 15 years plus recently had baby so very respectful of zero skill base and altered balance overall.

3. Cousin lives in Queenstown and lends me his wrist guards.

4. Do things right by kicking off with a lesson. It goes really well. However it emerges that cousin has given me two left wrist guards. Wear one and put other in pocket.

5. BG too high to have lunch after lesson (17.1 – had turned pump off in anticipation of hypos but with exercise as you…

Insulin addict 4 life.

Nic — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:24:37 +0000

I like to think that having T1 doesn’t hold me back from much. And the truth is, it really doesn’t. It makes things a bit more difficult sometimes, but there are only a few things you actually can’t do (we discussed jobs etc in a previous post but I can’t find it right at this moment).

On Monday last week though, my status as an insulin addict was put to the test. My little boy Hugo was ill and my husband had been home with him. He rang me at about 4pm to say they were off to the hospital as Hugo had suspected pneumonia. I was at work so jumped in my car as soon as I could and…

Aaron: The road less travelled.

Aaron — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:00:40 +0000

As of the weekend, we have arrived safely in San Francisco in one piece – and both sighed a breath of relief having had a manic couple of weeks which saw (between the two of us), the release of an album – with its associated gig, a masters thesis completed, quitting of two jobs, selling of cars, a court case (me vs. a bad driver), saying goodbye to 13 nieces and nephews plus 6 siblings plus parents and friends, selling the cars and packing up our entire lives.

Needless to say, it was all quite intense!

Tahiti was absolutely amazing (and amazingly expensive too, a can of coke costs around 4 dollars), but wasn’t without its drama as I came…

Diabetes radio, and help a parent day.

Nic — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:38:27 +0000

Hi everyone – I got an emails from two readers last week which I would love your input on please.

ONE:

My mum is hosting a radio segment in New Plymouth which starts up soon about diabetes…along with the medical team up there and has been asking me for a name for her segment. Wondered if you had any ideas on a name and some topics you think would be important to cover? They will be talking about all kinds of things to do with diabetes and interviewing medical people on the show.
Can you help this BeingDiabetic reader out? Questions:

- what should her Mum call the show?

- what topics would you want covered in a radio…