Aaron: America has some benefits

25 August 2010
9 Comments

I don’t know if it was because I was staying the San Francisco area (hippie, organic food and greenie central of the US) but contrary to what I had expected in my head, I totally LOVED San Francisco and the wider bay area in general. Not to say that I thought I would hate it, I just didn’t expect to love it as much as I did. Good weather, fantastic food from jalapeno poppers at a diner style restaurant/cafe place to mexican, ethiopian, burmese and white miso ice cream, good people no disasters all made it a fantastic 7 days in the states.

There are many people and experiences I will remember from our week there which I could list…

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By Aaron on 25 August 2010 at 9.00 am
Posted in Technology & Equipment
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Aaron: The road less travelled.

14 August 2010
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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…

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By Aaron on 14 August 2010 at 9.00 am
Posted in Hypos & Hypers, Insulin Pumps, Technology & Equipment, Travel
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An end to finger pricking?

3 August 2010
3 Comments

I see that Reuters (and many other sites) have reported that an implant has been tested in pigs which measures and transmits blood glucose levels wirelessly. It’s not exactly mentioned where ultimately this would be transmitted to, but there is a mention of cellphones.

Apparently this has been tested in pigs and worked in one for a year, the other for ten months – wahey! The not-so-wahey bit is that the implant is actually 3.8 by 12.7 cm – where on earth are they implanting that puppy?! Crikey!

I have to say though I love the sound of this, taking the CGMS to the next level – no regular changeovers of sensors, no chance sensors can fall out, and no…

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By Nic on 3 August 2010 at 10.45 am
Posted in CGMS, Hypos & Hypers, Monitoring, Science & Research, Technology & Equipment
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Aaron: How do they even do it?

12 July 2010
4 Comments

At the risk of sounding like a TV game show host or a question card from Trivial Pursuit – how do they make insulin?

It’s a question that I found myself asking the other day when I was reading the label of my Novorapid vial which says;

“The active substance in Novorapid is insulin aspart produced by biotechnology. Novorapid contains the following other substances: Glycerol, Phenol, Metacresol, Zinc Chloride, Disodium phosphate dihydrate, Sodium Hydroxide, Hydrochloric acid and Water for injections”.

It’s quite amazing when I think about it but I have absolutely no idea how insulin is made these days! I’m imagining labs filled with all sorts of technology and I did manage the find the image you can see…

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By Aaron on 12 July 2010 at 11.23 am
Posted in Science & Research, Technology & Equipment
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Aaron: Dud insulin.

9 July 2010
9 Comments

A couple of months ago, a good friend of mine was going through a horrible spate of bad highs that were proving to be completely random and over a period of about 2 weeks, were causing her serious problems. It seemed that no matter what she did, it just didn’t stop them from coming time and time again.

After a number of lines of investigation the only possibility that was left as an option was that the insulin she was using at the time was a dud batch. It’s not something that has happened to me but I have wondered a couple of times just how the pharmaceutical companies manage to ensure that the insulin they distribute is the…

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By Aaron on 9 July 2010 at 10.05 am
Posted in Hypos & Hypers, Technology & Equipment
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