BeingDiabetic.co.nz

How much carb in a cup of flour?

Nic — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:22:49 +0000

Thank you so much to the DYA Press for the latest issue which came through my letterbox last week. There’s an article on page 7 called “Healthy Food Tips” which mentions this website:

http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/npc/index.cfm

The awesome thing about this website is that you can enter a whole recipe into the calculator (in terms of the quantities of ingredients which make up the recipe) and it will give you a full nutritional break-down of how many carbs are in that recipe (as well as the other nutritional measurements).

A question I’ve been posing and been meaning to find the answer to in past is “how many carbs in a cup of flour?”. This is due to us baking a bit of…

Return of the night spikes.

Nic — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:44:37 +0000

The great thing about being pregnant most of last year was that the dreaded overnight BG spikes I was struggling with (which lead me to getting on the pump in the first place) disappeared. I’m not sure it was a complete win, because with all of the other pregnancy stuff all of the rest of your blood sugars go haywire… but I have to say – there is something doubly frustrating about going to bed with a perfect BG and waking up in the morning with a sky-high one. It just seems really unfair. During the day if you have a crazy spike you often blame it on food, exercise or stress (rightly or wrongly) – but I just get…

New feature: Articles page.

Nic — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:39:02 +0000

Hi all

A few of you have asked to see various articles I’ve written and had printed. You’ll see there is now a menu item titled ‘Articles‘, above. Go there to see the articles I’ve had printed during the lifespan of this blog.

Cheers

Nic

Needlewood.

Nic — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:50:57 +0000

I’m a bit short on inspiration today, so when my friends at Skull and Bones put up a name generator for people to re-create the controversial Wellywood sign, this was the best I could do on the T1 front. Any better plays on words you can come up with on the subject of diabetes?

Create yours here:

http://wellywood.skullandbones.co.nz/

Aaron: What’s your weakness?

Aaron — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:00:32 +0000

I was reading Nic’s post this weekend called ‘Devil in the Pantry‘ about trying to resist the temptation of eating the jar of Nutella and it got me thinking about what, out of all things that sit in my pantry from time to time I have absolutely no self control over. That is, if it’s there, it’s gone regardless of how much insulin I have to pump in.

This may seem strange but for me the list is…ahem:

Ice-cream cones Caramello chocolate Turkish delight Lemon flavoured glucodin tablets Rasberry licorice – yum

There are a couple of others on this list of mine too I have to admit but what about you guys?

What items, good or…

Guest blog: 50 years of Type 1… and ruling it.

Nic — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:57:46 +0000

In the last couple of weeks a chap named Roy Camp has been commenting on the blog, and some of the comments really piqued my interest – this one in particular: Talking about careers and those with restrictions. I tried to join the army when I left high school in 1962. I can still see and hear the sergeant telling me that under the Geneva Convention, they would not be allowed to stop the battle to let me take my insulin. I wonder if that would still apply today? Based on this, I asked him to do a Guest Blog. Roy is from Dunedin, and has had T1 for more than 50 years. Here is his story.… [thanks Roy!]

…

Last call for insulin pump funding support letters…

Nic — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 07:47:05 +0000

Last month I mentioned Ruth Hill, who is putting together an application to the Ministry of Health for funding for insulin pumps and their consumables.

She needs as many letters as possible to submit with her application, so please write yours and send it to her at ruthanna99@gmail.com. She already has more than 121 letters, but the more she has, the more compelling her application will be.

I’ve mentioned this before, and if you’ve sent a letter already or even decided against sending one for whatever reason, please skip over the rest of this post.

However, if you believe in this lobbying, and have just not had time to write a letter, you still have…

Devil in the pantry.

Nic — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:00:19 +0000

I was shopping at Pak n Save today (yes, it’s all glamour in my world), and heady with the thought of all the savings I was making as opposed to my usual shop at Countdown, I made a spontaneous decision to buy a jar of Nutella. Now – I’m not actually sure I’ve ever had a jar of Nutella in my house, and I can’t for the life of me remember the last time I actually ate it (must have been yeeeears ago, I’m thinking probably on a crepe in Europe somewhere). However, nearly all Nutella enthusiasts I know say they can’t actually have a jar in the pantry, because it’s so addictive they will keep going back and back…

Interesting research re insulin pumps, multiple injections, CGMS.

Nic — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:43:17 +0000

I’ve just come across two interesting pieces of research.

One:

A trial done in Norway between 1995 to 2004, involving 80 kids and adolescents using both multiple daily injections (MDI) and insulin pumps. The trial was set up to study the difference in HbA1c; incidence of hospitalisation for ketoacidosis and severe hypoglycaemia; and patient preference.

It was shown that the HbA1c levels of the patients decreased over time, which also coincided with the adoption of insulin pump therapy (76% of the patients were on pumps by the end of the ten years – unfortunately it doesn’t say what percentage were using them at the start). However, the adoption of insulin pumps didn’t seem to have an effect on the number…

Calling on the T1 community – your advice please.

Nic — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:50:42 +0000

Hi all

I got an email from a reader this week, with a few questions in it. An outline of the questions as follows:

1. Have you even been in contact with anyone around my age (26) who is using a pump that wouldn’t mind a few questions?

2. How do you start the pump process? Do you contact your diabetes team at the hospital first (as unhelpful they may seem to be for me), or do I contact the pump suppliers first?

3. Also, what happens if I shell out all that money for the pump, and then realise it really isn’t for me?

Given that I’m no expert on things (merely an observer and player much…