Nick's Blog

QR Codes

2010-05-24T13:19:00.002+01:00

It is two years since the last post on QR codes and they are becoming increasingly widespread. Maybe I was a little too early with my predictions, but I still reckon they will be big.
http://twitpic.com/1qlztg is an example.

QR Codes

2008-07-21T21:23:00.007+01:00

Anyone heard of QR Codes? Probably not. As long as the camera on your mobile is 2mp or more, go to Kaywa.com, download the software to your PC and then move it to your mobile. Open the file on your mobile and scan the barcode (QR code) below:

Amazing. I am trying to convince my bosses to launch this in our papers. I am hitting a bit of a brick wall..."shut up nerd", I can hear them saying. Well this is going to be big, it is in Japan and it will be here!

Advertisers will love it, consumers will love it and therefore newspapers will follow. Watch this space!! Shame I can't make any money out of it! Could have given up the day job. Any offers anyone?

Boring Post

2008-03-21T22:43:00.002Z

Not written in ages as I have had so many other things to do - kids, decorating, work etc. I still don't have a great deal of time, but felt industrious this evening whilst watching England fail at cricket, and wrote the following email to an American asking about the situation for UK diabetics:

"Not sure whether you got an answer to the pump question about UK. I think I have a fairly balanced view of it (not common here):

In the UK, we pay taxes which cover most of our medical needs (socialised medicine). Our companies often pay for private medical insurance, but these do not cover chronic conditions like diabetes. As there are limited funds, everyone generally gets the same treatment (in theory) and an organisation called NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) decided what is the best treatment for each condition based on cost and clinical outcome. They have decided (this is a summary) based on the clinical evidence that a) Type 2 diabetics are never eligible for pumps, b) Type 1 diabetics are only eligible if they have severe unforseen hypos or very high a1c's that have not been controlled by all efforts a using mdi.

They (NICE) are currently reviewing the scientific evidence, but as it stands pumps are not widely available and therefore clinical expertise is not great in this area.

It is possible to self-fund a pump, but you also have to fund the clinical assistance (physician consultations) so it is prohibitively expensive. Alternatively health authorities (governance of regional health policy) can decide how they use their finite funds. Some have decided not to follow NICE guidelines, so pumps are available. I expect these policies to change in the nea future but further scientific evidence for the success of pumps needs to be proved and the price of them needs to come down.

Finally, to complete the picture, prescriptions (notes written by doctors (physicians) for medications are charged at £6, $12 a time, but diabetics that are on insulin have free prescriptions for any medication, whether it be related to diabetes or not. Diabetes is one of the very few ailments that falls under this exemption.

Hope you haven't been too bored with this description. Maybe I'll save it to try and help some one else to understand the situation. It is not as bad a situation as some people make it. Just talk to an American diabetic without adequate medical insurance to find out the shortfalls of that system!"

Maybe it is of interest to someone reading this blog....

Excuses, Excuses!

2007-11-14T09:32:00.000Z

Not blogging since August? I have loads of excuses! The main reason is that we have been away from home and my in-laws only have dialup access to the net. The building work on the extension is finally finished. Our builder finished 10 days early and inside budget. He and his team are absolute stars! The final month of the build was particularly messy, and meant that we were without cooker, sink and use of the conservatory. For that reason, we moved out to Claire's parents' house. We have been there 4 weeks now and should hopefully move back home at the weekend. They have been very kind to us and it has been good for Claire to have some help, particularly as Josh is in a frustration phase, where he really wants to be mobile, but just can't quite get there! It will be so nice to have our own space back and also to get Josh in his new room.

Josh was 1 on 8th November. He doesn't have any friends his age yet, so we had a low-key family party to celebrate. Claire made a cake from a really cool mould that she bought in Lakeland plastics:

Abby loved opening his presents for him and was impressed with the variety of Thomas the Tank Engine memorabilia that he received.

As I said, the building work has now been completed. We are determined not to let the finishing work drag on for months or years. There is a huge amount to do, but we have been working every evening and most weekend days to make progress. We have now completed Josh's new room:

So it is all ready for him to move into and not a moment too soon.

The ensuite to the new bedroom 4 is tiled (by my fair hands) and has the shower cubicle and shower fitted. We have the flooring and the walls to complete.

Downstairs, the utility room and cloakroom need decorating and the kitchen needs a floor and to be tiled and painted. The kitchen was fitted on Monday and Tuesday of this week. The electrics are being done today. It looks absolutely fantastic:

There is still lots to do, but it will be worth it and will make the house a great place to live.

Away from home, work has been good too. With the promotion of my boss to run Oldham and Liverpool print sites, I have a new boss. Luckily for me, the No.2 at the site got the job and I have been promoted into his position. I am now Production Manager. In reality my role has not changed much, but the title is enabling me to do things slightly different and I am practising being more assertive. This is something that doesn't come natuarally, as I hate upsetting people, but it gets results and has to be done. I don't ever resort to swearing however, so remain in control.

Next week we are going to Somerset for a team building day. It will be great to see some of the team outside the work environment and to try and build relationships between the shifts and the management. We have also appointed a new shift manager, who will add strength to the shift team and will be a positive influence for the future.

Overall life is good...I hardly think about diabetes; it is just a routine. It is frustrating sometimes when blood sugars are inexplicably high or low, but I don't let it concern me. Most of the time, I am in the range that I think I need to be. Times outside the range are short,easily rectified and can be attributable.

Hope to blog again soon...fingers crossed!

More stuff

2007-08-21T11:01:00.001+01:00

Hello dedicated readers!! Again I haven't blogged for a while. Part of this is Harry Potter's fault. I am rather behind, but have now nearly finished book 6. I have the final book, but face a dilemma. I have a PRINCE2 (project management) course the first week in October and I have an entire coursebook to read and digest. Do I read the coursebook or HP? I think I better do the PRINCE2 stuff otherwise I won't pass the two exams that are contained in the course.

Building work continues apace. Here are two pictures of how it looked yesterday:

The brickwork is going up quickly, but I guess the insides will be a bit slower. At least now, we can see the outline of the kitchen and will soon be able to see the extent of the upstairs rooms. The money is also flowing to the builder quickly. At least he says now, that unless we change the plans, it will come in on or around budget.

I am going to my first civil partnership ceremony in London tomorrow. It will be interesting and whatever you think about the ceremony, it is special and important for the people involved and therefore believe you should support it. It will be good to meet up with some old friends too. As it is in London, near where my mother lives, I have left Claire and the children and come back to Birmingham on my own. It has given me two days without them, but I am not that I really enjoyed it and didn't sleep as well as I hoped. Going back to them this evening, which I am looking forward to. We spent the weekend with my mother, including a day in London on Saturday. We went to the Science Museum to see the Bob the Builder show. It was a bit advanced for Abby and she is not really sure about lots of noise and big groups. We followed it up with a trip to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs and the collection of large mammals. This was much more up her street and she was very excited by it all. We finished up in Hamleys, which was absolute heaven for her, particularly the Thomas the Tank Engine set and all the other wonderful toys in the shop.

Diabetes continues to trundle on in the background. I believe I need to keep it this way, because this isn't a short-term thing, I hope that I will live for another 40 or so years and I need to keep up the standards that I have in the first stage of dealing with the condition. I am struggling a bit at the moment, maybe because I have had cold symptoms for over a month. I am told that infections affect blood sugar and may explain some of the highs that I have been experiencing. At least I can adjust my insulin to try and keep under control. If it goes on this way, I am not sure that my next a1c will be where I want it, but at least I know I can do it and I have an excuse! I am trying to add a graph to the page, but it won't let me...you weren't that interested were you?!

I'll try and update again soon.

Building work so far

2007-07-27T09:26:00.000+01:00

Here are the pictures of the first two weeks of building work. I tried to get the pictures side by side, but Blogger seems to insist on them one on top of each other. I am taking roughly a picture a day, so you can see the excellent progress Gordon and his team are making. Abby thinks Gordon is a total hero! She keeps looking for him and going and chatting about all sorts...she even had to show him her fairy pyjamas the other day! Anyway, here are the pictures:

And finally one of the foundations after the lovely rain we received last week! I wanted an extension not a moat!

Extension - The Beginning

2007-07-16T10:35:00.001+01:00

Here are the photos of what the place where the extension is to be built looked like this weekend. At 8am this morning, the three builders arrived along with a skip lorry and two skips. Builder asked whether I had sorted getting the gas meter moved. I haven't, so am now worried that it may hold the building work up! I thought I was paying someone else a large sum of money and didn't want to have to do anything myself...hopefully it won't continue in this vein.

Finally an Update!

2007-07-07T21:18:00.000+01:00

So, I have finally got the motivation to update my blog. There's probably nobody reading it anymore, but just in case...here goes.

What has been happening? Well, I am still honeymooning in terms of my diabetes, so need less insulin than previously. It is proving a bit difficult to judge and I had a bad hypo last week. Basically, I was almost unconscious and Claire had gone out for the evening! Luckily I found some wine gums and came out of it eventually.

Last weekend was Josh's thanksgiving. Our church doesn't really approve of christenings of babies whose parents are not both confirmed. As neither of us are, then a thanksgiving was the choice. It turned out to be a lovely service and the small group of people that we had meant that it was a great day. The sun even shone for most of it.

This weekend is the Open Day at work. I have helped organise it, including getting a person to create a special newspaper for the day and be there to add pictures and make a live newspaper to put on the press. It is quite nerve-wracking as we need it to work in front of maybe 100 people! I'll let you know how it goes.

Finally our extension starts a week on Monday (16th). Our builder is nervous about the sewer, but I just want him to get on with it and find out what the situation is. We can't do much about it, we just have to deal with it and the financial implications (could be £10k...ouch!) I'll do regular photos on here so you can see how the work is going. It is predicted to be 3 1/2 months. It will be mahem, but ultimately worth it.

Finally, we have had good news on Josh's eyes: the opthalmist was very surprised at his progress and say they have very rarely seens such an improvement and that his vision appears to be approaching normal. He is definitely seeing lots and grabbing at things. It appears that he did not see much for a few months, and therefore his development is slightly behind, as he is 7 months and not sitting. However other development targets (how awful!) are within what we would expect. Overall though, he sleeps well, has finally come of the breast and loves his food (except jars of baby food!). Here he is:

Rant Time!

2007-05-31T11:38:00.000+01:00

Excuse me while I have a rant. As many of you know, I am quite a mild-mannered, quiet person who does not get easily riled. Well, I forgot to mention an incident a couple of weeks ago that really 'got my goat'!

It was to do with Josh's eyes. We finally lost patience waiting for an appointment to have tests on Josh's sight, so Claire went to our GP and explained the situation. He said the situation was unacceptable and immediately got on the phone and got us an appointment next day.

We went to the appointment the next day. Although the staff were mostly friendly, it was the worst appointment we had ever been to. Josh sat on Claire's need and they attached some electrodes to his head, which he absolutely hated. They flashed some lights at him. Went away for a chat, then put some more electrodes on and flashed some more lights. They then said that was all and bade us farewell, saying they would write to the eye person at our local hospital. At that point I said "Hang on a minute, can you tell me anything about the results?" They said, they thought it was developmental delay and he would almost certainly have perfect sight! As we know, due to his nystagmus this is impossible.

So what has happened is, they haven't read our notes, they couldn't be bothered to explain what they were doing and couldn't even be bothered to tell us the results without us pressing them. Claire and I are now even more distressed about his condition, especially as we hoped to get some clarity from this test (whatever it was!) and we discover we are no further on. There is an educational assessor coming from the council next week, who will assess Josh's needs and recommend ways forward. We also have an optometry appointment at our hospital in July. But the clock is ticking and we are still no closer to getting information about what Josh can see and whether there is anything we should be doing for him. Rant over!

High Days and Holidays

2007-05-30T16:00:00.001+01:00

After a long break from blogging, guess it is time to resume once more. It has been a busy few weeks. Highlight was last week's holiday in the New Forest. For those of you that don't know, the New Forest is located to the South West of Southampton. It is a beautiful area of unspoilt rolling countryside with extensive woodland and rights of ways. Animals including cattle and ponies roam wild and make it seem like a different world. It is definitely picturesque, but the volume of traffic that passes through the narrow lanes and small towns of the relatively small area make it difficult to get around. I hate to think what it would be like in the school holidays.

Anyway, we hired a cottage for a week. It was a Friday to Friday let, so we actually got the best of the early summer weather. The cottage was in a great location with lovely countryside views. This was the view from our bedroom:

The village that we stayed in was called Emery Down, just outside the town of Lyndhurst. Some friends of ours live in the village, who have a 9-month old son, so it was great to be able to do some things with them. We went to a farm park on the edge of the forest and went swimming, as well as having a babysitter in and having a meal with just the adults: a rare luxury! The farm park was excellent and not too busy. Abby and Josh both loved the trampolines (or bouncealines as Abby called them) as well as the animals. There was also a chance to feed some goats, calves and handle some rather unfortunate baby rabbits and chickens:
We also did some activites on our own, which included a trip to the rhododendron-filled Exbury Gardens (including a trip on their miniature railway) and a ferry ride to the Isle of Wight. A tip for the Isle of Wight, if you dock at Cowes: turn right and go across the chain bridge, not left and along the dull seafront as we did! However, Abby got right into the spirit of things:
Josh seemed to be rather enjoying himself too:

Unfortunately, Abby, Claire and Josh, but not me, got sick for the last couple of the days of the holiday which meant hard work for me and a bit of a miserable time for them. They are just now getting over it. The week was great and as I said the weather was lovely and summery and allowed us to do many activities that would have been rather miserable if the weather had been more inclement.

Other things that have happened include a visit to the Severn Valley Railway for the Thomas the Tank Engine day.
Abby (and if I admit it myself and my father in law) really enjoyed the day. It is great having a daughter who likes transport as I am rather partial to it myself. The weather held off for most of the day allowing us to jump on and off various trains without getting wet.

To more mundane things, my neuropathy has continued to be an issue. The pain is increasing once more. I am using the TENS machine, but I can't have it on all the time. Duracell are definitely benefitting from my condition! I am back at the hospital on Friday, so I expect they will increase my medication once more. I had blood taken yesterday, so it will be good to see how I am doing, including my latest A1C.

Strange things have happened in terms of my diabetes over the past couple of weeks. I suddenly started hypoing after every meal. I thought I must have miscalculated, but eventually, I changed the ratio of insulin to carbohydrate. After a few tests, I found that my ratio had change from 1u insulin to 10g Carb to 0.6u insulin to 10g Carb. This is quite a large change. Although I don't have a medical practitioner's explanation of this, I believe I may be in what is called the honeymoon phase of diabetes. What happens when you 'contract' diabetes is your insulin production drops off steadily without symptoms until you get to about 10% production. Then you get the normal symptoms of diabetes so start on insulin. This provokes the body to stop producing insulin altogether. After a while, as there are still functioning insulin cells (islets of langerhans), you start to produce your own insulin. This combined with the injected insulin controls your blood glucose and means you don't need to inject so much. This period can last up to 3 years, I have read.

Have sorted Josh's Thanksgiving Service and we have invited a small group of people to the service on 1st July. Although I have some reservations about the church, I think it will be a fitting service and, if the weather is nice, will enable us to have the post-service 'entertainment' in our 'buttercup meadow' (garden). Claire is working very hard to clear the buttercups before the lawnmower returns from being fixed. It has been away for nearly a month, so the grass is very long and is in desperate need of cutting. At least the rain is preventing us from being able to cut it at the moment.

Right, hopefully that made up for my lack of blogging. Will put a comment on my facebook page and see whether I get loads of new readers to the blog; probably not!

Laziness

2007-05-16T21:06:00.000+01:00

Again I have been lax about blogging. It hasn't been that I haven't had interesting things to describe, it is pure laziness.

In fact Claire has just switched on the 3rd episode of series 1 of 24, so I want to watch that, so will write more later.

I am on holiday in the New Forest for a week, on Friday so will write when I get back.

Krissy and Phil's Wedding

2007-05-07T09:06:00.000+01:00

There is one sure-fire way of forgetting your pains and troubles: do something memorable and truly special. Well this weekend definitely fulfilled those criteria. Not only did we leave Abby with her Grandma but also it was the wedding (finally!) of Krissy (or Kristian if you are being formal) and Phil (Phil Collins...not the real one!). Krissy started on the same day as me working at Mirror Newspapers on the first day of employment for both of us after university. We shared an office for ages, not sure how long but probably over year and I have great respect for her abilities and believe we complement each other very well. Anyway soon after we started working at the Mirror, a shy, quiet, handsome (I am told!) young man started working in the platemaking area of the factory. Now, if you went into the platemaking area, Phil would stand out: it is not an area where many under-60's used to work. Now, not being particularly apt at spotting instant attraction, I did not notice that Krissy had eyes for this certain young man. However, the romance blossomed and they finally got married this weekend (after courting for about 7 years, if my estmate is correct).

Well everything about the wedding was fantastic. Krissy looked absolutely wonderful and Phil looked really handsome (so my wife tells me...he's married now dear!). Here is a picture of them at the church:
The sun came out just in time and made it a glorious day. This was helped by the glorious setting: the church was in a tiny Cheshire village called Pott Shrigley. Here is a picture of the setting:
The vicar also gave an excellent surmon linking the flat-packed nature of Ikea products to the construction of a happy and lasting marriage. As I said, we left Abby at home, but we brought Josh along as Claire is still feeding him. He was really well behaved and looked rather dapper in his posh shirt:
After the service, there was quite a long drive to the reception venue, but it was worth it. The reception was held at Peover (pronounced Peever, I was corrected by a local!) Golf Club. The clubhouse was simple and modern but Krissy (and her parents) had excelled themselves in specifying the table arrangements and the topiary and hanging baskets that adorned the venue:
The food at the reception was exceptional and didn't have too many carbs, so I was able to eat loads and still be OK. The speeches were good too. At so many of these weddings the speeches go on and on about people that you have no knowledge of and anecdotes that are just not interesting. However, these were different. The speeches were humerous, terse and understandable to all. Phil's was especially good and showed very well quite how besotted he is with Krissy. The reception was also good as I met some old colleagues and friends. It was particularly great to meet back up with my first boss. Claire also looked lovely at the wedding as is proved by this picture:

Because the wedding was quite a way from home, we booked into the Cottons Hotel (near Knutsford) for that night. As Josh was tired, we decided to get a taxi back to the hotel reasonably early. Luckily he slept well and we woke up refreshed on Sunday morning. We then had the best breakfast I have had at a hotel. It was a buffet, with many choices and perfectly cooked fried food. I had plenty, but didn't overdo it. Afterwards we retired to the hotel spa. Again this was exceptional, with a good sized pool, whirlpool bath, sauna, steam room, gym (not likely!) and a good area for sitting and relaxing. Josh definitely got into the spirit of it!

After a swim and a relax we returned home to Abby and my Mum. It was great to see them, particularly Abby who we miss dreadfully if we are away from her. She still astounds us regularly. Mum had bought her a 35 piece jigsaw, which she can now do on her own and did 90% at the first attempt. Not bad for two and a half.

Bank Holiday today, but I am working and taking tomorrow off. It is my birthday tomorrow, so it will be nice to spend it at home. I am going to toddler group in the morning, probably go to a pub for lunch and then go to a farm park to see the lambs in the afternoon. I have realised that the most enjoyable times I can have are with the children and making them happy, hence the visit to Thomas the Tank Engine at the Severn Valley Railway next weekend. Pictures will be on next week's blog I am sure.

Took an extra dose of Pregabalin last night by accident...oops! Been virtually pain free overnight and today, but suppose I better get back onto the prescribed dose today.

Right, better actually get some work done. Been nice talking to you...!

Diabetes Progress

2007-05-02T13:16:00.000+01:00

So I have been whinging and moaning about the woes of my calf pain etc., etc. I have probably therefore lost most of the audience to my blog because I am depressing them so much! Shame, but I will plough on regardless.

Anyway, I have kind of forgotten to keep track of my diabetes control. This is mainly because it is so much part of the routine now, that I hardly notice it... Here is an update of my levels chart, which shows the number of times my blood glucose is within a certain range:

Pretty pleased with it as my target range is between 5 & 10. The majority of the high readings were also in the early stages after my diagnosis. However, having had a kebab and chips for lunch, not sure whether I will be adding to the high reading later!

Hmph!

2007-05-01T09:33:00.000+01:00

Still not eased the pain totally...thank goodness for the TENS machine...can you get addicted to electrical impulses?! I wasn't sure whether the codeine-like medicine that I take 10 of a day was doing anything. By accident I forgot to bring them to work yesterday. By 4pm my pain was at about 8.5/9 (crying point) so I guess they are doing something! I didn't fully recover and get my pain below about 5 until 9 this morning. A bit miserable that I am reliant on these tablets and that the pain is not diminishing. As I said before, I am told the pain increases before it finally fixes itself. Had a letter from the consultant confirming her diagnosis and stating how unusual my case was.

Had a phonecall a few weeks ago about Josh's eyes. We said that we still believed he could see very little. They said that they would bring the appointment due at the end of the summer forward so that they could try and decide the extent of his problems and put actions in place as soon as possible. We hadn't heard so Claire phoned the department yesterday. The lady (a secretary) was very abrupt with her telling her that how could she possibly expect to get an appointment letter in 2 weeks and that it would be at least five weeks before she got the letter and then the appointment would be sometime after that. This is bad news as we want to know what the situation is with Josh so that we know that we are stimulating him in the right way and making allowances for what he is able to do. It just annoys me that the secretary was so rude to Claire, I want to go and 'box her ears'. Guess she must have to put up with lots of whinging people, but a bit of empathy for our situation wouldn't have gone amiss.

The weather continues to be wonderful. The lawnmower has broken, so I have to take that to be mended quickly. I will very soon have a meadow to tend with due to the sun beating down on it. I am quite jealous of Claire being able to spend the day in the garden. It will be lovely especially as the children prefer to be outside rather than cooped up in the house. They are off to my grandparents in Cheltenham tomorrow, which will be good for all of them. We have nearly fixed the greenhouse and Abby and Claire filled the growbags with tomato plants yesterday evening. Fingers crossed for a good crop. We also have aubergines, blackberries and rhubarb. It is a slow start, but we have so much else on this year, that we can't contemplate growing our usual wide array of fruit and veg.

Back at the specialist on Friday; will keep you informed.

Pain 4, Nick 0

2007-04-27T12:01:00.000+01:00

At least I am back at work. The pain is quite variable. It has been as high as seven on the scale, but today it is about a 4. The TENS machine is definitely giving me relief. At least I am sleeping at night, which means it is easier to cope. My diabetes has also been a bit variable with a couple of unexplained lows and a high that didn't make sense. Guess it is all part of the learning process and the unpredictability of my condition. I continue to use diabetesdaily.com and have become quite attached to the chat room on there. There are some interesting people and it is good to talk about all sorts of things with people from other countries with different life experiences. There is also planned to be a meet in Birmingham of people that use the site. I have never me someone that I have only previously spoken to on the net, so it will be an interesting event.

Claire, Abby, Josh and her Mum went to Lickey Hills Park in South West Birmingham yesterday. I had searched for a bluebell wood in Birmingham and this was suggested. The park was quite extensive and there were many different areas within it. Claire said that they didn't make it to the main bluebell wood, but even so the display of bluebells they saw was the best she had seen.

Have a fairly quiet weekend coming up. Going to try and get some replacement glass for our greenhouse and maybe buy Abby a Wendy House. I think she would absolutely love it and there is some space in the garden for it to go. More next week...

Two Photos

2007-04-25T20:46:00.000+01:00

Here are two photos of the children. Abby is on my shoulders making snow out of the cherry blossom and Josh is just looking contented on the chair.
Very proud of them both!

Health Summary

2007-04-25T12:35:00.000+01:00

Hi, I'm back at work today so feeling somewhat more cheerful. The pain has diminished but not gone. I have posted quite a lengthy summary of my situation on diabetes daily, however some of you may not use that site, so here is what I wrote (if you want to skip this, there is more news at the bottom!):

Thought I should share my neuropathic experiences. I was diagnosed as a Type 1 at the beginning of February. I had diabetic symptoms for well over a year, and had no ketones at diagnosis. My diagnosis bg was 37 (666). The medical profession and someone on diabetes daily suspect that I may be type 1.5 (LADA), not that it makes much difference!

About a month post-dx I started to get pains in my calves. I took 400mg ibuprofen, thinking it was a muscle pain, but they did nothing. I saw my doctor and he didn't really listen that the pain wasn't muscular and prescribed other muscle painkillers, which of course did nothing.

The pain got worse and caused me to have disturbed sleep for nearly a month. I kept on at the doctors, but they basically told me to go away. The pain was particularly bad when I was sitting and when I was in bed. The doctor finally listened when I said that I was crying with pain overnight and getting less than 3 hours sleep.

He suggested that I had acute neuropathy and prescribed 2x75mg Pregabalin (Lyrica) and 8 x Tramacet (37.5mg Tramadol/325mg Paracetamol) a day. The consultant saw me 2 days later and agreed that this was the best way forward, but had never seen a case of acute neuropathy in a type 1. I could also increase my Pregabalin to 4 a day. Fairly quickly the pain disappeared, but three days later the pain returned, nearly as bad as before. I spoke again to the consultant and she said that I was on the maximum dose of Pregabalin, but go up to 10 Tramacet a day (14 tablets a day!). Initially the meds made me drowsy, so I took some time off, but this appears to have subsided.

A couple of weeks later, I still have the pain, but it is on the scale of 2-3 out of 10 rather than the 8-9 that I had before. I still have occasionaly 5-6 episodes, but some good friends of ours suggested that a tens (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator) machine might help. They leant me their machine and it definitely seems to help. When I have pain, I switch the dial up and after a short while the pain seems to subside. The medical profession haven't suggested this, but it works! I am back at the specialist in 10 days time. She says there are a few other options, but didn't say what they were.

I have been told that acute neuropathy will not cause lasting damage and that it will go away of its own accord. This could take a month or over a year. There is no treatment for it, but the Pregabalin should reduce the pain. Additionally good bg control will help. As you will see from my A1C, I have got reasonable control, probably because I am still producing insulin. My average BG is now about 6 (110) which I am happy with and I rarely go over 10 (180). Hopefully this will help to make the neuropathy go away!

If you got this far, well done! Other news is that we now have all the necessary permissions for our extension. We had a CCTV of the drain done too and it is fine. The builder is running a bit late and is now starting at the end of June. This is alright as May is a really hectic month with a visit to the Severn Valley Railway, for a Thomas TTE day, a week in the New Forest, my birthday, a wedding in Manchester and other things that I can't remember! Hopefully the weather will continue in the same vein as it has been in April.

Phew!

Frustration!

2007-04-22T20:34:00.000+01:00

I have been signed off work for a bit due to the drowsiness brought on by the medication. In my last post, I said I was pain free. Unfortunately, it has gone downhill since then and the pain is back at the levels of a week ago. Had an excellent weekend with various friends, but am not in the mood for writing about it today. Will sign off and hopefully update with a more positive post late in the week.

Conclusions

2007-04-16T19:28:00.000+01:00

Well I visited the consultant today and there is a firm theory about what is the cause of my pain. Unfortunately it raises many questions. What they believe I have is acute neuropathy. Neuropathy is a condition of the nervous system that causes pain in the legs and numbness in the feet. Diabetic neuropathy is a common condition in diabetics, but only occurs after 10-15 years of poor control. Acute neuropathy is rare and very rare in type 1 diabetics. However, it appears that I might have a type of diabetes called LADA (latent autoimmune diabetes in adult). This is exemplified by later onset diabetes (after age 25) and also slow onset of the symptoms. This makes sense as I had symptoms of diabetes for at least a year, maybe as much as 2. It doesn't really make any difference that I have LADA, I still need insulin. The consultant hadn't seen a case of acute neuropathy in a type 1 before, so quite rare! It results from having high glucose levels for a long period followed by a quick reduction in levels.

The problem with acute neuropathy is that it can last a long time, maybe a year of more, but hopefully less than a couple of months. However the medicine, pregabalin (Lyrica) is a new drug which is effective in treating neuropathic pain. This is lucky as pre-2000, there were no effective treatments for the condition.

Still off work as I am too drowsy to concentrate properly, or even stay awake! Going to the GP tomorrow to see whether I need to be signed off, or should just get back to work. Have taken calls and been logged onto work all day, but hasn't been too busy.

Had a lovely day yesterday. Continued work building the compost heap. The weather was outstanding. Although I couldn't do any physical work, I cooked a full roast dinner for all of us, which we ate on the patio. It was a great success. The cherry tree in the garden is an absolute picture. It seems like the weather conditions must have been just right for them as they are in lovely blossom all over the place. The photograph below doesn't really do it justice.

Pain Free!

2007-04-14T19:53:00.000+01:00

Well almost pain free. The tablets seem to be working. Seeing as they are described as being for moderate to severe pain, I should hope they would help. Have felt rather drowsy and sick all day, but these are expected side-effects of the medicine. Have been catching up on the last 5 weeks of lost sleep, which is a big relief. Appointment with the specialist on Monday, so fingers crossed that the blood tests will show something conclusive. I can cope now, because at least the pain has gone from 9 (on a scale of 1-10) to about 1.

The weather has been gorgeous today, so in the few hours that I have been awake, I spent time with the family in the garden, digging, playing football and preparing the ground for a new compost heap. Another day in the garden tomorrow.

Pain again!

2007-04-13T17:42:00.000+01:00

Another short post I'm afraid. The pain in my calves has continued to get worse, getting to a peak last night, when I only had 2 hours sleep and was crying (wimp!) with pain twice in the night. At last however, the medical professionals are getting concerned and I have some action. I had a blood test yesterday and have a consultant appointment on Monday. I went to see the doctor today and he thinks the problem is related to my diabetes but was honest in not knowing what to do next. He did however prescribe me a much stronger pain-killer (tramadol) and a drug that deals with nerve pain. He thinks that it may be neuropathy, which is rare in a recently diagnosed diabetic, but seems the most likely outcome with my symptoms. This afternoon I had the best sleep in ages and hopefully that was because of the pain-killer. I couldn't go to work today, which was fustrating as I hate having time off sick (in fact this is the second day in 10 years). I just wasn't fit enough to do anything. I still took calls and had to deal with a particularly difficult customer!

Fingers crossed that the blood tests show something conclusive on Monday, but I am not pinning too much hope. The doctor said that if nothing came from Monday he would refer me for some scans, but wasn't sure who he should refer me to as he wasn't sure what the problem was. He suggested that I may have to have a raft of tests. I don't mind as long as the pain is controlled.

Other than that life is OK. Have Claire's parents here for the weekend helping to build a compost heap in the garden. There is so much grass from our lawn that it fills 5 bags of garden waste, it would be good to put it to use.

Hopefully a better week next week!

Time & Energy to Post

2007-04-04T11:03:00.000+01:00

At last I feel I have the time and energy to post once more to my blog. Not that my calves are feeling any better, but at least the codeine I have been prescribed is giving me a little respite. I have now seen three different doctors (not by choice), an osteopath, my diabetic nurse and am going to a physiotherapist next week. They are all confused by my symptoms, so I don't hold out much hope of them sorting it soon.

So what have I been up to since I last posted? Well, lots, most of which is not at all interesting! We had an excellent time in York, even though we got snowed on. Abby loved it; the whole experience of going on a proper train, seeing the trains in the Railway Museum and going to the Minster. The guest house was great (Staymor Guest House) with the owner really making an effort to make all of us welcome. The breakfast was exceptionally good too. Below is a picture of Abby's favourite engine (we are the tiny figures in front of it!)

She even asked for a poster of it, which is now proudly displayed on her wall. She regularly tells me that it goes really really fast, but when she saw it, it didn't move! We plan other excursions around the country in the near future. We are going to the New Forest in the middle of May and plan to get the ferry over to the Isle of Wight. I think we'll all enjoy that particularly if the weather is good.

Josh continues to do well and is now on solid food once a day. He is interacting more with us and gives us lovely smiles and giggles, as shown below:

Abby has her moments...she is lovely most of the time, but she has some toddler issues! She is into everything and has an answer for every situation. She also gets into trouble occasionally. Last Friday, she came to Claire and said "Mummy, I have a raisin in my nose". Claire was a bit suspicious, but couldn't see anything, so let it past. "Mummy, my nose hurts!" At that point Claire lay her on the bed and shone a torch up her nose and lo and behold, there was a raisin lodge towards the top of her nose. An hour later after much effort by the team at A&E, said raisin re-emerged from its hiding place. Abby admits that she is a "big wally" for doing it and I don't think will do it again...let's hope not!

The weather is slowly improving and we spent much of last weekend in the garden. I have cut the grass again and it looks great. I also put some new roofing felt on the shed that had blown off in the winter. Seemed fairly successful, although as with most DIY tasks, I had no idea what I was doing! We have received planning permission for our extension, so once we have the building regs approval all is looking fine for starting work at the end of May. I will post photographs of progress once the work starts. I don't think we are quite prepared for the mess, stress and disruption that we are going to have to endure during the 14 weeks of construction. But I know it will be worth it.

I went to Aston Villa with my brother in law on Monday to watch the Everton/Villa match. Tim is an Everton fan, so I asked some people at work whether I could get tickets. As it happened, they said that I could have tickets for the hospitality box. We got a three course meal and excellent seats for the match. It was a great experience and one I should like to do again if I get the opportunity. There were 36,000 people at the match, so the atmosphere was electric. The standard of the football was fairly average, but a 1-1 final score was a fair result. My brother in law stayed for a few days. Abby dotes on him and made him read her endless stories and play football in the garden at all hours. I bet he has gone home for a rest! He now understands some of the remarkable effort that Claire has to put in to keep the children occupied and run the house.

Easter this weekend. I am working Friday, but we are going to my Mother's in Hertfordshire for the rest of the holiday period. It will give us some time to have a rest and Abby gets on well with her grandma, so will have fun. We will all also get spoilt rotten, but hopefully not as much chocolate as in previous years. I am still going to have an Easter egg or two, they will just not be eaten as quickly as in previous years.

We are going to a close friend's marriage convalidation on Sunday. This is a ceremony in a catholic church that recognises the marriage of two people, one of whom has been previously married (and divorced). It is a short, 15 minute service, but it will be nice to share the occasion with Kate & Justin as they are a lovely couple and are great together.

Finally, I got my first A1c result today: 9.3% The target is to be less than 7.5% but the result is affected by the blood glucose over the past 3 months and I have only been diagnosed for 2 months. A little disappointed, but I guess it isn't bad. Hopefully will be under 7.5% next time. My blood glucose averages are now coming down nicely. I think they are as low as I want or am able at the moment. My 7 day average is 5.9, 14 day is 6.4 and 30 day is 6.7. I am also now rarely over 10mmol/l (180mg/dl) which is my target. I am even managing to eat out occasionally and have sweet things and control my levels.

There are probably other things to blog, but I think I have written quite enough. I'll try not to leave it so long next time!

Silence is Golden!

2007-03-29T11:06:00.000+01:00

Not had chance to write anything for ages. This is mainly because I have been feeling rubbish with my calf pain. I will write a full blog entry as soon as I feel better.

Weekend & Pain

2007-03-13T11:36:00.000Z

Not written for a few days. A number of reasons for this: I thought that the readers would be really bored if I wrote a load of mindless drivel about the trivialities of my life, the pain in my calves and being rather busy at home and work.

Spring seems as if it is well and truly here. I even cut our lawn on Saturday. It is a great garden, but even with a self-propelled lawnmower, it takes about an hour to cut. Also managed to dig the vegetable patch and do some general tidying. We even planted a blackberry bush. Not sure we will get fruit this year, but should get a good crop next year. Whilst digging, Abby suggested I had dug up a snake! Of course, it was an earthworm. I picked it up and showed it to her. She asked to hold it and managed not to squash it! It was great to be outside as Abby can run around getting rid of some of that pent-up energy that she seems to have in limitless supply.

Saturday evening was spent at the wedding of an old school friend. It was a really excellent event held at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. We didn't know many people there, but it was friendly and the live band were superb. I even managed to guess my insulin dosage correctly. It was good to have an evening without the children. My mother (just post foot operation) came and looked after them. We didn't get back until after midnight. Abby decided that getting up at 05:30 was appropriate, so we were rather tired.

My calf pain has continued to be quite bad. After hearing from my diabetes nurse that she didn't believe it was diabetes related, I went to the doctor. He said it was just as a result of my recent cycling exploits and would go away. We then talked about diabetes for the rest of the appointment. It is a week since I last cycled so I would have thought the pain should be subsiding by now...maybe I'm just a wimp? Ibuprofen isn't helping either.

Having a busy week at work. Still doing lots of work towards the impending sale of our main customer. Keep getting requests from all quarters for bits of information. One of my other customers is playing around financially at the moment and I think is taking advantage. I have a difficult call to make; we get good money for the job, but I have to chase every time for the money and it is never there quite when he says. Will have to be more tough with him.

Looking forward to next week as I am off for the week. We are going to York on Monday and Tuesday. Abby is obsessed by trains, so we are going on a train to York, going to the National Railway Museum, staying overnight in York and coming back on Tuesday. I think she'll love it. There are plenty of other things to do in York, but I think that trains will hold the biggest attraction for her (and I suppose for me!). Hope the weather is alright.

Finally, the Cricket World Cup starts today. Many of you, I am sure, will not be interested in the slightest and I think that England have a slim chance of making any progress in the competition. However, at least it means that there is plenty of cricket on the television over the next month and I should at last get some value out of my Sky subscription...that'll keep Claire happy! I think Pakistan have a chance of winning, but probably Australia or South Africa are more likely.

As I said...no mindless drivel here!!

Calves & Korma

2007-03-09T14:00:00.000Z

My calves have been causing me real hassle over the last 4 days. I have had cramp in them and can't seem to shake it off. The diabetes nurse suggests it is lactic acid build up from the cycling rather than diabetes related, but I'm not sure. Ibuprofen doesn't seem to be helping either. Will see how it goes over the weekend and see my GP if necessary.

Had a good evening yesterday. After working late, I bought an indian take-away on the way home. Thought I would risk my favourite, Chicken Korma. Didn't have naan bread, as that wouldn't have been sensible! I took some extra insulin (12 unit as opposed to my usual 8 or 9) and was in the low 4's two hours after the meal. It is really great to know that I can have this treat occasionally.

Spoke to Severn Trent Water about the sewer issue and they suggested that it was more than 2 metres down so may not be an problem for our extension. Maybe we will get it built one day!

Had a manically busy week with lots of frustration, but at least the weekend is almost here. My mother is visiting for the weekend, which will make things more relaxing. The weather looks good...maybe I'll get the lawn cut.

Thought I would include a picture of Josh looking cute, for no other reason than I like the photo!

Glycaemic Response

2007-03-07T16:21:00.000Z

I mentioned the above picture on an online forum. It shows the affect over time on glucose levels of different foodstuffs. It came courtesy of another T1 friend in South Africa (thanks!).

Not much to report

2007-03-07T14:12:00.000Z

No posts for a few days? How slack of me! Reason is that things have settled down and their isn't much to report. Rather than boring you with inane rubbish I have voted for a policy of silence.

Most interesting thing going on at the moment is waiting for the planning application for our extension to be considered. Shouldn't be too many problems, however the big hurdle is going to be to get consent from Severn Trent Water to build near a sewer. I previously got a copy of the plans from them, but they are inaccurate. I wrote to them asking for them to be changed and they have sent the letter back saying that I need to fill in an application form. I posted this form to them last week! It doesn't have a section covering disputes about the location of the sewer so didn't think it would suffice. We'll have to see how it goes, but I am fairly pessimistic that it is going to delay the start of our works.

Didn't cycle today as I had to get various cards for people at lunchtime. It is Mothering Sunday a week on Sunday. My Mother-in-Law likes to receive a Mothering Sunday card rather than a Mother's day card. Wikipedia has helped me with the origins of Mothering Sunday:

In contrast to Mother's Day, Mothering Sunday is not a celebration of motherhood, but a synonym of Laetare Sunday. During the sixteenth century, people returned to their "mother church" for a service to be held on the fourth Sunday of Lent. This was either a large local church, or more often the nearest Cathedral. Anyone who did this was commonly said to have gone 'a-mothering' although whether this preceded the term Mothering Sunday is unclear. It was often the only time that whole families could gather together, if prevented by conflicting working hours. In later times, Mothering Sunday became a day when domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mother and other family members. In today's more secular times, it is generally celebrated as the British equivalent of America's Mother's Day.

I don't really agree with the last sentence, after experiencing problems getting any Mothering Sunday card. Card makers seem to assume that the only people who like long flowery vomit-inducing words in cards will want to buy Mothering Sunday cards. Every year it becomes more difficult to source cards. Today there was a choice of one! I also had to get a Birthday Card for the same person, another Mother's day card and a wedding card for an old school friend whose wedding reception we are going to on Sunday.

Diabetes: under control - 'nuff said!

Appointment and Weekend

2007-03-05T14:43:00.000Z

The appointment on Friday was a bit of an anticlimax. They weighed me (5kg heavier than a month ago), and took my blood pressure (130 over something or other). Apart from that it was just a chat to the doctor and the nurse. Was concerned about them testing my levels at the clinic so didn't want to be high. Unfortunately, I overdid it and managed to have a hypo (3.0) in front of the nurse! How embarassing! She gave me a bag of crisps and I had some glucose tablets and felt better. The nurse and the doctor seemed to be pleased with my levels and didn't think anything needed to change. They don't do DAFNE at this hospital, but I have been put on the waiting list for a carb counting course. I also mentioned pumps. Basically, there is no chance of getting one any time soon. I knew that would be the case, but wanted to check. I have to go back in a month, having done a blood sample to be sent off for Hba1c testing.

The rest of the weekend was quite pleasant. Saturday was a lovely day, with several hours spent in the garden. Abby took me on a walk to the playground too! It is nearly a mile and she walked all the way. We got rained on, on the way home and got rather wet! Made sweet potato and red pepper soup on Sunday, to eat when we returned from church. The soup was excellent and far better than any that I have eaten out of packets. Even the fresh soups that you can buy from the supermarkets (Covent Garden Soups etc.) are really and taste of nothing in particular, especially not the ingredients that they are meant to include. How can an apricot, ginger and butternut squash soup have no heat, no sweetness and no punch from the butternut squash?

Sunday was a less good day. The church we are going to is just a bit evangelical for us and one particular speaker got to us a bit. There were two speakers. The first spoke about missionary work in Brazil and was excellent. (Better not say more....) The weather on Sunday was terrible and that meant for a difficult day as we couldn't go anywhere and Abby got a bit stir-crazy. I was really tired so wasn't in the mood for an active toddler. Eventually we all went to bed at 7pm and slept until Josh needed feeding at 11. Of course Abby was up at 06:00 this morning, so I lost some of the hours I had banked last night.

Finally, I had a call from my credit card company asking whether I had bought flights with Emirates and Singapore Airlines. Well, it would have been nice, but I don't think Abby or Josh would enjoy Saudi or Singapore very much! My card had been 'compromised' to the tune of £1,300. Luckily I am not liable, but can't think how they have got my details. A bit worrying really.

Cycled to work again! Maybe I'll keep this up.

Logging and Blogging

2007-03-01T13:26:00.000Z

Cycled to work today again, so feel good. Had a cake at lunchtime to celebrate! Chocolate eclairs seem not too bad carb-wise. Have my first check up at the hospital tomorrow. Hopefully it will go alright, but I'm not sure what they are going to do, so a little apprehensive. At least I know my levels should be alright. I think I'll carb count at lunctime to make sure my levels are alright by the time of my appointment at 2pm.

Have drawn a bar graph of my levels so far. This shows the frequency that I have been at various blood sugar levels:

Seems like the readings are in the right ball-park. If the do a Hba1c tomorrow, hopefully it will be good, although it may be too soon.

Had a lovely note from a lady who had read my blog. It is good to see that people are reading it and not finding it too boring. She had lots of advice and experiences that I have taken on board. I am sure we will correspond again.

Abby and Josh had their appointment with the doctor yesterday and they both do have eczema. Apparently there are different types, will do some research. It doesn't seem to be troubling them, so we are not too concerned about it at the moment. The doctor has prescribed some steroid creams to see whether it can be controlled.

Continued with Final Fantasy XII last night, up to 7.5 hours already! At least Josh is sleeping in the evenings now so that we can get things done.

Carb counted my evening meal last night. Again it was successful. I adjusted my insulin dose for the amount of carbs that I was eating and my pre-meal level was identical to my bedtime level. Perhaps I should do this for every meal for a while?

mg/dl and mmol/l

2007-02-28T16:38:00.000Z

Americans use mg/dl as the unit for measuring glucose levels. Most other countries use mmol/l. The relationship between the two is that 1mmol/l = 18mg/dl. I was interested to understand this relationship (as a former chemist) and also find out what it meant in practical terms. It is a bit sad, but here is my calculation (previously posted on diabetesdaily.com in response to a question):

The unit mmol/l stands for milli-moles per litre. (or liter in the US, I believe). milli means a thousandth, so what is a mole (other than a small rodent-like animal). A mole is that quantity of a substance whose mass in grams is the same as its formula weight (atomic weight). Each molecule of glucose has 6 Carbon atoms, 12 Hydrogen atoms and 6 Oxygen atoms. A carbon atom weighs 12 units, a hydrogen atom weighs 1 unit and an oxygen atom weighs 16 units. These units are called relative atomic mass units (don't need to go into why). So the atomic weight of glucose is (6x12) + (12x1) + (6x16) = 180. Therefore one mole of glucose weighs 180g. So now we are in a position to look at mmol/l. 1 mmol of glucose is 0.18g. So 1 mmol/l is 0.18g in 1 litre of water.So now you can see the relationship to mg/dl. A decilitre is a tenth of a litre or 100ml. A miligram is a 1000th of a gram. Therefore 0.18g is the same as 180mg. We are only dealing with a 10th of the amount of water (100ml or 1dl) so therefore can divide this number by 10 giving 18mg/dl. Thus 1 mol/l = 18 mg/dl.

Finally, for those who are interested in how sensitive our glucose meters are, think about this. Mine does graduations in 0.1 mmol/l increments. As shown about 0.1mmol is 0.018g. I think it is remarkable that I have a handheld, portable device that can tell me differences of 0.018g of a substance in a litre of liquid! Probably bored you silly, but I didn't know why this relationship existed until I sat down and calculated it, so at least I have learnt something!

One more thing has struck me. How many grains of sugar is 0.018g? After some research, I think I may have found the answer. According to a site I have found, the density of granulated sugar is 849kg/meter cubed. Another site says that granulated sugar granules are cubes of side 0.5mm. Knowing the density and the volume of them you can work out the mass. Mass = Volume x Density. Not to bore you with the maths...1 grain of sugar weighs 0.106mg (as long as I have got my conversions right). Therefore 0.018g of sugar equates to about 170 grains.

Phew! Going for a lie down now!

Flapjacks!

2007-02-28T10:22:00.000Z

Emailed the company that makes my favourite flapjack to find out the nutritional information for them. They replied this morning and it doesn't make pretty reading. The values for the 145g flapjack are as follows:

NON HYDROGENATED FAT 28.7g
PROTEIN 11.6g
CARBOHYDRATE 92.4g!!
ENERGY 660kcal!!

Guess my flapjack eating days are over. I work on roughly 1 unit of insulin for 10g of carbohydrates. I usually allow myself 8 or 9 units per meal. Therefore I could have a flapjack for my meal, but nothing else.

Worked out my average BG for the past 2 weeks. It was 7.5mmol/l, so am fairly happy. It could be a little more controlled, but I will discuss this with my diabetes nurse at my appointment on Friday.

Josh is being really hungry at the moment, so we (mostly Claire) are struggling to keep him happy. It didn't help that when she went to get him weighed yesterday, he wasn't keeping up with the growth curves. We have no faith in these curves as they don't seem to allow for breast fed children. The Health Visitor didn't help either as she asked questions such as was Claire eating 3 good meals a day, did she get to bed on time each night and was I being a supportive husband?! At least they didn't suggest that she was producing poor quality milk, as I have heard reports that another Health Visitor said. I know that they are trying to do their job, but they really don't help by their patronising manner. At least Claire could tell them that she had to eat three meals a day as I was a diabetic!

She has an appointment today with the doctor to look at Abby and Josh's eczema. They both appear to have it, although it is not distressing them. Claire has it too, but it has cleared up greatly since she cut out dairy produce. Maybe the children are intolerant too? When Abby was younger, we asked whether there were any tests for this and they said that there weren't. Maybe it is different now we are in Birmingham.

Novorapid & Levemir

2007-02-27T13:52:00.000Z

Not a lot to report today, so thought I would tell you a bit about the insulins that I take. For those of you who are type I diabetics, this will be dull and you will probably know all about it, but for others, it may be good to see what is involved. Apologies if the picture below makes you feel uneasy, but it shows what an insulin pen looks like.

The needle attached is the smallest they do and is 5mm. The dial on the right is used to select the amount of insulin you want to inject. You then press the button and it clicks until the right dose is selected.

This insulin is called Novorapid. As the name suggests, this is a rapid action that starts working in 10 to 15 minutes. It peaks (as far as I can tell, although opinions on the net vary) in just over an hour and can be in the blood stream for 3-5 hours. I have also read that it can be gone in 2 hours, so am not sure about this figures. Novorapid is taken before meals and means that you can vary the times of your meal and if you want a meal high or low in carbohydrates you can change your dose accordingly. The technical name for this type of insulin is a bolus insulin.

The other insulin that I take is called Levemir. This is taken using a pen that looks the same as the Novorapid, except that it is green. It is an insulin analogue. This means that it is an insulin molecule with another molecule (glargine) attached. Although I can't find the exact mechanism at the moment, it appears the glargine molecule changes the solubility of the insulin. If the insulin doesn't dissolve in the blood stream, it can't be absorbed. The glargine molecule is gradually changed by the blood stream and dissolves leaving the insulin also to dissolve. This takes a number of hours and is gradual. In this way the insulin gets released over time. This is about 24 hours depending on the dose. Levemir is a basal insulin, i.e. it controls your baseline insulin. Lecture over!

Other events of note, was my successful cycle to and from work yesterday. It was hard work and my legs ached at the end, but it seemed to have a positive influence on my blood glucose and also made me feel good in myself! Didn't cycle today as it was throwing it down with rain and I am showing some people around the factory at 19:00 today so wanted to have time to have supper at home and come back.

The training course at work is still ongoing, therefore the buffet leftovers keep appearing. Today, they can't have been hungry as the picture of the left-overs shows:

As my levels were a bit high at lunchtime, I didn't eat any of it. The site secretary however sent me an email to say that she had saved me a couple of cans of Diet Coke as compensation. I was touched!

Finally, Abby wanted to come to work with me today. As it was raining she insisted on putting her wellies on with her dressing gown! Picture below:
Threw a bit of a tantrum when I said she couldn't come. What a confusing world it must be for a toddler, but I love her to bits!

Count your Carbs...You Must!

2007-02-26T08:35:00.000Z

Had a strange experience in a diabetes chatroom on Friday. Was happily chatting about levels and how I was coping, when one of the members suggested that my levels were bad if they went over 7 and that I must start carb counting immediately. When I said that I would consider it, but wouldn't be told I had to do it, she took umbrage and left following a rant about not listening to advice! Carb counting is quite an emotive issue, particularly I have found with Americans (although this person was British). People who carb count can almost be categorised like various stages of religious beliefs, there are atheists (not many), agnostics (me), followers and evangelists. This person and several Americans that I have spoken to fall into the latter category. I have no problem with people evangelising about anything, as long as they don't expect me to follow exactly what they say without question.

The ironic thing is that this person is constantly complaining about having hypo unawareness. This is where your blood glucose levels go dangerously low without you being aware. This has particular issues for driving. Reading my favourite text book, it becomes clear why she may be having this hypo unawareness. As I have mentioned before, the Hb1ac test, gives you a snapshot of your blood glucose levels over the past three months. The target is less than 7%. This person, as far as I remember is proud of a Hb1ac of around 5%. The book explains that the Hb1ac result relates also to the level that you get the symptoms of a hypo. At 5% you won't feel the affects until about 2mmol/l whereas at 7% you will feel them at 3.5mmol/l or less. The 7% is the safer level. Equally to get an Hb1ac result of 7% your average blood glucose for the three months will be 8.3 mmol/l. As my average is currently 7.5 , I don't feel the need to change anything.

Having said that, I did give carb counting a try. It was really quite successful, but only really works if you can tell the exact amount of carbs in the food. This is easily done with pre-packaged food, but not so easily with my normal 'from basics' food. I added up all the carbs in the food and adjusted my insulin dose accordingly. My post-prandial (2 hours after meal) reading was exactly what I predicted. So, maybe it does work!

My new exercise regime started today. After doing a test cycle yesterday, cycling to work and back, I cycled in this morning. It is a really pleasant journey. Most of it is down the towpath of the Birmingham & Fazeley canal. Obviously, this is lovely and flat, apart from a couple of flights of locks. So far it takes me roughly 20 minutes for the 3 mile journey, even with a head-wind as there was this morning. I am sure I will get quicker as I get fitter. I wonder what it will do to my levels? Maybe I'll be able to eat more breakfast as a result!

Levels went to my lowest yet last night: 2.8 mmol/l. Didn't feel quite as bad as my last low. It was self-inflicted! I was a bit annoyed that my pre-evening meal was a bit high, so I took extra insulin and then didn't eat very much for supper. I had a piece of bread to correct my levels and they were soon over 6 mmol/l. I just can't believe how sensitive my levels are between meals.

Finally, I know it is a bit sad, but the last few evenings Claire and I have been playing on my Playstation 2. There is only one series of games that we ever use the Playstation for and that is the Final Fantasy series. After first playing Final Fantasy 8 on the original Playstation we have spent many hours on the subsequent titles in the series. Final Fantasy XII was released in the UK on Friday and the ever-reliable Amazon delivered it (even with super saver delivery) on Saturday morning. To the uninitiated, the Final Fantasy games fit into the RPG (role playing game) genre. This basically means that you run around worlds with various characters fighting monsters and building up skills and attributes. I guess why we like it, is that there is quite a lot of logic to how you progress in the game and you don't have to be particularly dexterous to achieve results. However Claire still hasn't got the hang of walking her character in a straight line, so leaves that to me. She does the brainy bits instead! We even played instead of watching Top Gear last night (thank goodness for Sky+)!

Linear Relationship?

2007-02-23T15:13:00.000Z

Starting to get a little frustrated with my diabetes and my especially my blood glucose (BG) levels. So far it seemed to be that if I ate more carbs, my levels went up in proportion, unless I increased the insulin dose. This is the principle of DAFNE (dose adjustment for normal eating). The principle of this is that you learn the amount of insulin that you need for an equivalent amount of carbohydrates. You do this empirically, testing BG before and after a known amount of carbs and insulin. I notice that my hospital is not a DAFNE centre, but there are some in Birmingham. Will ask my nurse about it. Have my first diabetes doctor check-up a week today. Quite worried about it as I don't know what they do...I am sure it will be fine, but believe it or not, I am concerned that they are going to take blood from me. OK, I have got used to pen needles, but not sure that I will ever get used to the big ones. At least Claire is going with me!

Anyway, I digressed. I am frustrated because I thought there was a fairly linear relationship between what I eat and my blood glucose levels. At the moment this doesn't seem to be holding as true as I thought. My level rose 10mmol/l between breakfast and lunch, and I had nothing unusual for breakfast. I know it is early days so maybe this is a temporary blip.

Realise that the other day I put some people in a spin by suggesting that pancakes are low carb...well they are (they barely affect my levels at all), but only if you are in the UK (and a few others). In America pancakes are something different. They know them as crepes. Guess that is why the lady asked me for the recipe on the blog comment...I was confused!

It is finally the weekend and luckily I have a quiet one. I have to reconstruct Josh's cot as he is about to grow out of his Moses basket and I need to try and fit a new saddle to my bike, so I can ride to work next week. It must be really simple to fit a saddle, but my bike has an old-fashioned seat post and for the life of me I can't work out how to fit the saddle. Been back to Halfords and got an adaptor, but it still looks wrong to me! Searched the net and nowhere tells you how to do it! It must be really simple and I'm being really thick!

The planning application for our extension has now appeared online. Our designer says it will get through, but I am concerned that it might not. Fingers crossed.

What does a hypo feel like?

2007-02-22T13:21:00.000Z

Since being diagnosed and learning about diagnosed, I wanted to know what a hypo felt like. Last night my levels went down to 3.0mmol/l (54mg/dL). It was really obvious: I went pale, had a shaky feeling and started to sweat quite a lot. It wasn't pleasant at all! I didn't intend to go that low, but probably didn't have enough carbs at supper time. I treated the hypo with some fruit juice and some Weetabix. Very quickly these bought my levels up and I felt better. The theory, I believe is that you should take some rapid action carbs - fruit juice, glucose tablets, and then some longer lasting carbs - wheat, pasta. I also felt really hungry whilst my levels were low and therefore devoured numerous crispbreads afterwards. The problem with treating a hypo, is that actually you need very little food to raise your levels. In fact, by bedtime my levels were 11.2mmol/l, which is rather too high.

I understand that people feel hypos as different levels and that people build up tolerances to low levels over time. This is of concern as you might not have symptoms and suddenly black out. That is probably a time when you need to go on an insulin pump. I will talk about those another day when I have done some more reading and gauged some opinions.

For a laugh (or cry!) I went on the McDonalds website earlier to see how much insulin I would need if I were to eat my favourite McDonalds meal (Big Mac, Large Fries, Large Chocolate Milkshake, BBQ Sauce Dip). There are 200g of carbohydrates in that lot, which would need 20u of insulin. That is nearly as much insulin as I use in a day! Puts into perspective how hard your body has to work to control sugar levels in a healthy person.

Pancakes!

2007-02-20T21:42:00.000Z

The highlight of a fairly lousy day were the lovely pancakes that I cooked when I got home. Being low in carbs, I could eat loads of them without fear of affecting my blood glucose levels too much.

The day was rubbish, not because of my diabetes, but because we made some mistakes at work, one of which was totally my fault, which has resulted in us having to reprint some work. I was really annoyed, but it is done now.

Also attentions have now started to focus on our house extension. The planning application was registered yesterday and we had the full quote from our builder today. It is a bit daunting, but it will be worth it. Still got issues with the sewer that runs near our property. Need to find out exactly where it is before we start work.

Good Hope

2007-02-19T19:37:00.000Z

The Good Hope Hospital is my local hospital; what a great name for a hospital! I am spending increasingly large amounts of time there. However the service recently has been exceptional. Today as I mentioned yesterday was Josh's visit to the opthalmologist. Whilst she couldn't tell us much, she did confirm that he has nystagmus. She gave us some leaflets. Whilst the condition has a broad spectrum of outcomes, it does seem that his vision will at best be restricted and could be virtually non-existant. She was positive that his nystagmus (quivering of eyes) had settled a bit, but this is a condition that cannot be cured and always causes visual difficulties. He responds to bright lights, so has some vision. His next appointment is in the summer as then he will be old enough to have the full gamut of tests including electrical tests to test the optic nerve. It is going to be a long wait.

Had a good day apart from that. As it is Shrove (Fat) Tuesday tomorrow had pancakes for lunch and am having them for supper tomorrow! As they are low in carb, had a slight hypo in the afternoon, so celebrated with a chocolate eclair that someone at work had brought in for their 30th Birthday. Levels have remained around 7 for the last 24 hours, so seem to be getting the idea of what I can eat with my insulin regime.

Spring has sprung!

2007-02-18T19:15:00.000Z

Felt really spring-like today, managed to get out in the garden and do some tidying. We have a lovely garden, but it is going to take lots of work. Took the old bean poles out and Abby & Claire cleared up some twigs and leaves. Luckily we have our monthly garden refuse collection tomorrow.

Pumped up the tyres on our bikes too. I have resolved to cycle to work in the near future. It is only about 2 miles and this afternoon we did a recce to find the best route. It turns out there is a canal that you can get to on backroads from here that goes right past work. We had a walk with the double-buggy this afternoon along the canal and made it as far as Halfords, where we bought a new saddle and some lights. Have no idea how to fit the saddle to the bike, so may have to take it back as I am not sure it is compatible.

Cooked another curry tonight. Garam Massala seems to be a key ingredient and once formed part of a lovel curry. Will continue to experiment with recipes. Each day the diebetic diet seems to be less restrictive and I am being more positive about what I can eat. My levels have continued to be mostly under control. Have had discussions with people about Carb counting. Not sure I totally agree with how it is implemented (but what do I know, I have only just been diagnosed?) by some people. The principle of carb counting is that you know how much carbs are in your food and then take the amount of insulin to cover that amount. I think that this could get you into bad habits, as it seems to give you free reign to eat what you want. "If I have sticky toffee pudding, as long as I take 20 units of insulin, I'll be fine". To me this defeats what impact diabetes has on your life. You are more susceptible to getting fat with diabetes and this extra carb, if it were to happen often, would add quickly to your fat stores. The way I prefer to look at things is much like the Weight Watchers points system. I try to keep my insulin doses constant. I then tailor what I eat to the number of points that I have available with my insulin regime. I am told that 1 unit of my rapid acting insulin covers 10g of carbohydrates (total including sugars and other carbs). If I limit myself to approximately the amount of carbs that I have covered with my insulin, this should be OK. In this way, my levels shouldn't go too high and I shouldn't be taking in to much sugar (carbs). As I said though, what do I know?

Lichfield

2007-02-17T21:08:00.000Z

Had a really nice day today. Woke up to good levels again (4.3) and levels have remained under 10 all day.

As it was a good day weatherwise, decided to go and visit a city we hadn't visited before - Lichfield. The main driver for this was because we had been looking for rice syrup and pear and apple spread that were in a recipe in a diabetes cookbook for flapjacks. We had heard that there was a good Waitrose in Lichfield. In fact it was an excellent Waitrose. We have a joke in our family that you can't get out of Waitrose without spending at least £40. We spent £39 today! The produce is just so much better than the normal supermarkets and the variety is great. We'll have to come back here for treats.

After Waitrose we went into the town. It is a compact town with lots of lovely shops and some nice independents. We went to the cathedral, which is a stunning building. It was 15 years ago that I last visited, singing Mozart's Requiem with the school music society. The scale of the building and the superb stained glass were a wonder. There was also a large duck pond not far away, which kept Abby amused. Adjacent to the cathedral is a lovely tea room/cafe. We had a superb lunch, in a baby-friendly evironment at very reasonable prices. We will be back. On the way back to the car, we found a model railway shop, and although the staff seemed disapproving of a toddler in their midst, she thoroughly enjoyed it.

Made a lovely Chicken Korma tonight, whose recipe was in a Splenda leaflet that I picked up at the Doctors' Surgery. It was low in carbs and tasted great. Not sure how to handle rice as I read it is slow release, but maybe not as much as pasta? Will try some other recipes and maybe make some up of my own.

Did some more reading and found articles on the bbc and wikipedia regarding artificial pancreas. These look great and are currently in clinical trials. It is basically the current technology of external insulin pumps, connected to an internal glucose monitor. This is nearly as good as a cure as far as I can tell. They reckon they may be available in 5 years or so, but will they be available on the NHS?

Level Lottery

2007-02-16T21:34:00.000Z

I am trying to make the most of my diabetes. Therefore I have found some ways to take away some of the drudgery of it. Each lunchtime before I take my glucose levels I challenge the other people in the office to guess my level. They ask me about what I have eaten and try to guess. I get to guess too. The person closest gets 10p! I have the advantage of knowing how I feel. So, you'd have thought that I would win. Not a bit of it! I haven't managed to be closest in any of the times we have played it. I hope I get better otherwise I'll have no change left.

Other things that brighten it up are my spreadsheets of stock levels and my glucose monitoring graphs.

My daughter (2 and a bit) has got right into the procedures I have to go through. She tells me to 'do my blood sugar' then 'do my leg' or my tummy. She won't let me get away with slacking! In fact she doesn't let me get away with any of my bad habits including biting my nails or putting my knife down and eating only with my fork, or talking before I have finished my mouthful! Better not visit the USA in the near future!

On a more stressful note, I am getting prepared for another appointment at the hospital on Monday. Unfortunately, it is not for me. We have suspicions that my son (3 months) cannot see well, if at all. He does seem to react to light, but we believe he may have a condition called nystagmus. In the same way that I was prepared for my diagnosis, I am prepared for the worst on Monday, but even so I still hope that the prognosis is better than I fear.

More positively, planning permission has just gone in for our house extension. It is scary because it involves demolishing one side of the house. We have confidence in our builder, and are certain that the disruption will be worth it. Work is due to start in May and be completed in 14 weeks.

Level down to 3.2 this evening, but was 17 after lunch. Had some lovely low-GI tea bread (from the Anthony Worrell-Thompson GI book), but I think it must have been high in carbs as that was the only thing that could have given me those levels, adjusted with 4 units of Novorapid. It appears that 1 unit reduces my level by 2mmol/l. Have also discovered that at breakfast, my levels are fine if I have cereal or toast, but not both.

Level 4.2

2007-02-15T13:38:00.000Z

Woke up this morning to blood glucose of 4.2mmol/l for the 3rd day running. Pleased that it is so stable. My experimenting with a hypo didn't go as planned last night. For some reason my levels went back up again without me doing anything. I have heard that this could be because your body counteracts hypos by releasing glucogon which in turn stimulates your cells to release glucose to your bloodstream. This doesn't happen in all cases, but it was interesting to feel nevertheless.

Levels have been lower today than usual as I didn't have cereal for breakfast. Had yoghurt instead. I have found some nice low fat, low sugar yoghurts (Muller lite) that actually have bits of fruit in them. Food seems so sanitised that actually finding yoghurt that isn't totally smooth is quite difficult. Found out that peanuts are OK for diabetics as they don't have much carbohydrate in them. Have to be careful of the fat content. Anyone who has set fire to a peanut in a chemistry lesson (as I did), will know that they have lots of energy in them, mostly fat.

Someone's birthday at work, so they bought doughnuts in. I had to resist, but maybe one time I will have one and do the extra insulin to cover it. At the moment, I am being good so didn't partake.

Working Hard

2007-02-14T19:54:00.000Z

A really busy 24 hours, with little time to think about my diabetes. As I said yesterday, it was the church men's night at the pub last night. This went off well and I met some interesting people. It will also mean that on Sunday, I will recognise a few more people.

Unfortunately, the evening was taken over rather by work. I didn't get away from work until 19:00 and then was back in from 22:00 until 00:15. It was all because a customer had contacted me at lunchtime and asked that we print a job for him to be delivered by lunctime today and that he would like to print with us for at least 6 months. Needless to say I pulled out all the stops, the team did a great job and I think we have a happy customer.

Of course today was/is St Valentine's day. I got a nice heart card from my daughter and a box of diabetic chocolates (Thorntons) from my wife. Although the latter are not meant to be that beneficial, I am eating them in moderation and they taste pretty good.

Below is the receipt I got for the Valentine's card that I bought:

Found this amusing! If I take her back, will I get a refund and is she worth £1.79?

Finally, I have managed to keep my diabetes under better control today and am experimenting this evening, find out what low blood sugars feel like. I tested my level after supper and it was 3.5mmol/l. This is hypo territory. I haven't treated it yet as I want to see how it feels so I can spot it under less controlled conditions.

Had a lovely note from a friend today, full of support for my diabetes and its diagnosis. It is great to know that people are thinking of me. I am not finding it too difficult at the moment, but I tend just to get on with things and don't always share my full emotions. I am sure that there will be some moments when I am depressed but these will be the exception rather than the rule. Also continued to talk to various new diabetic friends online about all manner of subjects.

Sorry for the excessive ramble today, but had lots to say! More soon...

Buffet Blues

2007-02-13T08:48:00.000Z

Had an up and down day yesterday. At lunchtime, we had been delivered a sandwich buffet by mistake, so I thought I would see what affect it would have on my levels. I didn't have much to eat and my level shot up from 6 to 15! Didn't manage to get it back to normal until after supper, when it dropped to my lowest level yet - 3.7. Managed to keep it stable through the evening and night and woke up to 4.2. I'll see how I do today.

Spoke to a number of people last night on the internet; including new friends that I have made through my diabetes. I feel it important to share my experiences and listen to others so that in some way it can help to deal with this difficult condition. I also chatted to some old friends who are being supportive, but not wanting to dwell on the diabetes too much, it was good just to have a sensible adult conversation.

This evening I have a church 'male-bonding' session at the local hostelry. Evidently if you are one of the first 6 to arrive at the pub, the organiser will get you a drink. Shame that alcohol is almost off limits - diet coke it is! There is a cheese and wine welcome evening for new people to the congregation in a couple of weeks to, but I have said that my wife can go to that, as I will stay at home and baby-sit. The church is St John's, Walmley. We have been twice now and it seems lovely. More about tonight in the morning (bet you can hardly wait!).

Ooh and I nearly forgot, Valentine's day tomorrow (and my Grandfather's 87th), better get a card sharpish! Wonder whether I will get one myself?

Roast Beef & Pancakes!

2007-02-12T09:51:00.000Z

Went to the supermarket on Sunday for the first time since diagnosis. It was really depressing to walk down the aisles and see all the produce that I used to eat in vast quantites and was now off-limits. Even found myself being jealous of the person in front of my at the checkout who had an array of desserts in their trolley! I am really noticing how people's lives seem to revolve around food in all its wonderful forms. Took solace that I have found a couple of things that I really like, that I won't need to avoid, although of course with diabetes, moderation is the key. I made a roast beef lunch with Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and veg. I did my normal dose of insulin and my levels remained fairly constant. I also had some batter remaining so I had pancakes for breakfast this morning (with lemon juice and sweetener). The batter was made with Alpro soya milk, as my wife can't eat dairy. They tasted excellent and were low in carbohydrates.

Level Bouncing

2007-02-10T21:06:00.000Z

My levels have been really odd in the past 24 hours. Thought I had a grip over what was causing the levels to change, but the logic has gone out of the window today. Last night I was at 4.6 mmol/l, which was a little low, so I had a Kit Kat. 2 hours later my level was 14.6 mmol/l, it had dropped to 6.4 by morning. As I was going to a birthday party at an adventure centre, I thought I would use up some glucose, however my level was 10 by lunchtime and 14.5 by teatime. Took some more insulin before supper and my level dropped to 3.8 by mid evening (borderline hypo). Spoke to some people on a chat room and they suggested I ate a banana to raise my levels a little. Feeling better now.

Anyway, snow has all but gone. Last night I had to leave the car 5 minutes from home as I couldn't get up the hill for the ice and snow. I had a great time today with my daughter at the adventure centre birthday party. I also resisted the temptation of the party food, eating one corner of a tuna sandwich and three chips! How things have changed, I would have usually hoovered up all the remaining buffet and then started to nick things off the kids' plates pre-diagnosis! Shows how bad things got. However, even this small amount of food raised my levels. I am increasingly realising that I can't really eat anything between meals without affecting my levels.

My weight has also risen dramatically in the week. I was 65kg last Friday and 68kg today! Looks like my diabetes has been starving my body. Glad that it is now under control.

Snow

2007-02-09T08:59:00.000Z

Above is the view out my window this morning. The country seems to have ground to a halt in some areas (or so the news reports are saying). People are quoting inches of snow. I don't generally believe them. An inch of snow is an awful lot! My daughter loved the snow and played around outside with me for half an hour before bed, squealing with delight!

Levels are good again this morning - 4.6mmol/l. Also, managed to stay below 10 all day yesterday. Still using 6 units Novorapid before breakfast and lunch, and 8 before supper. 14 units of Levemir at 20:00. Hands were cold last night and it took me 4 attempts to do glucose test. Will make sure I am properly warm before I do the test in future.

Been reading the book I have just received from Amazon. Type 1 Diabetes in Children, Adolescents and Young Adults is really excellent. It is really detailed but not too complex. When I have digested some more, I will relay some of the information.

Fact of the day: Some cells in the body use insulin to control their glucose intake. Kidneys and eyes, amongst others, don't use insulin, therefore they take on glucose however concentrated it is in the blood. In diabetics, where there are high glucose levels, the high concentration can damage these organs.

As a final thought about snow, this came on email to me today and made me chuckle!

4.0!

2007-02-08T08:47:00.000Z

Took my levels this morning and they were at the magic 4.0mmol/l level (72 in US units)! Had a biscuit in celebration! Latest graph above. Seems less predictable than I thought, but at least I am now generally below 10 most of the time. I believe I am however in the 'Honeymoon Period'. This is the time when the body is still producing a little insulin and therefore your levels are easier to control. I don't think that it lasts long.

A thick blanket of snow has fallen during the night. I was meant to be going to London today, but I think I'll give it a miss. My daughter (2) saw the snow and got very excited. She had not been out in snow before. We had an excellent half hour out the front of the house making tracks and getting cold! In my nice warm office now drinking a big mug of tea and looking at the snow continuing to fall. Won't be late home tonight.

Stocktake, Excel and Hospital

2007-02-07T20:52:00.000Z

Had a good day today. Levels seem to be alright and had a good chat with my nurse. Also had the haemoglobin test (A1C). This shows how your blood glucose levels have been in the last three months. My reading was off the scale, as expected! At least next time I have it, it should be a better reading. Had a chat with a nutritionalist too. He wasn't good and didn't seem to be able to offer us much. Maybe this was because we eat well at the moment, but was hoping for more. Most useful was a list of how many carbs are in foods. It even gave levels for things that are really off-limits (chocolate & KFC for example). At least now I can make informed decisions about what I do.

Did a stocktake of my stuff and worked out how much I had and how long it would last. I really like Excel and think I am quite skilled in it, although a little obsessive! I created a nice little spreadsheet to monitor the stock levels.

Had a great day at work, it is really helping with my confidence post-diagnosis. Was unexpectedly invited to a meeting at our site in the South of England where I was able to put my views across to an influential group of people, with some success.

Chatted with some people online yesterday including some people from the US and South Africa. They were all really nice and it was good to get some opinions, even though I found some of them a bit extreme. It is interesting that the advice is different in different parts of the world. Equally, healthcare varies...people berate the NHS, but it has excelled in my personal care so far.

Food Storming

2007-02-06T08:45:00.000Z

Starting to get into a routine now. Don't have a problem with either the glucose level tests or the insulin injections. Have got over the initial anxieties much quicker than I expected. Thoughts have now turned to practicalities. My wife and I spent the whole of yesterday evening talking about it. Most of our attention has turned to food. She has borrowed a couple of diabetic cookery books from the library, which I am sure will be useful. There are so many questions that we have about my diet. We are lucky as I believe we eat healthily already. We never eat ready-meals and eat fish and vegetables regularly. I just need to cut down on sweet desserts.

The big problem that I have is where are the boundaries? Can I eat a couple of biscuits before bed. What does having a sugary pudding do? If I do some exercise, can I have some moresugar? Whilst I understand that healthcare professionals are the most qualified to answer these questions, would you expect a dentist to say that you can drink a can of Coke a day? I need to get out and find other type 1's and form a balanced view. Have subscribed to a couple of forums at diabetes.co.uk and diabetesdaily.com and have asked some questions and got some good answers.

I guess this is all relating to the denial, anger, depression, bargaining and acceptance psychological process. I have made it to the bargaining stage already, acceptance here we come!

Have my next appointment with the nurse tomorrow. Very apprehensive as I don't know what they are going to do. The fear of the unknown seems much stronger than the known.

Going to do a stock-take of my diabetes consumables tonight as was nearly caught out today. Have found that I only have enough glucose test strips to last me until lunchtime and my repeat prescription has not been set up yet. Maybe I'll go to the chemist and get some, if they sell them? I'll see whether the doctor can do a prescription in time too.

Glucose Levels

2007-02-05T16:30:00.000Z

I like spreadsheets, so am going to plot my glucose levels until I get bored of it! Means I can email it to my nurse too.

Weekend Progress

2007-02-05T09:22:00.000Z

After self-administering my first injection, it did seem to get easier with every go. I have to inject four times a day, which seems a lot, but they are well spread and actually doing the blood tests are more demanding. I do these four times a day as well. It is interesting to see how my levels are changing. I have been in the 'normal' range for the last 24 hours, which is a positive sign (5.2 mmol/l today). I have cut out the majority of my glucose intake, replacing it with fruit, pasta and potatoes. I am not quite sure on the diet I should be following, however if I start to make the changes now, I will have less trouble adjusting in the future. Definitely noticeably less thirst now.

The physical side of it has been relatively easy to cope with, however mentally it has been more challenging both for myself and my immediate family. Realising that there is no cure and that you have to follow this same routine for the rest of your life is daunting. However, there are many worse conditions and at least now it will be under control. Just need now to get in contact with some other people with the condition so I can find out more of the realities of this. I have a friend who has the condition, who refuses to talk about it. I don't deal with situations like this, I talk to anyone that will listen (and perhaps even those that don't)!

Went to church for the first time in a while yesterday, although I can't find a way to believe, I do find the atmosphere and the friendliness a great help. Just the time for reflection that it gave me stirred up deep emotions yesterday and I am sure the support from the people at the church will help me a lot. I think it is also good for our children to be educated in religious ways so they can follow some of the sound moral guidelines that are taught and also are able to make their own informed decisions when they are old enough.

Have dealt with some of the issues that have to be addressed this morning, including telephoning the DVLA and my various insurance companies.

The week ahead at work will prove a test, but people at work are genuinely concerned and will help me though my low points I am sure.

Friday Afternoon

2007-02-05T09:15:00.000Z

Shortly after the previous post, I received a phonecall from the Diabetes department at the hospital. They said that I needed to be there within half an hour as they had only just seen my referral letter and were concerned for my health. When I got there, they expected me to be much worse than I was and even had admission papers ready. Luckily I appeared to be OK, although my level was still 25 mmol/l. This began what was a very traumatic afternoon, not physically but mentally. Even though (being a scientist) I understand the mechanisms of Insulin action, I knew little about the condition. The reality I was told was that I had type I diabetes, and therefore would need to inject insulin for the rest of my life. This didn't hit me immediately as my needle phobia had well and truly taken hold. However, through the excellent support of the entire team (or so it seemed) at the diabetes clinic and my wonderful wife, I was able by the end of the afternoon to self-administer the first of probably 75,000 insulin injections I would need in my lifetime.

Needlephobia?

2007-02-02T09:20:00.000Z

Not sure whether I have a true phobia of needles, but it does seem to be an irrational fear. Blood and other gory things don't fuss me, but even if needles are mentioned or come on the TV, I have to look away. It's really strange over the last 24 hours, my body has been playing tricks and I keep feeling fake needle pricks every time I start to dwell on my diagnosis and what may happen in the future. At least my condition will cure me of the phobia!

Not heard anything yet about my referral to the hospital, don't want it to happen too quickly, but I know the sooner I get my glucose under control, the better both for my short and long-term health. Had long chats to people about it and it has made me feel better. Have routine appointment with GP on Tuesday and will have list of questions for him....will a 10 minute appointment be long enough?

First Post

2007-02-01T15:23:00.000Z

This is my first post on a blog. Not sure whether it will be the last, but we'll see. I'm not sure I'm keen on sharing too much via a blog. I think work is out of bounds and not sure I want to share too much family stuff, but maybe I'll use it to record certain events. Most probably I will use it to record my experiences with diabetes.

I was diagnosed yesterday with Type 1 (insulin dependent) diabetes. I am terrified (probably phobic, although I think it is an overused term) of needles, and know little about diabetes. Evidently my blood glucose was 37mmol/l when a normal reading is less than 10mmol/l. I guess the writing was on the wall. I have lost weight and had great thirst even though I ate lots of stuff and drank almost throughout the day. It is going to be an interesting few weeks finding out about the condition and dealing with the inevitable hardships that may follow. I even managed to eat Weetabix this morning without sugar for the first time in my life! I'll miss caramel slices though!

At least I have found that I am not alone, with at least two people I know having the condition. They seem fine!