Skip to main content

Spring has sprung!

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?

Comments

justme said…
Hey! Seems you had quite a weekend! Waitrose was great - I remember leaving with stuff I did not go for! Thinking of you and your family today for your son's appointment. chat soon.

Popular posts from this blog

The CCG Project!

In order to find out the situation around the country for Libre prescribing now that the national policy has been published, I have made the decision to contact many of them to find out their plans.  I have arbitrarily chosen to contact all English CCGs that in December 2018 prescribed Libre via Primary Care to less than 5% of their population (and one specific request from a group member).  I had hoped this would be a small list, but there are 135 CCGs on the list.  I may have bitten off more than I can chew, but I'm committed to doing this and feeding back.  It worked before and hopefully this level of scrutiny will bring similar results. Below is a screenshot of the base document I am sending to each of the CCGs - it has some fields that are merge fields, so don't worry about the brackets and codes in the document (I found a typo, which has now been corrected too) .  The major piece of work with respect to this is finding the right person to contact.  However, I have s

Abbott dX 2022 Barcelona - "Make it Count"

For the past four years I've been invited by Abbott to a conference bringing together people with diabetes from across Europe to discuss various topics.  The first year I was meant to attend, it was my 'man v horse' year (the horse won!), so was unable to attend and then the pandemic hit so two further dX's were held virtually.  I was fortunate to be asked to present at last year's session.  This year's event was back in-person and held in Barcelona, coinciding with the latter part of the ATTD conference.   At this point, I must make it very clear - Abbott invited me to the 2022 European Diabetes Exchange forum (dX), that took place in Barcelona.  I attended this two-day event to connect and interact with inspirational and influential people in the diabetes community.  Abbott paid for my ticket and accommodation. #InvitedbyAbbott.  This is formal and it needs to be - I have not been required to do anything by Abbott as a result of my attendance and I hope that m

December Update - Rationwatch + strips/needles/lancets

So far, I've only been looking at Libre prescribing and the variance therein.  However, there is a lull in those proceedings at the moment, with announcements from the DVLA and NHS England keenly awaited around Christmas.  Until then, I will still be working on CCGs that are refusing to answer basic questions - Gloucester and the Warwickshire CCGs to name but two.   Rationwatch Yesterday, I attended Parliament as a guest of the JDRF to take part in the Medical Technology Group discussions.  Matt Hancock (Health Secretary) spoke at the event, which was attended by patients, patient groups, lobbyists and industry insiders.  The main purpose of the event was to launch  Ration Watch : I have filled in their response form and hope that it will be possible to influence some of their discussions.  If readers of this blog have anything to add, then there's a place to register via their homepage. Items which should not routinely be prescribed in primary care: an update an