#Diabetes - #Norovirus #Attack Day 2 08:37 30th December 2013

#Diabetes - #Norovirus #Attack Day 2 08:37 30th December 2013 

blood sugar 13.2 nausea subsiding and decided to starve for another day as my body is now breaking down fat and therefore could go hyper causing an escalating increase in sugar and dangerous ketosis ( breaking down fat) I therefore took 8 units of Levemir and 4 units of Humalog drank half a glass of fluid and went back to sleep setting alarm for 11:30. Planning going well and well controlled. alarm set for 3 pm and sleep

#Diabetes - #Norovirus #Attack 30th December 2013 05:36

#Diabetes - #Norovirus #Attack  30th December 2013 05:36

blood test 15 mmol, decided I need to increase the Humalog to 6 units to bring it down to 12 -13 could hold back on the nausea and was sick luckily the fluid I'd taken has dissolved the pills so job done, I then drank some more fluid as the thing to avoid besides hypo is dehydration. I then checked the alarm was 08:15 before going to sleep.

My Diabetes - 30th December 2013 02:30

Blood Test 12.3 feeling aweful lots of hot  flushes trying not to be sick for a few more hours took 4 units of Humalog and set the alarm for 05:30 took 2 more paracetamol, really pleased I'm maintaining the 12 -13, most important thing is to avoid a severe hypo and a stay in hospital.

My Diabetes - Norovirus 29th December 23:40

Knowing that i needed to take my usual collection of Pills and could risk being sick I gave into the nausea and vomited soon after waking, I the  tested my blood after washing my hands and before sterilising  them with alcohol.  My blood sugar was 12.3 and I took all my pills with a little milk along with stugeron hoping it would prevent me throwing up for the next 4 hours or so.

I then took another 4 units of Humalog and 8 units of  Levimir, then I set the alarm clock for 02:30 and went to sleep.

My Diabetes - Norovirus 29th December 2013 21:00

Just after 21:00 I tested my blood sugar after vomiting again, thankfully it had now come up to 13 mili mols which from the past i know is a good level to allow me to control it in 3 hour blocks with just short acting insulin with a risk of serious hypo ( for me),  after testing my blood I took 4 units of Humalog and no carbohydrates.  I then took two paracetamol for the pounding headaches and half a glass of squash and set the alarm.  For 23:30.

My Diabetes - Attack of Norovirus day 1

I tried really hard to avoid Norovirus and as I haven't been out much recently I thought I'd missed it.  Then went to pub a few days ago and yesterday afternoon I realised my sugars were going low so kept topping up with carbos all very weird.  Them 16:00 I had a lie down and some more lucozade. Unfortunately  things just got worse.  At 18:30 29th December 2014 I recognised the nausea and luckily by 18:45 I was being sick.  Now you may think the word luckily is a strange thing to say, but 15 mins later I'd have taken 20 units of Humalog and sickness after that would have been a major problem as I discovered some years ago, unlike the films insulin and no ability to keep anything down is a major problem.

After being sick, it was apparent from the nausea that this wasn't going to be a one off as the nausea came in waves.

I tested my blood and it was 4.4 despite all the extra carbos all day.

So I took 10 grams of carbos and no insulin and went to bed setting the alarm for 2hours
and taking a large glass of water with a little salt in it, blood testing meter and a bottle of lucozade.

Submitting diabetesmentor blogger blog to Bing for the search engine to find it

Hi,

I've just finished a video on how I submitted this blog to Bing so it would appear in the Bing web searches, hopefully it will make it easier to do things.  

picture of the binf webmaster page showing diabetesmentor blog

So if your involved with a good cause and want to ask any questions on setting up your own blog or that of a good cause pages, including ad-sense advertising please feel free to ask. The video is on my fixed1t youtube site.

Malcolm Dixon's fixed1t Bing submission video

Still no comments on any of my blog entries :-(

Regards Malcolm (aka fixed1t)

My Diabetes - How I Became Interested in the Psychology And Physiology of My Hypos part 2

Long before Diabetic Dogs became available, I had a discussion with one of my specialist doctors and nurses about smelling the hypo before it happened and therefore being an early warning system. They look sympathetically at me with that 'well if you think thats true thats fine'.
I was still a student and we were studying the so called 'mystic' branch of psychology called Phenomenological Psychology.  It was joked about being 'mystic' because is a branch of psychology not based on external experiments (how I remember it) but on monitoring internal processes. i.e. how do I feel about this.

My Diabetes - How I Became Interested in the Psychology And Physiology of My Hypos part 1

As a 12 year old, we had an interesting Religious Instruction teacher, who covered not only the biblical teachings, but if we were all attentive and behaved he'd spend some at the end of lessons on what we referred to as weird stuff.  Some Old Testament stories of Ezekiel and his description of the 4 propeller 'Lancaster Bomber' and other weird stories from the popular Astronauts from space guru Enrich Von Daniken. He also told us about dowsing and other old mystic type stuff and we'd bring and bend metal coat hangers and search for hidden copper coins in one of the 32 desks to learn how to dowse.  


He also told us about prophets and indian fakirs and ancient and modern mystics and yogi's. He also had a great old book on meditation and showed us pictures of a yogic masters sitting with his legs crossed balancing on their hands, controlling pain and various bodily functions and explain he warned that these took years to perfect, so don't try them at home.

After I discovered I was very good at finding copper coins in desks, a friend and I went to the library for books on yoga.  After some practise I learned to be able to slow my breathing and heart rate and being a thin child I could easily do the half and full lotus.  I discussed with friends how great it would be if you could learn to control things our bodies body and set about doing it, then some years later I discovered it was a new pseudo science called Bio Feedback.

Years on from this, I found a number of  articles in a number of hobby electronics magazines for Bio-Feedback machines and Galvanic Skin Response meters, so I built a couple.  Using the machine I quickly discovered that I actually could do what I thought I had done as a child, slow my heart and respiration, relax very quickly and deeply and the electronic gismos confirmed I was indeed popping in and out of relaxation at the drop of a hat.

So when I became diabetic whilst studying Behavioural Sciences degree, I knew physiological things were indeed happening to me and the effects on my body and from the psychological perspective also my mind. So I decided to become my very own lab rat. I also discovered there was a branch of Psychology that attempted to gain great insights not by doing experiments but by internal personal observation.  It had fallen into disrepute by being a sort of  'mystic' branch of psychology called Phenomenological Psychology.  

It was shunned about being 'mystic' because is a branch of psychology not based on external experiments (how I remember it) but on monitoring internal processes. i.e. how do I feel about this.  Now I had machine that could review my physiology and feelings, tastes, smells and behaviours I could comment on, so I set about using what tools and observations I could make to understand how my hypos affected me and how to prevent them from overwhelming me and rendering me unconscious.

And what an interesting journey it has been.

TBC

My Diabetes - Can A Diabetic Have A Sex Life? Part 6 Viagra, Cialis & Levitra

There is no point in taking expensive erectile disfunction pills like:

Viagra, Cialis or Levitra
If you are planning to ingest large quantities of alcohol with the romantic meal etc. I don't know why alcohol has such a deleterious effect on these pills, but it does.

Also, as I've mentioned previously alcohol prevents the body from using its own energy stores so their is an increased risk of hypo which again will kill off the effect of the pills.

Learning Points:

• Alcohol and Viagra, Cialis or Levitra don't mix

• If you have to drink, do some test to find the right balance for you

• Make sure you have sufficient carbs 

• Viagra, Cialis or Levitra will make your heart beat faster and burn more carbs

TBC

My Diabetes - Can A Diabetic Have A Sex Life? Part 5

Almost everybody at some stage in their life, has a light to moderate hypo from too much exercise, skipping meals or too much to drink.

• pale skin around the eyes

• cold sweats

• tingling of the lips and tongue

• shaky hands

• unsteady on your feet

• difficulty in concentrating

Learning Point:

• Test your blood sugar before

• Eat sufficient fast acting carbohydrates to ensure you don't go hypo

• If in doubt have a bit extra and adjust for it afterwards

A difficulty for diabetics is that excursion hypo is pretty similar to a insulin hypo and there is nothing that will stop you and your partner quicker than either of you worrying that the sweat and clammy skin are down to an impending hypo. 

TBC

My Diabetes - Can A Diabetic Have A Sex Life? Part 4 Viagra, Cialis & Levitra

So what 'Daddies Little Helpers':

• Viagra

• Cialis ( tadalafil )

• Levitra

• etc

Unless you have taken an appropriate amount of carbohydrate and continue to do so during the exercise session none of these pills will help. They will only increase the blood pressure to nether regions, if you are not hypo, and are engaging actively. 

So before reaching for the pill draw its important to get the planning and the provisions correct.

Learning Points:

• These pills need carbohydrates to work
• These pills take time to work 
• During the 30 mins to 1 hour lead time your blood sugar needs to be higher
• If you frequently have hypos these pills are unlikely to help
• If you frequently have hypos these pills my make it worse
• Plan -- Don't Fail

TBC

My Diabetes - Can A Diabetic Have A Sex Life? Part 3

Ignoring all of the emotional content for the time being, its important that a diabetic views sex as exercise, and like any exercise provisions of the extra carbohydrates is crucial.  So ignoring the biology, one has to seriously decide is this a:

• short sprint with no warm-up (hopefully by mutual consent :-)

• ten minutes warm-up then a short walk

• ten minutes warm-up then a long walk

• twenty minute warm-up and a short walk

• twenty minute warm-up and a long walk

• thirty minute warm-up and short walk

• thirty minute warm-up and long walk

• .....

And then there are the marathons for the younger members who don't have work to go to or kids to take everywhere and do all nighters at the festivals. LOL
Using the sports example each of the scenarios will require different preparation and unless planned well in advance and catered for the outcomes could be good or not so good.

• Try and test your blood fifteen - twenty mins before

• If low I drink a quantity of lucozade beforehand, if high I drink a mouthful.  I'm afraid slow release dry wheat biscuits will not suffice

• I always try to ensure I have a bottle close at hand to top up

• I always had some longer lasting 'biscuit' or cake to eat afterwards to ensure there is no post exercise hypo

• If I start to run out of steam I top up 

My best advise if this is all new to you (don't worry nobody ever told me about sex and diabetes) is to keep a little diary:

Time and Date?

blood sugar before?

carbs taken?

warm up time?

walk or run time?

Did you feel hypo?

What were the symptoms?

Headache?

blood sugar after?

It isn't necessary to do this for a long time, but a pattern will emerge quite quickly.

In fact I'll create a tiny database to go on the iPad/iPhone for people to try out, and I'll make it password protected.

TBC

My Diabetes - Can A Diabetic Have A Sex Life? Part 2

Well it didn't take me more than a few hilariously bad attempts to realise that the Doctors and medical experts obsession with achieving and maintaining a constant low blood sugar was not going to do much for my sex life with the cocktail sausage and the damp squib being but a couple available options without appropriate planning and preparation.

The first thing a diabetic needs is a sensitive and sympathetic partner with a sense of humour and who won't take it personally if there is a bedroom failure. I always smile when people say sex is something to be taken seriously 'really' only with your clothes on.  Otherwise you may as well be mud wrestling with warm white chocolate for the mess it makes and the grunting and the sweating and thats before you've even switch the television off.  LOL

The first thing to consider is that if I have a severe hypo whilst playing at missionaries, then I will become a literal deadweight. The more energetically one goes about such things the more sudden is the decline. I imagine many partners do not take lightly to being squashed, although for others it may be what they are seeking. Now you may have pretended for a few moments in the past that you have become a dead weight, but the real thing is much much heavier and more scary and difficult to move, to breath as any judo enthusiast will tell you and unlike the films people tend not to collapse in convenient positions so they can be easily rolled off.

But I've jumped in at the deep end, as we men have occasionally been accused of doing.  It was deliberate.

TBC