Diabetes self help Blog describing how i have lived with diabetes for over 35 years avoiding diabetic complications. Key learning points are given as i see them. The Blog is instructive and lighthearted
This video is about Diabetic Alert and Diabetic Support Dog Training - Training My Dog Bree To Be My Diabetic Alert Support Dog
fixed1t Pet Dog Tips
There is much in the press about Specialist Diabetic Alert Support Dogs and the years it takes to train them, but unless you need very specialised support you and you have a dog then there is a lot your own dog may be able to do to help.
If you have Diabetic in the family and a Dog they could and will love helping you. Here Is My Lurcher Bree, Helping Me!
I have had Type 1 Diabetes for Over 35 years and currently take 6 injections of various insulins per day. despite what some people and physicians may feel is a high level of insulin use, I currently have none of the life limiting complications associated with long term diabetes. I used to think it was luck! but as a disability support assessor and assessment centre manager for 10 years I came to realise that it was not luck, I don't need a medical degree to realise that my insurance to good health has been a solid understanding of my body, its needs and my Diabetes. I have attended many different Diabetic Clinics in local Doctors Surgeries and hospitals, but I have never been hospitalised due to my diabetes.
Please Note:
I Have Never Suffered From Diabetes
Like Any Killer, I Give It Respect And We Co-exist
The views expressed here are my own and an aid memoire to myself in how I manage my own Type 1 Diabetes, I do not prescribe anybody do what I do and recommend they make up their own minds and control their own Diabetes.
#Diabetes - How My Dog Warns Me Of Hypos
One of my Lurcher (cross between a Greyhound and a Saluki) rescue dogs 'Bree' is very sensitive to smell and taste and I have written about her strange bathroom habits in a previous #Diabetes #Mentor blog posting:
Over the last few months Bree appears to have become particularly sensitive to any low blood sugars when I am in or on the bed.
Skippy (light) And Bree (grey)Asleep On The Bed Just Before Biscuit Time
If I start to have a low blood sugar she stands over me and prods me to get out of or off the bed. She is extremely persistent and will even start yelping at me if I don't move. As soon as I move she gets up on the bed and licks where I have sweated, as Diabetics often do when the blood sugar goes low. I have been trying to understand when this began to occur and I think I have cracked the case. I may have turned Bree into a Diabetic Alert Dog by accident rather than design. Out of guilt from eating something and not giving Bree and Skippy anything, I started to give them a small biscuit, each time I had a biscuit between meals or if I had woken in the night in a cold sweat. Therefore what has occurred is that by Behavioural Training my dogs, and particularly Bree have associated my regular biscuits times, my hypo biscuit times and my low blood sugars with a food reward. So now when it reaches my biscuit time they come to me, If I'm asleep they wake me and if during the night I start to get a low blood sugar (which they can smell the pheromones of) they wake me to get a biscuit. In the process warning me of a low blood sugar which would otherwise have left me with an awful headache or worse. Therefore, is you have a dog and you have diabetes, let them lick the crease in your arm when you are having a low blood sugar and give them a biscuit, also reward them when you have your regular biscuits and your dogs may just become a helpful, and happy to help as Bree is. Please check out my other Diabetes Mentor blog posts, please be aware so contain references to adult content relating to sex and diabetes. Malcolm aka #fixed1tDIABETESmentor
I have had Type 1 Diabetes for Over 35 years and currently take 6 injections of various insulins per day. despite what some people and physicians may feel is a high level of insulin use, I currently have none of the life limiting complications associated with long term diabetes. I used to think it was luck! but as a disability support assessor and assessment centre manager for 10 years I came to realise that it was not luck, I don't need a medical degree to realise that my insurance to good health has been a solid understanding of my body, its needs and my Diabetes. I have attended many different Diabetic Clinics in local Doctors Surgeries and hospitals, but I have never been hospitalised due to my diabetes.
Please Note:
I Have Never Suffered From Diabetes
Like Any Killer, I Give It Respect And We Co-exist
The views expressed here are my own and an aid memoire to myself in how I manage my own Type 1 Diabetes, I do not prescribe anybody do what I do and recommend they make up their own minds and control their own Diabetes.
My Dog Bree And My Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus
I have two rescue dogs, the breed are called "Lurchers" and mine are a cross between 'Greyhound' and 'Saluki'. Our first rescue dog was Bree, a trully beautiful grey with sphinx like eyes who like to cross her front legs. Shortly after we got Bree she gave me one hell of a scare with a very odd behaviour:
I actually considered training her some time ago and bought some urine testing sticks to detect the level of sugar in my urine, but after complaints about the efficacy of this and the video I decided not to do it. However, despite my efforts to deter her if ever I forget to close the toilet door she is there in a flash. So I think I will try and train her over the next few months. If I can train her to distinguish between the sugar levels by using a set of different objects this could be extreme useful. Not only to me but to countless others, as diabetes test sticks and blood testing kits are expensive.
Please check out my other Diabetes Mentor blog posts, please be aware so contain references to adult content relating to sex and diabetes. Malcolm aka #fixed1tDIABETESmentor
#Diabetes URGENT Diabetic Hypo Warning Lucozade Original
fixed1t Diabetes Mentor
I have used High Glucose Sugar Original Lucozade regularly for over 35 years to treat the early onset of Diabetic Hypo or to drink before I do any exercise of manual work. Last week I went to purchase some more ORIGINAL LUCOZADE and discovered a new variety call Original Lucozade... but it wasn't what I new or expected had I purchased this whilst feeling hypo I'd have been in serious trouble. I am therefore making this video as a warning.
If you are a Diabetic Type 1 or Type 2 Or You Know A Diabetic Or A Parent Or Carer Of One They Need To See This Urgently
LUCOZADE ORIGINAL Is Used To Treat Diabetic Hypos Due To Its High Glucose Sugar If You Don't Give A Confused Hypo Diabetic
Sugar They Will COMA And May Die!
You don't need to be a Diabetes Consultant, Diabetes Specialist Nurse, have a medical degree or be a Diabetes Mentor to know that carrying Lucozade High Sugar provides a level of insurance and comfort to diabetes patients.
#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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
