Other Body1 Health Sites:				Empower your Life^®
Circulatory System	Dental Care	Diabetes	General Health	Heartburn	Orthopedics	Skin Care	Women's Health

Home

Education Center

Multimedia

Community

Care Tools

Sports Care

Chronic Care

Physician Finder

Research

News

Resources

Create Your Blog

View All Blogs

Forums

Blog Entries With Tag: a

Blog: Anna's Blog

From: FatCatAnna

Snacks for a road trip - the best part of travelling

Posted: May 17, 2012

Whenever we'd go on a road trip - my Mum would always pack snacks - not just for me because of my having diabetes - but for all of us. Often it saved stopping off - wasting time to get to our final destination (usually to the coast for a holiday). Also, it saved money by not stopping off at a restaurant. Eating a road side park was always abit of fun - to run around - let some steam off (so my brother wouldn't contemplate more ways to kill me in the back seat of the car as I kept on bugging him - I mean what are siblings for?).

I've always carried on that tradition (not bugging my passenger(s)) - when we go on a road / air trip - I pack our own food (with air travel I'm abit limited - but still do it - food at the airport is tres cher). When it comes to a road trip tho' - it's a great time to fill up bags with nibbles that I don't usually keep at home - you know - for those boring highway periods - and you get that snack attack (provided that your BG's are in a good zone - since sometimes being inactive can make my BG go up abit).

So, I'm heading off to Boston for the Canadian long w/e with my DH - and one of my treats I've just bagged up - is 15 gram of pure carb delight - Garden Veggie Straws. I'll also cut up some healthy veggies - diced up cheese - and a few cans of diet pop. Oh and who can forget the "sweets" for the road trip! My fav are sour lemon drops made by Sorbee - only 3 of them have 15 grams of carbs (about 50% of what regular sugar candies have). Now of course, this doesn't mean I'll be sucking on these sugar free candies every nanosecond. You have to remember - sugar free does not mean - CALORIE FREE - it all adds up in the end!

What nibbles do you like to pack for the road trip? I'm curious to know what teases your pallet when you're winding through country roads to your destination!

Comments |

|
Tags: travel (1) car (1) airplane (1) carbs (1) Sorbee (1) candy (1) sugar free (1) food (1) diet (1)

Blog: Anna's Blog

From: FatCatAnna

If only I played tennis – I’d be going to Wimbledon!

Posted: May 9, 2012

Well, joking aside. I’ve been having a few health problems lately. Not diabetes related, thank goodness, just plain ol’ normal human being ailments. One of them being a gynecological problem – which I’ll find out more about after having finally seen a gynecologist (over a 2 month wait for an ER visit - welcome to Quebec’s health system – and the waiting game we play). The gynecologist is suspecting endometriosis – but until the samples she took are analysed – and I see her mid-June – I’m in a holding pattern while I cope with feeling like a bloated pig and not having much energy.

So, what I’ve been diagnosed this week is tennis elbow. Billie Jean King – look out! Not!! What my physiotherapist is calling this condition for the 21^st century is “technology elbow”. She sees a lot of folks like myself, who work at computers all day long, as well as, and this surprised me, folks who text on their cells a lot. Well, I have been sending out more text lately on my cell phone, and also since earlier this year, I’ve been working from my kitchen on my netbook (yes – I’ve amazed a lot of people that I can actually perform work from this little thing). So, of course, kitchen table isn’t exactly ergonomics. Since my first physio appointment a few days ago – I’m now religiously working from my basement office – but will get tips on how to make it more ergonomic hopefully not cause this problem anymore. Check out this great video from an ergonomics consultant who knows her stuff!

The other thing going thru’ my head … change occupations – but I love writing, researching, and heck it’s what pays my bills along with the other work I pick up here and there (I’m a Jill of All Trades). So until I figure out another way to make a living – I’ll stick to what I am doing for now (though pole dancing is still one of my #1 dreams – to keep me fit).

So, while I get myself repaired (many thanks to my DH for finally giving me the shove to get this looked at – he’s worried I’ll be useless as crew on Jenna’s Journey <lol>), I’ll not be online as much as I like to be (sorry Facebook / Twitter followers). My next step is to perhaps get a voice recognition program for my computer – that will allow me to compose what I type out manually, to give me some relief – but I’m thinking positive that once I’ve mastered how to not allow this to occur again – I’ll be back in the saddle again full time.

Off to do some exercises – and take a break from this machine that goes bing!

Comments |

|
Tags: tennis elbow (1) ergonomics (1) office (1) gynecological (1) physio (1) gyno (1) endometriosis (1)

Faster Than A Speeding Bullet

Blog: Anna's Blog

From: FatCatAnna

Do you take Irbesartan despite not having high blood pressure?

Posted: Apr 18, 2012

My endo many years ago in my 30's started insisting that I take blood pressure (BP) medication because one BP reading in his office showed that up abit high (I have the white coat syndrome ). They had also said that by taking these meds that it would help curb any problems with my kidneys.

According to a diabetic friend of mine - who is like me - not medically educated but is a long term diabetic like myself - often tells other diabetics that they mentor that they don't need to take these meds for preservation of their kidney. Supposably after "x" years (can't remember the number) - if no kidney problems are showing - that you don't need to be on these meds. I am always hoping that those folks that receive that advice do go and seek a second opinion from someone who is knowledgable in this field - but still it does make me wonder after just having gone through the past few months - not been taking my blood pressure pills. Actually - in the past - I often forget to take them as I'm bad at remembering to take pills - it's hit and miss - but insulin I take religiously!!

I've been testing my BP in the comfort of my home, which I am sure helps in the reading. Today it was 110/60, and my readings tend to fall in this area or less. I actually found when taking the medication I was even lower - but didn't feel any different then I do at my usual readings - e.g. no low blood pressure symptoms.

I'm going to ask my endo about my little experiment I've been doing next time I see them (in July) - and see if they agree with what my friend had told me - about not taking BP meds.

Here are some tips from a video here at Diabetes1.org - it's aimed more at Type 2 diabetics I find - but can be applied to not just diabetics but EVERYONE - diabetic or not! I do find the recommended reading of 130/80 to be abit high for diabetics - but I guess it's a number that doctors feel safe with having their patients attain if they are already suffering from higher numbers. A patient has to start somewhere - and try to improve afterwards (e.g. reducing salt in diet, stopping smoking, etc.). The Canadian Diabetes Association also has an excellent article online that you can also read about attaining a healthy blood pressure.

Comments |

|
Tags: high blood pressure (1) low blood pressure (1) kidneys (1) Irbesartan (1) diabetes (1) sodium (1) smoking (1)

Blog: Anna's Blog

From: FatCatAnna

Sweet 16 - A journey into teen Diabetes

Posted: Apr 17, 2012

Katia is an amazing young woman that I met on the weekend at the Montreal JDRF Research Symposium.. She's currently at Concordia University here in Montreal completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. In the meantime, with her busy life, she managed to produce a documentary that takes place over 4 years. It shows the highs and lows of herself and other teens dealing with their Type 1 diagnosis and was filmed in Canada/USA and Ecudaor.

She was sweet 16 in 2007 when she received the diagnosis of diabetes. Of course, it was devastating to her to discover that she was diabetic (who isn't?), and she went into abit of a slump dealing with how it was going to affect her life. It was something she knew that she could never get rid of and she decided that the best way to accept it was to take control of her life and one of those steps I feel was working on this project - which when you see the clip - you will be anxiously awaiting for the release of it next month.

She is quite the adventurous gal (she's like my D-twin) - in the way she takes life to the fullest. Just within a year of diagnosis - she went to Europe by herself for 4 weeks - and discovered that nothing could stop her from doing what she wants to do in life. Her next adventure was in the summer of 2010 at the age of 19 - she volunteered at the FUVIDA camp in Ecudaor - and she's now done this twice - and hopes to return again this summer. Despite knowing very little Spanish - she managed to help others there with their diabetes.

One part of her speech really perked my interest was the Austalian group called Insulin For Life (IFL) - along with the Diabetes Hands Foundation (DHF) provides insulin at the camp in Ecuador. According to Neil Donelan of IFL - 10 million vials of insulin are produced every year and sadly 1 million vials go to waste. That left me so angry - hearing this - and of course - as I discovered a few years ago - Banting never wanted insulin to be a money making drug - he wanted it available to EVERYONE that needed it to stay alive with diabetes. Sadly, this is not the case, as other countries outside of Canada saw the money making potential (sigh) - and now - those of us who are unable to obtain insulin suffer - without insulin - we die.

I can tell that she has a very supportive family - as they were in attendance at the JDRF symposium - something I sort of envy since in my days - groups like this were very rare - and I'm not even sure if my parents would have joined up - since diabetes didn't seem to be a serious thing that I had (or that's the impression I get sometimes). Seeing all the families at the JDRF events really gets me all pumped up - with meeting up with kids - showing them that you can lead a great life with diabetes (and yes - it's not always rosey - but what life is - that's what living is all about).

Anyway, I see great things for her future - she laughed when I told her that she could be our Prime Minister one day - to her - film making is all that she wants to do in life - but like I told her - you never know - I mean Arnold Schwarzenegger has done a few things in his life time besides flexing his biceps !

Comments |

|
Tags: Diabetes (2) Hands (1) Foundation (1) teenager (1) Type 1 (1) Sweet 16 (1) Katia Shannon (1) IFL (1) JDRF (1) Insulin For Life (1) FUVIDA (1) Ecuador (1) DHF (1)

Blog: Anna's Blog

From: FatCatAnna

The joys of basal testing - NOT!

Posted: Apr 12, 2012

My morning blood sugars (BG) lately haven't been making me happy. It's probably due to many factors in my life right now - hormonal changes due to perimenopause, weight gain due to probably the happy pills that I'll soon be weaning myself off (with my doctors blessing of course - never EVER just suddenly go off of them like a friend of mine did last month - they've turned into a bit of a fruit cake in my books - and usually I love fruit cake).

So, yesterday I decided, enough is enough. Have to do the basal test overnight - which means - having a good BG to start off with before proceeding with it - not having given any insulin within the last 5 hours prior to starting the test. Along with every 1-2 hour - you wake up to test your BG to see how the basal rate is doing that you currently use (this works for both MDI (multile dosage injections) and folks who can afford the fancy gadget of an insulin pump. I'm a pumper, for now, until it dies as I no longer have a warranty on my pump, and cannot afford to shell oout $8K for a brand new one.

So, here I am, all set to go, have read up on how to do it in ten easy steps from John Walsh's book - Pumping Insulin - and I hit a brick wall. I had just taken insulin for my evening coffee earlier as well as a correction (was 7.2 mmol/l / 130 mg/dl at the time). Well, as I'm about to start the test and my BG is in the "good range" (not over 8.0 mmol/l / 144 mg/dl) - I realise that darn bolus a few hours has now cancelled my plans - as you have to be free of residual insulin in your body for 5 hours to do the test. SCREAM!!!! The one free day where if I have to lose sleep due to the basal test is now not possible.

Instead, what did I do you are asking? Since I am getting fed up with waking to 10 mmol/l / 180 mg/dl plus highs in the morning. I skimmed through a few more pages of John Walsh's book - and decided to bite the bullet - and raise my overnight basal rate by 10%. He suggests 5% - but due to my laziness - and not wanting to go into the few settings I have set up for overnight basals and change them manually (I have a total of six different basal settings believe it or not) - I just decided to wing it like I usually do and set a temporary basal on George Michael and had to start off at 10% as he doesn't allow anything lower then that. The good thing is that I did wake up this morning with a reading of 4.5 mmol/l / 81 mg/dl.

You have to remember, I'm self taught on how to use my pump - with only a 4 hour training course in the Fall of 2008 - where the CDE said - "you know how to do it since you've been doing the same thing with MDI". Great - I'm a wanna be CDE - NOT - but at this point in time - I wish the endo that I saw last year would have taken me on as her patient. She understood insulin pumping unlike my current endo who just sees me for my A1C and info that I give to him in the diabetes area due to the work I do. This endo had a team that you can call up - instead of seeing her in person via a long awaited appointment (it took 6 months to see her). She said she wouldn't take me as a new patient - since I'm in such good control (though at the time she said my A1C of 6% was dangerously low - that comment from her made me wonder about her at the time). So, it's just me, myself and Irene and the rest of the D-OC (diabetic online community) that I go to for advise - which really - isn't that bad - but sometimes it would be nice to have a doctor who understood insulin pumping.

So, now, after licking my lips and consuming a frozen Michelina's dinner (I was having a low - maybe due to the basal change - who knows?). I am silently feeling guilty at the 48 grams of carbs this small frozen dinner (Parmesan Bacon Linguine). I never eat that many carbs in one sitting - and it's only lunch time!! So, now is the time I would love to post some things about feeling guilty - since that was the topic of the DSMA discussion last night on Twitter! LOL

Alright, off to test my BG - see where I stand (my pump prior to eating said not to bolus due to low BG reading). I will do my best to correct the spike(s) that maybe occurring with this guilty meal I consumed (and thankfully - there are no more frozen meals in the freezer - where this one came from - I'll never know - but it was there - pleading with me to eat it).

Basal testing, carb ratio, insulin on board, low blood sugars .... all these things that "normal" folks don't have to think about when they have a functioning pancreas that didn't decide to pack it's bag for a long holiday 45 years ago - without filling me in on the details of what blow up water floaty to pack in my bag - so I could join them!!!

Ahhh the roller coaster ride of diabetes!

Comments |