The other day the bear had a large bowl of spaghetti bolognese for dinner and I pestered him into testing his blood glucose before and after the meal. Most of the time I let him carb binge in peace – one of the perks of not having diabetes – but from time to time we…
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I went through a period recently with a lot of hypos. My basal insulin dose needed adjusting, so many of the hypos were prolonged and happened during the night. The need for insulin doses fluctuates, so what works one day might not work the next. It’s a topic that needs constant revisiting. The result of…
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It’s been three years since I got my type 1 diabetes diagnosis. While it’s not the worst thing that can happen to you, there are days when it’s overwhelming. Diabetes never goes on holiday. There’s not a single morning when you wake up without thinking “What’s my blood sugar?” and pick up the testing equipment…
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In reading Neil Bradbury’s A taste for poison: Eleven deadly molecules and the killers who used them I came across an interesting story. It dealt with the first documented murder by insulin overdose. The event took place in May 1957 when Kenneth Barlow alerted the family doctor after finding his wife Elizabeth unconscious in the bathtub late…
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We had leftover duck breast and potato dauphinoise from a dinner party, so I ate the same high-carb meal three nights in a row. I even went as far as adding a dash of cranberry jam which is in essence pure sugar. Here’s a breakdown of the glucose-releasing agents, which also included the carb-rich vegetables…
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For some time, I’ve had a love affair with pork scratchings. They’re carb-free, high in calories, and absolutely delicious. That makes it easy to eat more than just a handful and rather have the whole bag. It might also explain why I don’t lose weight, even though I eat low-carb, follow the 16:8 diet, and…
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If you have type 1 diabetes, finding ketones in your blood or urine can be a reason for concern. Ketones, also called ketone bodies, appear as the body switches from burning glucose to burning fat for energy. It can happen because you enter ketosis, a harmless state where you run out of stored glucose and…
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When you inject insulin, it’s tempting to hit the same sweet spot. Mine is lower abdomen, right-hand side, which I’ve abused for a long time. You need to be careful because repeatedly hitting the same injection site can cause lipodystrophy. In this condition, fat either builds up or breaks down under the skin. The result…
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There’s a joke amongst people with diabetes. It goes: Don’t use your index fingers to draw blood, you’ll need them to read braille. It’s implied that you’ll at some point lose your eyesight to the diabetic retinopathy or macular degeneration that can develop as a complication of diabetes. It’s gallows humor at its best. As…
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For the first time in years, I wasn’t drunk on New Year’s Eve. Instead, I was in bed with a fever, reading Calvin and Hobbes. I’ve got covid-19. Again. Perhaps it’s not that strange. I work in a bar with an international clientele, so you could compare it to spending your days in a busy…
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