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The Unreasonable Math of Type 1 Diabetes

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Re: The Unreasonable Math of Type 1 Diabetes

#81

Post by Trasmatta »

gruez wrote: post #77
gowld wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now imagine what it's like for someone with T1D to live alone, if you haven't yet been to a funeral for that. Every single time you go to sleep is a roll of the dice.

>Every single time you go to sleep is a roll of the dice. Isn't that the case even if you have someone sleeping beside you? I suppose it mitigate some risk on the off chance that your partner wakes up and notices you're sweating or whatever, but what if they're sound asleep? Does someone who's high/low on blood sugar exhibit symptoms that are easily picked up by a sleeping person?

The good news is that for most diabetics, your body will automatically wake you up for a hypo. It's a survival mechanism. But some people suffer from hypoglycemic unawareness, and their body doesn't wake them up.

Most diabetics have CGMs these days, though, and somebody like that should be setting hypo / hyper alarms so that either them or their partner wakes up.

(The problem there becomes false alarms and the subsequent alarm fatigue that results in you turning them all off.)

Re: The Unreasonable Math of Type 1 Diabetes

#82

Post by dddiaz1 »

I am also a T1D.

This post was a great summary of the constant mental juggling that happens when you have T1D. After almost 25 years with it, the cgm has been the biggest technological leap for management, but the mental aspect is critical too. I highly recommend seeking out groups where you can meet other T1D parents, because that will be a huge help! Seeing people who understand what you are going through, and can help talk you through situations, or heck, just be an informed listener can be huge! :)

I participated in JDRF as a kid, went to Diabetes camp (which I highly recommend!), and now participate in a young adults t1d group where we meet once a month for appetizers and drinks (pre covid, now we meet virtually).

When I am not doing those things, I also like to write and do projects around t1d. Here I write about converting a day's worth of cgm data into sound: https://dddiaz.com/post/glucose-sound/ or here I write about using my health-kit data from my apple watch and combining it with my Dexcom data to try and create a ML algorithm that can predict which days I exercised. https://dddiaz.com/post/glucose-datascience/

Re: The Unreasonable Math of Type 1 Diabetes

#83

Post by pimeys »

gowld wrote: post #67
pixl97 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Continuous blood glucose monitor and insulin pump. It's reduce the stress and the nearly dying incidents dramatically. The bigger concern for me in my life now is having a backup carbohydrate supply on me so if I go do something like hiking that I have enough glucose to make it back to the next carbohydrate source. Of course being able to even afford this in the US requires a certain level of privilege. Supplies are…

If you have an insulin pump, can you also have a glucose pump?

No. But a hormone called glucagon is used in some pumps. It puts your liver to produce glucose.

Re: The Unreasonable Math of Type 1 Diabetes

#84

Post by ciceryadam »

Late blooming (LADA) T1D here.

I think that CGMs are a great quality of life improvement. I have Abbott Freestyle Libre's prescribed by my diabetologist every 3 months, and they work well with Glimp[1] and any android phone with NFC - the app has nice statistics that really correlate with glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c - long term sugar level indicator) results from my checkups. You can (and should) calibrate the CGM results with prick tests in the Glimp app as well.

It takes a long time testing what kind of carbohydrates work the best for you - how high / how fast your blood sugar levels rise, and how long they stay high. You have to keep yourself as close to the ideal range as possible, while are literally trying out every available carb in the pantry. I've tested all kinds of carbs to find out that potatoes and chickpeas are fine, and that rice is forbidden in my diet. So long kimchi fried rice, I will miss you.

[1] - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.ct.glicemia

Re: The Unreasonable Math of Type 1 Diabetes

#85

Post by Trasmatta »

grahar64 wrote: post #69
Trasmatta wrote: post #8

I'm a type 1 diabetic, and this was a helpful post at showing non diabetics why it is so. hard. Non diabetics typically think the difficult thing must be the shots and the finger pricks, right? Not really. The majority of diabetics get used to those things quickly (of course there are some of course that deal with a major major needle phobia that can make it even harder). The hard part is that it never ends. Almost e…

Having an 18 month old means we are in full control of everything he does and eats and doses and even with all that control we see wild swings and weird shit every day. Having all the energy needed to manage T1D and the self control to do it is superhuman. I wrote this post mostly because I didn’t know that before and I want more people to know. You are doing great.

Thank you! Being a parent of a T1D (especially an infant) is also a monumentally stressful task, and your post shows you're doing a great job. Keep up the good work, and please take care of yourself as well.

Re: The Unreasonable Math of Type 1 Diabetes

#86

Post by cadr »

gowld wrote: post #67
pixl97 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Continuous blood glucose monitor and insulin pump. It's reduce the stress and the nearly dying incidents dramatically. The bigger concern for me in my life now is having a backup carbohydrate supply on me so if I go do something like hiking that I have enough glucose to make it back to the next carbohydrate source. Of course being able to even afford this in the US requires a certain level of privilege. Supplies are…

If you have an insulin pump, can you also have a glucose pump?

Or a glucagon pump: https://beyondtype1.org/future-artificial-pancreas/

(causes your liver to release its glucose)

Re: The Unreasonable Math of Type 1 Diabetes

#88

Post by pimeys »

jamiek88 wrote: post #60
pimeys wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the classic: have lunch with your colleagues and then walk back to the office. I hope you didn't take all the insulin in the restaurant, just half and half back in the office. It's a nasty drop otherwise...

Jesus Christ I’m exhausted just reading these stories. That’s fucking ridiculous. My aunty was T1D and that was back in the 30’s until 90’s when she died, I never realized what a hero she was. Never once heard her complain thus assumed it was easily dealt with. She used to just disappear after meals for a while. It was like some dark family secret.

A loop helps a lot here. You get used to it. It is easier if you're anyhow watching grafana daily...

50% insulin for the lunch. When sitting in front of your computer the carbs are working and just press a button to dose the last 50%. Or let the automation do it.

Re: The Unreasonable Math of Type 1 Diabetes

#90

Post by steveklabnik »

emj wrote: post #78
arka2147483647 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have had Type 1 for 30 years. To be honest, i don't do the math. I choose the amount of units to inject by feel. I mean, i know by eating a banana, i get something like 20g of carbohydrates, and i should take 3u. But if i feel, that the correct dose is 6 units, then i take that. I cant really explain it. But i kind of feel the state, where i am going, and can adjust instinctively. Works more often than not. I have…

> I measure blood sugar A LOT, though. That is the most important part, you can really live a good life if you have that. I hope we get more powerfull and cheap way to do that continously. At the momemnt it's at least 300 USD a month for a CGM device that can measure every five minutes. It's abit like monitoring traffic load and adding more servers as you go, except too many servers kill you. That with knowing how yo…

> It's abit like monitoring traffic load and adding more servers as you go, except too many servers kill you.

Not even just that, but with fairly primitive monitoring tools. The built-in stuff for Dexcom can only alert on highs or lows, not on things like the rate of change, which would be much more useful IMHO.

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