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The Unreasonable Math of Type 1 Diabetes

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Re: The Unreasonable Math of Type 1 Diabetes

#101

Post by jorvi »

csnover wrote: post #63
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…

One of the scariest experiences of my life was going on a walk after lunch with someone who had T1D and miscalculated their insulin dose. They went from totally fine, to saying “I don’t feel well, we need to head back”, to sweaty and sheet white and barely conscious within just a few minutes. The terror I felt as we waited for the doors of the lift to open so he could get to his emergency food is burned into my brain…

> A cure for cancer is often held up as the holy grail of medicine, but even cancer patients don’t have to be perfect every day just to keep living.

Wow. There is no need to dismiss the plight of cancer patients in relation to that of diabetes patients.

As a diabetic, if you go through the (granted, horrible) grind, you can be fairly certain you'll live for quite some time.

If you are a cancer patient, even if you are currently in remission or even 'cured', you don't know if the cancer will come back. And if it will respond to the same treatment and if not if there is an alternative. Your survival timeline basically becomes one giant question mark.

https://xkcd.com/931/

Re: The Unreasonable Math of Type 1 Diabetes

#103

Post by richie5um »

Trasmatta wrote: post #81
gruez wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 subseq…

“Most diabetics have CGMs these days” - not where I come from :-(

Re: The Unreasonable Math of Type 1 Diabetes

#105

Post by cleancoder0 »

csnover wrote: post #63
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…

One of the scariest experiences of my life was going on a walk after lunch with someone who had T1D and miscalculated their insulin dose. They went from totally fine, to saying “I don’t feel well, we need to head back”, to sweaty and sheet white and barely conscious within just a few minutes. The terror I felt as we waited for the doors of the lift to open so he could get to his emergency food is burned into my brain…

I once took a 5 hour bike trip on an empty stomach. At some point I couldn’t even turn the pedals. I had to lay on the ground, not feeling better even after half hour. I can still remember the feeling of eating some sweets. Felt like I was reborn. Can’t imagine what it’s like for T1

Re: The Unreasonable Math of Type 1 Diabetes

#106

Post by JimmyAustin »

arka2147483647 wrote: post #92
emj wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Well, I have had the incredible luxury of being born in Finland, so state/municipality pays everything. Insulin, Glucose-test-supplies, Doctors. I truly fell sad when i hear what US based persons have to go through. Though, i suppose i pay it in taxes :) About devices.. The first Glucose-test-device (what are they even called in english) took 5min to process the results. Current one is 5sec. A massive improvement in…

I'm not diabetic, but I tried a FreeStyle Libre 2 continuous glucose monitor to measure my blood sugar, and I think it's basically what you are asking for. Tap your phone on a patch on your arm to get a instant view of your blood sugar, plus see the previous 8 hours. It is pricey though.

Re: The Unreasonable Math of Type 1 Diabetes

#108

Post by jedwhite »

Another long-term T1 here. This is one of the best posts I've read describing how hard it is.

The only thing I'd add after a couple of decades... the psychological side gets harder and harder as fatigue sets in, and you have to keep working harder and harder to beat it.

I can't imagine how difficult it would be for a parent and for the post's author. That sounds 1000x harder than facing T1 for yourself. Some of the stem cell research work being done is really exciting. And there is hope that by the time this little kid is grown up, it might be a solved problem.

In the meantime, shame on the pharmaceutical companies for their years of price gouging with insulin in the USA, a creation for which the original patent was gifted to the world for free.

Re: The Unreasonable Math of Type 1 Diabetes

#109

Post by Trasmatta »

richie5um wrote: post #103
Trasmatta wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 subseq…

“Most diabetics have CGMs these days” - not where I come from :-(

You're right, the truth is probably actually that only a minority of T1Ds have CGMs. My post was a bit insensitive, not everyone has easy access to them.

Re: The Unreasonable Math of Type 1 Diabetes

#110

Post by kakoni »

pimeys wrote: post #48
bleair wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also two "open source" systems - https://loopkit.github.io/loopdocs/ - https://openaps.org/ Tidepool is also trying to take the loop project and get a version of it FDA approved. Both of the open source projects require you to do the work and actively take control of your setup (a cgm plus pump plus phone). They have really nice support communities. I would never go back to not using Loop.

I'll be adding one more, I've been using this for some years now: https://github.com/nightscout/androidaps It's awesome.

Indeed! AndroidAPS with omnipod dash+G6 (+Android phone) is the latest and greatest setup that you can do
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