Newbie to the forum

[Squirrel768]

Hi everyone, Type 1 for 32 years, and recently started using the Libre sensors.

Life is what you make it, and the same applies to diabetes - right from the beginning I made it clear that I would live me life, and learn how to control my insulin to enable me to do the things lin life that I enjoyed, rather than to be restricted and limited because of fear of the condition.

Heres to future decades living life 'in control' 🙂

 

[Ditto]

Hello and welcome @Squirrel768 🙂

 

[SB2015]

Welcome to the forum @Squirrel768 , Glad to have you with us.

It would be great to know how you manage your Diabetes.
MDI or pump? Libre? What insulins are you using.

I look forward to hearing more from you

 

[Toucan]

Life is what you make it, and the same applies to diabetes

Hello @Squirrel768 and welcome from me as well.
I'm sure your positive attitude is a big help in managing your Diabetes

 

[Squirrel768]

Welcome to the forum @Squirrel768 , Glad to have you with us.

It would be great to know how you manage your Diabetes.
MDI or pump? Libre? What insulins are you using.

I look forward to hearing more from you

Hi SB, Been on insulin fom the start, 32 years ago. No such thing back then as Dafne or variations of (currently waiting for East Sussex to start running 'Sofie' again following the current mayhem!) but Ward 1 in Birmingham General, as it was then, was wonderful, training pretty much the same thing as Dafne, so I could manage my own adjustments. Currently on MDI, Novorapid and Tresiba. Not fully convinced about the Tresiba though - lasts 42 hours according to the info, so there is a period overnight when I'm running on a 'half-dose' with the overlap over 2 days. I was previously on Levemir twice daily which seemed pretty even. Downside was the odd occasion when I grabbed the wrong novopen before bed ... definitely not clever LOL.

Where will the future lead? Having just started Libre, I may start to explore the home-brew 'open loop' stuff which is around, to see whether I can get automated info instead of doing the scans. Seem to remember reading info on that via Balance a few months back ... and whether that will lead to pumping? Maybe - all sorts of options once Sofie is allowed out to play LOL

 

[Squirrel768]

Hello @Squirrel768 and welcome from me as well.
I'm sure your positive attitude is a big help in managing your Diabetes

Thanks, Toucan - I've always tried to keep positive and stay on top of control (DB team are usually far happier with my control than I am ... apart from a running battle on my 'normal level' cholesterol being higher than their preference to take it far too low!). All these months of lockdown/shielding though. have taken their toll. Finding it harder currently to be positive. At least I still get to take Ozzy (Springer spaniel) for his walks 🙂

 

[SB2015]

Where will the future lead? Having just started Libre, I may start to explore the home-brew 'open loop' stuff which is around, to see whether I can get automated info instead of doing the scans. Seem to remember reading info on that via Balance a few months back ... and whether that will lead to pumping? Maybe - all sorts of options once Sofie is allowed out to play LOL

Hi Squirrel

I certainly found the switch to a pump made life a lot easier, enabling me to set up my own hourly profile of basal insulin. This helped me to eliminate the dips I had around 3:00 which in turn led to loads more sleep. This along with the Libre helps me to head off hypos and hypers and increase my TIR. So much better than using HbA1c as a measure of control.

The new Libre2 will include alarms and transmit data to a phone. I am not sure when that will become available and whether it will automatically be available to those with the current Libre on NHS.

Good to have your positive input on here already. I do realise that the past few months have made things a lot more difficult and I have found it good to share experiences on here.

 

[trophywench]

Thanks for the history lesson - I never needed to visit the General but I think the Dental Hospital (and 'school') is on the same site. They along with Birmingham Poly (which later became the Uni of Aston in B'ham) certainly had a paternoster lift but not an external one like the Poly. Just weird to use! So here's a bit more history for you which may be of use so read on!

It wouldn't surprise me if your erstwhile friend Sofie wasn't a younger sister of Bertie (and if so, Sofie has a half sister Gertie anyway) and also another sibling (neuter) called CARBS 4 1. The latter was gestated at the hospital of St Cross in Rugby by the two DSNs and Dietician there, as Coventry & Rugby CCG had declined the staff and patients' pleas to enable DAFNE training as far too expensive. (Blooming diabetes taking up far too much of their money, we've already provided the ungrateful sods with the Wisden centre at Walsgrave, they're want want want .....) BDEC down in Bournemouth had invented an alternative they called BERTIE which also had NICE approval cos it contained all the right elements same as DAFNE so Rugby contacted BDEC who had just gained approval to train staff from other hospitals to design and deliver their very own courses, so invited them. CCG still whinged it was too expensive so the three ladies offered to pay for their own accommodation down there and eventually got agreement, went and got themselves trained and off we all went together.

Head Honcho at BDEC, Dr David Cavan by name knew there were still shedloads of T1s with no access to such training so meanwhile he'd arranged for Bertie to go online and another UK forum of which I was a founder member offered to Beta test it for him and we did, then it went live. It's still there (though in its 2nd or 3rd incarnation by now) and fully accessible to anyone that wants to participate - see

Bertie Diabetes

www.bertieonline.org.uk

HTH 🙂

 

[Ralph-YK]

Welcome to the forum Squirrel.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Squirrel768

I think you are a hear or two ahead of me diabetes-wise, but I’ve leapfrogged you onto a pump already 🙂

Hope Libre is suiting you, and look forward to hearing more of your story in the weeks and months ahead - especially if you opt for an open source APS - we don’t have many AAPS or Loop / open loop users on the forum yet 🙂

 

[Squirrel768]

Hi SB, Been on insulin fom the start, 32 years ago. No such thing back then as Dafne or variations of (currently waiting for East Sussex to start running 'Sofie' again following the current mayhem!) but Ward 1 in Birmingham General, as it was then, was wonderful, training pretty much the same thing as Dafne, so I could manage my own adjustments. ...

Oops! Lockdown brain cell was out of gear - local 'Dafne' relative is Sadie ... LOL. Don't want to get into trouble with the family LOL.

 

[Squirrel768]

Welcome to the forum @Squirrel768

I think you are a hear or two ahead of me diabetes-wise, but I’ve leapfrogged you onto a pump already 🙂

Hope Libre is suiting you, and look forward to hearing more of your story in the weeks and months ahead - especially if you opt for an open source APS - we don’t have many AAPS or Loop / open loop users on the forum yet 🙂

Hi Mike - yes, the various charts and the 24-hour home page are very helpful. Some days, the 24-hour graph is even (rarely) 100% in range. Then there was the last 24 hours - misjudged the carbs at dinner, over-compensated for the following hypo, and 2 extra boluses in the night to bring it back down from over 15 So currently down to a mere 70%. Thankfully, the overall average is still 86% over 7 days, and has been improving over the 30 days of use.

Wondering (as I'm still waiting to get on the local 'Sadie' variant of Dafne so can't progress further yet) if there is anyone using 'Open Loop' without a pump, but for better information for manual bolus adjustments? Still wondering if this would be practical in the short term?