Unexpected benefits?

[everydayupsanddowns]

One major benefit is that apart from groceries we aren't spending any money. My account, my wife's account, our joint account, even our sons' accounts, haven't looked this good for a while. We're not wealthy by any means so it's good to have some money left at the end of the month rather than some month left at the end of the money.

Martin

I noticed the same Martin. I wouldn’t have thought I went out, ate out, or had coffee out often at all, but it has certainly noticed!

Plus I suppose all the other things I might have bought over the last month (plants for garden or whatever, I haven’t as the shops are all shut.

 

[Ivostas66]

I sincerely hope it is a wtf reason, and not any unwanted anything else, Matt.

Blimey - that hadn't even crossed my mind!

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hmm Mike, that made me think. I started to make a list of the positives and am quite surprised at how long it is!
Here is some of the list:

Having more time to plan and cook sensible meals
Shopping on-line so no temptations of grabbing spontaneous, and usually unsuitable, items off the shelves, and with infrequent deliveries thinking much further ahead with food planning.
No eating out, or grabbing food on the go - which isn't usually that suitable
No visits to my daughter's house where 'carb city' reigns with temptation.

Learning to deal with technology and getting used to 'virtual' meet ups
More time in the garden and having a go at grow-your-own veg

A better understanding of how much anxiety and 'feeling down' affects my blood sugars - so found time to read more about mindfulness and living in the moment, and finding contentment just in the day.

Overall, although there are a few ups and downs, this has resulted in better blood sugar morning readings than I have had for some time. I even reached the magic 5.2 for the first time.

So although I am longing for that wonderful day, when we can go out into the big wide world again, I hope that I will have learnt some useful lessons to carry forward.

What a brilliant list @Toucan - you‘ve made me want to write one!

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Blimey - that hadn't even crossed my mind!

If you plot the locations you may be able to discover the flight path and catch the Diabetes Fairy on the wing!

 

[trophywench]

If you plot the locations you may be able to discover the flight path and catch the Diabetes Fairy on the wing!

Pfft - she never files a flight plan and isn't even registered with the CAA ......

 

[DebbieC]

We’ve had a few new members joining, and other more established members posting that the peculiar times we are living in have actually given them an unusual and unexpected opportunity to refocus on their diabetes management, perhaps to do one of the online courses, or to use the forced time at home to conduct food experiments to improve post-meal levels.

Others have found the change of routine a bit more challenging.

What have been your experiences? What have you learned about yourself and your diabetes since the pandemic started?

So me and Slim Jim have had to get our act together as his GP took him off metformin at time of lockdown! Anyway he does a hour bike ride every other day, I try and organise some activities whilst I’m working from home so he’s trying willow weaving tomorrow and we’re waiting for paint by numbers ... plus sticking to low carb diet and so far no weight gain, and his BG seem to be behaving (in fact better than when he was on metformin?) so although I initially panicked re lack of exercise and possible shortages of proper food so far so good and getting chance to try some new hobbies

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

so although I initially panicked re lack of exercise and possible shortages of proper food so far so good and getting chance to try some new hobbies

Great news Debbie (and Slim Jim!)

 

[TotallyAverage]

I've also found the time off has helped me take time to get my diabetes in order - although finally getting the Libre has also helped a huge amount! The attached image is today's trace which I'm extremely proud of since despite the nighttime hypo I managed to stay in range all day which is a first for me!



I've also had the time to try out cooking some low-carb recipes which has been fun.

Overall though just thankful to be alive and healthy-ish 🙂

 

[Robin]

I've also found the time off has helped me take time to get my diabetes in order - although finally getting the Libre has also helped a huge amount! The attached image is today's trace which I'm extremely proud of since despite the nighttime hypo I managed to stay in range all day which is a first for me!

View attachment 13985

I've also had the time to try out cooking some low-carb recipes which has been fun.

Overall though just thankful to be alive and healthy-ish 🙂

Great trace! I always feel like celebrating when I get one like that!

 

[SB2015]

That is one to celebrate @TotallyAverage.
The Libre is so helpful.

 

[SB2015]

So now in the spirit of the thread title...

- We are walking every day (the weather definitely helps)
- Our garden has been replaced and this implemented and is enjoying all the TLC
- I have completed a lot of unfinished projects and also become more creative with gifts and cards, instead of just buying things.
- I have been in touch with a number of friends from the past, taking time to write letters.
- I have learnt quite a bit about new technology.

With the change in routine I have also been surprised how I am just going with flow with my D management. I have struggled in the past with setting totally unrealistic targets, and had a bit of a blip in Feb. However I am finding that I am generally content treating this as a ‘holiday’ which won’t be repeated so I am just do the best I can day by day.

So far so good.

 

[stephknits]

My diabetes management has definitely improved. Its partly the obvious, just having more time to sort it, particularly pre-bolusing or setting a temp basal etc. However I also think it's more of a mental thing in that I am resenting doing it a lot less. This is because I now have oodles of me time, of which only a fraction of it is taken up managing my diabetes. So, despite doing more actual management, it feels a lot less and therefore I am more inclined to do it. This of course leads to even better management as I feel encouraged by the positive outcomes.
That's not to say I don't have my usual daily disasters. Some neighbours kindly left a sourdough starter on our doorstep and the husband has been producing some 'bricks' with it. My blood sugar shoots through the roof if I go near it. I did their the amount of insulin I would for normal bread yesterday having been caught out the day before, plus pre-bolused and added a temporary basal increase and still shot from 6.6 to over 17. Ho hum

 

[trophywench]

How on earth can there be more carb in sourdough than normal bread?

 

[Robin]

How on earth can there be more carb in sourdough than normal bread?

I assume if there's less air, and you have a piece the same dimensions as usual, there’s more carb!

 

[trophywench]

Well you'd need to weigh a slice in the first place to calculate the carb content same as you do with any bread, so the air in it or not in it, shouldn't come into the calculation.

Freely admit if I succumb to a knob off a crusty loaf even when I'm near a set of kitchen scales, I sometimes say Oh buggrit! and just enjoy it; paying for it with insulin later!

 

[Robin]

Well you'd need to weigh a slice in the first place to calculate the carb content same as you do with any bread, so the air in it or not in it, shouldn't come into the calculation.

Freely admit if I succumb to a knob off a crusty loaf even when I'm near a set of kitchen scales, I sometimes say Oh buggrit! and just enjoy it; paying for it with insulin later!

Well yes, in theory I would weigh it. But the road to Hell or High Blood sugars is paved with good intentions...

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Well yes, in theory I would weigh it. But the road to Hell or High Blood sugars is paved with good intentions...

Im certainly more of a ‘gut feeling and instinct’ person than a ‘weighing slices of bread’ person.

Probably explains why I get annoyed after guesstimations go awry so often. 😛

 

[trophywench]

I don't bother to rouse myself to annoyance Mike, I know and have known my whole life - that I'm far from perfect! Being cross doesn't change anything - I've been lousy at guesstimating carbs to the degree that when I do happen to get it spot on, I'm elated!

A much nicer feeling than annoyed, you should try it and see! 🙂

 

[ajax]

I've been spending a bit of time learning about blood tube ✻colour coding✻ ..previously, when samples were collected from the vein ..I hadn't paid much attention to the 'colour' of the stopper, except thinking it could be some sort of branding.

Thanks to reading a book on diabetes written for and by nurses ..I now know the ✻lavender-top✻ goes to the hæmatology lab department ..and I can indeed remember seeing the nurse gently invert the tube several times ..for why ..to mix the 'EDTA' with the blood ..to stop it coagulating.

And that's what I like most about this is ..that it's a shared experience amongst diabetes patients ..no matter where we are on the spectrum.

 

[trophywench]

Yep - colour coded to identify which anti-coagulant they contain, since different ones are necessary for different blood tests. It was very interesting when I took part in the collection of diabetics' blood for the Wolfson Unit attached to B'ham Uni, carrying out the QA for labs' machinery and methods when they brought the IFCC measurements in, for reporting our HbA1c results instead of the previous %age units used formerly, to make sure they were all up to speed with it.

The blood was remove from us via the normal blood donor permanent centre in the centre of B'ham. upstairs (or lift!) through what used to be the Royal College of Arts entrance at the 'Floozy in the jacuzzi' end of New Street. They moved there years ago now from their old premises above the Nationwide in Waterloo Street, where I amongst plenty of others from our office used to donate blood before I was diabetic. I soon made sure I volunteered for that. The bulk of each visit was just as if you were just donating a normal 'pinta' then when the bag was full, Jeremy from Wolfson would be called onto the floor beside you to fill two of the usual HbA1c vials we're all used to having taken wherever we have them taken for that purpose. Then he loaded the bag and the vials into his filling coolbox, to transport them all back to Wolfson, not far away from the city centre. There, each pinta would be divided up into 600 other individually labelled normal HbA1c vials and sent off to labs either in the UK or abroad. One of the two he'd specifically taken whilst your blood was freely flowing would be tested by Wolfson, and the other retained there for the duration just in case more than X% of those labs reported markedly different results from their first one. The desire result from all the labs was that every result reported to them, should match their result. It didn't actually concern the Unit what the actual result happened to be and the donor never got to discover that, neither was it reported to the NHS. You could give within a month of having blood taken for any test and preferably shouldn't have a normal blood test for anything whatever, within 3 or 4 months thereafter or if you needed one, should tell the medic ordering that test that you'd donated blood on that date.

Then of course the powers that be found out that some donors were T1 - and stopped us donating - which was why I'd had to stop donating in 1972! Made everyone cross, that - us and the Wolfson - cos every person needs their flippin' lab test results to be correctly reported, don't we?

It was (personally) heartening during that phone call from J telling me it had to stop, when he said that generally T1 results amongst 'us lot' had been a lot more 'sensible' numbers than the T2 ones, which ranged far and wide! I commented on behalf of T2s, that it amply demonstrated the lack of close personal advice given by the NHS to an awful lot of T2 folk, then, didn't it? LOL

Used to enjoy my day out in my old daily stamping ground, too!