"Things of this world are in so constant a flux, that nothing remains long in the same state." John Locke Nothing in life is truly 'static'. Some things change very gradually whereas others seem to be in a constant state of change. The wind and oceans forever reshape the land even if only measured in years to millennia. In diabetes we are taught a very static approach to the self management of our condition. Like a still photograph, a single point in time blood sugar reading tells us little about the values which preceded it or where they will be traveling immediately afterwards. Biological systems are designed to adapt to change, or sudden changes in our environment. Why can't we as
Please welcome Cynthia to the Sugar Surfing Blog. She asked us a few weeks ago if we would consider sharing her story with others and why not? Today you can read how she transformed from poor control to normal blood sugar levels and how she did it. If you have a story to share please send us a message using the form at the bottom of this page and we'll see how it fits into our publishing schedule. Thank you! Hi, everyone! My name is Cynthia, and I have lived with type 1 diabetes for 26 years. My A1c is 5.4, and I show no signs of diabetic complications. But if you had met me 16 years ago, you would never have believed that my A1c would be normal today. Sixteen years ago, when I was a teenage
In an ongoing effort to demystify and rebuild the tarnished reputation of the misunderstood ketone, I submit this post. This morning my BG was 108 mg/dl (divide by 18 to get to mmol) and 0.3 mmol ketones were measured. The overnight trend line plot shows a steady level of control over the past 12 hours. All of this was achieved with a SINGLE basal rate of insulin! Not even a 'rate' per se, since I don't wear an insulin pump anymore. This 'basal rate' comes from a single dose of insulin DEGLUDEC, aka Tresiba: 12 units at 8PM. You see, a good basal rate is intended to maintain balance or stability. It is not really supposed to be a 'BG lever' unless you choose to turn it into one (e.g.
Traditional static diabetes principles teach that insulin is dosed at or before a carbohydrate containing meal. Using preset ratios and formulas, the insulin dose is calculated by the patient based on the carb amount to be eaten and the pre-meal blood sugar level. This is what the vast majority of persons with diabetes are taught as dogma. Those on insulin pumps have more options to alter the timeline of how their device delivers a dose (combination or dual wave bolus; extended or square wave bolus). However, many pump users infrequently use these advanced dosing features. This example illustrates that dosing insulin is often not a “one and done” proposition. This is a good example of advanc
As part of developing some new diabetes education technology, I visited The Wayback Machine. If you've never been there you might find it very interesting to see how pretty much every website and page looked over time. For example, here's a page from Diabetech.net in 2005: Among other things, we had just launched a new product called "Virtual CDE"™. It was a mobile cloud based system for delivering simple profile driven diabetes education directly to patients. To use it was very simple. Just enter your mobile phone # and tell the system a little bit about yourself. Then, every few days, you received a message. Sometimes it was just a text. Other times it was a link to a video. Other times it
The simplicity of this pump may be very attractive for some patients. Now imagine a system that integrates an easy to use cgm or flash glucose monitoring system with the new CeQur patch pump for people with type 2 diabetes. Here's how it works: I wouldn't want to burden this pump with baggage by labeling it as part of an artificial pancreas. Just as a way to simplify the task of dosing. With the CeQur insulin pump, there is a continuous basal rate programmed by the patient's doctor. The patient clicks it to dose in 2u increments. If the patient needs to adjust the basal rate they would work with their doctor to get a different PAQ with a different rate. You cannot change the basal rate yours
At the heart of Sugar Surfing is the PIVOT. It’s the ability to redirect a trending BG away from an out of range value of the Surfer’s choosing. Mastering the art of pivoting takes patience, consistency and resilience: the 3 virtues of well controlled persons with diabetes. Pivoting seamlessly blends the reactive and the proactive aspects of insulin action, food, exercise and stress to bend and steer the BG trend line to the will of the Sugar Surfer. It’s empowering beyond measure. Learn how to pivot by reading Sugar Surfing and/or attending a Live Workshop. Once you master the art of pivoting, diabetes loses much of its sting. You see, the pivot puts YOU in charge of your diabetes in a way
