I actually want to give it a go for a year or so just to earn some more street cred
I remember how anxious I was as a noob. You have gone from being normal to being chronically ill, all the dire warnings thrown at you, and tied to a regime that usually does not work since it is generally āone size fits allā. Thank goodness for lists like this one, they saved my sanity.
Actually, the increments kinda make sense roughly based on action
250 mg/dl - Dude, watch what you are doing
500 mg/dl - Need insulin now!
1000 mg/dl - Please drive me to the ER
2000 mg/dl + - Call 911
If you do, be sure to use only two shots a day and an exchange list. None of this faking MDI with four shots of NPH and carb countingāthatās cheating!
Itās been too long, but I donāt think you can equate the urine mg/dl to blood md/dl. I know I had read high urine readings and I wasnāt on my way to the hospital. I think that is where the keytone tests became more critical in diabetes management.
Youāre right, the urine tests (whether glucose or ketone) are not the same measurements as the blood tests.
Actually I believe that the picture above provides the āinterpretationā of what the urine test color means in terms of blood sugar. Here is an explanation on how to interpret a modern strip reading and it explicitly says that the interpretation is based on blood sugar, not glucose concentration in the urine.
And as a point of reference, a normal glucose concentration in urine is zero to 15 mg/dl.
I know! My original comment was emotionally reacting to a thread on the diabetes forum on reddit, not to the folks here And Iāve had the same journey as far as lancets go. When I start injections, at least Iām forewarned and forearmed this time around! I have you all to thank for that.
I havenāt seen it here in this forum, but elsewhere online Iāve often seen Type 2s and LADAs be mercilessly mocked or put down for struggling with controlling their blood sugars. Same goes for older Type 1s āwho should know better.ā There is a persistent issue around diabetes that when someone is struggling, itās considered to be their fault. It makes them a bad person, lazy, fat, or whatever.
A thread yesterday on /r/diabetes started with a woman asking for help because she was a ācrap diabetic.ā A certain number of Type 1 āvetsā decided to pile on and mock her for not having enough will power. That was the condescension I was thinking about when writing my response Iāve seen nothing but class and support from all you vets on this forum!
I donāt get this type of āsupportā at all. Some people just love this style of insult humor. I never enjoyed this, even less so when Iām the target. When you call them on it, theyāre mystified why you feel injured. They think everyone enjoys this treatment. Some may even try to pass it off as ātough love.ā Iām not buying it. To me itās offensive, abrasive, and thoughtless and should only be used when you know the target person appreciates this style and will not be offended. Itās not where Iād like to hangout online!
thanks @David49 - it means a lot to those of us volunteering here to get a nice comment. When I joined TuDiabetes in 2008, Iād already had type 1 a long time, but I had not kept up with things. Heck, I wasnāt carb counting or using I:C ratios with any precision. I was totally SWAGging it. I was afraid Iād be met here with a āwhatās wrong with youā or some such judgement. Instead I found the outstretched hands of support and friendship.
this is definitely something we strive to make our community be a refuge from. itās part of our community values
https://forum.tudiabetes.org/t/the-values-of-tudiabetes/34720
As Iāve explained elsewhere, I still use R for high-protein meals because it matches up better than anything else. But Iām inexpressibly grateful that I never had to use a whole list of things, and NPH is definitely one of themāalong with urine strips, boilable syringes and sharpenable needles, the infamous āguillotineā, etc., etc.
My only surviving OCD behavior (I think) is cleaning the needle of the syringe with alcohol right after each use. I reuse syringes because of cost, and when a previously-used needle is reinserted into a vial, I donāt want any old, stale insulin clinging to the outside of the needle and potentially contaminating the new, fresh insulin in the vial. So far itās working; I havenāt had a vial go bad, yet (knock wood).
Indeed. And a similar mindset leads some (not all) HCPs to label any diabetic with less-than-good control as ānon compliantā. Since many HCPs firmly believe that achieving good control is cut and dried and will work for anyone if they just follow the recipeānot their fault, itās what they were taught in schoolāit logically follows that anyone who doesnāt have good numbers must be failing to follow instructions.
I just want to say I wouldnāt have made it without you guys! There were a lot of mis-steps in my early treatment plans and I didnāt know anybody else to talk to where I live. Namaste!
. . . and seconding what others have said, itās part of our community ethos that people are here to be welcomed and assisted, not judged. IMHOP that is indeed something that separates this place fromāahemāsome other parts of the DOC.
I remember my initial noobiness including some of the āits all overā anxiety, that fatalistic depression that Iām weakened now, a cripple, slowly decaying over the rest of my life.
Reality is far different, veteran experience that life can be lived fully, vigorously, and with joy.
Amen. Been there, did that, and came out the other side. This is something that newbies really need to hear, repeatedly.
I wonāt consider the trial valid for passage to vethood unless he ditches the glucometer and sticks to pee strips for testing as well.
I wonāt consider the trial valid for passage to vethood unless he ditches the glucometer and sticks to pee strips for testing as well.
To be truly faithful to the canon, he really should use glass syringes and reusable needles, too.
That looks like a newer bottle than I used. Results werenāt marked in mg/dl, rather a range from: negative - trace - 1+, 2+, 3+, 4+. I always wondered what my bg could have been at 4+.
[quote=āDavid_dns, post:31, topic:57589, full:trueā]
I tend to think of everyone who has never had to use R and NPH pre-MDI and insulin analogues as a newbie.
As Iāve explained elsewhere, I still use R for high-protein meals because it matches up better than anything else. But Iām inexpressibly grateful that I never had to use a whole list of things, and NPH is definitely one of themāalong with urine strips, boilable syringes and sharpenable needles, the infamous āguillotineā, etc., etc.
[/quote]I checked, and I think this makes you an Admiral, in good company with that hero, Admiral Akbar:
They missed an obvious classic: Bonnie and Clyde.