I’ve had type 1 diabetes since I was 10. That’s 44 years of unpaid labor, including nights, weekends and holidays. No sick leave, no vacation, no retirement.

My job involves monitoring blood sugar, calculating insulin doses, administering medication, dealing with emergencies and making sure supplies don’t run out.

Earlier today I discovered that I’d forgotten to press the final button on my PDM, so my lunch bolus was never delivered.

For a moment I thought how nice it would be to have someone else to blame. I could file an incident report, complain about the incompetent staff and demand that something be done about it.

Unfortunately, I’m the incompetent staff.

Which got me thinking. I’ve been doing this job since I was 10. Surely there must be some child labor laws involved? And what about 44 years of unpaid overtime?

I suppose my compensation is that I get to stay alive. Not exactly a generous benefits package.

So I’m considering filing a complaint with OSHA.

Although I’m a bit worried they’ll shut the whole operation down for violating labor laws, which would be rather unfortunate for the only patient.

Source: jyabetes_type1 on IG

It's been one of those days.

Hi all! I'm an engineer and I've lived with diabetes for 20 years. For Diabetes Awareness Month I built Glucoville: free little 3D games and quizzes that help kids aged 4 to 12 understand diabetes, for kids with T1D, but also their siblings and classmates.

A few of them:

- Hypo Hero: spot the signs of a low and treat it (juice, wait 15 min, check again)

- CGM Detective: read a sensor graph and work out what happened

- Glucose Check: a finger prick, step by step, then what to do with the number

- Buddy Helper: for classmates, what to do when a friend goes low

It's in English, French and Arabic, works on phones and school Chromebooks, and there are no accounts and no personal data. It shows mg/dL or mmol/L depending on where you are. Nothing replaces your team's plan, and the games never give doses.

There's also a World Diabetes Day page for teachers (14 Nov) with a class plan.

https://glucoville.com

I'd really love feedback from parents and T1D folks: what's wrong, what's missing, what your kid enjoyed. Thanks! 💙

24, F, Diabetic since i was 9 years old. Growing up i had such good control of my sugars, and let things slip a little during university (all that partying, eating like rubbish, etc.)

This past year i’ve been battling with health anxiety, and trying to get my sugars under control. Now when i say they are not in control, I don’t mean really really not under control. My HB1AC last was around 6.8%

But i’ve been trying SO HARD to keep things level. Pre-blousing, properly carb counting, probably treating hypos, and things were going well the past few days.

Until today when my new Dexcom was reading 7.7mmol and after using my test kit, I was actually 17 mmol.

I’m scared, scared of harming myself, scared of losing control, scared of ketones, scared of hypos.

I never used to be like this, i’ve lived with this disease as long as I can remember.

And i just needed to rant.

Sending you all love, we got this <3

Someone asked some time ago if anybody was using AI for any T1D topics, and also someone posted their own ESP based little widget, so I thought I'd share my progress on my own experiments:

- A fully self contained G7 Receiver: an nRF52840 based device that talks directly to the G7 sensor over BLE; no phone, no Internet.

- An android app that reads my NovoPen data and sends it to a self hosted server on a raspberry pi over Tailscale.

- Currently experimenting with predictor models trained on my own data, but since I didn't collect bolus data beyond what was stored on my pen, and I didn't collect meal data, so far the trained models are quite bad.

- A widget showing realtime data from the nRF receiver, as well as optionally the bolus data from the server, and the carbs on board as estimated by a model.

- The same widget running on a Qingping Air quality monitor (picture) because why not!

I'm planning to open source it all, but for now focusing on the nRF receiver: I have big plans, different receivers, with screens, without screen, solar power, waterproof one for swimming and hopefully receiving sensor data under water?, direct connection to Garmin watch without Internet or phone, eventually a mesh of such devices that cooperatively share data and handover the connection to the sensor depending on where I am / what I'm doing. The rest (widget, models) is purely vibe coded slop 🙈

I put a new sensor in and noticed that I can see a tiny part of the wire, is it normal? It seems to be in the skin pretty good.

I read online about goosenecking but I don't think its the case, it doesnt stick out of the hole.

Thoughts?

Hello fellow T1D family,

I was recently diagnosed (2 months ago) and am currently in the honeymoon period. This is my first Halloween as a T1D. I am trying to help my fomo of being able to eat whatever i want during this holiday and wanna know what kind of things you bring to parties that you can also eat without having numbers spike out of control. Since I am not taking fast acting insulin I dont have the option to just dose for the carbs so im trying to focus on low glycemic index as much as possible. Would love to know your ideas!

I've lived with T1D for about 30 years and lately have been thinking a lot about the medical care experiences I’ve had as a T1D as I am mentoring other healthcare professionals in training.

I've had providers who knew a tremendous amount about diabetes but didn't seem to understand what living with it was actually like. I've also had providers who never had a high or low blood sugar somehow made me feel deeply understood. Both of these deeply impacted me.

I’ve also witnessed so much diabetes stigma, discrimination, and frankly medically inaccuate dialogue about diabetes within healthcare settings that it makes me physically sick to think about how brutal it can be out there for us.

I'm trying to figure out what creates that difference. How do we help more healthcare providers “get it”? If you were able to train a future diabetes care provider, what would you absolutely teach them? What would you ask them to unlearn from their training or education that’s been unhelpful to you?

Brutal honesty welcome- clinical knowledge gaps, lived-experience gaps, compassion gaps, system issues, any of it. TIA

I was chilling this morning and my numbers were flat while I had my coffee.

Had some energy so I decided to get some house things done. One chore I needed to do was move some work boxes I have sitting in my front hall to a room upstairs. They're filled with papers/books/school supplies so they're heavy.

Not an active person by any means so after about the fifth trip I was starting to feel it. Then I looked at my CGM thinking I'm probably sinking. Nope. Opposite. Sharp jump up. I've actually noticed this pattern before. When I have to move heavy things like furniture, the stress/exertion can send me up.

I haven't tried weight lifting or anything other than light cardio since diagnosis, but I walk for 30-45 minutes every day to help keep my numbers under control.

Curious what exercise does to you?

Recently diagnosed with gastroaparaesis and MY GOD its one of the worst diabetes complications. Not only do i feel deeply shameful for "failing" as a diabetic because i have complications now but the actual condition itself its so limiting.

My control has been average- H1AC around 7.8 the last couple years and covid it was not amazing, current H1AC 6.9! Ive had diabetes for 16 years now and its hard to be postive when you feel so sick and hopeless- gastroaparaesis is not reversiable from what i understand. This is my first diabetic complication ive dealt with so its very scary.

I would love to understand other diabetic's experiences with gastroaparesis and any advice would be amazing. im dealing with a major flare up in which i have been to the ED to receive IV fluids and while im back home food/liquid is still causing me to throw up. My diet has completely changed, low fibre, low fat and semi liquid generally.

So, my last G6. It's a restart. I was hoping for a little more time, but its over due. You can see my BG is wonky and off the charts. My T-Slim is resting against my pharmacy bag full of G7s. I'm not ready to let go. I started on the G6 in early spring of 2020, aka Covid. I self taught on you-tube, since in person training was just not a thing at the height of Covid concerns. My previous pump, a Medtronic 530g, was needing to be replaced and the G6 was superior to Enlite sensors. I welcomed the change then, but I am dreading the change now. Too much bad press about the G7 here (although there have many, many posts about how good the G7 is). So, here goes . . . wish me luck. I will miss my G6, but I still miss my 530g. Oh, there are lots of wacky-doodle-do types on YouTube as pictured above. Is there anyone on YouTube worth looking at?? Let me know! Cheers!!

Bit of a rant, bit of a question. Why in the world is eversense’s low alert only 3 options? 55-65? I’m dumbfounded. As someone who wants to know if i go below 85 or 90 this just made the too good to be true device just that- too good to be true.

My daughter is 3. She lost 3 lbs in a week despite eating a lot. I had GD when I was pregnant with her, so I had a meter. I ordered some fresh strips since the ones I had were expired, and I checked a random glucose on her. It was 176. I thought that seemed a bit high. The next day I did a fasting and it was 99. Then I did 2 hour post meal checks over the next two days and she was 145, 196, 118, 149. I am seeing her pediatrician today, but I wanted to see if this sounds normal or like it could be t1d?

I’ve been on Omnipod for a little over a year. I find it irritating how poorly the algorithm handles highs in automated mode. I’m allowed to try whatever I want pretty much and would like to try Kaleido. It seems like a good alternative even if it’s technically a tubed pump - with the shorter tube option, I think I can live with it!

Just looking for people who’ve had experience with it to see what it’s been like for others.

Thanks! 🙏🏻 ☺️

I have just turned 25, so in the next year I need to ensure I have health insurance set up before I am kicked off my parents' plan. MY current health insurance is really good, I haven't had any issues getting what I need, even with the diagnosis being new (was 23). Unfortunately, the company I work for uses United Healthcare. I don't really have any alternative options either.

I have tried looking into the details to ensure everything I need is covered, but all the resources say it depends on your plan and you need to sign in or call the number on your insurance ID card. Well, that doesn't really work when I don't have an account yet.

I am just, really freaking out. I don't want to risk losing access to what I need, but I have to switch, and this is the option, even if I found they didn't cover my meds, what would I even do??

Open enrollment is this week and I need to figure out the documentation for my domestic partner too and it's just such a nightmare.

Advice or just support would be nice, please tell me it'll be okay 😅

Hi,

I started using a closed loop recently (T:slim with control IQ). The nurse and endo at the hospital told me that I shouldn’t input any carbs when high. The thing is, when I’m high, it won’t come down with the correction bolus. For now, I haven’t activated the sleep mode. Even with the pump injecting bolus all night, if my blood sugar is at 200mg before sleeping, it’ll still be at 200mg in the morning…. Without injecting a big dose I will stay like this for hours or even days..

For now, I input 0gr of carbs and I change the value of insulin to input manually some units. But I don’t know if this is the right way to do it.

The closed loop is new for me and I’m high mainly when I drink alcohol and when I miscalculate the carbs in a meal. Sometimes there are some spontaneous highs without any explanation, but that’s always been the case with me. I know the close loop should be taking care of this, but my endo hasn’t explained anything concerning the closed loop to me… I’m quite lost. They only told me to input carbs and wait for the pump to do its job. But it doesn’t. I will change the correction ratio every few days or change the basal in a few days if nothing changes. The more time I stay high, the more insulin I need to lower my blood sugar. The pump doesn’t take this into account…

How do you deal with this ? Any advices ? Can somebody tell me how a closed should be handled properly ? Because right now I’m feeling like it’s doing nothing…

Sorry for the bad English, this is not my mother tongue.

I always joke that the biggest holiday of the year for anyone managing type 1 diabetes is the day after Halloween, when all the snack-size, individually wrapped candy goes on sale!

I stock up for the car, my husband’s car, the nightstand, and the pantry. You can never have too many strategically placed low snacks!

What are your go-to picks? Especially for those middle-of-the-night lows when you want something that won’t stick in your teeth until the next morning? 🍭

Do you bolus for plain eggs? Do you prebolus or bolus after?

I've usually had good control for all of my 38 years with T1D. But, this was a personal best for the last 30 days. A lot of the credit goes to the 780G. Zepbound also definitely helps. And, keeping my alarms in a tight range helps. I've also long suspected from reading the experiences of others that my own case of diabetes is just less difficult to manage than most due to some dumb luck of biochemistry or something.

As you're likely aware, Zepbound is not approved for T1D, at least in the U.S. I'm not sure about elsewhere. My endo put me on it at my request for weight loss. It has also had a strong effect on making my normally good control even better. I hope it's approved soon.

In the end though, I honestly don't know what I was doing so well in the past month.

Since it's past midnight here now, the streak ended last night with dinner at my in-laws. I went out of range on the high side, overcorrected, and then walked home. I think I ate 8 or 9 glucose tablets to come back from my worst low in a while.

That dinner ended up looking like this. It's actually not that bad. But, it definitely broke the streak.

The above is a screenshot of my phone in the Minimed Mobile app. All other images are of the Medtronic 780G pump using the History & Graph->Sensor Glucose Review feature.

Anyway, here was the good bit.

For 13 days, my time in range averaged to 100%. I did go out of range both ways for short periods. But, even averaging 100% for that long is a personal best for me.

Here's what that 13 days looked like.

You can see the small amount of time low and smaller amount high. That's actually backwards for me normally. I generally average more time above range than below.

For the last 30 days prior to yesterday, my time in range averaged 99%. Even with Zepbound, that's a personal best for me.

My 30 day average looked like this.

Sometimes I also like to do something strange with Sensor Glucose Review. The numbers for the range can actually be changed. They default to whatever you leave them on. So, if you have this pump and try this, don't forget to set it back next time you run the report.

While the images above are for the official range used by the medical profession for Time in Range (70-180mg/dL), below are images of my time in a much tighter range. I set the range for 75-135mg/dL.

Here's what that same 13 days looked like within the much tighter range.

I'm pretty confident that maintaining 84% time between 75 and 135 is also a personal best for me. I'm not positive. But, I think so.

Here's the same tighter range for a full 30 days.

For 30 days, my time between 75 and 135 drops to 80%. But, I'm still pretty confident that this is as good as it has been for a whole month.

Anyway, it's always a bit disappointing when a good streak ends. But, I'm pretty pleased with this one.

If you're curious, my time in range before Zepbound for a 30 day Sensor Glucose Review was usually 93-95% with one or two times hitting 97%. With Zepbound, I often get 97% or even 98%. And, I've lost about 18 pounds. I'm only on the second dose, 5mg. I probably need to increase that. But, I do sometimes feel a bit off. And, I'm not trying to lose a huge amount. So, I've been staying with this does for probably too long.

Note for those using other units:

70-180mg/dL ~= 3.9-10mmol

75-135mg/dL ~= 4.2-7.5mmol

17m, 4 years of t1d. this desease is just killing my time. it just makes you play the life on extreme mode. i need to study exams, i need to go to gym, i need to FUCKING SLEEP but tryin to do all these with a stable and good bs levels is impossible. this shi is exhausting me. It kills my whole time management. what my friends do i have to put 5x more effort overall. I cant sleep enough, i cant study enough. this rollercoaster thing is killing me. now its 1.07am and I am waiting for my fucking bs to go down from 270 to 120 to FUCKIN sleep, and guess what i will wake up at 6.30. this is not even a "help me" post. cuz nothing will change. i already know everything about the disease. i know how to calculate carbs. i know how to manage high bs levels. i know how to manage low bs levels. But real life is different than the "paper science". I dont know what to do, but I wish I knew what god even was thinkin deciding my fate. this is just not the life i want to live in. everything is going down and down and down. i must be a "strong, high testosterone, successful, healthy man" but here i am, bad academy, bad health, bad mental health, bad hormones. the only reason i dont suicide is cuz i still believe in god. haha. maybe im just a depressive goofy boy out there posting this just to get some attraction. maybe not. i am not. dont care

I’ve had T1D for 15 years, and lately I’ve noticed that I get really nauseous when my blood sugar drops.
It’s happened twice now where I’ve actually thrown up, and my blood sugar kept dropping. The first time, I got into the low 40s and stayed there for about 20 minutes.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is nausea/vomiting just something that can happen with a bad low, or could something else be going on?

I’m going to ask my endo about it, but I’m curious if anyone else has dealt with this and what their experience was.