It's shortly before midnight East coast time. Our three children are sound asleep and their parents will be following shortly.
We've laid out the preparations for Santa: a small amount of beer and some cookies. You can put the beer part down to the Irish in me. (Ideally it should be Guinness, but that's not something we normally have in the house.)
Tomorrow there's the normal madness of package opening and excited and giddy children. But what I'll be thinking back to (at least for some of the day), is that this holiday is really a chance to remember a very important birthday. About 2,000 years after it all happened. And I'll try to spend a little quiet time tomorrow thinking about that momentous birth.
Your beliefs may be different to mine. But I know that the baby Jesus was God's son and that in his short time on Earth he's still affecting my life in a positive way today.
I wish you a peaceful Christmas that is truly blessed.
I was tagged by Scott, so here are my five favorite Christmas songs.
Before I list them, you should know that I grew up listening to the CD Christmas Carols from King's College (it was a record then) at Christmas time. So all of my songs come directly from this.
I just read a lengthy story about the auto-off feature in Minimed insulin pumps and the effect it had on one family's life because pumps are shipped with the auto-off feature disabled.
Do you know about the Auto-off feature?
If I tell you that it was originally called the Deadman's Switch, does that help you understand it's potential importance.
This setting ensures that if you don't do anything with your pump (that is bolus, set a temporary basal, check the remaining insulin, etc.) then your pump will turn itself off after a certain amount of time has passed. On my pump (Minimed 512) this is a hard setting to find. It's buried under the Alarm menu under Utilities.
I have it set to 11 hours, which is probably the shortest setting I can safely use. I generally use my pump first thing in the morning and late at night. Most of the day, I will be interacting with my pump every 2-4 hours. In the nine years that I've been using a pump, this feature has never activated.
So what's the story I read? To my eyes it indicates what might happen when you have a novice pumper with (I think) inadequate training and no-one to monitor them closely while they are getting used to the pump. It's not an easy read.
This investigative article by The Seattle Times reads as a report against Medtronic Minimed because the court records were sealed so that other pump users don't have an opportunity to learn from the mistakes made here.
If you're reading blog post and you don't know about Auto-off, please talk with your diabetes team about this feature and whether it makes sense for you to use it.
It's an interesting read with a great deal of technical information about carbs, fats and proteins and how these are consumed and used by the body. It's not an easy read because the information is fairly technical, but Andrew Weil does a good job.
I'm reading this because I was watching an episode of Scientific American Frontiers the other night while using the treadmill. The episode, called Fat and Happy included a section with Dr. Roy Walford talking about the nutritional content of the food that we eat. He also spoke about living on less food as long as it provides the nutrition that we need.
Now all this makes logical sense to me. However emotionally it may be very hard to accomplish.
So I decided it's worth reading up some more on this topic and also trying to see if I could find some recipes that were nutritional anddelicious.
Hence this book from the library, which includes recipes. And I've got one of Roy Walford's books on order from my library.
I'll post a mini-review when I'm done with each of these.
In the meantime, has anyone done any reading on nutrition? Have you suggestions for recipe books or recipes that are:
DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK IN THE DIABETES DAILY HEADLINES MARKED:
"Hampton Inn Maine Scarborough" from Mom Wants a Diabetes Cure.
This is a virus. Do not click this link. Pass this message on!
Update: Do not click on "Mom Wants a Diabetes Cure" from any blogrolling service because that link is also compromised. Shannon is re-working her blog. More updates soon.
bestowed upon companies that have carried out new research, which has resulted in innovations that have or are expected to bring significant contributions to the industry in terms of adoption, change, and competitive posture. This award recognizes the quality and depth of a company’s research and development program as well as the vision and risk-taking that enabled it to undertake such an endeavor.
Has anyone out there heard about this device? It looks like it would be 'interesting'.
The Diabetes Technology Blog is focused on using technology to life better with diabetes. I review: blood glucose monitors; continuous glucose monitor; blood sugar meters; diabetes software and living with diabetes.
About Me
Name: Bernard Farrell
Location: Massachusetts, United States
I was born in Ireland and now live in the US.
I have had Type 1 diabetes for over 35 years. I struggle with my blood sugar, the same as most people with diabetes.
I wear a Cozmo 1800 insulin pump and a Dexcom SEVEN CGM to track my blood glucose levels. I also take Symlin to help control my post-meal blood sugars.
I'm blessed by God, and every day brings the possibility of a cure.
