Skip to main content
search
Monthly Archives

November 2019

World Diabetes Day 2019: The Lowdown on Type 1 Diabetes

By HealthNo Comments

Today is World Diabetes Day. People often struggle to understand diabetes and particularly type 1 diabetes which isn’t linked to diet, weight, a lack of exercise or age. So here’s a video from Diabetes UK that explains type 1 diabetes simply:

Click here to display content from YouTube.
Learn more in YouTube’s privacy policy.

Open content directly

Here are some facts and statistics:

Quick facts about type 1 diabetes

  • Approximately 400,000 people are currently living with type 1 diabetes in the UK, with over 29,000 of them children.
  • Incidence is increasing by about four per cent each year, particularly in children under five, with a five percent increase each year in this age group over the last 20 years.
  • Type 1 diabetes affects 96 per cent of all children with diabetes in England and Wales.
  • Around 85 per cent of people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes have no family history of the condition.
  • Although it used to be referred to as ‘juvenile diabetes’, around half of newly diagnosed cases are in people over the age of 18.
  • The UK has one of the highest rates of type 1 diabetes in the world, for reasons that are currently unknown.
  • A person with type 1 diabetes will have around 65,000 injections and measure their blood glucose over 80,000 times in their lifetime.

From: JDRF UK, last accessed: 11th November 2019.

Diabetes is a chronic long term health condition that requires a lot of management. For example I:

  • Inject insulin 4 or 5 times everyday.
  • Check and record my blood sugars before meals and two hours after meals.
  • Check and record my blood sugars before and after driving.
  • Finger pricking to read my blood sugars 8-15 times per day, prior to my Freestyle Libre (more on this below).
  • Count the carbs in each meal.
  • Have retinopathy screening, podiatry checks, annual reviews (with both my GP & Endocrine Consultant), see Diabetes Specialist Nurses and see Dietitians. You can only begin to imagine the number of health appointments I have in a year.

Having diabetes can be frustrating at times, as any little thing can affect the amount of glucose in my blood. Things that affect my blood sugar include: physical or mental illness, diet, exercise, the weather, even the amount and quality of sleep I’ve had.

Management and treatments have mostly stayed the same since I was diagnosed with diabetes. It often feels like I am trying to minimise the damage that diabetes causes to my body until better treatments are developed or until a cure is researched and widely available.

The biggest change to diabetes treatment in the last few years is the Freestyle Libre sensor for blood glucose readings. This my Consultant has described as revolutionary and I have to agree with her to a point. This means no finger pricking (unless unwell), but it is only half a job. Next diabetics need a pump that works with the Freestyle sensor to administer the right amounts of insulin automatically.

What’s your experience of type 1 diabetes? Leave a comment below.

Blog soon,

Antony



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


Share on Social Media:
Thursday 14 November 2019

The Small Safe Review

By Home, Money / Finances, Reviews, ShoppingNo Comments

I recently purchased this small safe:

small-safe-2019-0

Small safe: ideal for passports, cash and jewelry.
small-safe-2019-1

Inside the Small Safe: Has holes on back and bottom for bolting.
small-safe-2019-1

Small Safe Key: Double bit lock, modern aiming to prevent the use of the Bulgarian pick method.
small-safe-2019-3

Bolts for securing to wall or other surface (such as inside a wardrobe).

The Pros are:

  • Small – Doesn’t take up much space and perfect size to be hidden away somewhere. It is the ideal size for passports, cash and jewelry.
  • Easy to install and secure into place with bolts.
  • Double Bit lock.
  • Three keys provided.
  • Lightweight.
  • Colour black means it may not be noticed by a thief or others whom you might not want to know about it.
  • I imagine it would be more difficult for a thief to get into than a standard key lock cash tin.
  • No need to remember a combination code.
  • No electronics therefore no chance of electronic failure or the requirement of replacing batteries.
  • It would take a thief quite some effort to get into it. However an expert lock smith could probably open it easily (should you ever loose your keys).
  • Price and availability are good.
  • Lots of positive reviews on amazon.

The Cons are:

  • The safe is so lightweight that it requires bolting to a surface. Otherwise a thief could literally pick it up and walk off with it. I would also recommend that you hide it away somewhere e.g. in the wardrobe, or under the bed, or at the back of a cupboard, or somewhere similar. However if you had a cash tin the thief could do the same, the difference being that this small safe gives you the option to bolt down whereas a cash tin can’t be bolted down.
  • It isn’t fire resistant or fireproof. However it probably is more secure than fireproof safes.
  • Only someone with a key can access. This means if someone hasn’t got a key but you need them to gain access for you, they wont be able to. Unlike a combination safe were you could give them the code.
  • There are probably more secure safes on the market. This is not necessarily a Con, just a fact. But this is the only one of this small size that I could find.
  • It isn’t big enough to keep documents in. This is not necessarily a Con either. It’s just something to be aware of if you’re looking for a safe to keep documents in.

A tip if you choose to buy this safe: There is a trick to getting the key into the lock. You need to line up the missing bit out of the key head to the red dot on the lock. Then the key will slide easily into the lock.

There are more pros than cons for this small safe. I’m happy with my purchase. For obvious security reasons I’m not going to tell you where I’m keeping my safe or what I intend to put in it.

Other Similar Products on Amazon

Click here to display content from ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com

Open content directly

Click here to display content from ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com

Open content directly

Click here to display content from ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com

Open content directly

Click here to display content from ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com

Open content directly

Click here to display content from ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com

Open content directly

Click here to display content from ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com

Open content directly

Blog soon,

Antony

Share on Social Media:
Thursday 7 November 2019

One Nurse’s Experience of Mental Health Care

By HealthNo Comments
One-Nurses-Experience-2019

The Report has been written and submitted as a formal complaint.

 Back in September I had a fifteen day stay admitted in mental health ward. Unfortunately, the care that I received and the care I observed other patients receiving was unsafe and did not meet the high standards of care that I would expect from our National Health Service (NHS).

I am proud to be a Nurse and despite still being unwell I feel that it was important to raise the issues I experienced and observed to prevent future patients from experiencing the same.

I never like to complain about anything, but even more so with our NHS. In fact I’ve never complained about anything in the NHS. I have nothing but love and adoration for our NHS, after all it has saved my life several times and the lives of my loved ones countless times. I know it’s not perfect, but I also know that most of the staff do the very best that they can with extremely limited resources.

But I felt that I had an ethical and professional duty to raise these concerns to ensure that I was acting within the Nursing & Midwifery Council’s Code of Conduct (2018). So I sat down with notes I made at the time and wrote an exposé report.

The purpose of this report was to raise issues/concerns and give suggested actions for improvements.

I started the report with the positives, like:

  • The vast majority of staff introduced themselves to other patients and myself.
  • Staff appeared to complete the appropriate paperwork.
  • Staff wore the appropriate badges & tabards.
  • But most importantly staff showed kindness and compassion.

Then I listed each issue or concern that I had along with suggested actions for improvement.

For example, a number of staff reported having “no idea” about diabetes. So I recommended:

  • That all staff should receive training on diabetes that includes the difference between type 1 & 2 diabetes.
  • All staff should be reminded that best practice is to take a BM reading before a meal and 2 hours after a meal.
  • Staff should be reminded of any policies or procedures relating to diabetes care.

I then sent the report to the Complaints Team as a formal complaint, PALS, the Ward Manager (via PALS), the Lead Consultant Psychiatrist (via PALS), the Chief Executive, the Chief Nurse and Deputy Chief Executive and The Governance Team at my local Clinical Commissioning Group.

This was on a Saturday evening. I didn’t expect to hear anything until the following week. But I got an email back from the Chief Executive (on a Saturday!) thanking me for my report and assuring me that the Complaints Team would be in touch.

Since The Complaints Team have been in touch by email. It reads like they are taking my report extremely seriously which is good to read.

I’ll keep you updated.

Antony

mental-health-wisdom-banner

Share on Social Media:
Wednesday 6 November 2019
×