Shoot Up or Put Up

A scene one might, or might not, see on holiday

Tra la la la laaaa!

I’ve packed my bucket and spade and Katie and I are off on our holidays for a fortnight. Incredible though it might seem (not least to me) I won’t have any Internet access at all (pretty scary, eh, readers?)  So I’m going to leave you in the very capable hands of my esteemed co-writer Alison, forum moderator extraordinaire Mike and, of course, the woofy ball of fluff that is our resident newshound Neville.

I’ve locked the windows and left a note for the milkman, so it just remains to say behave yourselves, enjoy the forums and be nice to any new sign-ups. Unless they’re spammers. Toodle-ooo!!!

Eager Shoot Up readers queue up to vote

It’s approximately mid-way through the month, so that means it’s poll results time (cue wild applause). Last month we asked the diabetic intermaweb community what aspects of the day-to-day ‘running’ of their diabetes caused the most hassle.

Top of list comes regular blood tests with 32% of the vote; perhaps unsurprising given checking 2 or 4 or 8 times a day (delete as applicable, depending on your diabetes negligence) is a pain in the, well, finger. Carb counting also scores highly, with us diabetics being forced to whip out our calculators and work out the carbohydrate content of our snacks before cramming double handfuls of syrup pudding down our gullets.

It’ll probably come as a surprise to non-diabetics (who seem to have an endless fascination with injections) but regularly shooting up scores relatively low with only 13% of the vote. Perhaps that’s because it doesn’t really hurt and is very quick and easy to do. Who knows?

However, I see that dealing with non-diabetics’ reaction to any of the above scored highly, coming third highest on the list. Now, I’ve never had the slightest problem with shooting up in public or people’s reactions, so I don’t really get the popularity of this option. But, as people who’ve met me will attest, I’m a quiet, shy, retiring person, so people probably just don’t notice me.

Coming, now, to this month’s poll, regular reader Terry has suggested that in this wintry economic climate us diabetic drains-on-the-NHS should pull together and help save money by advocating one of the following options. Give your opinion over on the poll down to the right!

• Reduce blood glucose testing
• Reduce Hb1Ac testing
• Reduce research funding
• Manage diet/exercise more effectively
• Multiple uses of needles and lancets
• Return to bottled insulin and hypodermics
• Summarily execute all T2s.

Last month’s results in full:

• Regular blood tests – 32%
• Carb counting – 21%
• Dealing with non-diabetics’ reaction to any of the above – 21%
• Regular injections (or cannula changes for pumpers)- 13%
• Clinic appointments – 5%
• Blood taking for clinic appointments – 3%

Mmmmm...pie...

Hello, good evening and welcome to the results of the (approximately) monthly soaraway Shoot Up poll. Last month we asked what frustrates you most about diabetes?

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, with 34% of the vote came “the utter illogicality of it all”. I think we’ve all had days where  we’ve filed to take into account the phase of the moon, the turn of the tides, the wind direction or the myriad other unrelated things that seem to randomly effect our blood glucose levels. Bah!

The lack of cure ever coming our way came out second with 22% of the vote. I know that there might indeed be a cure within our lifetimes, but like most people I’m not really banking on it. Depends on what you mean by “cure” as well I suppose, but that’s a discussion for the forums I guess.

Hypos also scored well, with 17% of the vote. Pesky things! Healthcare professionals may be dismayed to hear that, yet again, they score well / badly (delete as applicable depending on your point of view). Finally, the “I love diabetes” option only scored one vote – and that was just Terry taking the piss.

So there we have it – the randomness of diabetes is clearly our biggest bugbear.

Moving on; this month’s poll was kindly suggested by Annette. Given that she demands new options each month it seemed easier to cut out the middleman and ask her to write the whole poll from scratch. I feel we saved ourselves a lot of effort. Anyway Annette asks what aspects of the day-to-day ‘running’ of your diabetes causes most hassle?

• Regular injections (or cannula changes for pumpers)
• Regular blood tests
• Carb counting
• Clinic appointments
• Blood taking for clinic appointments
• Dealing with non-diabetics’ reaction to any of the above
• I have no hassles (option for Terry)

Exercise your mouse finger and click your favorite option over the right. Go on, you know you want to. 

Last month’s results in full:

• Sometimes the utter illogicality of it all (34%)
• No cure, ever (22%)
• Hypos (17%)
• Healthcare professionals (11%)
• Hypers (8%)
• Lack of equipment (7%)
• Nothing, I love diabetes (1%)

Bring your bucket and spade

Well chaps, your soaraway Shoot Up is off on its summer holidays – so no blog posts for a fortnight, I’m afraid. However, you can still get your Internet-related diabetes-fix over on the forums or by commenting on older articles.

If you fancy a holiday from diabetes stuff and want some silliness then why not check out this Facebook page and become a fan!

See you in a fortnight and behave yourselves!

The best copyright-free ABBA-related picture I could find, unfortunately

Since the discovery of insulin by Banting & Best in 1922 there have been millions of pounds spent on diabetes research each and every year since. Such research has been of huge benefit to the diabetic community, with meta studies advocating the advantages of multiple daily injections, balanced diets and so on which have helped mitigate the terrible consequences this affliction can impose on its many victims.

However all this is nought compared to your soaraway Shoot Up’s latest research. It’s well known that the link between everyone’s favourite Swedish pop band and pancreatic disorders is clear (so clear, I’m not going to insult you by detailing it here). So here at Shoot Up we conducted research into the ABBA preference of users by asking new users of the blog and forums what their favourite ABBA song was as part of the sign up process.

Needless to day our research into the favourite ABBA songs of diabetes is a world first, truly groundbreaking and can’t, I think, be rivalled for it’s coverage of this critical issue.

Anyway, the results are enlightening, with popular track Dancing Queen coming out on top by a huge margin. My personal favourite, Waterloo, came second and was followed up in third place with pop classic Winner Takes It All with 10.6% of the vote.

Runners up included Mama Mia, Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight) and Alan Partridge favourite Knowing Me, Knowing You (ah-hhhhaaaaaaa!). All worthy songs by anyone’s standards. There was a bunch of also rans which we won’t go into here – though shockingly the marvellous Super Trooper sadly languished down the bottom of the table with a mere 2.1% of the vote.

So there we have it the world’s first ever and most detailed ever diabetic ABBA song preference survey in the world, ever. Don’t say we aren’t good to you.

Those results in full:

Top songs:

Dancing Queen > 25.5% of the vote
Waterloo > 12.8%
Winner Takes It All > 10.6%

Bubbling under:

Fernando > 6.4%
Mamma Mia > 6.4%
Take a Chance on Me! > 6.4%
Gimme Gimme Gimme > 4.3%
Knowing Me Knowing You > 4.3%
Thank You for the Music > 4.3%

Also rans:

Bang-A-Boomerang > 2.1%
Does Your Mamma Know > 2.1%
I Had A Dream > 2.1%
Lay All Your Love On Me > 2.1%
My Love My Life > 2.1%
Our Last Summer > 2.1%
Super Trooper > 2.1%
The Day Before You Came > 2.1%
Voulez Vous > 2.1%

The modern and advanced Shoot Up forums

Hello you; yes, you! I’m referring to you, dear reader. Are you an avid fan of Shoot Up (and, frankly, who isn’t?) and do you enjoy reading our articles and forums? I hope so.

If you haven’t already, have you considered setting up an account and chipping in with your two-pennethworth in the comments section or on the forums? Shoot Up already has an erudite, well informed and interesting band of regular contributors (well, sometimes they are) and we’d like you to join in with the unending misery too. As well all know, everyone’s diabetes varies, everyone’s experiences are different and so it’s always extremely interesting to hear other people’s points of view on the blog and in the forums.

There are two main ways to join in. If you want you can post anonymously (perhaps you’re an international jewel thief on the run from the law and have to remain undercover). Or you can click the link in the top right corner and create an account. The only thing we need for an account is a unique user name and an email address. We don’t use your email addresses for spamming or dull newsletters. This is mainly because I don’t know how. You can also fill out details about your diabetes and where you come from, but those are entirely optional.

Once you have an account, you can easily post comments at the bottom of articles or start up or join in with discussions over on the forum.

So there you have it, if you’re an avid reader of the blog but have never contributed, now’s you chance to do so. Don’t be shy – go on, you know you want to!

One Doctor who's more popular than most Doctors

Well, I’m afraid it’s that time of the month again – poll results day. Last month regular-contributor Caroline wanted to know “if you could have in-depth conversations about diabetes care with someone, which do you think would have the most beneficial effect on your care and management?”

I think you’ll agree that this was a far more insightful question than the usual rubbish we put up on the poll, so thanks to Caroline for her input. Anyway, the results were revealing, with diabetes specialist nurse and fellow diabetic tying for first place – both a long way ahead of the other options. The rather whimsical option of supreme deity with magic wand ranked well, with 25% of the vote. Showing that us diabetics are willing to try anything to improve our care.

Surprisingly / not surprisingly (delete as applicable) the option for doctor or consultant came equal bottom with absolutely no votes. Not one single reader over the last four weeks thought their doctor or consultant could have any useful input into their diabetes care. Ouch! Very ouch, in fact.

This, in my view, is probably fair. While some doctors and consultants are excellent with diabetes – my consultant up the Royal Infirmary is very good for example – I think most of us have experienced the crappy end of a generalist who thinks they know better than someone who has lived with their chronic diabetes for 20-odd years. While it would be mad to suggest the patient is always right, some doctors really do need to understand that us diabetics do actually know quite a lot about diabetes and certainly a great deal about our own conditions.

This has been clearly reflected in the poll results. Those that are at the coal face of diabetes care – specialist nurses and, of course, diabetics themselves – are the people who really, properly, completely understand living with a chronic condition day in day out, every day for years. Through this understanding they are therefore best positioned to help diabetics improve their healthcare. So hurrah for DSNs and hurrah for us diabetics!

Moving on to this month’s poll; we’re asking what frustrates you most about diabetes?

• Hypos
• Hypers
• Lack of equipment
• Sometimes the utter illogicality of it all
• No cure, ever
• Healthcare professionals
• Nothing, I love diabetes

You can vote over the right there.

Last month’s results in full:

• diabetes specialist nurse (36%)
• fellow diabetic (36%)
• supreme deity with magic wand (25%)
• friends and family (2%)
• doctor or consultant (0%)
• local elected politician (0%)

Computer modeling of the latest poll results

It’s everyone’s favourite time of the month – poll result time! Huzzah!

At the last soaraway Shoot Up meet up I was discussing poll options and suggested doing one which asked which part of you would pack in first as a result of diabetes-related complications. This was met with general rejection and repugnance that I could suggest something so horrible. This, of course, was like a metaphoric red rag to a bull so a poll asking exactly that question went up the next day. Once I’d recovered from my hangover.

Anyway, without further ado, here are the results in full:

What part of your diabetic body will pack up first?

• Eyes (39%)
• Sense of humour (27%)
• Feet (12%)
• All of the above (12%)
• Kidneys (9%)
• Liver (1%, 0 Votes)

So obviously us diabetics worry most about our eyes and least about our livers. This much was obvious from the last Shoot Up meet up.

This month, regular contributor Caroline has suggested the far more sensible “If you could have in-depth conversations about diabetes care with someone, which do you think would have the most beneficial effect on your care and management?”

• diabetes specialist nurse
• doctor or consultant
• local elected politician
• fellow diabetic
• friends and family
• supreme deity with magic wand

So there we have it, vote away down on the right hand side of this page and I’ll give you the results in a month or so. Enjoy!

Read on – you need to do something here, it’s important.

I have on occasion had a cynical little rant about the relevance of some diabetes research to improving lives today.

I have also spent many a meeting in various diabetes forums expressing the need for us to research the day to day issues impacting people with diabetes.  A cure - like a lottery win and a trip to the moon - would be marvellous but not something I’m scheduling in my diary any time soon. What I’m really interested in is answering the slightly less sexy but still hugely useful questions about diabetes.  How do we get new developments in diabetes care into general use more quickly? What is the best way to help a teenager take over management of their own diabetes? Do low carb diets deliver long term diabetes benefits? ie is it worth me making the huge sacrifice that is giving up pasta?

So you can imagine my excitement when I saw this little beauty in Diabetes UK’s Balance magazine. The Type 1 Diabetes Priority Setting Partnership is trying to identify the most important research questions for the treatment of Type 1 diabetes. Hurrah!

People of the diabetes online community, please head on over to www.ukdrn.org/jlasurvey.html forthwith, or at least before 28 May 2010. This is your chance to have a say in the diabetes research agenda. It’s a really simple survey, they just want to know what questions you want answering about Type 1 diabetes. To actually be asking people with diabetes what research they’d like doing is sadly quite radical, so please seize the opportunity to have your say. We’re the experts in our own diabetes so make sure you share that expertise.

And once you’ve submitted your questions to the survey, if you fancy sharing them in the comments section below that would be great – I’m fascinated to know what questions people want answering.

Avid readers of your soaraway Shoot Up will have noticed that since the database meltdown™ the old features are gradually returning. Chief amongst these is the ever popular monthly poll. Hurrah!

Sadly I can’t recover the results from last month’s poll, which asked “How many times a day do you think about your diabetes?” But off the top of my head, most people answered somewhere in the region of 15-25 times a day. Which, to me, seems quite a lot.

Though I suppose it depends on what you define as “think”. If you define it as devoting a lot of your brain to considering it carefully then, yes, that’s quite a lot. However if you define it a James Joyce stream-of-consciousness type of way with random ideas popping in and out of your head then, I suppose, it’s actually not very much. But as I’m hardly qualified to discuss such things, do feel free to go into further depth about theoretical metaphysics and the ideas of the conscious-self in the comments section below.

Anyway, to this month’s poll! At last Saturday’s very successful Shoot Up meet up I suggested the idea of a poll which would allow people to vote on which part of their body would stop working first as a result of diabetic complications. This met with howls of protest and assurances that it would be viewed in very poor taste. Being the sensitive, caring chap that I am I’ve disregarded such liberal, woolly views and bunged up exactly this poll.

Enjoy voting over there in the box on the right hand side – I’ve gone for eyes and have already ordered my white stick!