October 28, 2003
NHS and Diabetes...
Now, don't get me wrong... I have nieces who work as Nurses and a damn fine job they as well as the many other people in the NHS do but this misinformation just drives me mad!
Type II diabetes is so closely linked to obesity that simply losing weight can reverse it.
I'm not Type II, I'm Type I but this is just plain WRONG. There are NO cases of any type of diabetes being "reversed" and I find the inclusion of this totally incorrect statement on an NHS website astonishing.
Being overweight can certainly be one of the triggers for type II diabetes but it is not the only cause! Being a "Normal" weight certainly helps control diabetes but once you got it you got it forever. Perhaps, if you're one of the luckier type II's, you can control it with diet and exercise but most have to take something like metformin.
Most of the literature available from pretty much anywhere concentrates on type II diabetes as it is the most prevalent (something like 90% of all diabetics are type II) but I'm type I (otherwise known as insulin dependent) which means my pancreas has decided to pack it's bags and head for sunnier climes leaving me without insulin. It would, therefore, be great to see more literature with advice for how to control type I diabetes better.
I firmly believe the UK should move toward the DAFNE model of treatment and education for type I. Unfortunately, as it is resource intensive, I can't see this happening. When will the Government / NHS realise that if they educate people in how to treat this lifelong chronic disease they would see less diabetic complications in the long run and actually SAVE money as they won't be lasering the back of people's eyes for retinopathy or amputating their feet because of peripheral neuropathy?
You can suffer with type II for YEARS and be unaware; type I comes on in a matter of days / weeks and leads to a very nasty life-threatening situation called ketoacidosis as I now know as this was how I discovered I had diabetes - my BG on dx was 58 mmol/l which is 1044mg/dL in American. A normal non-diabetic range is between 4.0 and 7.0 mmol/l. To convert from mmol to mg/dL simply multiply your mmol number by 18.
As there are so many people out there likely to have diabetes and not even know it if you display any of the symptoms I urge you to go talk to your doctor. It may save your life.
October 19, 2003
The UnBlog
Some of you may have noticed that I'm not blogging much lately, in fact my last entry was on the 6th of this month!
The truth is that right now I don't feel particularly enthused about this and I certainly can't give anyone the "life of a middle manager" at the moment as I'm still out of work.
I will be trying to blog a bit more frequently in the next little while but something interesting has to happen first; I am painfully aware after looking through some older entries that there are a lot of whinges there and I really want to move away from that into something more positive.
So, bear with me. Hopefully this blog will be more readable and positive soon.
I've also thought about renaming the blog but have held off so far because I can't think of a good new name! ;)
October 6, 2003
Stewie for Governor!
I'd vote for Stewie over Arnold any day. At least he can talk properly...
Why is it that so-called "stars" get it into their heads that politics is a good place for them to be? Surely if they were interested enough to be politicians that's what they would have chosen to do in the first place? Arnie has just seen an opportunity to replace an unpopular democrat governor (Gray Davis) who has been recalled due to some nutso law that allows the people of California to say "we changed our mind, we don't like you any more even though we're the people who voted you in in the first place and we obviously liked you enough 18 months ago to vote for you."
I'll be amazed if this is a straightforward election, I almost expect the supreme court to get involved again. After all, they installed the American president rather than him actually winning the popular vote...
October 2, 2003
Birchwood Bonfires and Warrington
So, the local nanny council have decided that this years Birchwood Bonfire is not to go ahead. This is because some people seemingly complained that they got ash in their hair...
For crying out loud, the bonfire has been one of the highlights of living around here since we moved here and now some moaning ninnies have made sure it's not going to go ahead this year. Last year, even though it was raining, was a spectacle with the bonfire the shape of a huge 'Merlin' figure and fire-eaters walking around. The year before was themed on the Trojan Horse of Troy with the horse actually being brought in with 'warriors' beating drums etc in front of it.
Birchwood and Warrington appear to have no real community spirit; we've TRIED to get to know our neighbours better but it's very hard work. Perhaps it's to do with location as Warrington is approximately equidistant between Manchester and Liverpool. Warrington certainly has a chip on it's shoulder about not being a city, that's for sure.
Certainly it's struck me since moving from my natural home in Lancashire (even though Warrington should be in Lancashire and in fact was until the boundary changes in 1974) that the people here just aren't anything like as friendly or down to earth, certainly where we live. Maybe the location is everything, in the middle of two cities with huge personalities of their own. Birchwood is very much a commuter area anyway with, I would hazard a guess, probably half of the population working elsewhere as all the main motorways are in easy reach.
This is a really nice area to live; it would be even better if people would say 'hello' to one another every now and then and get to know each other...