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It’s Diabetes Blog Week! Thanks to Karen from Bitter~Sweet Diabetes for coming up with and coordinating this exciting annual event. It’s a great chance to discover other diabetes bloggers from around the world. Here’s my fifth entry for the week!
I have been looking forward to this #DBlogWeek post all week because, well, food is my thing. I still believe that growing up in a family where food is considered important and dealt with in a positive, healthy way is why I have such a balanced, appreciative attitude towards the food I eat and the food I prepare for my family and friends. And I hope that this is being instilled into the mind and heart of the kidlet of the house.
I love to cook for people and our new home is the perfect entertaining space. We have a huge kitchen with heaps of prep space and a view over the garden. There is an old Aga stove which, when we get around to having a chimney sweep clean it out, will be used for all sorts of things including making bread and pizza.
On Saturday night, we had some friends over for dinner. Although I love cooking, I can be a lazy cook. I make no apologies for that, nor is it a negative trait. I made a chicken, chorizo, lemon, garlic thing that took a whole three minutes to throw together. The oven did the rest. (In a baking tray – chicken pieces, chopped chorizo, sliced lemon, bashed garlic, a bit of chicken stock in the bottom of the tray, sprinkle the top with paprika, sea salt and black pepper and shove in a 180 degree (Celsius) oven until the chicken is all golden on top and the smoky chorizo has infused it all; about 30 – 45 minutes.) I made a couple of yummy vegie-based sides and a salad using quinoa and that was it. Dessert was a crumble because it’s crumble weather.
Crunchy apples easily become soft, cinnamon-y and comforting (especial with crumble topping!)
A story of crumble…
While we’re talking crumble, I always make double or triple the quantity of topping to keep on hand in the fridge. That way, it’s always easy to throw together a simple, yet scrumptious dessert. Stewing apples or pears takes no effort and if you want to be super-lazy, open a tin of peaches or apricots or whatever floats your boat, drain some of the juice and sprinkle the crumble-topping-already-in-the-fridge over the top. Twenty minutes in the oven and you’re done. (Basic crumble recipe – rub together a cup plain flour and about 100 grams of butter; add a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar, a cup of oats, and then whatever else you have that you think will work. Add cinnamon for apple crumble, dark chocolate for pear crumble, coconut when you have rhubarb, almonds for stone fruits. Walnuts always work in crumble. Always!) According to my husband and the kidlet, crumble must come with ice-cream; I prefer King Island double (or triple) cream. Plain Greek yoghurt works well too.
Baking biscuits and cakes is one of the most therapeutic and calming things I know how to do. Yesterday, I decided to try something new and found a recipe for Nutella drop biscuits which were just a buttermilk scone recipe with Nutella swirled through. Great concept; super easy, made the house smell like a bakery and tasted great. Plus, they can be frozen and then thawed, heated and served with some salted butter for a speedy afternoon tea.
Last night’s dinner.
Vegetables are a big deal in our house. I love veggies and at this time of year, my favourite way to eat them is in a thick chicken stock-based soup with added barley. Again, this is a lazy cook thing because not only is it a great way of using up almost-past-eating vegies, a huge vat will do a couple of meals. (It freezes really well too.) I usually serve with some toasted crusty sourdough. Last night, however, I used up some leftover risotto and made crunchy rice croquettes to go on the side.
This morning near work at Stove Top.
We eat out quite a bit. For me, the plethora of workday meetings are often more palatable if there is a coffee, a pleasant café and, possibly, a little cake (Or fairy cake!) involved. Weekends involve catching up with friends at local cafés and regular catch ups with the girls are another excuse to go to Marios.
Food is a thing of joy. It is a thing of love and it is a thing of celebration. It should taste wonderful, it should be evocative and it should not be full of angst, but I know that is not the case for a lot of people. I really do believe a big part of that is the current focus on ridiculous diets and eating plans and rules instead of enjoyment, moderation and joy.
At the moment, it’s a rare day when the oven is not on, baking or stewing or roasting something in its warmth, intensifying flavours and delivering, at the end of the cooking process, a wonderful hearty dish. It’s probably my favourite thing about this time of year and there is nothing better than settling in for the cold night on the couch, fire lit, with a delicious, hearty bowl of something.
I am so pleased that diabetes hasn’t stripped me of my love of food, because many people do think that those of us living with diabetes have a strict, flavourless, boring, repetitive diet. It doesn’t need to be that way.
I’d add eating after cooking!
Friday tune – Fats Waller with ‘All that meat and no potatoes.’
I have an app on my iPhone that tells me what I was doing (social media-wise) on this day in history. When I clicked on the app today, I discovered that I am clearly a creature of habit. Here are some posts for 15 April over the last four years.
Do you see a pattern? Every year there has been cake and ceremonial yelling from the rooftops that I am another diabetes year older. And someone – anyone – get me damn cupcake!
This year, I’m marking my diaversary with a quiet nod to the last seventeen years, but not much more. I’m just not in the right head space to do anything more.
However, today just happens to be the launch of the Consultation Paper for the development of the Australian National Diabetes Strategy and the opening of the consultation process. You can read all about it in my post at the Diabetes Victoria blog here.
Perhaps instead of using my diaversary to look back at my diabetes life and celebrate the last year, I’ll use it to think about looking forward. I. I might just find myself a little cupcake and consider what I hope to achieve in the next five years. Until there is a cure for diabetes.
I like to think that I am not one of those parents who is always banging on about how perfect their little precious is. My kid, love her as we do, can be a little devil. She is wonderful and gorgeous and clever and kind. But she is not perfect.
However, one of the things that I am incredibly proud of – and brag about like one of those parents – is her good manners. Aaron and I have had a no tolerance policy since before she could speak about the importance of saying please and thank you. She knows to say excuse me (as in: ‘Excuse me, can I please pat your dog?’ – the words she has possibly uttered more than any others in her ten short years) and she knows how to behave in a café, (as in: don’t speak to mummy until she is at least half way through her first coffee).
She doesn’t get it right one hundred per cent of the time, but she is pulled up every time she forgets.
The thing that amazes me is how frequently she is commended on being polite, just because she has said please or thank you. Surely this is simply something that people just do, but I am assured by many that hearing a young child using her manners is not a given.
I probably shouldn’t be surprised by this. Each day on my Facebook feed, there are articles such as ‘Things not to say to a pregnant woman’ or ‘Five questions to never ask someone in a wheelchair’. Apparently, people still need to be reminded to never ask a woman if she is pregnant. (Here’s an easy rule for that one: Do you see a baby coming out of the woman’s vagina? No? Is there a surgical team performing a C-section removing a baby from the woman’s uterus? No? Then do not ask. You’re welcome.)
There are about a trillion blog posts about the frustrating things that we get asked about living with diabetes.
We need these things to be written, because people seem to have bad manners. That is what it all comes down to.
We can say this is ignorance and that people need to be reminded that there are some issues that are a little sensitive. But I don’t think that is the case.
I think it is just bad manners.
I would never begrudge anyone for not understanding what life with diabetes is about. Unless they are living with it themselves, why would they know?
But asking inappropriate questions or saying silly things is not excused by a lack of understanding. It is explained by a lack of manners though.
Asking someone ‘should you be eating that?’ is just plain rude. And thinking that sharing the story of someone you know who has died a painful, horrific death because of diabetes is not a bonding exercise. It is scary and nasty. Just don’t do it.
Now, I don’t want to be all negative Nancy. No; I’m all about solutions! If you have a friend or loved one with diabetes and want to make conversation about their diabetes, here are some ideas to demonstrate your exceptionally good manners and show how much you understand:
Replace ‘Should you be eating that cupcake?’ with ‘Oh, there’s a Nutella cupcake over there. Can I get you one?’
Replace ‘Does giving yourself a needle hurt?’ with ‘Oh, there’s a Nutella cupcake over there. Can I get you one?’
Replace ‘I once knew someone who died because of diabetes. It was terrible. Are you scared that will happen to you?’ with ‘Oh, there’s a Nutella cupcake over there. Can I get you one?’
Replace ‘I could never give myself a needle.’ with ‘Oh, there’s a Nutella cupcake over there. Can I get you one?’
Replace ‘Did you eat too much sugar as a kid? Is that why you have diabetes?’ with ‘Oh, there’s a Nutella cupcake over there. Can I get you one?’
Replace ‘I saw on A Current Affair last week that if you drink a kale smoothie for breakfast every day, you could cure your diabetes. Have you tried that?’ with ‘Oh, there’s a Nutella cupcake over there. Can I get you one?’
Replace ‘Cinnamon. Cinnamon cures diabetes. Did you know that?’ with …. Actually, this is acceptable as long as you accompany the question with a cinnamon-infused baked good.
There you go. Not too hard at all. And that ends today’s lesson of Manners with Renza.
I love food. Yesterday’s post which outlined all the eating we’ve been enjoying while in New York probably points to that. As would many other posts.
And it is the truth. I love food. I enjoy it. I celebrate it. I cook it. I read about it. I share it.
Food is a joy. When I think about different periods in my life, there is always a soundtrack of the music I was listening to, and the meals I’d cooked with love, or shared with family and friends.
There are meals that I have had that are still spoken about – years later. ‘Hey, remember that first meal we had at that gorgeous little place in Venice? I had incredibly gnocchetti with seafood?‘ I might say, to which Aaron would reply ‘Yes! And I had the four cheese gnocchi. God that was good. So good.’ That meal was consumed in 2001.
And our daughter recalls fondly the taste of the plums that would fall from the tree in the back garden of our old house, and how we would sit out there in summer and gorge on the fruit, the juice dripping down our chins.
This is the language of food.
So when I read this the other day in my Facebook feed, I was just shocked. I read it with complete and utter disbelief.
Why, why, why would anyone deliberately make food taste terrible, bland or boring?
There is nothing – NOTHING – in this piece of so-called advice that is useful. There is nothing that provides smart advice for how to eat healthfully or listen to your body for hunger cues. There is nothing that says food can be a part of life that is enjoyable, fun, non-threatening and delicious.
This advice makes food sound like it is something to be feared. It makes food sound like the enemy. But worse, it does not explain how food can be part of a healthy way of life. It does not talk about portion sizes, or balanced eating, or how to incorporate a little of everything into an eating plan.
It is restrictive. It is scary and it makes me feel so sad.
When I was first diagnosed with diabetes, I had no idea what it would mean to my diet. Would I suddenly have a list of restricted or banned foods that I could never enjoy again? Would I need to completely change the way I ate? Would food become a source of stress rather joy?
I have learnt that the joy of food is not lessened at all because of diabetes. I still can eat whatever I want. And I do. My diet is healthy, balanced, full of fresh foods, fun, enjoyable and never, ever boring. And there is no such thing as a taboo food.
I am just so glad that the advice I have taken – as a person with diabetes, but even more so, as a person who loves food – is that there is no need to fear food. I am so glad that what I eat – and what my family eats – is based on what we like to eat, what we want to eat and what works for us. It may not work for you, but it works for us. (The kidlet could probably do without Brussels sprouts, but I am convinced that I will win her over on this one!)
This blog is NOT about advice. Nothing that I write should be considered as something to follow or as advice. So I am going to give you some. Don’t take the dietary advice of a celebrity personal trainer. If you need some help working out what to eat that makes you feel happy and content, see an accredited practising dietitian. If you have problems with your relationship with food, speak with your GP, and ask for a referral to a psychologist.
But whatever you do, enjoy what you eat. Life is too short to eat over-cooked chook.
By the way, here is an awesome way to cook Brussels sprouts: finely slice them, then sauté in a fry pan with a little olive oil and garlic. After about 1 minute (absolutely no longer), toss in some toasted pine nuts (or walnuts, almonds, whatever you have handy). To be fancy, add some bacon cut into thin strips. (To be EXTRA fancy, make it candied bacon by crisping up the bacon in a little maple syrup first.)
On April 15, 1998, I was inducted into the world of diabetes. I had no idea what lay ahead of me and it was a year where I really didn’t have time to be diagnosed with a chronic health condition. At the time, I was 24 years old, in the middle of wedding-planning, trying to buy a house, changing careers and moving. Diabetes wasn’t part of the plan. It still isn’t, come to think of it, but I don’t really have a say in the matter now.
Today, I’m reposting a letter I wrote to my 24 year old self about what I could expect. I’ve made a few little changes (you can read the original post here) , and the reworked one below:
Dear 24-and-a-half-year-old-me
Oh, sweetie. Diabetes sucks. You don’t know that yet, but let’s clear that up from the beginning. It sucks. It’s not fun and it is a pain in parts of you that you didn’t even know could hurt. But figuratively more than literally.
Right now, you are overwhelmed, stressed, anxious, scared and terrified. In a couple of weeks you’re going to get angry. Really angry! It’s OK to be feeling all these things.
You will be fluent in a new language within the next few weeks. Words that you’d never heard of become part of your vernacular, and you become incredibly conversant in anagrams. BGL, CSII, HbA1c, DA-Vic, CGM, ADEA…. And you will delight in the fun way mmol/l rolls of your tongue. (I promise – that will make sense!)
Believe it or not, you are going to be absolutely fine about sticking a needle into your skin four times a day. And you’ll find that actually, it doesn’t hurt. You won’t be quite as comfortable about the jabbing your fingers what feels like a million times a week to find out what your blood sugar is doing.
But things get better. The lancet device you have now is pretty horrendous and in a couple of years, you’ll get a new one that doesn’t make quite as nasty a clunking sound, and will hurt less. Also, the first meter you have will take 20 seconds to count down to tell you your BGL. Wait until you get one that takes five seconds! You won’t know what to do with all that extra time in your day! And one day you’ll get a meter that plugs into your iPhone. (And one day, you’ll know what an iPhone is!)
Find out everything you can about insulin pumps. Speak with people using one. In three years you will have one and it will change your life. I want you to hold on to that over the next couple of years when things are not going as you’d like with your diabetes management and you think that you’ll never work it out. You do. And your pump is a huge help. Technology that you have no idea about is going to become an integral part of your life. Don’t be afraid of it – embrace it. But remember that these tools are there to help YOU manage your condition. Don’t become a slave to the data and don’t feel that you can’t take a break and go back to basics if that’s what you need.
(Also, perhaps tone down the evangelical pump attitude you develop. You become a little zealot-like. Yes, it worked for you, but it may not be for everyone. BUT INSULIN PUMPS ROCK!!!! As for CGM – let’s just say that your mind will be blown!)
Can we just talk about guilt for a minute? Diabetes comes with a lot of it and you’re going to learn that really quickly. Here are some things that you absolutely should not feel guilty about:
- The fact that you don’t change your lancet EVERY time you check your BGL
- Ditto goes for pen needles, and after three years, pump changes
- What you eat. Food does not have a moral compass.
- When you feel overwhelmed and completely ‘over’ having diabetes
- Not wanting to be a diabetes advocate ALL THE TIME
- Accepting that saying ‘that’ll do‘ when it comes to your diabetes doesn’t make you a bad person; in fact, it makes the whole diabetes palaver more manageable!
As you are in the middle of your wedding plans, here are some things I want you to know about that day so you can relax a little. It is a fantastic day. Your dress is stunning, your hair looks fine and you find the shoes you have been searching for. Diabetes comes along for the ride, but it’s in the background and no one mentions it on the day except for your mum asking quietly if your BGL is OK. When you think back to your wedding day, look at the photos and watch the video, you won’t be thinking about diabetes. You’ll remember the song that was played as you walked down the aisle and the faces in front of you. You’ll remember dancing the tango at the reception and the band playing Stevie Wonder as ‘gli sposi; were introduced to their friends and family.
(Also, the cars will be running late, but they’ll get there; and deliver you to the church inside Aaron’s ‘you’ve-got-fifteen-minutes-or-I’m-heading-to-the-pub’ timeframe.)
Oh, and when you meet your endocrinologist for the first time, he is going to tell you that diabetes will not stop you from having babies, as long as you have finished having your family by the time you are thirty. And you are going to wonder how it will be possible for you in the next five and a half years to fit in all the things you planned AS WELL as have a couple of kids. Don’t stress. Soon, you will find an endocrinologist who sets you straight. And when you are three days shy of thirty-one you will have a daughter. She’s a delight.
He will also show you some scary pictures of amputated limbs, kidney failure and tell you that you may go blind. Please, please, please don’t be shocked by what he says. The scare tactics that are used on you by him and other diabetes health professionals you will meet in the next couple of years will actually make you angry and determined. This is a good thing. As you seek out information, you will learn that complications are not inevitable and you will do everything possible to minimise your risk. And you will also come to understand that the guilt associated with complications is not fair.
You are going to meet some incredible people in the next few years – some of them become some of your best friends. Having a support network of people living with diabetes will inspire you, help you. Seek them out! And you have no idea what this means, but when, in 2011, you decide to get on Twitter, embrace it like there’s no tomorrow. Your mind will be opened up to a world of amazing, inspiring, caring, funny people all over the world who, like you, live and love with diabetes. You will call these people your friends and you will be part of a global community that makes you feel accepted and safe.
So 24-and-a-half-year-old me. The future isn’t as grim as you think it is right now. Your life isn’t life with diabetes. Diabetes isn’t the central part of it and I know that right now you wonder how it can be anything other than that. But it’s not. There will be times where you feel that it is all consuming and taking over everything, but by and large you manage to keep it in its place. You will get to forty and be healthy and surrounded by the people who love and support you and while you will have encountered some of the most difficult times, you will also have encountered some of the most wonderful. Diabetes is only part of your life.
Also, go and eat a cupcake today – just because you want to. It’s what I am going to do right now!
Much love from your much wiser, 40 year old self.
At the beginning of the school holidays, we hugged our teary eight year old good-bye and left her in the more than capable hands of her grandparents. For two weeks, we would be overseas without her. Yes, I had a conference to attend, but her father and I willingly tacked on a week following the close of the conference to holiday in Morocco. Mother guilt? I’ve got it in spades.
Guilt. I feel enveloped by it at times. Add up the fact that I’m a mum, from an Italian background and was brought up Catholic and it’s no wonder I always feel guilty about something. Throw diabetes into the mix and there’s no escape.
Working mum, so I am always missing special events at my daughter’s school? Tick.
Regular overnight travel for work means bedtime stories are regularly missed? Tick.
Left home BEFORE I got married and lived with boyfriend, thus breaking every ‘good Italian girl’ rule in the book? Tick.
I don’t go to church (except for when being a tourist) and don’t really believe in what I was taught at Catholic school. I blaspheme constantly and leave the field blank when asked for my religion when filling in official forms. Catholic guilt? Huge tick!
That’s a hell of a lot of guilt to deal with before starting with the diabetes.
Out of range numbers; chocolate cake for breakfast; no breakfast apart from three coffees; half a block of chocolate after dinner; a day of few (or no) BGL checks; a feeling of being over it; fear I’ve passed on my defective immune system to my daughter. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick!
One of the problems with diabetes is the word ‘should’. As in ‘You should check your blood sugar ten times a day’. Or ‘You should exercise for 60 minutes every day’. And my personal favourite, ‘Should you be eating that?’ The media loves to play the blame game – especially when referring to people with type 2 diabetes.
If we develop complications it’s because we didn’t do enough to prevent them. So, not only is it enough that we have to live with the complications of diabetes, we also need to feel guilty for letting it happen.
Everywhere we turn there is a finger pointed; a head shaken; a disappointed glance. It’s hard not to feel bad, to blame ourselves when things aren’t going to plan, to feel guilty.
A question I frequently ask myself (and pose when giving presentations) is ‘Why isn’t it enough?’ If we are trying the best we can – and that best will be different for each and every person and vary at different times in our lives – why can’t we say that it’s more than good enough? Why do we need to have the emotion of guilt to a situation that no one ever decided that they wanted to be in? No one wanted to develop diabetes – not matter what type. No one chose this as their lot in life. So instead of feeling guilty about how things are going, shouldn’t we just try to arm ourselves with the best resources at our disposal and do the best we can?
I struggle with this regularly and I wonder how I would cope if I actually did something questionable that may really warrant or even deserve feelings of guilt. Perhaps it’s one of the reasons that I have a strong moral compass. I don’t say that to sound ethically superior, it’s just that I have enough guilt in my life with the things that I didn’t choose, that I avoid knowingly doing anything that would make me feel like I am a bad person.
Putting guilt where it belongs is a constant battle in life with diabetes. Remembering that a messed up pancreas is something we are forced to deal with is the first step in learning to keep the guilt in check and not let it take over our life.
And it also helps to remember that life is far too short to feel guilty about eating a cupcake. Really.
Instructions.
Eat cupcake
Enjoy
Do not feel guilty.
I’ve been baking up a storm lately. It’s what I do when it’s cold outside. I love sweets but figure if I’m going to set my pump into overdrive, then whatever I am eating had better be bolus worthy!
I don’t ever use sweetener – it’s the real deal all the way for me! I’ve worked out that in most cases, the quantity of sugar listed in the ingredients list can be halved and the end product will still taste great. This is one of the fun things about baking and cooking in general. As you get more confident and learn how things work together, you can play with the ingredients to get the taste just as you like it!
If you feel like joining in, here are a few of my recent sweet treats and links to the recipes.
Does anything beat a homemade chocolate cake? This is one of the easiest, no-fail recipes you’ll find and it always results in a beautiful cake. Extra-special points for the fancy writing on top!
I always double the lemon quantity given in cake or slice recipes because I think it’s a crime if I don’t get a real hit of zesty-ness when I take that first bite! This recipe is brilliant and it’s no bake! The eight year-old kiddo made this pretty much on her own, so it’s a great one if you’re looking at getting kids cooking. I always feel like I’m getting my CWA on when I make this slice!
Bacon. Chocolate. Brownie. Were there ever three words that sounded better in a row? My baking hero, Nigella Lawson, came up with this recipe which includes a fudge-y brownie with salty, crispy bacon delights strewn throughout. The main problem with this recipe is stopping yourself from eating the candied bacon before you stir it through the brownie mix.
I have eaten more red velvet cupcakes than I care to admit. It’s my favourite cupcake flavour and I love tearing open the cake to reveal the seductive red colour. When we were in NYC over Winter, many afternoons were spent in Magnolia Bakery escaping the cold, enjoying a red velvet afternoon tea. Here’s their recipe. I’m warning you – they are addictive!
So, get baking! Then, put the kettle on and enjoy…Just don’t forget to bolus.
Last night my husband and I were out to dinner when he said “Let’s play a game. It will test our Beatles knowledge. We need to come up with a Beatles song for every letter of the alphabet.”
Really, he’s just a show-off smarty-pants and knew that there was no way that I could out-play him when it comes to the Beatles – Blue Jay Way? Really? Who even knows that’s a Beatles song?
So today, I thought I’d play a diabetes alphabet game. We had our end of year team lunch, so I had a group of incredibly bright women to help out. The way it worked was I said the letter and whoever came up with the first thing beginning with that letter won (with a few edits from me). Here we go:
A – ‘All the time’!
B – BGLs (close second to ‘Bugger’ with thanks to Kim)
C – Complications (and constant.)
D – Diabetes
E – Eyesight
F – Fuck! (Snap! Kim and I said it at exactly the same time!)
G – Glucose
H – Hypo / High (it was a tie. Special mention to Jane’s ‘HI’ from friendly meters when we’re reeeeaaaallllly high)
I – Insulin
J – Jelly beans
K – Ketones
L – Lucozade (Kim again!)
M – Mellitus (followed by a discussion on how it’s pronounced. Is it Mel-it-us or Mel-eye-tus??)
N – Normal (given that at the time of doing this there were more pancreatically-challenged people involved, we decided that our ‘normal’ is those with type 1 diabetes!)
O – Ophthalmologist
P – Pee stick (with pump as the runner-up)
Q – Quick-acting
R – Retinopathy
S – Slow-acting
T – Tablets
U – Undiagnosed
V – Veins
W – Wonderful people (with a shout out to the DOC)
X – X-tra sexy (with a shout out to the DOC)
Y – You’re in control!
Z – Zzzzzzzz (‘cause it’s boring. And I really want a good night’s sleep uninterrupted by either high or low sugars as has been the case every night this week.)
I suspect that everytime the game is played, the words would change. (Case in point: how was C not cupcakes? I’m shattered!) But it was a fun way to spend 15 minutes. I wonder if our ‘diabetes state of mind’ could be analysed by the words we come up when playing this game. I know that on those days where diabetes is misbehaving, most words would be negative. But when diabetes (very) occasionally plays nice, perhaps cupcakes would be the first thing we think of when the letter C is called.
And hey – next time Aaron suggests we play the Beatles alphabet game, I’ve got A sorted. I’m calling Ain’t She Sweet.
Okay – it’s over to you now. What words would you come up with?
In Fantasy Diabetes (Is)land (you should visit – it’s awesome!), there are wonderful, wonderful things. There are cupcakes stores giving away their baked goods on every corner, little gatherings of the DOC in cafes and everyone’s BGL is 5.5mmol/l ALL THE FREAKING TIME.
OK – there’s no such place. But today, we’re talking about fantasy diabetes devices. Here’s what I want in my diabetes life: I want simplicity and I want streamlining. I want devices to communicate to each other. And above all, I want devices I can trust – accuracy is critical.
My dream device would be a fully integrated pump and CGM that automatically transmits all my data to an App on my smartphone. The CGM wouldn’t need calibrating at all (thus removing any need to jab my fingers with a blunt lancet EVER AGAIN). And at the end of each day, the data would be sent to me in an easy to interpret graph, and the clever boffins living in the App would point out patterns (using previous days’ data) and make suggestions about dose changes. And tell me what a good job I’m doing, because it knows that back patting is important!
The App would also be able to accurately tell me the carb content of any cupcake (or other food – there is other food. Apparently.) by simply pointing my phone at the plate. And then relay this information to my pump, which would then bolus accordingly.
And finally, this magic App would send me a message to remind when it was time for the weekly DSMA tweet chat. Helpful!
Of course, this would be available to all and would be free, so there wouldn’t be the inequality in health care that makes me angry and sad.
Righty-o. Who do I need to speak with about getting this produced? And now?
This is my Thursday entry into this year’s Diabetes Blog Week. For information, click here. And I really recommend you do. Over 200 diabetes bloggers from all over the world are participating and it’s a great way to see what others with diabetes are talking about. Come back tomorrow for Friday’s entry.
Diabetogenic 