For general advice go to Diabetes UK Careline

More hints and tips will be added here soon.

Looking after yourself if you are ill and have diabetes
We all get ill occasionally with the ‘flu or a tummy bug or a chest infection.

Having diabetes doesn't make you more likely to get ill. However, while you are ill it can be harder to control your diabetes. In turn, having high blood sugar will make you feel worse and may slow your recovery.

What you need to do depends on what type of diabetes you have and what sort of treatment you are on.

The CEDAR staff at the Royal Surrey County Hospital have produced a series of Sick Day Rules which can help you keep your diabetes under control until you are better.

There are separate ones for if you have Type 2 diabetes treated with tablets, Type 2 diabetes treated with insulin, Type 1 diabetes and are on 2 injections of insulin a day or Type 1 diabetes and are on 4 or 5 injections of insulin a day. They are all available at CEDAR and are also on the Hospital website at http://www.royalsurrey.nhs.uk/Diabetes-Emergency-Urgent-Advice,.

If you are unable to access them in either of those ways please contact us and we will post you a copy of the relevant one.

Myth or Fact? read more (.pdf)

Targets for GPs for the management of diabetes 2000: read more

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Change the needle and get a better record
Something which is cropping up time and time again is coming across people struggling with very poor control and who don't know what to do to improve it. Many of these people have been trying to save money for the NHS and have only been changing their insulin needles when they've needed to change a cartridge. Repeated use of a needle results in microscopic damage to it, and this in turn results in tissue damage during subsequent injections. This can affect absorption of insulin and lead to poor control. I recommend changing the needle at every injection; patients have had vast improvements after following this advice.

Nicola Ward, Diabetes Specialist Nurse
Guildford & Waverley Primary Care Trust

Changing the site
In the last edition Nicola Ward, Diabetes Specialist Nurse, advised changing injection needles before every injection but there are other things to consider too. Changing the site of the injection is equally important. A fatty pad can develop if the same site, be it thigh or abdomen, is used repeatedly. The uptake of insulin from these pads can be highly variable and lead to poor control of blood sugar (glucose). If you have any queries you'd like the Diabetes Nurse Specialists to answer through these pages why not email us at:
info@diabetes surrey.org

Gwen Hall, Diabetes Specialist Nurse/Practice Nurse Trainer
Guildford & Waverley PCT