| | February 2009
DiabetesSisters February Newsletter
| DiabetesSisters Sister Spotlight Our new type 2 blogger - Carole Calladine
 Hello! My name is Carole Calladine and I read with interest the January Reflections column in Diabetes Forecast. Brandy Barnes, founder of Diabetes Sisters wrote an inspirational article, From the Basketball Court to the World Stage. I was drawn to Brandy’s advice that we all have opportunities to provide support, motivation, and education wherever we are. I logged onto Diabetes Sisters and registered. Congratulating Brandy on creating a beautiful web site for women with diabetes, I shared with Brandy that I had written a book, Second Story Woman…A Memoir of Second Chances recently released by Bird Dog Publishing. I’d written it for the same reason she had founded Diabetes Sisters— to provide support, motivation, and education wherever we are. It’s like having President Obama in the White House changing the world through leadership and by example. African American kids now play, not just house, but they play White House. As a woman with type 2 diabetes, I had searched for books on diabetes. I could find helpful non-fiction books, but wanted more. I wanted a memoir, an honest story to laugh, cry, and learn from. So I wrote about my ten-year journey of mismanaging and managing my diabetes. Married and the mother of four boys, I lead a charmed life because I have been able to satisfy and balance the many loves in my life. Although, I must admit, at times I certainly wasn’t acting very charming. But life has a way of working out as long as one stays true to one’s values. I feel honored to be asked to write the blog for type 2. If for any reason, you want to learn more about me, go to my web site at www.carolecalladine.com. | GoodSearch Use GoodSearch and give back to DiabetesSisters!
How many times a day do you use a search engine when searching the web? If you’re like most people you probably search the web so often that it would be difficult to quantify the number of visits in a week! Well, what if while searching the web you were able to give back to your favorite nonprofit organization, DiabetesSisters? You can through GoodSearch (powered by Yahoo!); for each web search you perform $.01 goes to DiabetesSisters. If you shop on the web GoodSearch will donate up to 37% of your purchase to DiabetesSisters. Go to www.goodsearch.com to register DiabetesSisters (Durham, NC) as your charity of choice or simply click on the link below. You can also make GoodSearch your homepage or use their handy toolbar and search away! Email us at info@diabetessisters.org if you have any questions or need help.
| Ask our CDE At what point in pregnancy do insulin levels increase?
We wanted to try something new for February's newsletter - so we're pulling one question from our "Ask the CDE" column that we think our readers would find interesting and educational. ***I just found out that I am pregnant. I've heard that insulin levels during pregnancy increase significantly. At what point during my pregnancy should I expect this to happen? This question involves pregnancy and specifically at what point do insulin needs increase. In general, during the first trimester (week 1-week 12) there is usually no need for increase in insulin doses. In fact, many women may need to decrease their insulin dose in the first trimester because of hypoglycemia. The need for more insulin is usually seen in the 2nd trimester and more so in the 3rd trimester. Some women may see as much as a tripling of their pre-pregnancy insulin doses. Remember in pregnancy, the blood glucose goals are lower than in the non pregnant state. There are actually 3 different recommendations but generally you should try to keep your fasting blood sugars between 60 and 90, premeal values less than 100 and post meal values no higher than 120 mg/dl.
If you want to get an idea of what your insulin levels during pregnancy will look like you can use the following information as a starting point to see what is considered normal (of course consult with your doctor before using this information!) Lois Jovanovic, the guru MD of diabetes in pregnancy reports that the average insulin requirement for women with type 1 diabetes is 0.7 units per kilogram of body weight in the first trimester, and increases to 0.8 units per kilogram of body weight in week 13-28, and 0.9 units per kilogram of body weight in weeks 29-34 and 1.0 units per kilogram of body weight in weeks 35-40. However, as with everything else in diabetes, no two people are the same so insulin increases should be based on blood sugar control with the stricter guidelines for the blood sugar as the goal.
Follow your blood sugars carefully doing both premeal and post meal checks to assess the need for change in your insulin regimen. Ideally your OBGYN and/or your endocrinologist can help you with these changes as well as deciding when they need to happen again based on what your blood sugars are doing.
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| | News Briefs & Updates
| DiabetesSisters received its first capacity building grant of $9,535 from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina on December 16, 2008.
DiabetesSisters became a federally recognized 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization on January 21st, 2009. All donations are now tax deductible.
DiabetesSisters held its first Board Meeting on January 31th, 2009.
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