It's The Sugar

Imagine if your closed-loop system knew how to automatically adjust to your exercise setting when you arrived or left a certain location? We use this when we arrive at the ski club for my daughter to snowboard. It automagically sets her Loop system to give her less insulin for the duration of the exercise period. You could also have a higher override kick in when your child arrives at school or a lower override to walk home.

The nice thing about these shortcuts is that they don’t require an extra app and can be set both on location > arriving or leaving and a time range. So if you only want the override to kick in when you are leaving school between 2pm and 3pm but not at lunchtime that is totally customizable.

Requirements:

Loop version 0.10.1 or newer

iOS version 10.3 or newer

Nightscout version 0.12.6 or newer

Start with the amazing Loopdocs directions here:

Go here: https://loopkit.github.io/loopdocs/nightscout/remote-overrides/#setup-remote-overrides and follow the instructions to set up Overrides for your Loop app.

Download this shortcut on your phone and click ADD UNTRUSTED SHORTCUT.

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/08b906aee33343879e6d4ae4e5adcc73

When you open the shortcut for the first time, you will be prompted to enter your nightscout site, API Secret, Shortcut Name and Shortcut icon.

Make sure that your target name and icon matches the one you have entered in Loop the one we are using is:

ShortcutName: 90-4.5

Icon: 🏂

Once you have entered your custom items, click save.

When you click on your shortcut for the first time you will be asked if it is ok if your shortcut accesses your website. Click OK

Now Click on Automation then on Create Personal Automation

Select when you would like the shortcut to trigger

Click Choose to select the location you would like to trigger the shortcut

Enter the address or destination name and select the location

Enter the time you would like the shortcut to trigger

Click Next

Click Add Action

Search for shortcut and select run shortcut

Click where it says Shortcut

Search for Exercise Shortcut and select it then click Next

Click Done

Now your automation is complete! Enjoy!

Please let me know how these work for you!!!

Thanks and happy looping!

Kate

The Big D… The D Word… Diabetes… slipped into our lives. It crept so slowly that we didn’t see it coming. She was 8, she was growing, getting taller. It was winter in Canada, we didn’t notice that she hadn’t gained any weight in months, she was covered head to toe most of the time. There were whispers. Whispers that make you question whether or not this is normal. When the whispers got louder and started to be screams we started to worry that this wasn’t just a crazy growth spurt… that this was something much bigger.

I remember those days like it was yesterday. I would pick her up from the bus and hand her a full-size meal for the ride to get her sisters from their school. 20 minutes each way and she would eat all that food plus drink a litre of water. When that litre ran out she would cry. I asked why she was so thirsty, why she had to go pee so often (although with all that water who could blame her).

There is a photo of her from New Year’s Eve that haunts me. She was wearing a tank top because it was hot inside the house filled with all of her family celebrating together. Her boney shoulders peeking out, her face sunken in. I didn’t know it then but the big D was already clawing at her. Just 6 weeks later our lives would change forever.

Thirst, frequent urination, extreme hunger, weight loss… plug those into Google and it spits out Diabetes. Like a slap in the face. I didn’t want to believe it. It couldn’t be real. It must be something else. On February 13th, the hundredth day of school, I took my sweet girl to our family doctor. She had a fantastic day of eating a mix of 100 marshmallows, 100 chocolate chips and all sorts of yummy hundreds delights. Our doctor sat us down and asked why we were there. I explained and she said “Well that is an easy test! We will poke her finger.”

The nurse pricked her finger, her bright red blood filled that very first strip. After what seemed like an eternity, the meter beeped and greeted us with two little letters “H I”. One nurse looked at the other and asked what that meant? Why was there no number? It was because my baby’s’ blood sugar was so high that meter couldn’t read it.

I remained stoic in the doctors’ office until my daughter left to use the restroom. I fell apart and sobbed while she was gone for those 2 minutes. I then sucked back all my tears and was brave for her. I had to be. This was the scariest thing we had ever faced. When I called my husband, he cried on the phone. I have never heard him cry before or since.

Diabetes came into our lives like an unwelcome guest. We didn’t invite it into our home, to our meals, activities or ask for its sleepless nights. While Sydney took everything like a champ, there would still be bumps in the road.

My hope is to share the triumphs and the trials of our lives with Type 1 diabetes. The last 6 years have changed us in every way possible. They are hard days but those days are less frequent now than they were in the beginning. We have met incredible people along the way and for that, I will be forever grateful.

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