May, 2015
Taming the Type One Diabetes Dragon Together 
Welcome, Dragon Tamers...

Thanks for joining our online community by subscribing to this e-newsletter from WaltzingTheDragon.ca, THE trusted online resource for families living with type 1 diabetes in Canada, a place to share technical info and practical tips on living well with diabetes.

Let's Dance!

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Feature Recipe
Strawberry Spinach Salad


A wonderful salad that everyone (including kids) love. The sugar in the dressing is replaced with Splenda which makes the carb counting a whole lot easier. Serve with rotisserie chicken and crusty bread for a quick meal.

 

Baby Spinach
Sliced Strawberries
Sliced Almonds
Sunflower Seeds

*carbs for all above ingredients will vary with amount served.

Dressing

cup Splenda (0 carbs)
½ cup oil
¼ cup vinegar
1 tsp dried minced onion
2 Tbsp poppy seeds
2 Tbsp sesame seeds
¼ tsp paprika
½ tsp balsamic vinegar
 


Pour preferred amount over greens and serve immediately. Dressing tastes better if made a few hours prior to serving. Store the remainder of the dressing in the fridge.


 

* Actual carb count will vary according to the brand of ingredients used. For guidance on calculating carbs for baked goods, check out: How Do I Figure Out the Carb Content for Mixed Recipes & Home Baked Goods? 
at WaltzingTheDragon.ca


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On Waltzing the Dragon

Translating D-Language

Endocrine... Metabolism... beta cells... ketones... huh? Glucagon, glucose, glycogen... what? "Clean" energy source...???
With a new diagnosis comes new terminology, a whole new language. If you're a little fuzzy on what some D-words mean, a little unclear on what the body does with food and hormones to keep us going, then brush up on your D-vocab by reading Waltzing the Dragon's Level 1 article, A Crash Course in Metabolism and Endocrinology.

Translating Effort into BG Success

Correction insulin is a dose of insulin given to reduce high blood glucose. The correction factor, or Insulin Sensitivity Factor (ISF), specifies how much insulin is needed to correct blood glucose back to the target range. But are the ISF settings you programmed into your child's pump in the past still working? How do you do test the effectiveness of the current correction doses? What makes a test valid? How do you use the data you gathered to make changes to the existing ISF? Find out in this next installment in our Insulin Adjustment for Pumps series, as we explore strategies for Assessing and Adjusting ISF (for pumps).
 

Lost in Translation 

Our family goes through cycles in terms of low treatments: sometimes the "same old, same old" becomes painfully boring; sometimes we're overwhelmed by the variety of options stretching endlessly up and down the grocery aisles. Whether you're looking for new ideas, or looking to focus only on the "best" low treatments, Treat Lows with High GI Foods breaks it all down for you.

D-Community

I Challenge Diabetes



iChallenge Diabetes offers programs with diversity. From short flexible challenges for all abilities to the daring wilderness explorations that go beyond the road less traveled... check out upcoming cycling and hiking trips in Alberta as well as an exciting variety of events from B.C. to Quebec to Ontario. 


Telus Walk to Cure Diabetes-JDRF



Events are underway across Canada to support JDRF
You're just in time to get in on the action in many areas... meet other families living with diabetes, unite with others with a similar passion, and raise critical funds for research focused on curing, treating and better preventing T1D. Check now for an event in your area!
 

Parent Support Meetings



Check out parent support coffee meetings across Alberta. Send us your coffee meeting details from across Canada, and we'll add them to our Events page!
 
D-Buddy
Sometimes we just need to know we're not alone... if you live in the Calgary area and have a pre-schooler (~3-5 years old) with diabetes and would like to be connected with another family seeking a D-buddy for their young child, please contact Emilie at the Calgary JDRF office (evincent@jdrf.ca).

Have a community event anywhere in Canada that you would like us to share with our readership? Contact us.


CGM: Identifying Glucose Trends from Reports

With as many as 288 glucose readings per day, Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) is a vital tool that can assist you in making informed decisions about your diabetes management. With the help of diabetes management software like diasend®, CGM reports can be used to help you identify glucose trends, but this can also be a daunting task if you don’t know what to look for. For information to help in identifying glucose trends from these reports, check out this month's sponsored article brought to you by Animas Canada: "Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM): Identifying Glucose Trends from Reports

 

*Article Brought to you by Animas Canada
 

Children with Diabetes: Insulin Pumps for Children

Image 4

Results of recent studies show that insulin pumps can be both safe and effective for toddlers and young children, provided that their parents are both knowledgeable about and motivated to use this device. To find out the features and settings that may be ideal for younger users, and for answers to your questions about wearing the pump during activities such as sports, dance and parties, check out this month's sponsored article brought to you by Medtronic Canada: "My Child Has Diabetes: Insulin Pumps for Children". 

 

*Article brought to you by Medtronic Canada 

All the best to you and your family as you tame the Diabetes Dragon!

From us, Michelle & Danielle
(Michelle MacPhee and Danielle Krause, Co-creators, WaltzingTheDragon.ca)

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More information on living well with diabetes | www.WaltzingTheDragon.ca

What is Waltzing the Dragon?

WaltzingTheDragon.ca is a Canadian website for families dealing with type 1 diabetes, created by two parents of children with diabetes: Danielle, a former Registered Nurse, is a mother of three teens (one of her sons has had type 1 diabetes since 2001); Michelle holds a Masters degree in Psychology and is mom to two young children, including a school-aged son (who has had type 1 diabetes since 2008).

The articles on Waltzing the Dragon have been reviewed for content accuracy by the clinical staff at the Diabetes Clinic at the Alberta Children’s Hospital, ensuring the material is grounded in science and best practices. Then, as parents, we provide the practical, experiential layer, sharing “tips from the trenches” and what has worked well in our families. At WaltzingTheDragon.ca, we strive to make the dance a little easier by sharing with you the science of effective diabetes care, as well as the art that makes one truly successful. We hope that, as a result, all of us can focus less on the dragon and more on life.

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