David Burren

Dual cannulas

Those of us who use insulin pumps are very used to dealing with cannulas. The pump is connected by tubing to a cannula inserted into the skin. We have to replace this cannula with a fresh one every 2-3 days (both to avoid infections and to stop insulin absorption slowing down). Everyone using a pump …

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Living with a disease

Language is a funny thing. We use it every day to communicate with each other, and there are many nuances to the way we use various words. Some words are simple and inherently positive (such as “health” and “happiness”) although some (e.g. “gay”) have taken on extra associations over time. Other words have negative connotations: …

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GERTY

You may know the story behind the name of my CGM (continuous glucose monitor): JARVIS. Now I’m building another machine to be part of my diabetes network, and because it will have connections across WiFi and Bluetooth networks it really helps if it has its own network name. This machine is an OpenAPS rig: a …

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Penguin gallery

Failure is not an option

Well actually it is. But Complete Failure is definitely not! NOTE: This article was originally posted on my photography blog in January 2017, but I’m re-posting it here for completeness. In my previous work on computer systems and backup procedures, the complete failure of a data backup would mean a huge financial cost. But individual …

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JARVIS

Until the Freestyle Libre glucose monitors arrived in Australia in mid-2016 I had been monitoring my sugar levels by taking drops of blood (usually from my fingertips) multiple times a day and using a BG meter. But I was conscious that this didn’t give me the complete picture of what was going on during the …

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