Sweet and Sour- The Type 1 Diabetes Rollercoaster

The HSC students are sitting their final exams, and in my old age I'm getting all reflective. So now, with my extra pearls of wisdom, I can laugh at my first worries about uni: My main concern? "I'm not going to make any friends at uni and will be a little hermit eating my lunch alone in the library" Everyone tried to tell me that I would be fine. That everyone is in the same boat. My brain does not accept these things until I've experienced them myself. I was petrified because on my very first day of uni I had a three hour break scheduled and was in a panic as to what I was going to do with my hermit self for three hours. Let me tell you, I'm not cool. I can be painfully socially awkward, especially meeting new people. I made friends. I made friends before uni had officially started! On enrolment day I met a girl on the bus. I noticed that she had a penguin classic tote bag with The Great Gatsby on it, and decided that odds were I would probabl...

A few of you are aware that in one of my brightest moments I managed to leave my insulin pump (fondly named Dobby) on during an x-ray last week. Pump and x-rays do not go together, and sadly Dobby is now sent off to the land of faulty pumps. I've received my new pump (newly named Severus) and everything is going smoothly again, but I can't help but feel this new pump is different, something's not quite right. I was on multiple daily injections (MDI) for 8 months until I made the decision to get an insulin pump. The pump was supposed to bring freedom from 4 injections a day, letting me eat what I want, wake up when I want, do whatever I felt like doing without being bound to a tight schedule. Ultimately, it did, but at first Dobby and I didn't get along so well. I remember back in January 2011 when I was first hooked up to the pump. It felt weird, and like an enormous and confusing device. I was let loose in the hospital cafeteria for lunch and was half way through ...