Sweet and Sour- The Type 1 Diabetes Rollercoaster

I am a part of multiple diabetes groups, and I’ve touched on this issue before. There is a huge amount of blame on type 2s from all sorts of places, the media, the general public, even some health professionals. But the worst I have seen has come from the type 1 community, and that disgusts me. Let me break down the point of view* that is thrown about all the time: “I’m a type 1 diabetic and no one really knows the difference between type 1 and 2. I get really annoyed about this because type 2 is a disease people bring on themselves. They can cure theirs as well, but I can’t. I got type 1 for no reason and I can never cure it. I can’t take tablets for it but they can. They get all the research, funding and media coverage so everyone knows about their condition, but what about mine? That’s not fair! Why would someone bring diabetes onto themselves? It’s not that hard to eat well. They shouldn’t complain, it’s their fault anyway.” This is NOT my point of view might I add, but I ...

I had a few days in the past weeks where I've had shocking blood sugars (mostly very low) and wondered "why is it that no matter how hard I try this stupid illness never lets me win." That's not a great way of thinking and can sort of pull you into a bit of burnout. But today, I won. Today, my HbA1c which is the three month average blood sugar was 6.3%. Anything below 7% is fabulous and I haven't been down under 7 in a long while. I still have a long way to go with my diet and weight (before anyone freaks out I mean GAINING not losing!) but I'm well on the way. It took a new endocrinologist, almost weekly emails (poor endo...), stricter management, better eating, starting an exercise routine and a new insulin pump to get this down- but it was so worth it. Basically, the lower your A1c, the better (well to an extent, too low and you're having a hypo hell week all month, but I digress). An a1c like this is fantastic because it hugely reduces my ri...

As I spent a few weeks struggling with my diabetes and low blood sugars, I have been thinking about CGMs a lot. A CGM (continuous glucose monitor) is a device you wear that shows your blood sugar 24hrs a day. It is amazing because it can show you if you're going low and stop the pump to try and avoid it. They last for around 6 days and connect to the pump, providing an effective management system and peace of mind overnight. It would mean I could sleep without worrying if I'm going to go low and not wake up. It would mean I could check my level a lot less. It would stop bad hypos from happening. Why don't I have it? 1 CGM is $75 (not including the transmitter you need to buy with it) 1 CGM lasts 6 days max. Rounding it up that's ~$375 a month. I don't have that kind of money. Because CGMs aren't covered by health insurance, people like me can't have them. They're just not an option. Not when I have uni expenses, diabetes pump supplies, insul...

aka, the week Bec went back to uni and her diabetes threw a hissy fit. I’ve had a week of having at least one hypo a day. AT LEAST ONE. That’s just way too many and now I can’t feel them very much. This week I have: - stumbled around like an idiot - almost driven a car low - cried in a lecture because my brain wasn’t getting sugar and thought it was ok for my eyes to leak (talk about embarrassing) - sat confused in a lecture wondering why I was crying - frantically emailed my specialist way too much - sworn at my blood sugar meter (…. quite often) - had way too much fruit juice - had a cold that won’t go away and I think it’s because I’m drained from the hypos - stumbled around half asleep - spent yesterday pissed off because I’d woken up perfectly happy and then couldn’t do a damn thing all day because I was exhausted from hypo that happened as I walked into uni And genuinely concerned everyone around me. Sometimes your insulin needs just randomly change. For mont...