Sweet and Sour- The Type 1 Diabetes Rollercoaster

Sometimes you can do everything right, and diabetes just throws you a curve ball. Why? Because that's what it does. I carb count everything, do the right amount of fingerprick checks, insulin doses- you name it I do it. I'm on top of this diabetes thing, and it was fairly smooth sailing. But that's not how diabetes plays. For the past week my levels have been rising way above the 4-7 target. I was struggling to get a level under 13 let alone 7. I've been up in the 20s for no good reason, taking double the amount of insulin I usually do, but nothing worked. There's not a nice way to say it, high blood sugar makes you feel like crap- beyond crap, crappiest crap to ever exist kind of crap. You're thirsty and nauseous and tired and grumpy and not even bothered to move because that would involve effort. They stayed up despite correction after correction,18+ and not budging on Monday night. In a last ditch attempt to avoid a hospital stay I got up again and ag...

To the author, Your article whilst I'm sure well intentioned, was a major blow to the type 1 community. For those that don't want to follow the link, it concerns JDRF's (Juvenile Diabetes Foundation) use of jelly babies in the promotion of Jelly Baby Month, a fund raising time of year for type 1 diabetes. The author believes that jelly babies should not be sold and that it is hypocritical and AWFUL for their use in promotion. Now, from what my mum says you're actually really great in regards to nutrition and perhaps this article was not meant the way it sounds. But Ms O'Meara, I have a bone to pick with you. 1) Thank you for distinguishing between type 1 and 2- really most sources of media don't do this and I appreciate that. BUT the following comments, despite your insistence that you understand the difference, do not demonstrate that.  'To me it’s a little like looking for a cure for mesothelioma (lung cancer) and selling cigarettes to raise funds t...

My insulin pump, fondly named Dobby (Yes, from Harry Potter.... don't judge me...) seems to share a goal of spontaneously appearing where it shouldn't and holding the wish to maim and seriously injure (you traitorous pump you!) Don't you see the resemblance? You diabetics know what I'm talking about, Dobby likes to live on the edge. It's a little sport, called pump bungee-jumping and I think my pump's addicted. It happens at any time, any place and usually when it's least wanted, like when standing up on a bus/train to get off at your stop or when you go take off your seat belt in the car. There it is, the pump hanging by its tubing, swaying in the breeze. Not only is this painful, but sometimes it gets caught on things like doorknobs, and pulls out the infusion set, meaning that I have to inject a new one early (boo!). But that isn't all. Me being me, when this happens I usually make some form of comment that would sound really really weir...

Dear 'Doctor' with magical cure for type 1 diabetes, I don't buy it. Not.one.bit. You preach that religious faith, herbal remedies, asparagus and all kinds of crazy concoctions will cure my diabetes, that I'm letting myself suffer by listening to my doctors and taking insulin, that somehow this is further damaging my pancreas. That the cure has always been so easy to find, and that I'm simply being stubborn in not accepting your remedies. Well, I don't know where you got your degree, or whether your doctorate is ACTUALLY in medicine, but newsflash: Type 1 diabetes isn't curable. Yet. See, you overshadow REAL progress with your false 'natural' advances, supposedly converting type 1 diabetics into type 2 diabetics and finally non-diabetics. At one time, I believed you, just after I was diagnosed. There were all these supposed cures, that diabetes wasn't forever, that there had been some form of mistake and I was actually type 2. Well, the...

Right now, things aren't easy. I have three exams in one day, my hsc, temp work, my driving hours/test and my diabetes to manage. And on the diabetes front, I'm not doing so well. For months now I've been having sharp pain in my nerves that comes and go's, but lately it's been getting worse. As many of you know, neuropathy is a complication of diabetes, but normally one that sets in after years of having the disease and from instability in blood sugars. Prior to my 8.7 A1c, my levels had been brilliant, which makes it seem unlikely to be neuropathy. But that's the thing, diabetes complications are scary, because they can affect almost any diabetic, even at a young age and for no particular reason. So, now I have to  have a nerve conductor study, which is apparently rather painful but will assess what's going on. Assessing the entire situation, it's unlikely to be diabetic neuropathy, but this just serves as a reminder of what could happen when I'm ...

So I've had a shocker of a day, thanks to a mishap in one of my exams. This time, it wasn't because of a high or low blood sugar, but because of a lack of communication, issues with diabetic provisions for exams and quite frankly, sheer stupidity. I'm not going into the ins and outs of the situation, but there's going to be a lot of paperwork :P It's times like this where I think how much easier everything would be if I didn't have diabetes. All of the hassle and the bother the school has to go do, plus double the bother I have to deal with when they get things wrong is insane. It's almost like you're a burden on the school, it's all too hard. It'd be nice to have something easy, to be a normal student sitting a normal exam with normal teen pressures during the hsc. But enough of the whinging, diabetes has given me a lot (maybe not quite a much as it has taken) but still, I'm a better person.  But like any normal person,...

so now I'm one of THOSE bloggers, you know the ones 'I'll update on Thursday' Yup... sorry It's been a while :/ Unfortunately, I'm doing this little thing called the HSC and it's successfully eating my life. However with my chemistry exam over and done with I have a little time (who am I kidding, this is purely procrastination in order to avoid studying English). Sure, I don’t expect everyone on the face of the Earth to know about Type 1 diabetes, but sometimes people come out with the most ridiculous and insulting things that it makes me wonder, where the heck did they get THAT from?!  For now, here’s the top 10 list of the most ridiculous, not to mention common,  things people have said to me after I've uttered the words ‘I’m a type 1 diabetic.’ 10) Oh you’re a diabetic? My grandmother/aunt/grandfather/uncle died from that… oh… sorry. 9) You know you can cure that? Good diet and exercise does the trick, that’s been cured for years! 8) Oh...

'Recently various petitions have been circulating the Diabetes Online Community, so today let’s pretend to write our own . Tell us who you would write the petition to – a person, an organization, even an object (animate or inanimate) - get creative!! What are you trying to change and what have you experienced that makes you want this change?' A petition: To the know-it-all celebrity TV hosts Dear celebrity know-it-all, I RD, am writing this petition in order to put a stop to your reckless antics. You prance around as though you know far more about my diabetes than I do, which by your obviously flawed logic, isn’t remotely correct. You assume that I have brought my diabetes on myself. You assume that I can cure my diabetes by eating well and jogging around the block every day. You assume that everything is my fault. If you could take a moment to get off your moral high horse, I’ll happily correct you. But you don’t, because you’re right. You’re ALWAYS right. ...

Hypos and type 1 diabetes in general can be quite a nuisance, particularly in the school environment. Sometimes, because of low blood sugars launching surprise attacks, I need to eat during class. Teachers at my school are well aware of this, including substitutes, with my face pinned up in every single staffroom in the school (worst photo ever might I add) with big black letters stating DIABETIC. Now, I could take one standpoint one that, I don’t want to be known as ‘the diabetic’ but hey, if it’ll help these people remember then stick the word on my forehead if you have to! As a rule, my teachers are brilliant and incredibly supportive of me and my diabetes. But sometimes well, sometimes you get the idiots that think they know more about it than you do and need to ‘lay down the law’ in their classroom. Obviously you didn’t get the memo, I’m one of the quiet kids, go attack that one in the corner that won’t stop talking during your lessons. One day, we had a new teacher for a ...