Sweet and Sour- The Type 1 Diabetes Rollercoaster

Types of diabetes Meeting new people has pin pointed everyone's number 1 question about type 1 diabetes: "what's the difference between type 1 and 2?" I'm not an expert, but I'll endeavour to cover some of the many (yes more than two!) types of diabetes. Type 1 Diabetes I'm going to be a narcissist and talk about my type first :) Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease- meaning that the immune system has malfunctioned in a certain way to prompt an attack on itself. Your pancreas has two main functions: 1 involves digestion, the other involves the secretion of insulin. Insulin is a hormone that allows for sugar in the blood stream to be balanced and used effectively in the body. Sugar is always present in our blood, however more is introduced when we eat carbohydrates. The role of insulin is to balance this sugar level. In type 1 diabetes the immune system has attacked the beta cells of the pancreas (the cells that produce insulin). This means that...

I've just finished my second week of uni, and it's going reasonably well. But there's something about this change that I hadn't anticipated, no one knows me. Seems obvious right? New place= new people with no idea who you are I think I've said "Hi, I'm Bec" about 20 times this past fortnight and I started wondering, why do I say Bec and not Rebecca? I think it happened like this: a) Rebecca was originally the name I introduced myself with when I was a little kid, and she was very shy and reserved b) Rebecca means I'm in trouble c) Rebecca was used by teachers who I don't know particularly well or like very much d) I had spent the past 3 years or so being called Bec by my entire year group Who knew there was so much in a name? So I had made the decision to go with a more casual variation of my name from the beginning, but next on the list was "what do I do when people ask questions about my diabetes? Am i supposed to tell them?...

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...

I had a different post planned for today, but after receiving a comment on one of my other posts I felt this was a better topic. I hope this helps a few diabetics out there as well as informs everyone else about what it can be like when you're the token diabetic kid. When I was diagnosed with t1d, I went to a school that had no other diabetics.  None. Now that's changed over the years and the current group have a fairly strong support network, but I didn't.  Many things were a battle, like getting exam provisions and understanding from teachers.  But all that aside, I had an overwhelming sense of loneliness.   Those closest to you alleviate it to some extent, but they can't know exactly what it's like, because they have a fully functioning pancreas! Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they have a pancreas that does as it's told, but it gets a bit lonely. You look around at school, in the shops, anywhere and see people eating without a thought of h...

I’ve finally turned 18, and by definition of the Australian government, I’m officially an adult. It’s at this point that I’ve come to the conclusion that you don’t really “grow up”. Yes, you are accountable for your actions and responsible for yourself, but really the only difference is now I have to do a lot of paperwork and balance a bank account. The good things: - I can stay out as late as I like - I can go to concerts - I can go to bars and clubs - I can drink - I can vote - I can get a boosted ego when I’m guardian of my underage friends at gold class cinemas - I get payments for going to uni The bad things: - I have to get my sorry sleep-deprived-self home on long public transport trips because I don’t live near anything remotely interesting - I have to manage my diabetes pretty much alone - I can drink but my diabetes really doesn’t like that - I can drink but my brain doesn’t really like that - I have to talk to inadequate governmental ag...

Everyone deals with things in different ways, because they’re completely different people. Like other people, diabetics are the same. From what I’ve seen there are four broad categories that people drift in and out of when faced with a diagnosis of chronic illness (this is not definitive, it is simply my musings). They apply not only to diabetes, but any event and it's difficult to fit into one entirely because our responses change daily. - Over-analysers * These diabetics seem to be rare, but I was absolutely one of them when I was diagnosed! They are so consumed by monitoring their diabetes that they take way too many tests a day. They check their level, analyse it, worry about what it will be in two hours and spend that two hours thinking about it. The over-analysers may have brilliant control over their condition, but they’re missing the point of managing it well: TO LIVE. It’s important that these individuals socialise and don’t refuse to do things because it may br...

This has always been a massive topic among teen girls, and I’m seeing it become incredibly prominent over Facebook lately. Women and men are presented with unrealistic expectations in regard to how they ought to look. The media portrays a so called “perfection”, a perfection that is impossible to live up to. For diabetic girls in particular, this pressure of having the “perfect” figure is prevalent, and damaging. Taking insulin causes weight gain, undeniably. This is a healthy gain when balanced with exercise and a good, balanced diet. However, many girls are attempting to stop this weight gain by taking less insulin. Doing this causes blood sugars to rise, causing the body to resort to consuming its own fat stores, causing many young girls to fall into Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA). DKA can cause coma and eventually death, all in the name of attaining that “perfect” figure. Manipulating something as important as insulin carries so many dangers, and it saddened me immensel...