Sweet and Sour- The Type 1 Diabetes Rollercoaster

When I was a little kid I had some troubles with speech, I stammered for a while and had a lisp. The stammer went away, the lisp didn't. My doctor advised us that there was no reason to correct it, "think of Ita Buttrose" he said. So we left it alone. My mum is pretty brilliant, so she taught me that differences in me were what made me special. I had a birthmark over my eyes and forehead that used to be pointed out and compared to chickenpox. She taught me that it wasn't a bad thing, it just made up a little part of me. My lisp was exactly the same, just a little part of me. The birthmark faded, but the lisp stayed, and I was perfectly fine with that. But then I chose the most inconvenient profession, I decided I wanted to be a speech pathologist. My lisp was suddenly front and centre, the polite avoidance of talking about it was gone. I've started speech therapy and am working hard on correcting it. And I'm okay with that- I like to use myself as a gu...

There's a negative stigma around the term 'mental illness', to some people, having a mental illness means you're 'crazy'.The stigma is so strong that I'm nervous about putting this out there. I struggle with anxiety, and have done for a long time. It's just as real as any physical condition like my diabetes. And I'm certainly not the only one. Everyone deals with anxiety to some extent. We all have so much going on that it's become the norm. A little stress and a little worry can be a good thing. But there's a difference between nerves before an exam and ending up physically ill from the stress of what should be stress-free daily interactions. I don't really want to go into my own anxiety in much depth but here's a basic rundown of some of the troubles that come with high level anxiety. Obviously this varies person to person. - You analyse quite a fair bit of what you do and what you say to people - You play your thoughts o...

My beautiful grandmother (whom I called Nanny) passed away on Thursday, having suffered from dementia for most of my life. Instead of remembering her the way she was for the last 8 years, I'd like to preserve the earlier memories. She was 91, and is now at peace, but I miss her more than I can say. It began with a sound too hard to pronounce, I wasn't able to say Nanna, so turned to Nanny instead and it stuck. When I think of Nanny I think of her pearls, her dresses, the smell of her wardrobe, her bags with the clasps I found fascinating. The ring she gave me years ago, that she placed upside down on my finger. Her yellow- lidded container perched high on the fridge, filled with my favourite pink biscuits covered in hundreds and thousands. Her struggle with seat belts every time she sat in the car, my special job was to help her put it on. Her magazine stacks, doing find a words while she sat with a crossword. Her lotto tickets, always holding out hope that she'd strike...

Low blood sugars make you do stupid things. Stupid, dangerous, scary things. I must have had a whole lot of luck on my side today because this could have turned nasty. I was walking back to redfern station when my blood sugar dropped. I didn't notice it and took a wrong turn.... and so the saga begins. I finally stopped to check it, but there was no where to sit. Stupid low mistake #1: Crouch down and check it in a shifty looking side street. My shifty side street was near a shop, so I suppose low error 1 wasn't too bad. It was then I realised I was going the wrong way. Stupid low mistake #2: Walk back and forth past the same guy on a corner, showing that you're evidently lost. So I managed to head the right way, which brings me to this. Stupid low mistake #3: Keep walking when low, AND walk through a shifty looking side street. I quickly walked through and encountered two women nearby, so I asked which was it was to Redfern station. "Oh it's just u...

I'm a bit delayed, but I found out about this lovely incident this morning. A cafe decided that they would name a cronut on their menu diabetes. In short, the internet exploded. They issued an apology, and have taken it off the menu- I have no issue. But I have a HUGE issue with the comments section on their facebook page. Many are commenting that the people complaining - don't have a sense of humour - are oversensitive - need to get over it One comment even linked diabetics with cheap toys- poorly made, weak,  and fragile.     *deep breath* Im breaking out a list 1) Oversensitive? Right, ok. So if it's ok to call a dish diabetes, it's ok to call one renal failure? Stroke? What about cancer? They are equally inappropriate names. 2) "Oh get a sense of humour". I like to laugh about my diabetes, I encourage everyone to do the same! But misinformation isn't funny, it's ignorance. By putting out a dish clearly swamped in sugary treats and ca...

I was going to write about my crazy exam blood sugars, but I've done that before. I think now I might blog a response to a frequently asked question that isn't even remotely diabetes related! "How do you know exactly what you want to do with your life? Why do you want to be a speech pathologist?" Back in Year 12 when everyone felt swamped in the pressure of choosing a degree, I was one of the relatively few that didn't experience a crisis. Sure, I had about a week of reconsidering, maybe going into teaching, or psychology, or sociology etc. But once again I was drawn back to speech. I found out about speech in a Job Guide book, well to be more accurate my mum found it. I was focused on psychology at the time, so glazed over the speech entry, but it turned out to be everything I wanted and more. My main goal is to help people. I wanted something medical without being a doctor, teaching without being a teacher and psychological without being a psychologist. Pl...

Diabetes can be really scary sometimes, and it's pretty terrifying to think that one day I'm going to have to live on my own with it. The other night I was babysitting my little cousins, which went really smoothly! They were wonderful and all tucked in asleep. So I was left alone, about 20-30mins from home and my blood sugar decided to have a field day. I went low suddenly, I'd been high all day so it feels worse when it drops dramatically. It was 3.6, so I went and had some juice, I'd only thought to bring two. I checked again shortly after, and it was 3.3. My juices have around 30grams of carbs in them, you only need 15 to treat a low. Basically, I'd had double treatment, and my level had dropped instead of risen. This kept happening through the night, I couldn't get my levels up for any sustained period of time. I tried everything, milk, banana bread, jelly beans, anything except my last juice which was for an overnight low if I had one. I fiddled with s...