Sweet and Sour- The Type 1 Diabetes Rollercoaster

Semester is over, exams are coming, and it dawned on me that in terms of content I’m half way through my degree. That’s really terrifying, but also exciting. During the semester I’ve been running weekly therapy with a client and ended the semester by running 2 sessions by myself. Which is a great confidence boost, but it still feels like I'm playing dress-up whenever I'm in "clinic clothes"(business attire). A while ago I wrote a post about turning 18, and all these adult responsibilities. I had an absolute onslaught of paperwork to muddle through because of the diabetes. But it made me feel pretty independent, which I liked because I get all the control. I love nothing more than knowing exactly what’s happening and being in charge of it. But now as I’m half way through my degree and turning 20 in a few months, I have come to a realisation. I am not even close to being an adult. Yes, I have a million cards, and my car, and my HECS debt that makes me nauseous every t...

Mental health/illness is hard to talk about. When you experience physical pain you go to the doctor. But what about emotional pain? With that you’re meant to suck it up and get on with it. Mental illness is often compared to invisible illnesses, such as diabetes (of all types). You can’t see diabetes, just as you can’t see depression or anxiety. Sometimes because it can’t be seen, it’s easy to minimise/misunderstand the effects of it. If someone breaks their leg, you can see them struggling to get around. But if someone is having a crazy day of blood sugars you probably can’t see how they’re feeling.  I find t1d pretty easy to talk about and explain to others. I really don’t mind running over the same explanations. That is, unless someone keeps saying idiotic/hurtful things AFTER I’ve outlined what it is and confirmed they understand. I think that’s because even though t1d is an invisible illness, once someone has seen a low blood sugar, or even just watched you check your...

Bit of a blog vacation happened there, sorry! I’ve been having a bit of a diabetes mini-burnout and that’s related to everything diabetes, including blogging. It’s all just seemed too hard lately, as though it’s only just dawning on me that it’s been 5 and a bit years of daily management. I’m calling this a mini-burnout because it wasn’t horrific, or really long term. I’ve just had some difficulty keeping up my diabetes management lately. However it wasn’t obvious, and it took me a long time to work out that this was burnout. I always thought that diabetes burnout was when you said enough’s enough and downed tools. I thought it meant you stopped checking, bolusing (taking insulin for food) and thinking about your diabetes. I was checking as often as usual (aka testing way too much) and I was bolusing for all my meals. I was even taking insulin corrections to bring down my high blood sugars. So naturally, I didn’t think it was happening to me. However, I hadn’t contacted my spec...

Here’s a typical conversation when someone asks me about my course: “What are you studying?” “Speech Pathology” “… pathology? Like, blood?” “Let’s just go with speech therapy” Speech pathology is a lot more than most people think. It’s so much more than stutters and lisps, though they’re definitely a part of it if that’s what you want to do! I like speech path because it’s such a versatile profession. You can work with a variety of age groups, and with a variety of disorders/delays. Before anyone asks, I have no idea what I want to do and change my mind every time I learn something cool. Swallowing, strokes and aphasia (geriatrics) was my original interest but we’ll see, I have lots to choose from and a lot more to learn. Here’s some things speechies do that you probably didn’t consider (little disclaimer: I’m still learning lots and lots of things and am not a source of medical advice. Some things I know about a little more because of personal experiences separate from ...

It’s National Diabetes Awareness Week here in Australia. I had absolutely no idea. That’s a worry when even the diabetics don’t know… Hope someone sends CrossFit a memo. Apparently, in Australia, there’s 120,000 Type 1 Diabetics. That sounds like a large amount, but considering the population is something like 22 or 23 million, it’s a tiny percentage. Diabetes as a whole however (including type 2 which makes up ~90% of diagnoses) is highly prevalent. The media seems to be focusing on Type 2, which is fine because it’s way more common and sometimes you can actually do something to prevent it. But they don’t differentiate between Type 1 and 2. They’ve released this scary video: Uplifting right? These complications also happen to Type 1s if blood sugars are very erratic for very long periods of time. But I think they’re just here for a scare tactic. I hope another video is released that actually teaches something. In the meantime, have some facts: - T1 is caused by ge...

Yesterday I wrote a post about Cross Fit's twitter page. Today I want to add a second part. Like many others, Cross Fit associated coke and diabetes. And you know what? There is a connection.                             Cans of coke saved my life last night. Around 20min after writing that post I tested my level and was 2.9. I'd already been low earlier in the day and this one felt bad. I had 4 hypo tablets (16g carbs) and waited. I became increasingly light headed and had some coke (21g carbs). At this point I waited 15min and tested again. 2.6. Add another can of coke, stacks of jellybeans, juice boxes, hypo tablets and lots of crying. I treated it so much because I couldn't get it up much higher for an hour. Whenever it came up it crashed back down. Luckily I was at home and both my parents were consoling me that if I were to pass out they'd be there. I got to the point where I was crying because...

I was going to be really good and let it go when I saw Cross Fit’s post on diabetes "Make sure you pour some out for your dead homies.” alongside a bottle of coke saying “open diabetes”. But then I saw the rest of their twitter page that is full of tweets defending themselves. This is despite major backlash from the diabetic community. Most of these things have made me angry in the past, but when I saw that page I burst into tears. I have never seen such disgusting attitudes toward diabetes of either type in my life. They just don’t get it, and I’m so tired of it. We as a community fight so damn hard to spread awareness. Nothing seems to work. Everything I do feels redundant. However, I think the only time you fail is if you don’t try. So I’m going to try again. Point 1: No one should be shamed for having an illness. Ever. Type 2 diabetes is not solely caused by over-consumption of sugar. In some individuals there is a very strong genetic component that predisposes ...