Sweet and Sour- The Type 1 Diabetes Rollercoaster

Welcome back to T1 Talk, a blog series created by Frank and I about life as young Aussies with T1, on opposite sides of the country. This is Part 2 of our latest topic on management of food, exercise and emotions in relation to T1.  You can find Part 1 over on Frank's blog here.   Here we discuss a topic many of us avoid: feelings. Let's shine some light on the emotional impact of T1. We’ve discussed many different aspects of management across the blog series. Managing T1 is not an easy task. How do you manage the emotional impact of the condition? Bec: Initially, I handled my diagnosis like this: I would have told you I handled it well and just got on with life. I thought I was fine. I was someone who sought perfection and basically got it for a while with my diabetes care. But with time, increasing life demands and some really shocking years I’ve fallen down. So not processing stuff? I completely get that. Right now I’m starting to realise I do have em...

As National Diabetes Week continues I thought I'd address one of the most common questions I get; how does the insulin get from the pump and into you? I never do a great job of explaining it so here's a demonstration video going through all the bits and pieces involved. This process varies by the type of set you use and model of pump but I'd say the principles are the same. I repeat this process every 3 days. I sometimes find it more painful than injections but once every 3 days is a lot better than having 4 injections a day! If you have type 1 and are considering a pump I hope this demystifies the process for you. I've been on it for over 6 years and remember finding no resources on what a set change looked like before I started. I hope this helps. Of course I'm not a diabetes medical professional and these are my own views and methods of changing a set. This is my second and final vlog. Hope the change was a good one! I mentioned I'd upload photos bu...

Hello hello! It's National Diabetes Week here in Australia and taking inspiration from Frank at Type 1 Writes  I've decided to have a crack at vlogging. Scary.... I know. I believe the best way to raise awareness is through sharing stories, so here's mine. Apologies in advance for the blank gazes and "um's". Apparently, being a speech pathology student doesn't mean you're immune to presentation anxiety. Woops. In the vlog I say I'm not a big fan of National Diabetes Week. I think it's a wonderful idea and the messages are fantastic. But I really dislike how it is pitched toward complications a lot of the time. There must be a better, more encouraging way. I hope sharing stories is an example of that. Tomorrow I'll be posting a vlog on how my insulin pump works as part of raising awareness. Keep an eye out for that slightly less cringe worthy vlog! Edit: I've now seen the video for t1. Fantastic and much better message! I w...

During a recent OzDOC chat on Twitter, a point came up about whether it's our role to be a constant advocate and educator on t1. Whether we need to "properly" represent t1. I would argue no, it's not, but I often feel like I'm an access point to t1. Often, I'm the first person someone has met with t1 and I'm very aware that what they see is likely what they take away about the condition. I'm becoming increasingly aware I'm not always a shining example like I used to be. Lately I think people around me have seen people with t1 as having constantly fluctuating levels, tiredness, sensor alarms going off constantly. I've projected that having t1 means instability. Perhaps they think I'm somewhat fragile, fluctuating between extremes. That's not the message I want to convey about people with t1 though. I want non diabetics to see that we function normally and manage it well. I want people to see that it doesn't limit me in any way. N...

Over the years I very rarely had the sense that my diabetes and mental health was in charge, that it had me beat. I'm all about holding power over my condition. After all, I love control. My management of my T1 was impeccable for years because of this. Over time I've slipped, mostly when my anxiety and depression worsened. But even with those ups and downs I never felt I'd lost the battle. That was until I failed a clinical placement early this year. My placement was for 6 weeks in a regional town a few hours drive from home. I was living alone, and entered placement feeling already highly anxious (and truth be told, depressed). My diabetes reacts to my emotions quite strongly, so my sugars were sky high from the start. It was a hard placement and I was set on doing everything perfectly. Every session plan had to be perfect. Every child I saw needed to have the perfect session with the perfect therapy targets and activities. My assessments were planned meticulously. Th...

Welcome back to T1 Talk, a blog series between Frank and I about life as young Aussies with T1, on opposite sides of the country. This is Part 2 of a 2 part topic on managing the unmanageable: Type 1 Diabetes. You can find Part 1 over on Frank's blog here . We'll pick up where we left off: Pens or Pump? Which one do you use, and why do you continue to stick with it? Bec: For readers of my blog, pens is another term for injections of insulin. Yes, they really look like pens! Check out this post for a rundown of diabetes tools (fair warning, it's beyond outdated). I was on injections for under a year. I loathed them, not because of pain but because of teen embarrassment. I moved to the pump very early on and haven’t looked back. It’s been over 6 years of pump therapy and I’d be flat out working out how to live off injections if required. Bit of a worry actually, I’m very reliant on the pump now. Frank: That’s interesting, and probably highlights our...

"Lets wrap up the week by sharing a little more about ourselves, beyond the chronic illness we or our loved ones live with.  Share an interest, hobby, passion, something that is YOU.  If you want to explore how it relates to or helps with diabetes you can. Or let it be a part of you that is completely separate from diabetes, because there is more to life than just diabetes!" It's always sad when blog week comes to a close, but this year we've ended on a fantastic topic. So much of my online presence and my work in health advocacy is about my diabetes. I don't begrudge that at all because I've chosen to take on the role of a health consumer advocate. But behind all the awareness stuff I'm also a person. My t1 is a pretty big part of it, but there's more. I'm a pianist, albeit one with poor timing. I've been playing for 14 years. It doesn't look or sound like it most of the time, but I have fun. This is the beginning of a song called...