A Right Royal Knees Up

Having a great week, the Diabetes Fairy is playing nice for a change!

Had my medication review on Tuesday and my GP is happy with my latest bloods, good liver and kidney function and cholesterol. Got my letter ready for Florida too which is another thing off the list of things to do. Less than 3 weeks to go now!! Apparently weather is going to be in the 80s/90s which is going to be brill :D

Consultant appointment on Wednesday was also good, my HbA1x has dropped from 8.4 to 8.0, not a significant drop but since December it seemed to have stuck at 8.4! He also said that he doesn't want to see me now for 6 months (instead of my usual 4) so I'm really pleased :)

Also found out that since my last visit in December I've lost 5lbs which I was chuffed with, as I'm not consciously trying to lose weight, just maintain. All together I've lost about 2 stone which I've kept off since diagnosis and I'm much happier with the way I look than when I was at school.

So to celebrate my good numbers me & Amy got a burger and chips from the local chippy and sat on the wellhead (local park). Sophisticated or what! ;)
Got home to find a mahoosive wedge of birthday cake from a relative so had a bit of that too!

Think I've finally figured out my lantus dose for leg site jabs, 24u seems to be the magic number at the moment. Waking levels are in the 5s and 6s which is much better than my previous 9-11mmol that I've been used to.. Had a hypo last night (3.5mmol) which pretty much wiped me out yesterday afternoon/evening, usually I need to get lower than that for it to affect me that much. I've also felt off when my sugars in the mid-teens, so I'm wondering if my body's starting to get used to the in range figures?

Hmm D is such a big ball of confusion!!

Enjoy your Bank Holiday weekends :) xxx

Wicked Wordless Wednesday!

blog on my pretty awesome D week and stylish celebrations tomorrow :D

Giggle Monster

This week has been a pretty awesome week (excluding my earlier monday wobble):

Good weather
Support from friends & family
Lots of laughing (and crying with laughter)
Two Bank Holiday weekends in a row
Reasonably good levels

My retinal screening appointment wasn't as bad as I thought, and was over fairly quickly! For anyone who hasn't had this done, you do a brief eye test and then the eye drops are given to dilate your pupils ready for camera time! Pop yourself in the little head-rest machine thingy and follow the light whilst the camera takes the pictures. Typical me though, I forgot the sunglasses!

The procedure itself was over in under half an hour, which did surprise me and my mum however now comes the anxious wait for my results. The chap who did it said within 4 weeks... in 4 weeks I'll be on holiday so I really really hope it doesn't take that long. Although saying that, if its bad news, I'd rather have a great holiday then deal with the crap then xp

My hayfever is starting to kick in now too (yes I'm not happy enough with just diabetes, gotta have hayfever too..) which I think is affecting my morning levels. My 22u of lantus - leg site - is still doing its thing but I'm waking to between 9-10mmol which isn't the worst I've woken up to, but still not going in the right direction.. =/

There are a few people in the DOC suffering at the moment with depression amongst other things, and when this song came on it kinda made me think of them. Certain lyrics always make me think of me and the D, and makes me wanna kick its butt a bit more.

So DOC this one's for you xx

Hey hey girl, are you ready for today?
You got your shield and sword
'Cuz its time to play the games
You are beautiful
Even though you're not for sure
Don't let him pull you by the scar
You're gonna get your feelings hurt, yeah

You can push me out the window
I'll just get back up
You can run over me with your eighteen wheeler truck
And I won't give a
You can hang me like a slave
I'll go underground
You can run over me with your eighteen wheeler but
You can't keep me down, down, down, down
Read more: PINK - 18 WHEELER LYRICS http://www.metrolyrics.com/18-wheeler-lyrics-pink.html#ixzz1KBzeAYEV
Copied from MetroLyrics.com

Scared

So I might have skirted over the truth a little in my last blog...

I'm getting really scared/anxious about my first retinopathy screening tomorrow afternoon which is making me feel queasy, tense and giving me a headache. It's not the actual process that's scaring the shit out of me right now, but the results. The thought of being on tenterhooks for a couple of weeks fills me with dread, plus what if they don't arrive before I go on holiday?

You hear so many stories about retinopathy problems and blindness that it's enough to scare even the most unshakable people. I know I have youth on my side which I think is a good thing but I have no idea how long I've had D before my 'official' diagnosis so could I have developed some complications?

My eye-sight is bad enough as it is without retinopathy. Both eyes are around the -7 mark and I've worn glasses since the age of 10. Don't think I'd deal with eye problems on top of D very well. Hoping that better control is helping and that I'm worrying over nothing.

I don't want to worry my folks with my fears, but right now I'd just like someone to give me a hug and tell me it's all going to be alright.

London Baby!

So this time last week I was recovering after a great day in London, (finally) meeting people from the forum and also from Circle D to celebrate Circle D's third birthday!

Felt incredibly nervous beforehand, despite having Amy with me as my plus on, but Shelley (Circle D Founder and D-Police for the day) put me at ease straight away and we had a great time! Unfortunately due to fixed tickets we left early, so we could squeeze a bit of Covent Garden shopping in before hometime.

It was great testing and injecting with everyone, and Amy fought very hard not to ask everyone what their results were! We even tested her blood sugar just so she didn't feel left out and she got a 4.0, her response was 'OMG I'm nearly hypo, do I need a jelly baby?' :)

We're hopefully going to the Brighton forum meet in July and staying in a hotel overnight so we can stay longer and get more time to chat with everyone. If the weather's as nice as last year then it should be brill!

April's turning out to be a very busy month D-appointment wise! With both my eye-screening and pre-consultant blood test on Tuesday, my actual consultant appointment at the end of the month and my meds review on May 5th! It's great that they all fall before my holiday.. but means about half a day of my lieu day :(  My last HbA1c was 8.4 at the beginning of the year so I'm really hoping for an improvement as I'd had three lots of illness over the Xmas/New Year period. Getting more readings under 10 thanks to my Carb Counting book, and my waking levels are still a little off but getting there, just hope that my hypo's haven't thrown it off too much..

xxx

Pics are from Shelley and Alan at diabetespoetry.blogspot.com  

D Milestones! DSMA April Blog Carnival

I'm still fairly new to D and it's constant ups and down (both mentally and physically on my meter!) so I don't think I have fully 'accepted' it, it's just there being a pain in the arse. Some days are better than others and hopefully I'll grow to accept it as the years go by – I'm only really beginning my D-journey! At the moment thinking of another 50 or years with D is pretty daunting but I hope I'm stubborn enough to do it :)

As in my About Me section, I was only diagnosed in 2009 (a couple of months after my 20^th birthday) so I started managing my D pretty much the the day/day after I was diagnosed. I was given a squidgy toy penguin to inject with a pen pre-filled with water so I could practise, did it once and then moved on to me! No-one else has ever had to give me an injection or call 999 which I'm quite relieved about!

Me and the D take turns in owning each other at the moment, I'm trying more now to shift that from 50/50 to 70/30. High/low numbers and hypo hangovers will always let me know that the D is there ready to own me at any opportunity. Numbers in range lets the D know that I'm still doing my thing and that it's not going to spoil my day. I've never had full-on burnout lasting more than a day or two, I think starting my blog and being a member of the forum/DOC has helped me a lot over the past few months.

The thought of my family/close friends having to deal with me not being here is a massive inspiration, I want to be here till I'm in my 80s/90s and have had a good innings. Not one of the statistics that scare people! People from the forum and DOC also inspire me because a lot of them have been through so much, both D and non-D related, but are still here and have a great sense of humour about it all :)

At first I hid a lot from my family/friends about how much it scared me and if I was hypo/hyper and also because you can tell if a person is genuinely interested or not. I'm more open about it now because I need to know that should anything happen to me, that they know what to look for and what to do.

I think that having Diabetes has helped me to find 'true' loved ones that care/support me and don't just ignore it. It's a part of my life which I am going to talk about xP I am however still a little guarded about my fears for the future, because I don't want to scare them with it..
At the moment I'm looking forward to all the future milestones that are coming my way, meeting someone, settling down and all that slush xP

As long as I'm kicking D arse along the way, bring it on!

This post is my April entry in the DSMA Blog Carnival.  If you’d like to participate too, you can get all of the information at http://diabetessocmed.com/2011/april-dsma-blog-carnival/

P.s to visit Sprinkles the Diabetes Advocacy Unicorn go here :)

Wordless Wednesday!



Can't beat a bit of April sun! x

Bazinga!

Happy Mothers Day! Hope the D-Fairy is playing nice :)

I've had a pretty rocky few days with the D, which is why it's been a while since my last post. Today's the first day I feel 100% and not like absolute shite.

Thursday morning started just before 7am and got a 3.x pre-breakfast.

WHAT THE FUDGE?!

I've never ever woken up low before. Normally I'm bouncing off the walls if I get a 5 or 6, because they happen once in a blue moon! As I was on the early shift starting at 8am I got my breakfast ready (weetabix) and reduced my Novo then off to work. Got to about 10/11am and I felt the early hypo signs so grabbed a couple of jelly beans (cherry & bubblegum isn't a good combo FYI) but after 20mins or so I didn't feel any better.

Did I mention I hadn't got my meter with me? Super D Fail.

So more jelly beans go down the hatch and as it gets nearer to 12pm my friend Amy is pretty worried and offers me a lift home. But nooo I have my stubborn D 'I can do it myself' head on, so I politely declined.

Mistake no. 2.

I did manage to get home okay and tested straight away. Result was a 3.x and a god awful migraine! Had my dinner and again reduced my dose slightly, just to be on the safe side. Got back to work and tested after 1/2 hours. 7.x on first test and 9.x on the second. PHEW! Now just a cracking headache to deal with. No tears at work either, which I was quite proud of!

Got home just after 4pm (then came the tears along with an hour long nap) and pre-dinner test was 4.4 but went hypo again at 8/9pm. Went completely OTT with the hypo treatments as was so tired and exhausted. It was a binge on all the wrong stuff, which made me feel super guilty and sicky afterwards. Not good... however I went to bed on a 9.x which was a bit of a surprise.

Felt the after effects on Friday, with a dull headache and feeling ill. Luckily I had a day off work so could rest. Only one hypo before lunch and felt a lot better towards the end of the day.

The things I've learnt from this are:

1. Diabetes is a bitch.

2. I need a spare meter at work in case I forget.

3. I need to accept help when it's offered or ask if I need it.

4. I'm as stubborn as a mule at times.

5. Bazinga is great if you need cheering up :)

xxx