Today marks the beginning of the eighth annual Diabetes Blog Week, organised by the lovely Karen at Bitter~Sweet where us bloggers (or part-timers like moi) get the chance to post about a set topic each day for five days. It's a great opportunity to 'meet' new people from across the globe and read the different interpretations of the topic.
"Diabetes can sometimes seem to play by a rulebook that makes no sense, tossing out unexpected challenges at random. What are your best tips for being prepared when the unexpected happens? Or, take this topic another way and tell us about some good things diabetes has brought into your, or your loved one’s, life that you never could have expected?"
I've taken inspiration from a recent Diabetes UK campaign called #TheOne so here we go....
It's a Saturday night, I've had a lovely meal/takeaway with my hubby and have had a pretty good day with my Diabetes. I've had a drink or two with my meal and am feeling a little flirty so decide to head on upstairs to buff, polish and pamper until I'm feeling like Sasha Fierce (only a lot more self conscious and awkward....). Some nice music goes on to set the mood and hubby comes upstairs wondering what on earth I'm up to. Eyebrows go up and the penny drops!
He is fantastic with my Diabetes and always asks if I've tested before things get too carried away, however on this occasion I say "I'm fine, don't worry about it". I romantically swig a little Lucozade to stop the frowning expression on his face, unclip my pump and we move on.
Big mistake!
Within a few minutes my arms start tingling and my hands start shaking and all I have in my head is 'F-ck!!!!! Not now!!!'. For some bizarre reason I thought that it would pass so tried to ignore the hypo symptoms, which obviously didn't work. Hubby picks up on the fact that something was wrong, the brakes go on fairly sharpish and I relent and grab my testing kit. Surprise surprise it's a 3.3 hypo which I've now made worse....
For me the worst thing was that my husband apologised to me. My stupidity and stubbornness to not let Diabetes affect the most intimate part of my life had made my husband feel guilty and almost responsible for my hypo.
Needless to say, now I test beforehand every single time. Even if it means that it's a no-go. I don't want Diabetes spoiling my fun, but I understand that my choices can have an affect on my loved ones so being responsible is important.
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