Twas The Night Before World Diabetes Day...

The big blue day is almost here! And there's so much blue to talk about :)

Blue Fridays and World Diabetes Day itself - wear as much blue as possible to spread the word and awareness. Sadly I'm at work so don't think electric blue hair would go down well... but blue nails, accessories and some blue clothes are definately happening

World Diabetes Postcard Exchange - it's almost time to post your cards if you haven't already done so! I got my recipient today so I shall be doing a bit of crafting tonight to post tomorrow. I think I'm going to use my blankie as inspiration for my postcard design :)

World Diabetes Day Twitter Chat - DOC's from across the world are uniting for 16 hours, with 16 hosts and 6 topics throughout the day. Simply join the chat by adding hashtag #WDDChat12 on to your tweets and connect with thousands of other PWD

Spread the word - share as many of your results on Facebook and/or Twitter to raise awareness and to hopefully get people talking about Diabetes. Don't forget to put the blue circle on your profile pics :)

Teapot Diabetic giveaway - I am giving away a very blue blanket to celebrate WDD, simply message me on FB or on Twitter and I'll pick a name from a hat tomorrow!

Happy World Diabets Day everyone, stay blue! xx

Blue

Apologies for the lack of posts during Diabetes month. It's been a weird and wonderful few weeks and although I've neglected my blog a little, I have been wearing my blue and telling the people who asked why. I even had the bestest person I know wearing blue almost every Friday as well :)

I didn't take photo's of every single blue outfit, but I did get little Winnie involved one Friday so here it is!

(She was awake at the time I promise!) If I weren't working each Friday I'd have gotten some blue streaks, who knows maybe next year..?

So here's the little update on me:

About six weeks ago I was told I could be made redundant. I have my suspicions as to the REAL reason why this was happening (I finally stood up for myself a couple of weeks earlier) but I'll never find out the truth so took it on the chin. Lots of people have this happen to them especially in recent times. It hasn't been the actual redundancy that's upset me, it has been the way it's come about, feeling pushed out and isolated when I'm in a team of around 20 people.

I hadn't wanted to tell anyone until I know myself, but as D-Day is looming I need to get it off my chest. Unfortunately when I left school I had no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I'm not one of those lucky people who says at the age of 18, right I'm going to go be a lawyer/doctor/teacher now. I had absolutely no clue, felt incredibly useless and lost for 3 months before finding a local admin job.

Now I'm back in that place again, except 3 years older. Making me feel even more useless and frustrated that I don't have any idea what I want to do in the future. I got reasonable grades at school/sixth form but sadly wasn't one of those who could write an essay 30 minutes before class and get an A for it. My parents and friends are being incredibly supportive and trying to keep my spirits up, but I just feel like such a burden. And a miserable one at that.

Diabetes isn't my top priority at the moment (yes I know it should be) and it's showing. I'm still testing/injecting, but getting more emotional with any high/low results. Feeling like you're losing control of all aspects isn't nice but I'm determined to get back on it well in time for Christmas.

Thank you so so much to the people who are putting up with me at the moment <3

World Diabetes Day

Not gonna lie, that banner is a little scary and upsetting. But without it, people have no idea just how serious Diabetes is. They just think you've eaten too many balls of candyfloss, and if you stop you'll be perfectly fine.

BULL!

I didn't eat sugar till the cows came home, and two years ago I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. It's never going to leave me until there's a cure. I'm so incredibly grateful for insulin, its keeping me alive and well! It's not the answer though, it's like a ventilator keeping me going. We desperately need a cure, and for people to realise that Diabetes isn't what they read in the media.

Until a cure is developed I will:

Test my sugars 4 or more times a day.
If I live to 81 and tested 4 times a day, I'll have done nearly 120,000 finger pricks.

Inject my NovoRapid
If I live to 81 and inject my NovoRapid after each meal, I'll have injected nearly 90,000 times. And this doesn't even include corrections.

Inject my Lantus.
If I live to 81 and inject my Lantus every night, I'll have injected myself nearly 30,000 times.

Diabetes doesn't seem as easy now you read that, does it?

As part of World Diabetes Day, Diabetes UK is asking people to get behind the 15 healthcare essentials campaign to make sure we are all getting the care we need. If you're not aware of what you should be getting from your care team then you could be missing out!

Also there's still time to get your Big Blue Test in! Head over to www.bigbluetest.org/ and enter your results in to help get D supplies to people in need. Over the 5000 mark now but still need to hit 8000 before the end of the day.

Simply, test. Get active for 14-20 minutes. Test again. Enter your results!

Remember, Remember..

... the 5th of November - Happy Bonfire Night everyone! :)

Apologies for the lack of recent posts, it's been a tough few weeks but it's November which means it's finally Diabetes Month! Just the kick up the arse I needed to get back on track with my blog.

Firstly, I posted a couple of weeks ago about the World Diabetes Postcard Exchange (which I thought was an awesome idea!). I finally finished my card on Thursday and posted it yesterday to my match. I'm not a particularly crafty person, but managed not to glue my hands together or make a big mess and have to start again!

I have also now been challenged to make a Diabotic :D
Who knows, maybe I'm a crafty person after all...















November also means the start of Blue Fridays! I had to help out at Stores so used this as an excuse to wear my bright blue hoodie (please excuse the rubbish camera phone quality!). I also got to wear my Circle D Rocks badge as it's blue too. Afternoon back in the office meant changing back out of my jeans BUT I found a blue top and kept blue all day!






















I'm hopefully off on Friday so I can wear blue whilst completing my Big Blue Test! Just test and record your reading, complete around 15 mins of exercise in any shape or form then test again and post  your results on the website and share on FB/Twitter etc :)

This year aims to get 8000 participants sharing their results so get testing and exercising!

Blue Monday? Blue Tuesday? NO, Blue Fridays!

The lovely Cherise at Diabetic Iz Me has created Blue Fridays, an initiative to promote World Diabetes Day (November 14th) by getting everyone to wear blue on each Friday in November and also on the 14th itself.

Help promote both WDD and Blue Fridays by visiting their Facebook page and sharing/tweeting/blogging to spread the word. You can also post pictures of yourself on the site wearing your blue :)

I'd sooo love to do blue streaks in the barnet... but I don't think it'd go down well at work, so it'll just be blue clothes, blue nails and (if I can find any) blue jammies!! :D

Just a little update with me and the D..

I've been dreading my HbA1c for a little while now, it's been sticking around the 8/8.5% mark for the past few results and I was hoping desperately for a drop, even it was 0.1%! I've had a rough month professionally which has had a negative effect on my levels, especially the two weeks before my bloods were taken.

*cough* typical *cough*

My carb counting course helped my keep under 10mmol the vast majority of the time, so getting readings of 20mmol+ was pretty gutting. The stress has also taken its toll on my appetite, which brought ketones into the mix. I knew I had to keep eating but struggled a lot so I was having about half of my normal food.

Not exactly what you need before visiting the consultant!

Tested my ketones on that morning and got 0.4, so I knew I needed to get over what had happened before it affected my health further. I was expecting the worst when I arrived, however I was given a silver lining, and a HbA1c of 7.5%!

Since then I'm still running high than usual, however today I've had one reading of 10mmol and everything else below. So hopefully my rough patch is over and I can get back to the 5s and 6s I'd only just gotten used to! *crosses fingers*