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

Diabetes Art Day

Happy Diabetes Art Day!

This year I was a little more organised with my art project! I took inspiration a few months ago whilst I had a hypo in my room and snuggled up with the crocheted blanket I was knitting for Amy.

It's not quite finished, but here it is so far....

Diabetes Comfort.

















For more information on Diabetes Art Day please click here. It's a brilliant project expressing your life with Diabetes and another way to connect with other people from the DOC. Next year is going to be a little different with DArtDay moving to February, so plenty of time to get your thinking caps on! :)

I decided to tie in my Diabetes Art Day project with World Diabetes Day my making a DOC blanket and then giving it away via my blog.

If you would like to be in with a chance of winning the DOC blankie made by moi (not super neat and fancy I'm afraid...) then please tweet me using the icon on your left or PM Teapot Diabetic on Facebook. I'll pick a name at random on World Diabetes Day and post permitting, you'll have it before Christmas!

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!

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*

You've Got Mail!

Over the past few days I noticed a lot of people on Twitter talking about a postcard exchange celebrating World Diabetes Day on November 14th.. so I decided to have a ganders and discovered a brilliant way to celebrate WDD and make new D friends from anywhere in the world!

Lee Ann Thill from The Butter Compartment and creator of Diabetes Art Day, came up with the World Diabetes Postcard Exchange. The rules are:

1) Email your postal address to Lee Ann at leeann@thebuttercompartment.com. If you would like to be matched with an adult, child or family, another T1/T2, or if you are a T3, spouse, sibling or parent, please indicate that.  Lee Ann will do her best to match you with someone similar. Otherwise, your recipient will be random, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing! We’re sending old-school post office-delivered postcards, so Lee Ann will need your snail mail address.

 

2) Expect to receive an email with the name and address of your postcard recipient.  Lee Ann's trying to collect a list of people from many different places, and as soon as the list fills out, she’ll be sending the emails.

 

3) Use the WDD Blue Circle and all the creativity you can fit on a 3.5” x 5” piece of cardstock.

 

4) On the back of the postcard, complete this mini D meme, in addition to anything else you’d like to share with your recipient: 

• Your name:
• Where you live:
• Your connection to diabetes:
• Type of diabetes:
• Year of diagnosis:
• One thing you do to Act On Diabetes:
• One Word:

5) Mail it, ideally in time for the recipient to receive it by November 14th. If you’re unable to do that, please at least have it postmarked by then.

 

6) Check your mailbox for a postcard from the person who was assigned your name and address.

 

7) If you like, post a photo of the postcard you receive on the World Diabetes Day Postcard Exchange Facebook page.

If you are a little wary about sharing details, then please visit Lee Ann's page for further details. She has assured everyone taking part that only she, and the recipient will receive your address details. I signed up yesterday and now just need to find a piece of card and a little inspiration for my design! Who knows I may make a new D-friend and we become penpals :D

So what are you waiting for? Go sign up now! x

Do the BiG Blue Test, on World Diabetes Day

Hi folks

As most of you know World Diabetes Day is on November 14th 2010 and the Diabetes Hand Foundation have set up the 'Big Blue Test'

"http://BigBlueTest.org is a program of the Diabetes Hands Foundation (DHF). It takes place every November 14 (World Diabetes Day. People with diabetes are invited to test their blood sugar at 2 pm (local time), do 14 minutes of activity, test again and share the results.Nov. 14, 2010, DHF is aiming for a minimum of 100,000 views of its Big Blue Test promotional video. To help the foundation reach this goal, Roche Diabetes Care (makers of ACCU-CHEK® diabetes products and services), has underwritten the production of this video and will make a donation for every view the video receives up to $75,000. DHF will use the donation to help the Life for a Child program, run by the International Diabetes Federation, and Insulin For Life. These two global, humanitarian organizations provide diabetes medication and supplies to children in the world's poorest countries."



xx