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*

DSMA October Blog Carnival - Do You 'Get It?'

This month's DSMA asks: What types of decisions and frequency of diabetes related decisions do you make in any given day?

I think pretty much every decision I make during the day is diabetes related, because at some point or another it WILL affect my finger pricker results:

How many carbs are in that?
Am I going to eat all of that?
Do I round up or down?
Am I coming down or going up?
To exercise or not?
What's the weather like outside?
Is my site not absorbing or is it my pen?
Is that packaing correct?
Will that jelly bean/glucotab bring me up enough?
Should I test?
Will this correction dose be too much?
Is it diet?
How much insulin do I have on board?
Have I touched something that could affect my reading?
Has something happened whilst I've been asleep?
To flu-jab or not?

Every day is filled with different decisions and whether or not you think they are diabetes related, they usually are.

You'd be surprised at the amount of things to take in to consideration before putting food in your mouth!

This post is my October 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/october-dsma-blog-carnival/

No D Day

Today is No D Day, created by the lovely George at Ninjabetic and my first time taking part :)

This is my day without D.

I'm going to have a lie in.

Be woken up by having a crazy puppy being dropped on my bed licking me to death.

Snuggle in my jammies watching crappy daytime TV enjoying a cup of tea in bed.

Go to the beach with my best friend.

Make sandcastles.

Paddle in the sea.

Eat ice cream in a deck chair.

Do some shopping and people watching (in a non-stalker kinda way..)

Enjoy a meal out with my friends and/or family.

And order dessert!

Get dressed up.

Have a few drinks.

A dance.

Stay up till I wanted.

ALL WITH NO WORRYING! <3

For more No D Day posts please click here. Thank you so much George for creating this :)

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

Wordless Wednesday

PDAC Adjusting Course Day Four

Monday was my last day of the PDAC course :(
Those four days went far too quickly, and I'm going to miss my Mondays off..

It's been brilliant meeting new people in similar situations with the D, watching how they've completely changed their regime in order to improve/gain control.

For me it was about stabilising my levels so it's not quite such a bumpy ride throughout the week. My books have helped me guesstimate the carbs in food, however it needed a little more fine tuning which I think the course has given me. The dietician said I need to be a little more of a round-down kinda girl :)

My diet needing a kick up the jacksy, I already knew so I am trying to up my fruit and veg intake again. Saying yes to the green stuff rather than 'Um, maybe next time..' I'm still finding things that are equivalent to 1 of my 5 a day.. but at least I'm trying, right?

I also found out that I could have caused my own high sugars whilst on holiday earlier this year! They suggested rather than adjusting my Lantus each day to get into the US timezone to do it in 2 blocks so my body gets used to it quicker. My way would have just settled as we were coming home, only to be changed back on to UK time! *GAHHH*

At least I know for next time! Plus it's put my mind at rest, as I was a little wary of travelling abroad again.. =/

Learning about the complications of D was a little rough, but something that needed to be done. We're all told by the media, or relatives, about that uncle twice removed who lost his life or limbs to D but nothing else. The consultant who paid us a visit was quick to say that the majority of cases he has seen, the people involved were smokers. Something that isn't usually reported as far as I've seen. As long as we keep control of the D, have regular check-ups, screenings and HbA1c tests then the complications will be lurking in the background but nothing serious.

I just wish they did a '1 Year Renuion' for PDAC alumni! :D

Here's hoping that the course is a good influence on my next HbA1c x

PDAC Adjusting Course Day Three

I can't believe my four weeks is up tomorrow. It's gone far too quickly!
It's been brilliant spending every Monday with other PWD. Talking about our highs and lows during the past week, the changes we're making and what we are learning from this whole experience is great. I don't feel like I'm boring people with my D because we're all in the same boat.

It was a full house on Monday which was great. We could all catch up again and find out how we are getting on. As mentioned in my previous posts, a couple of us (myself included) are already carb counting, so it's been great watching those who haven't, managing to conquer the D and getting the readings they've been wanting for a long time (especially as a couple are in pursuit of a pump!).

Since starting the course I have noticed that my levels are stabilising throughout the day, the above 10 results are still there (and always will be, especially during certain days) but are becoming less frequent. I'm adding up my carbs a little more too, whereas before I'd always round up. Sometimes it worked perfectly, and others.. well, it didn't. Now I'm doing more sums, it's still a little rough but I have reduced some meals by a unit or two of insulin.

Another thing I've gained from going on the course ,and recent fundraising for a local dog rescue charity, is the inspiration to do some fundraising myself for DUK next year. I can't promise a skydive or a marathon! But I'll have a go at something :)

With various things going on this week has been a bit of a struggle, particularly over the last few days, with hypo's. A combination of walking and not reducing my insulin enough has meant me battling lows, and also waking up in th early hours this morning with a 3.3mmol.

It brought up a sore point with my meter, as I felt lower than that. If I've ever had night hypo's where I've woken up sweating and shaking I've been in the 2s. I know that meters aren't exact and have a certain 'range' which isn't helpful when you don't really know how low you are. Lows that don't budge, and night-time lows are the ones that get to me. Over sensitive, emotional, quiet. Useless.