DSMA September Blog Carnival - D Swag!

This month's Blog Carnival is all about Diabetes gear, what you carry arround with you and where! I have little bits of D-swag dotted around my room, in various drawers and boxes, at work and at Amy's. You can never be too careful!

This is normally the D related contents of my handbag:

GlucoTabs (Raspberry flavour)
Test kit
Pens with spare needles


















As none of it's attached to me... my bag doesn't really vary much. It gets triple checked in the morning, and double checked at the weekend by either my Mum or Amy (as I have been known to forget things...).

Diabetes gear isn't normally... attractive, and if it is usually comes with a hefty price tag so I was given a nice sparkly pencil case to keep my pens (fitted with their Timesulin caps) safe and in one place, along with a handful of spare pen needles and a tissue just in case of bleeders!

This post is my September entry in the DSMA Blog Carnival. If you’d like to participate too, you can get all of the information at http://diabetessocmed.com/2012/september-dsma-blog-carnival-2/

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!

Fancy a Postcard Buddy?

I can't believe it's almost a year ago since I blogged about the last World Diabetes Postcard Exchange :)

If you haven't heard of it then here's a little info taken from the brand new website:

"Welcome to the home of the World Diabetes Day Postcard Exchange, an initiative to connect people affected by diabetes from around the world with each other during the month of November in celebration of World Diabetes Day and Diabetes Awareness Month. Participants in the Postcard Exchange send and receive handmade postcards with assigned Postcard Buddies. They create postcards using the blue circle, the international symbol of diabetes, in their design. The Postcard Exchange was created to promote healing through Creativity, Connection, and Activism"

This year is looking to be even bigger than last year, so head on over to the website for more information and to fill in the new registration form! If you have any questions please contact the lovely creator of WDDPE Lee Ann Thill at leeann@wddpe.com

I got a really lovely postcard from a PWD in New York last year, and can't wait to find out who my postcard buddy will be this year :)

So get signed up and get creative!

Are You Type 1 Aware?

Earlier this year, Diabetes UK and JDRF launched an amazing educational video which asks 'Are you Type 1 Aware'?

It looks at those who develop T1 during their childhood years and aims to raise awareness of the symptoms, which although obvious, can be mis-diagnosed or unwittingly ignored. If parents are aware of the symptoms then children are much more likely to be diagnosed before they reach life threatening DKA therefore reducing their chances of becoming seriously ill.

DUK and JDRF are hoping to get a million hits before World Diabetes Day in November, so please share this video with as many people as you can, both on and offline.

You could save a childs life.

DOC Hits UK!

This coming week marks the third Tweet Meet for the GBDOC! Inspired by the weekly #DSMA and #OzDOC chats, more people with Diabetes can now connect every Wednesday from 9pm - 10pm across the various timezones :)

If you want to find out more and join in please visit click on the links below:

@theGBDOC
http://www.facebook.com/groups/thegbdoc/
http://tweetchat.com/room/gbdoc

I was so excited to find this on Twitter, every Thursday morning I'd scroll down my Twitter feed to see the #DSMA chats that I'd missed, wishing I could have stayed up to take part (unfortunately sleep always wins... :p). That's why I always tried to take part in the Blog Carnivals each month. And now I get to do both! =D

So spread the word - Wednesday nights 9pm - 10pm (GMT) Miss it or MISS OUT!
 

Hypo Awareness Week

Today's the last day of the UK's first ever National Hypo Awareness week, the aim of which is highlight the symptoms and dangers of hypoglycaemia in people who have Diabetes, to all hospital staff in England and Wales.

For more infomation please visit the Diabetes NHS website here.

It would be lovely to see this event getting bigger and bigger with each year, not just making hospital staff aware (which is obviously very important), also the general public. Not an OTT scare the crap out of you campaign as I'm sure the media would LOVE..... Just something to show that first assumptions aren't always correct. Slurring words and lack of concentration also apply to hypo symptoms, not just too much alcohol!

I've had a couple of conversations with new work colleagues about my D and what they would need to do in the event of me being unable to treat myself. At my previous job the First Aider said in this event, he would feed me a Mars bar and give me mouth-to-mouth.... <makes me grimace thinking about it now still!>

I explained that I had GlucoGel in my top drawer and how to apply it, but most of all to call 999. I was also asked what it feels like to be hypo and how to recognise it.

Every hypo is different, it can attack in many ways, slow or fast, all or nothing...


> Lack of concentration
> Shaking/Trembling
> Sweating
> Blurry vision
> Tingling (this happens to my arms in particular but also affects your lips)
> Anxiety/becoming quiet and withdrawn
> Slurring words
> Irrational behaviour
> Racing pulse or palpitations
> Irritability

These are just a few tell-tale signs/symptoms of a hypo. THEY SUCK.

Sometimes they take a few minutes to bounce back from, others can wipe you out for a few hours. I was told by a DSN once that 'hypo's breed hypo's'. I've only experienced continual lows a handful of times, and they really put you through the ringer. Your mind and body feels battered and broken. All you want to do is curl up in a ball and cry.

DSMA August Blog Carnival - You're Fired!!!

Your pancreas is in a job interview and totally bombed the question about ______.

Reading Karen's response to this months DSMA Blog Carnival topic immediately made me think of The Apprentice, sitting in the boardroom answering questions from Lord Sugar (or that bloke with the bad comb-over if you live in the USA...).

If my pancreas were being interviewed, it would DEFINATELY bomb the question about teamwork.

My lovely darling pancreas has a nasty habit of having a D-strop whenever I'm going out somewhere special or am on holiday, abroad or still in the UK. If I'm having a crappy day at work, my pancreas doesn't sit back and leave me in peace. It screams at me with a hypo or a hyper just to make sure I haven't forgotten it's there. Dead as a dodo.

This post is my August entry in the DSMA Blog Carnival. If you’d like to participate too, you can get all of the information at http://diabetessocmed.com/2012/august-dsma-blog-carnival-2/