Driving and Other Important Things

Hello People of the Internet
How are you this rather crappy December afternoon. I don't know what the weathers like where you are but for us in England this is the first time in about 3 million years its stopped raining. You don't even know how excited this makes me, its just adding to my excitement about these couple of weeks which are the best of the year. So in the middle of December it's my birthday and this year is the year I get to, legally, drive a car. However the diabetes just loves to complicate things when it comes to driving. I applied for my provisional in mid November and then a week or so later the DVLA sent me the load of forms to be filled in about the diabetes including the name and address of my doctor and a thing I had to sign saying it was okay for them to look through my records. Which is all fine and I know they need to make sure my control is good enough so that they know I wont be hazard to drive. But I sent the forms off three weeks ago now and I'm actually 17 so you know I'd like to be able to drive. 

If you have a hypo this is the advice/rule from the DVLA "Do not drive on until at least 45 minutes since your blood sugar has risen above 5.0mmols/l and you feel fully alert" okay so for a 17 year old who has had diabetes for as long as they can remember I am expected to wait almost an hour after having a hypo to drive again?! Now my control is pretty good I've only had one episode of severe hypoglycemia (classed as requiring the assistance of somebody else because you are unaware/unable to administer glucose) and then I doubt I would even drive for the rest of the day. But seriously a low hypo for me is about 2.7 and give me a good 10-15 minutes afterwards and I am fine. Don't get me wrong I fully understand where the DVLA are coming from and that for some people it will take that long to recover but as a blanket rule I feel it is a bit harsh. The DVLA seem to have looked at the worst case scenarios of people having a hypo and decided to set rules that apply to the most severe cases to everyone. 

For example if I was driving to college one day for my first lesson I would check my blood sugar before I left and if I was having a hypo and then waited 45 minutes as recommended I wouldn't get to college until half way through the lesson. I just feel that it is so impractical to expect people to wait for so long after a hypo just so the DVLA can be 100% sure they didn't mess up in their guidelines to diabetics. I think that the people deciding theses policies should try living as a diabetic for a day and see for themselves what it's like, they do consult with people but unless they actually experience it from our point of view how will they ever truly understand what they are forcing people to do?

Obviously there are ways around these rules but I won't publish them on the internet as that would be encouraging some terrible behaviour.

Merry Christmas, sorry for such a depressing post. I expect us all to be at least a stone heavier by the next time I talk to you all.

Rhona x

Frequently Asked Questions

What up people of the Internet? I am constantly asked the same questions again and I am always happy to answer them because the more that's known about diabetes the better. But I thought for all the people that don't have a diabetic to hand I would answer the questions that I get asked so often.

1) What's the difference between type 1 and 2?
Type 1 Diabetes, the person's own body has destroyed the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. When your own body destroys good stuff in your body it has what is called an autoimmune disease. Type 1 is known as an autoimmune disease. 
People with Type 2 diabetes has one of two problems, and sometimes both:

1. Not enough insulin is being produced.
2. The insulin is not working properly - this is known as insulin resistance.

Type 1 is often diagnosed in childhood whereas type 2 occurs in adults and a high number of cases are due to obesity and poor diet.

2) So did you eat lots of sweets as a child?
No this is probably the most common of all the questions as people get the types confused. So as a child I personally didn't eat a lot of sweets but even if I had that's not the reason I am a diabetic.As I've already said type one is caused by genetics

3) Does it hurt?
This could be referring to my blood test, my injections or the cannula which is permanently in my body; The answer I always give is no and the reply is always I wouldn't be able to do that but imagine if you from the age of six were doing something everyday all day. It's become a part of my life that I genuinely couldn't live without and it doesn't hurt and it has in the past I've hit a nerve  putting my cannula in and that is the weirdest feeling ever.

Ok so there weren't many questions but to my mind these are the most important and  most often asked questions to me personally.

Rhona x

OHMYGOSH!

The title of this post is honestly the most said thing in the past 48hrs in my world at least. For those of you that don't know I'm a fangirl, and the fangirl world of mine has gone into meltdown this weekend. So instead of the heads of some of the most popular franchises on the planet being nice and spreading out their various shows/films/adverts they've all been shown on one weekend.

So on Thursday Catching Fire, the second Hunger Games, was released and twenty four hours later there I was in the cinema very excited as I've only been waiting a year for it. I'm pleased to say it didn't disappoint it was b e a utiful.  Francis Lawrence didn't miss a thing, obviously some things have to be changed in a book to film adaptation but he did so well. I wont spoil it for anyone but there was one tiny niggle and if you've read the book but not seen the film this is a teensy tiny spoiler in 3......2.......1....0. The last line of the book makes me bawl and I was curled in a ball peeking through my hands knowing what was coming and they freaking went and added a bit on! The last line is perfect and the added bit just completely destroyed the powerfulness. However everything else was practically perfect.

Then on Saturday was the 50th anniversary of, if you haven't guessed by now where I'm going with this you must have been under a rock, Doctor Who. The feature length episode was shown in over 75 countries including in cinemas. That's insane! The writers of all the related doctor who shows that have been on the past few weeks/days have discovered how to take the heart of a teenage girl and stamp on it before throwing it into the deepest ocean. The saddest moment in TV history ever was when David Tennant was regenerating and said "I don't wanna go" as he began to cry. If you've not seen it don't watch it or every reference that Steven Moffat could throw into the fiftieth to remind viewers of the painfulness will kill you. I personally loved the episode and all the little references to the past doctors and, spoilers again, Capaldi and then Tom Baker at the end. However some people didn't like the deepness and cleverness of the episode which is personally what I love but hey I thought it was good.

Just as the episode ended there was another treat for my emotionally fragile world with a new Sherlock trailer. Admittedly I wasn't really paying a lot of attention and spent a while focusing on Johns moustache which I still really don't like.

Finally, I promise this is the last one, I got round to buying Allegiant the final book in the trilogy of post apocalyptic books by Veronica Roth. I'm beginning to devour it so don't spoil it! I've had to be careful on facebook as I like a couple of pages about it and the spoilers are calling my name.

So as you can see I'm still recovering from one meltdown after another. It's tough being a fangirl you know, I joke I joke.

Rhona x

Closets

Okay so this is a really quick post this week as this video came up on my news feed and I thought you lot should see it. It's one of the most motivational things I've ever seen. So if you've got a hard conversation to have don't hold onto the grenade.
Rhona x

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSR4xuU07sc

Sailing..From a While Back

What up people of the Internet? How are you all doing this incredibly windy and wet evening. It might not be windy and wet where you are, in which case aren't you lucky, however in the Scottish highlands it most definitely is. So all the way back in early September, when it was dry and still light at 4pm, I went on my first racing weekend. I'd like to tell you that it went smoothly, without a hitch but I've only been on one of the possible four more after that.

So we turned up bright and early on the Saturday morning and got the boat set up, all going smoothly so far. Then we got on the water in fairly windy conditions, nothing we couldn't handle, and we sailed around for ever because they delayed the start time. We were still sailing around when there was a very loud crunch and the mast bent at forty five degrees. Now the guy I sail with has never, when I'm on the boat at least, panicked or freaked out until this point. As the mast wasn't being held up like it should we couldn't sail anywhere and were stranded out in the middle of the Solent. We managed, don't ask me how, to beach the boat and drag it out of the sea and it turned out that a shackle on the rigging had worn down so far it had just snapped. This caused the rest of the rigging to pull the mast way over the other side, thankfully it was an easily solved problem. The rescue boat was busy pulling a boat along that had a hole in it's hull and had completely filled with water and they managed to pull it half out of the water next to us. The sailors then had to sit there for the next few hours until the tide went out enough that they could empty the hull. We managed to create a temporary support for the mast to hold it in place.

One of the guys on the rescue boat decided that he knew more about diabetes than i did with comments like "You'll be the last to know you're fine" despite my repeated assurances that I was, with a blood sugar of 9.8, completely fine. I have never disliked someone so quickly in my life, he had no experience with diabetes while I had been living with it for 10 years and he had the nerve to tell me I didn't know what I was doing.

Anyway we sailed back to shore and attempted to go out for the third and final race of the day but the winds had picked up and we were not prepared for it. So that was the end of saturday.

We were sharing a tent with a couple of other people and I can honestly say it was the worst nights sleep I have ever had. One of them snored, not a snoring you could just ignore and block out this guy was like a thunderstorm and the rain pelting the tent was the icing on the cake.

In the morning my blood sugar was 20.2 not the worst it's ever been but not particularly good either and then I checked for ketones. 3.4 which then went up to 3.9! I haven't had an "incident" like that for years. Safe to say there wasn't any chance of me getting on a boat again that weekend. However awful that weekend was I learnt a hell of a lot and so on.

Rhona x

Sorry!

Hey everyone,
I wanted to promise you that I am not dead nor have I forgotten about you lovely lot. I started my A levels in September and my schedule has been craazy! I have 100 times more work than I did a year ago and its been a bit mental. Buut it's half term next week so I WILL write a new post, especially as I have so much to write about.

Rhona xx

How not to piss off the waitress

This summer I spent my time working as a waitress in the local stately home. It wasn't a particularly demanding job I served food from the buffet, cleared tables and loaded and unloaded the industrial style dishwasher. Now I won't lie I hated it, it is the most boring job but also quite tiring as you spend 4-6 hours (that was the extent of my shifts) on your feet but it paid well so I'm not complaining too much. It came to my attention when I finished my shift today just how well people piss me off in the little things they do. For example today I was clearing tables and we do scones with teeny tiny pots of jam and I kid you not this empty jam pot had at least six wasps in it. I don't have a problem with wasps but oh my gosh that was scary. So I figure you lot need to be taught appropriate etiquette towards the wait staff. NB this is not a serious post nor am I getting at anyone it's just the stuff I've picked up about people act in the last couple of months.

 Tell the waitress if you would like more or less of something, unless its a slice of cake which is pre cut. I'd hate for someone not to have the perfect meal because they didn't ask for something. I promise you we won't bite if there's not enough milk.

Eat everything please! Like with the pot of jam cakes and other sugary substances attract wasps, and that makes clearing away soo much harder. Obviously you don't have to eat everything as sometimes the portions of huge but it also means a lot of food goes to waste and that's bad. Because it means we have to scrape all the crap off the plates that people spent ages making and could feed people instead of being binned.

Don't complain about the food or service continually. We get that the food isn't always to your liking but really after the fifth complaint we're not gonna listen and we will be bitching about you in the back. Let's be honest how much can really be wrong with the food as the people who make it are trained professionals who know exactly how to make the meal, just because you don't like it doesn't mean its wrong.

If you have a tray do not, I repeat do not get rid of it. Waitresses are experts at stacking trays up to the absolute limit to take them back for washing.  By getting rid of it not only does it makes your table much harder to clear but it makes the waitress grumpy.

Most of all be nice to the waitresses we are working our butts off to help you enjoy your meal and chances are we're very tired and stressed by the time we get to you. Don't forget to smile because that really cheers everybody up especially as it forces people to smile back which makes them happy!

I apologise if this came across as a bit of a rant it's just there are so many simple tips to make the waitresses life easier which will make her happier which will mean your service is better. One day you might thank me for it.

Rhona x

Holiday Checklist

So regular readers of my little blog will know that I forgot the reservoirs for my pump while on holiday in Germany this year. Therefore I have decided to create a checklist to prevent myself and others making the same mistake that I do every year. This is designed for pump users but it does include everything someone on injections would need.

1. Your blood sugar testing meter
2. Enough electrodes to last double the time your away, trust me the amount of times I've had to do double the tests or stayed a few more days for whatever reason.
3. Spare blood sugar meter, in case the first one breaks. I take my Optium Xceed so I can use it to do ketones if I need to.
4. Needles for finger pricker, I'm useless at changing the needle in my pricker but you should do it.
5. Insulin enough vials for the trip and then at least one spare. One of mine cracked once and I didn't realise and spent 24hrs injecting air.
6. Insulin pens, even if you're on the pump. You need them if you're pump breaks. For example when I left my reservoirs at home in Germany I had to use my pens for a while until the reservoirs got to us.
7. Reservoirs!
8.Sites and spares, they can rip out or go bad so you will need enough for the trip and then spares too.
9. Your inserter, otherwise you'll be stuck on pens for the holiday.
10. Your choice of blood sugar level raisers. So sugary drinks or lucozade tablets or whatever you want. Just beware if you're flying the whole regulation thing.

I've probably forgotten something but hey that's what makes a holiday, right?

Rhona x

Limitations

A popular saying is that *insert illness/problems here* didn't stop me doing anything. But sadly for some diabetics that is the case because our pancreas doesn't work properly, as one of my friends so cheerfully reminds me, we are limited in our job opportunities. We cannot have a job in the: Armed forces, Fire service, Ambulance Service, Prison service, Airline pilots and Airline Cabin crew, Air traffic control and Offshore work.

The reason that we can't do these jobs is so that we could put other people at risk if we were to have a hypo. I fully understand why we can't do it but a lot of people have great control that wouldn't have any sort of problem and would be fine in those jobs. It's not every job in those fields jut some of them.

Other limitations we face include, and I am generalising here, the DVLA. The regulations they have set for diabetics are insanely unrealistic. For example if you have a hypo you can't drive for 45minutes afterwards. How an earth do they expect people to wait almost an hour to be able to drive. For example you have an exam that you have to get to and you have a hypo okay so you've factored in time to get to you're exam and have time to get prepared once you're there. But by following the DVLA's guidelines you are definitely going to be late. I'm fully with them on the fact that you should NEVER drive when you're low it's the same as driving drunk.

I understand where the DVLA are coming from but it does beg the question about who exactly they consulted with when writing the regulations. I read somewhere, and don't quote me on this, that the panel for the regulations was made up of two diabetics, two DVLA officials and two independent people. So these two diabetics managed to make sure that the rest of the diabetic community are really stuck if they have a minor hypo and have an important thing to get to.

Of course there are ways of getting around this but I would never encourage you lot to mess around with the official regulations, not at all.

Rhona x

Sailing, Sort Of

So I've been sailing for a few months now, I did a weeks worth last summer and then finally got round to joining a club this year. Every Sunday is a race day and normally we go out on the catamarans which look a little something like this:  

It is the most amazing feeling when you're flying over the waves, that is until you capsize and are left splashing around in the sea.
Anyway the other Sunday it was different we took picos (another type of boat, which is much smaller and less powerful) out in teams of four and the idea was that each person in the team would go round the course once each. So when it was my go I was awful, I just kept sailing into wind, I think, and getting no where. It was so embarrassing! Especially as it was in front of the entire club. But never mind it was fun.

To try and improve our chances in the third race we all sat on the boat, which is not a big boat let me tell you, so we were basically sitting in the water and each time we completed a lap of the course one of us would jump off the boat. This saved us time on swapping people on and off the boat but lets be honest it didn't work I think we may have come fairly near last. Thankfully the race official managed to get boats mixed up so we came 4th overall, apparently.

If you weren't on the boat there was still ways to help you're team out, for example you could detach the rudder, or run off with the dagger board. All parts needed to sail happily. My pump stays on while I sail, thankfully its waterproof.

However when I go out on the catamaran I find my sugar levels drop and I don't need the pump on, but if I'm sailing something smaller then my sugars are fine. What I think is the problem is that when I sail the Cats I'm a lot more excited and nervous as I haven't done nearly as much of that compared to sailing smaller boats. I could be wrong.

Rhona x

Gallivanting Around Germany Part 2

So I'm back home now in the not so sunny, in fact quite gloomy and soggy South of England. Thankfully there were no more major disasters with the diabetes, my sight fell out once dues to spending most of the day swimming in the lake, but that was easily solved. While we were away we were travelling around the country and that meant hours and hours in a car. So temporary basals were used.

I decided to name my pump, I have no idea why, and after much deliberation mainly between me and my brother but with a little help from the people of twitter I have named it, drum roll please, Phillip Gustav. Or Phil for short then I figured I may as well name my meter to so it became Martin. I know they're not particularly exciting names but they work for me!

In Germany we did so much sight seeing, I HATE sight seeing. It is so boring especially as there seemed to be a billion churches that we had to visit. Don't get me wrong the best way to explore a place is to go sight seeing on foot, but to do it for  3 and a half days out of 14 it's to much. That might not sound like much but bear in mind we were also doing a lot of travelling which took up 5 and a half days that's 9 days of boredom. Although it did provide me with a good photography opportunity and some photos look quite good. I managed to take nearly 900 over the two weeks, but having sorted through them I've got them down to a slightly more manageable 371. I haven't even started editing or uploading them yet, it's another task on my growing to do list.

We took a trip up into the Alps near Chimsee in southern Germany. We went up half the mountain on a cable car, which was so cool, and then went on a short hike. We stopped at a cafe 10,000m above sea level which had the most incredible views across the Alps and the land on the other side.

The people we stayed with at one point seemed to think me and my brother were five years old, and while they were lovely people they would tell us not to do something and then lecture us on it for a further 5minutes. For example we were in the city centre and the tram network runs all the way through, I was waiting for the trams to stop so I could cross and they did so I crossed. Other people were crossing at the same time and the trams were loading and unloading so there was no chance of the moving off for a while. Yet our guide still felt the need to tell me to be careful when crossing the track and I know his intentions were good but I am 16 and while I may live in the country I am used to crossing busy roads and ones with stationary objects. They seemed to feel the need to wrap us in cotton wool which are the type of people who really grate on my nerves. Though they had the best food we ate.

We stopped in Belgium to break up the journey and one day we went for a kayak. It was 21km long down this very shallow river and it was epic. It was so much fun but also hard work and let me tell the teenage boys on the continent are mighty fine!
Of course Phil gave me an awkward tan line but hey it shows I managed to tan rather than stay pasty!

Rhona x

Gallivanting Around Germany Part 1

Sooo as I write this there is a thunderstorm going on outside and I finally found wifi. I've only been away a week and it's been mental. We traveled down to Munich from the South of England a week ago where we were staying with friends for a few days. My sugar levels were pretty OK and my control of my diabetes was fine until I came to do my set change. I realised I had left my reservoirs at home. Now this is not an uncommon problem of mine, when I was 8 i left my needles for my injections at home and my dad had to go tramping around the English countryside to a hospital to get some for me. This time though there was a language barrier and trying to get hold of extra supplies in your own country is hard enough.

Anyway we went to the nearest chemist with one of the friends we were staying with and I showed them my pump and the bit that was missing and they immediately knew what I needed. OK so it took a long time to ring up Accu Chek and get them to send it and then there was the postage and packing to pay for but it arrived the next morning ready for use. That night my pump finally ran out of insulin, having been stretched out two days longer than normal, and the alarms went off all through the night. I have no idea how to turn them off I tried stopping the pump completely and rewinding it ready for the full insulin cartridge but no it beeped all night long. Coupled with the very hot nights here in Germany I didn't sleep well. But I guess I deserved it for forgetting something important yet again.

What surprised me most  was that the Germans knew on sight what my pump was and that i was diabetic and it made me realise how little people in the UK know about diabetes. This could potentially be quite dangerous and the focus on many peoples minds seems to be finding a cure but personally I don't feel that's the best route, I reckon that the general public who don't come into contact with diabetes need to be educates on it. Even if it was just making sure people knew the difference between type 1 and 2.

Rhona

Meters Meters Meters

Well the weathers beautiful here in England and of course that's messed with the diabetes. I went through a stage where I was low all the time, whatever I did I was low. If I sat around all day and didn't bolus for anything I ate I was low. My basals went down and down and down, but now we have that all sorted yay!

Anyway when I was diagnosed 10 years ago I got a meter, I don't remember which one but the pricker looked a little something like the white one in the bottom right.

Then I also got a spare meter in case the first one broke or I ran out of strips. Every year our local hospital hold a technology night and I left every year with a new meter including this lot:










The last two meters the Optimum Xceed and the Accu Chek Combo  are the only two I'm left with. Now the Optimum is quite old but it is still the only meter that will test for ketones and if you aren't doing it on a meter you have to pee on a stick. Let's be honest nobody really wants to do that if they can help it, also the sticks are often a few hours late with the results so are not very accurate.

I have had all the meters shown here at one point but my mum made me get rid of them which sucks.Also I don't think you can ever have enough meters.

Rhona x

Getting Rid of My Diabetes, No Thanks!

Recently there has been a lot of talk about closed loop systems, a sensor measures your blood sugar level and works with the pump meaning you don't have to think about it, vaccines for the prevention of diabetes and "cures". Now I may be the only diabetic in the universe with this view but "curing" my diabetes doesn't sound like the miracle people are seeing it as.

I was diagnosed with diabetes ten years ago. Then I was six years old, I was still a child and therefore I grew up with diabetes. It has become part of me and I can't imagine life without it. Sure it has it's ups and downs and I have spent a fair few days in hospital. But these have provided some of the best stories and I have learnt so much from it. It's taught me to be so much more responsible for myself and I'm so much more aware about what is going on around me. To take that away from me I feel I would almost be lost without it. For me it has made me who I am today and also makes the awkward telling of an interesting fact about yourself nice and easy.


I fully understand why people would want to get rid of their diabetes. Some people have such a hard time controlling it and I think the older you are the harder it is to learn to control it. So for them a "cure" may be the answer, especially as the worse your control the higher risk of complications such as blindness. A lot of people are diagnosed with diabetes every day and for most of them it is a complete change in lifestyle but for the odd few it becomes a way of life.

A while ago I read an article abut how diabetes saved a girls life. She was drinking and partying all the time and was close to becoming seriously ill when she was diagnosed. She had to completely turn her life around to prevent her death. For people like her diabetes saved her life and for me I would be lost without it.

Rhona x

How an Insulin Pump Works, Kinda

So this week I thought I would talk about how and insulin pump works but from my perspective. Basically I don't have much of a clue either, but here goes.

Right so an insulin pump is a device which constantly pumps insulin into the body. It does this by pumping it through a tube and under the skin of the person wearing it. To get the tube into the persons leg it is, as my friends describe it, stabbed under the skin. That makes it sound a lot more painful than it is, basically it is injected using a needle. To make sure that the tube goes under the skin and not just the needle the injection has to be done by another device, the inserter which "stabs" the needle in at a high speed. Therefore it doesn't hurt. People cringe a lot when I tell them this and the first question every time is "Does it hurt?" and the honest answer is no most of the time. Occasionally it does and I want to sound sciency by saying it hurts when I hit a vein or a nerve, but I 99% that's wrong so don't go quoting me on that.

The insulin in the pump is stored in a reservoir which is just a small plastic tube and I fill this up from a vile of insulin using a plunger. Okay the slightly more complex stuff, don't worry I still know what I'm talking about, now insulin is used to control the amount of sugar in the blood so eating food will cause the blood sugar to rise. The insulin pump has it's most useful feature here, in my eyes, by telling the pump the amount of carbs you're going to eat it will work out the amount of insulin to give you. It's amazing! The con is that you do need to know the amount of carbohydrates in everything, but it took me a few weeks to learn and while I may not be completely accurate I now have a pretty good idea of the carbs in everything. The pump can also administer the right amount of insulin to correct the blood sugar levels.

Now even more confusing things basal rates and bolus'. A basal rate is the constant supply of insulin the pump provides, it can be adjusted to suit the needs. As peoples routines change so does their basal rate. The bolus is the dosage the pump administers to correct blood sugar levels. So this goes with food as well. They both come from the same lot of insulin which is fast acting.

How often you have to change your site ( the tube in the body) and the rest of the tubing an reservoir varies from pump to pump. For me on the accu chek pump it's every three days for the site and six for the rest of it. It also changes from person to person.

If you're ever considering getting a pump go for it. It has made my control and life so much easier and given me a lot more independence and freedom. I was apprehensive at first but I did some research and the pros outweighed the cons and it is one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Rhona  x

A Day in the Life

So this week I wanted to tell you about the average day in the life of a teenager diabetic. Now as my exams finish tomorrow (I'm writing this on a Thursday) I thought I would tell you about a day when I'm not in school . So here goes.
Anywhere between 8am and 10 I wake up. But I really hate waking up any later than 10, I feel like half the day has already gone so I'm really bad at lie ins. The next step is getting dressed, it's very exciting isn't it? So then I'll have breakfast and this varies depending on how I feel if I'm going out really soon I will just have cereal but if I'm staying in I'll have a cooked breakfast, usually eggs of some sort, and I will always have a cup of tea. This is a necessity I can't function without my cup of tea. Plus it has to be the right cup of tea: not too much milk, fairly strong and one sugar.

Okay then I will do my first blood test of the day, I know you're meant to do it before you eat but i forget in the mornings, (actually I can't remember if I've done one yet today, shoot!) and then I bolus accordingly. Then it really depends on what I'm doing that day for example if I'm not going out in the morning I will watch TV all morning but if I'm going out I'll have to go get ready. When I say going out it often isn't very exciting I'm probably be meeting a friend and then we will just watch films all morning. Then it's lunch, this can be anywhere from 12pm until 2pm as I tend to lose track of time especially if I just watched TV all morning. For lunch I tend to have a sort of snacky style lunch so usually a sandwich, which must have nutella in. I love the stuff, it's soooo good. Then it's a lazy afternoon fuelled by tea, of course.

Then around four I usually go out, to a club such as hockey/sailing/orchestra. Then I'm back home and it's dinner time! This time I'm much better with the diabetes and usually test and bolus before i eat, which mum cooks. If I were to cook dinner every night it would be variations along a theme: pasta. It's just so easy and quick to cook and you can plunk any sauce on it and it will taste so good. I don't tend to do anything in the evenings, well anything particularly interesting. I just while away the time in the Internet, and then it's a final blood test and bed. Before the whole cycle repeats again. Of course it's completely different when I'm in school but I've finished for summer, or will do in 24hours.

So that's a day in the life and I don't tend to test and bolus particularly regularly and it takes up so little time that I do forget about it sometimes.

Rhona x

Fangirls

Hello
Okay so this blog post has absolutely nothing to do with diabetes and actually comes from the teenager in me. So if you don't want to hear the musings of a 16 year old about the world of fangirls stop reading now.

So fangirling is a popular activity of many teenage girls, the male version is as you might have guessed fanboying. Now a lot of you probably won't have heard or know very little about the world of fangirls which can be complex and sometimes scary, so I will break it down for you. A fangirl is a girl who obsess over a particular book/TV series/Film/Actor/Fictional Character/Band. Sometimes the obsession becomes unhealthy but for many it is a way of expressing their love for said book/TV series/Film/Actor/Fictional Character/Band (Which is quite long so from now on will be referred to as BTFAFB.)

I consider myself a fangirl but not to the extremes of some and I came to the conclusion that there are different levels of fangirling.
Level 1. Complete Obsession. These fangirls/boys are unable to do much without relating it back to the BTFAFB. Can become a little over obsessed and will know absolutely everything about BTFAFB.

Level 2. Strong Obsession. These fangirls are strongly attached to their BTFAFB and know a huge amount about them/it.

Level 3. Mild Obsession, fangirls which are maybe new to the fandom(more on that in a mo) or do not feel such a strong attachment to BTFAFB. Will still know a lot more about the BTFAFB than your average human being.

Now there is nothing wrong with any of these levels nor does it make you any less of a fan of the BTFAFB it just means that is how much you have chosen to obsess over the BTFAFB. When a large group of fangirls start interacting with each other, generally over the internet through things like facebook, twitter and tumblr, a fandom is created. This is basically a comunity of people who share the same love for the BTFAFB, they make fan art which is art based on the BTFAFB or write fanfiction which are stories based on the characters of the BTFAFB. Now fanfiction can be VERY graphic and personally I don't like it as I want the characters to remain the same as in the original BTFAFB. Fandoms often have a  name so the Harry Potter fandom is called Potterheads, the Hunger Games fandom is called Tributes ect.

 Many fangirls will talk about shipping which is the pairing up of people from the BTFAFB and some is cannon and some is not. Cannon means it is part of the story so for example (HARRY POTTER SPOILER ALERT) Ginny and Harry getting together is part of the books so is cannon but Harry and Draco getting together is not, so is not cannon. The two characters names are often merged to form the couple name eg Hinny (Harry and Ginny), Romionie (Ron and Hermionie) and Drapple (Draco and an Apple). Finally fangirls have a OTP which stands for One True Pairing and is basically the fangirls favorite ship, so mine is Romionie but it is different for every fangirl.

There you go my very quick guide to a fangirl and when I say fangirl I also mean fanboys as well. Also one top tip never ever tell a fangirl that the fandom of BTFAFB is stupid, she is not responsible for her actions.

Rhona x

Diabetes Myths and Legends

Hey,

So there are many misconceptions and myths about diabetes, these tend to stem from false interpretations people have made or a confusion between the different types of diabetes. I am going to set the record straight as it's clear to me many people don't really know what diabetes is and I would rather people didn't know a thing rather than them only knowing the wrong facts.

Myth number 1. All Diabetics are fat and this is why they are diabetic

Wrong, obesity can cause Type 2 diabetes but is only one factor. Type 1 diabetes is actually linked into your genes and it's not a choice whether you get it or not. By eating healthy and exercising regularly you may help to reduce your chances of getting type 2 but its not a full proof plan as there are many other factors involved, that I can't for the life of me think what now.

Myth number 2. Diabetes is contagious.

This one really makes me laugh as it's not. It never has been never will be. I don't really understand where this idea came from, but I assume it's because diabetes is a disease and people assume it can be passed from one human to another.

Myth number 3. There is a better and worse type of diabetes, the better being type 2.

No neither type is better or worse nor is one more serious than the other. They both require the same treatment eventually and are "equally serious" as diabetes UK put it.

Myth number 4. Diabetics can't have sugar.

You need sugar to lead a healthy balanced diet. Diabetics are healthy so they must be able to eat sugar. I love sweet things, a lot and sometimes this requires a bit more management on the diabetes side but it's totally worth it. This myth stems from people knowing enough about diabetes to know that a symptom is having high blood sugar, they then manage to turn it round so in their minds diabetics are just people with high blood sugars. Therefore eating sugar would be a really bad idea.

Myth number 5.Diabetics should eat food made for diabetics.

Actually when I was diagnosed my dsn said it was better to avoid these foods as they have a much higher content of E numbers and other chemicals. So while they have the benefit of being low in sugar they aren't actually helping anybody in that respect. So as long as you eat normal sweets and chocolate in moderation you will be fine.

Hopefully this helped to clear up your foggy ideas on diabetes, if not lets hope it was slightly entertaining.

Rhona x

Toughen Up People

Hey
So this week I thought I would talk about how people cope with diabetes. Personally I've never really struggled with it, I have pretty decent control. Especially now I'm on the pump. But it appears that for many people it's not. I hear a lot about how people really struggle to control it and how much they hater and that for me is an alien concept. To me I don't understand how people struggle to control it and I think this is because I was diagnosed so young. Being six I don't have many memories about what  life was like with diabetes, I grew up with it and saw how many things I did effected it. For example exam stress will either send me sky high or crashing lows, so I would change my basal rates accordingly. This to me has never been a problem and I don't think it will ever be, but I do wonder why people complain so much about it.

A few months ago there was a regular columnist in Balance ( the diabetes UK magazine) who every month, without fail, would talk about how hard it was for her and her son to handle living with diabetes. This really annoyed me, not the fact that they struggled to control his diabetes which I understand can be difficult for some people, but that she went out of her way to make sure everybody knew how hard it was. I'm no angel I have occasionally stretched the truth out to make my stories more entertaining, but I have never made a habit of it. I think the reason I have no sympathy with them is that I know from personal experience it's not that easy but when your blood sugar is a couple of mmols over what it should be I don't feel the need to panic. Diabetes is not easy but it is not better than you, don't fight it. Work with what you've got to make your life better.

It's not just diabetes I can't stand people continually complaining about what is wrong with them. No one seems to embrace the opportunities they are offered anymore but would much rather complain about how much work they have to do this week. Of course there are people who have got a really tough lot and have every right to be upset about it but I've found these are the happiest people. I've spent a fair amount of time with children with disabilities ranging from minor behavioural difficulties to not being able to do anything for themselves and I have never met anyone happier. Some of these children cant walk, talk, eat or drink by themselves but they will give you the biggest grin if you are willing to spend time with them and that's my point. These children face a daily struggle much greater than our own while we all spend too much time looking on the negative side of things and complaining about how hard life is but as the absolutely horrific saying goes YOLO. You only live once. So embrace the good things in your life and if your struggling to control any aspect of your life look on it as a challenge rather than a problem, you can beat anything you put your mind too.

And on that cheesey note it's time for me go. Adios

Rhona x

Hello!

Hi,
Welcome to my little corner of the internet. Here you can read about my life with diabetes and being a teenager. So a bit about myself, my names Rhona I'm 16 and I live in England. See I could make this really cheesy and go on about everything i enjoy but that would be very boring a similar to everybody elses blog.  So have a diabetes fact file instead because that is way more interesting for you.

DOD(Date of Diagnosis): 28th February 2003
Blood Testing Machine: Accu-Chek Aviva Combo
Pump or pens?:Insulin Pump
Pump: Accu-Chek Spirit
Length on Pump: 3 Years 1month
Lowest Blood Sugar Level: 1.8mmol
Highest Blood Sugar Level: HI (completely off the scale of my meter)
Major complications: None
Hospital Trips: Quite a lot the first couple of years after diagnosis but none for a few years

Okay so the story of my diagnosis. I was six and I only remember bits of it vaguely but I remember the incurable thirst and peeing a lot. So my mum took me to the doctor who took a urine sample but couldn't figure out what was wrong. Which I don't understand as there must have been glucose in it but anyway, my mum says all my cuts got infected. I was a very active child and was always getting cuts and scratches, anyway we ended up in hospital where they figured out quickly what was wrong. Then that same night the diabetic doctor came to visit us and it must have only be about 9pm but i was completely out of it trying to stay awake to find out what was going on. What I do remember is that she said she had a present for me and that she had a backpack for me. I was very confused about whether the backpack was the present or not. They took my blood and I could swear it was 26mmol but I think it was probably higher than that. Anyway it turned out I had diabetes and they started me on insulin pens. By this point they had put me on a drip but they had a medical student do it, I'm sure they are going to be excellent doctors but they need to stop trying not to hurt me. Eventually they got a nurse to do it who grabbed my arm and stuck it in, it didn't hurt but she wasn't worried about whether it hurt or not. So far I haven't met a doctor or student who has managed to get it in my arm first time, the record is seven attempts. Anyway I was stuck on a children's ward filled with babies. Who cry. All night long!

My first injection was fun, I still remember the nurse who did it and if I'm on the ward for things like bloods I will always end up seeing her. I screamed with the first injection but it was a tiny needle so I don't know what the fuss was about. The ones I use now are bigger and I don't have a problem with that. I quickly , well my mum quickly, learnt how to do the injections and off we went!

The first weekend after I was diagnosed my diabetic nurse at the time came to check I was injecting ok and our neighbors front door was open. So she went into their house to find my neighbor cooking breakfast. I don't really remember this being six and all but it still makes me laugh ten years on.
Okay so that's a little bit more about me, the aim is to write every week and we will see how it goes.

Rhona x