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
Friday, 28 June 2013
Thursday, 20 June 2013
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
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
Saturday, 8 June 2013
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
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
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