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
Sunday, 28 July 2013
Wednesday, 17 July 2013
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
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.
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
Friday, 5 July 2013
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
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
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