Golden Blood Glucose Day.

I woke up on a regular morning and I took the first BG test of the day. Low and behold it’s 4.8. I smiled and thought “what a warm fuzzy feeling to start to the day”.

As the day went on my BG readings seem to check all the boxes. I tested 7 times on this day which is my usual and the highest reading was 8.2. I though “Well that’s a little above the recommendation but thank god it’s not 10 or more”. As the day went on the nice feeling of “job well done” continued. The rest of my readings fell between 5.6 and 7.3 – I mean how did that happen?

It’s like all the stars & planets in the universe aligned – just for me. The only difference between me on this day and me on any other day was a much-relished lie in and not running around like a headless chicken. I went to bed feeling so proud of this one day.

“Pride comes before the fall”!! Yep, it was so nice while it lasted.

Diabetes Support Groups, Why bother?

Apart from the multiple daily rituals such as blood glucose testing, injecting, carb counting & exercising, I perform as management of my diabetes, I also thrall through a dozen or so websites from the online diabetes community.

Why? I suppose I’m looking for more information on how to make my life with diabetes easier, or maybe I’m keeping tabs on the possibility of a cure but I think that the biggest reason is that I’m looking for someone who is like me.

I’m lucky enough to be a member of a Diabetes Support Group where there are quite a few people “like me”, but you never know who else is out there.

It’s part of the human condition to seek out others like ourselves. This is why a large number of immigrates in New York all live in the Bronx. It’s why when we go on holidays abroad we have a finely tuned ear when it comes to spotting the other Irish.

It’s only in recent years that people with Type 1 Diabetes are being more open about their diabetes and the internet has helped in that respect. Prior to this a large number of us would have lived in silence for many reasons, some of which could have been the feeling of being different or appearing weak because we have an illness, or overlooked for promotions because of our “sickliness”.

Thankfully all of that has changed and we are actively seeking each other out to find out what our future holds and joining support groups where we find positivity about the future.

What do I get from my support group?

Well for starters it’s great to talk in “Diabetes Jargin” without having to translate and to talk to people who can relate. At each meeting, I always pick up some piece of information or tip to try and improve my diabetes management. And I always find motivation!

Exercise or Torture??

I know that as a person with diabetes I should try and include exercise as part of how I manage my diabetes. I’ve read all the articles relating to how it works miracles and I’ve received all the lectures over the years from Health Care Professionals (***********).

But, I really don’t like exercise! I never have. And the normal types of exercise, such as walking, cycling, jogging, etc. just don’t do it for me. The not so normal forms of exercise for example Salsa Dancing or Pilates is just too flipping expensive and not often enough.

I used the excuse of being on the basal/bolus or the Multiple Daily Injection (MDI) insulin regime as an excuse to not even bother. I felt that I couldn’t plan that far ahead with my long acting insulin.

I was not going to add insult to injury by exercising and then having to stuff my face to treat hypos. I mean what’s the point! I wasn’t going to risk adding to the number of kilos that I needed to trim off.

Now I do have to add that at the time my children were very small and trying to exercise, even the boring walk, was just extremely difficult. And this I feel is a legitimate excuse but I suppose an excuse none the less.

So what’s changed?

Well, I’m not a spring chicken anymore. Things don’t work as well as they once did. It’s time to make time for exercise.

I moved to Insulin Pump Therapy and so eliminated the first excuse I had. Then with trial and error I eliminated the second excuse (although I’m still not shaving any kilos off the hips). And of course the darlings are both in school 5 mornings a week pretty reliably which helps.

I’m still not “excited” about the walk around the block and I won’t go out in all-weather but I am feeling benefits. But I will persevere and hopefully end up just like my mother-in-law; a 61 year old kicking a ball with the grandchildren.

Happy World Diabetes Day

November 14th was chosen by the International Diabetes Federation because it also happens to mark the birthday of Frederick Banting who, along with Charles Best, first conceived the idea which led to the discovery of insulin in 1922.

Anyone with insulin dependent diabetes knows how important these two chaps are and I personally owe my life to them.

But it’s bitter sweet to wish people a “Happy World Diabetes Day” when maybe I should save my wish and wish that I didn’t have diabetes in the first place.

Why should I celebrate this day? Why am I celebrating having an illness??? I could roll over and say “to hell with it”. I could decide to not care anymore and give up – let diabetes do its worst and painfully make my life miserable until death.

But I choose to fight! I choose to want to live a good life for a long time and watch my children grow up and maybe even become a grandmother. I want to keep all of my digits and my sight; I don’t want to be on a waiting list for a donor kidney. I want to live life to the fullest.

So, I work hard at trying to stay on top of it. I take my insulin, I test my glucose levels multiple times a day and then some, I weigh my food to find out the carbohydrate content and then calculate how much insulin to inject, and I try to eat healthily.

So I’m not really celebrating having diabetes. I’m celebrating life and the quality of it.

Because I’m worth it!

I will take care of my health because I’m worth it!

I took the best care of my diabetes when I was pregnant with both of my children. And I continue to do it now because my children need me.

It got me thinking about why I didn’t put as much effort into my health before I had children?

Did I believe that I

wasn’t

worth it?

Is that what most of us believe most of the time? Is that why there are so many people with diabetes who don’t manage it well?

Today, I’m going to start to take care of my health for me. I’m going to tell myself every day from today that I AM worth it. I’m going to spend as much time looking after the inside as I do on the outside; this is pertinent because I just got a fab new haircut that I spent time & money on :-) 

I’m going to start telling my health care professionals that I’m worth looking after too. If they start thinking that I’m going to spend time on improving my health maybe they will invest more time in me?

What’s more I’m going to tell everyone I know who has diabetes that they are worth it too. Let’s take a health lesson from L’Oreal. ;-)

How much money can you raise for Diabetes?

Every week, I buy the local paper and try to keep up with events and news around me. Every week, I notice all the sponsored walks, cycles, swims, etc. organized to raise money for charity. I notice all the photos of people exchanging very large cheques too.

I know they are all deserving causes but why does my cause not feature as much in peoples’ minds? We rarely see people raising money for diabetes. I’ve been trying to figure out why.

At first, I thought it was because those other charities were about saving lives. But diabetes has the potential to ruin and end a life too; so it can’t be that.

But maybe people who do not have diabetes aren’t aware that diabetes can ruin a life? This could be possible.

Maybe, it’s because people without diabetes don’t know anyone with diabetes? This has to be impossible because it’s estimated that 200,000 people in Ireland have diabetes.

Or maybe people who don’t have diabetes don’t advocate for people with it because they feel it’s a self-inflicted disease? But nobody asks for diabetes, especially not small babies. Surely this isn’t the reason?

Or maybe, it’s because diabetes is one of the few diseases out there where the emphasis is on “self-care”, and maybe that extends to raising the much needed funds ourselves???

Whatever the reasons people do not think to raise money for diabetes might be; I can’t help feeling sad about them. I form pictures in my head of the faces of diabetes; the small babies, the children, the teenagers trying to fit in, the adults just getting on with their lives and those adults getting old, living in fear of developing a complication of diabetes.

That’s what it is! A lot of us blend in too well and we pretend that we don’t need any help and therefore we don’t ask people for money. So how do I fix this?