Diabetes Complications are Not a Sign of Failure

The complications of diabetes are real and people are living with them. People are also living in fear of them. Myself included. I am actively trying to overcome this fear because if I do end up with complications I don't want to feel like it is the end of my life. Or that I failed to manage my diabetes well enough. And I certainly don't want to be made to feel that it's my fault.

I don't believe just because I am doing everything in my power to manage my diabetes that I will be spared. I believe that if I have type 1 diabetes I still have the risk of developing complications. I strive to keep that percentage of risk low but it will never be zero.

I will not stop trying!

Image from http://www.coolnsmart.com/failure_quotes/

So, when a friend of mine, who has lived more than 50 years with type 1 diabetes and who lives with a number of the complications of diabetes, comes to our T1D meet ups and people imply she didn't take of herself, I get a little "upset"!

My friend has survived taking care of her diabetes when there was no such thing as a glucose meter! Imagine never know what your blood sugar was?!?

She has survived during a time when the phrase "carb counting" might as well have been a foreign language in Ireland. It didn't exist!

We also did not have Rapid Acting Insulins until the late 1990's. So, even if we did practice carb counting, it wouldn't have been much good to us. Sure, we could do a certain amount of carb counting on the insulins we took only twice a day but we couldn't fine tune it like we can today.

We also did not know that the tighter your diabetes control, the less likely you were to be at risk of getting diabetes complications. This research was only published in 1993 as the DCCT Trials.

93 years ago we died! Today, we have so many tools, technology and instant access to research that people with type 1 diabetes, who have been told for decades what they can't do are breaking all of those barriers.

So I ask you? Is surviving 50 years with type 1 diabetes and living with complications really not taking care of yourself?

My friends who live with diabetes complications may even say themselves, that they didn't do as much as they should have to take care of their diabetes. And I say you did the very best that you, and everybody else, knew how.

I am so lucky and proud to have friends like Deniabetic, who are helping me overcome my fears.

Post Christmas Blood Sugar Hangovers

The Christmas holiday lasts one whole week if not two in Ireland. Most businesses close their offices from Christmas Eve to the day after New Year's day to give their employees a well earned break.

The schools close for two weeks. This is where my diabetes can become troublesome. I'm a stay at home mother and when my children are in school I have a routine and I get out most days for a good head-clearing walk! It does my head good and it does my diabetes good.

During school holidays, getting out for that little but very important 30 minute walk is.... mmmm challenging. I could do it. If I really, really, really tried but there's always something else I could do too.

A two week holiday is more than long enough for my body, and my diabetes to figure out that my exercise has been all but forgotten and give me a bit of a telling off.

The grey-ness and the wetness of the Irish weather for the last month did not help either! Let's just say we would not have been surprised to see a giant ark after having SO much rain for SO long.

This holiday, my BG's started rise just before New Year's, at a time when I thought I'm almost there and I got away with it. My insulin to carb ratios need to be reduced radically and using trial and error the kids will be back in school before I have it figured out.

I'm also feeling a little of the January blues. The lack of exercise and my elevated blood glucose levels are leaving me deflated and unmotivated to do absolutely anything.... except declutter my house (figure that one out?).

So, I'm anxious to get back to school, I mean for my children to get back to school. :-)

I'm itching to get out for that first regular walk of 2016, to have a routine again and reclaim familiar BG patterns so I can make adjustments.

I also need to come up with a feasible plan for the extended Easter break we will have this year (it's 2 and a half weeks long starting on St. Patrick's Day).

I think I just found my new years resolution! And I think I'm finding my way back.

Midnight and Lows

I wrote about this hypo experience before I got my CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitor) and so these days crashing blood sugars are not coming at me like oncoming trains and I am able to get off the tracks in time.

A few nights ago, I experienced the feeling of watching a "train wreck" coming towards me and not being able to avoid it. The problem, I think, the fact that I had too many options available to me in trying to prevent my imminent hypo that I didn't know which one was best to choose.

Normally, when I check my blood glucose level two hours after my dinner and they are above my post-meal target, I know that some more insulin is required. On this occasion it was 3 hours after dinner and I was even more sure that I needed more insulin. See the 11.5 mmol (207 mg/dl)

HOWEVER! Approximately 60 minutes after I had given myself more insulin, the big red dot and the sharp dip in my mysugr app told me that my diabetes was not playing by the rules!  My blood sugar level had dropped sharply to  6.1 mmol (110 mg/dl). An otherwise respectable BG number but at this moment in time, especially with the remainder of my insulin dose to activate, I knew I was in trouble and that a hypo was coming for me.

I was already tucked up in bed with my teeth brushed. So, I reduced my background insulin by 50% for an hour and a half to counter the over correction of insulin. (Note to self; that wasn't the right choice - always go for the fastest acting glucose available).

At 12:13am, perspiration steamed off me. Thankfully, I had the wherewithal to check my blood sugars again revealing a 3.1 mmol (56 mg/dl). I took 3 dextrose tabs and lay back waiting for them to kick in. But, the heat coming off my body made me grab 2 more a couple of seconds later.

I tried to lay there waiting again but I became more agitated at having to wait.... and wait, and wait, for the heat and sweat and "jitters" to subside. The seconds felt like hours!

I decided to wait the 15 minutes out downstairs and suck on some boiled sweets to, maybe, trick my brain into thinking I was shoveling glucose into me hand over fist and avoid over-treating the hypo. I pulled out the laptop and tried to document this hypo ;-) Another effort to avoid over-treating-keep my hands busy.

12:37am, 5.8mmols (104mg/dl), still feeling shaky and mildly damp but can safely go back to sleep. After brushing teeth.... again.

And yes, I had the over-correction high blood sugar reading the next morning. Sometimes, you just can't win. But you try, and try to learn:-)

Happy New Year from Gráinne

I made it through another year with diabetes!!!

May the food be worthy of the bolus,

the alcohol worthy of the hangover,

may that one day not effect my HbA1c level too much and,

may we all be back on top of our diabetes in the new year :-s

Grainne.
See you in 2016.

I have nothing to fear but fear itself

Image from http://james-the-nose.deviantart.com/art/ A-deer-in-the-headlights-122552318

I attended a diabetes meeting once where one of the other attendees said they wanted to see photos of all the horrible things that can happen to a person with diabetes if they don't take care of themselves. That this would motivate this person into doing more to take care of their diabetes. I understood this person's point of view, they were much older than me and may have seen the "dangers" of diabetes as being more imminent than I did.

For me though "the fear tactic" doesn't work. I've heard all the horror stories. I've heard all of the threats in relation to what I should and what I should not be doing to take care of my type 1 diabetes. And I have been paralysed into doing nothing by them.

I think it's a well known piece of advice that fear is not a good motivator to get somebody to do something. Do you like it when someone threatens you? Even if it's for your own good? Does it make you want do what they say?

For me, it, absolutely, does NOT! But you might ask me what does get me moving and doing? My answer is "Information and inspiration" ;-D

I don't test my blood glucose more because someone told me I should. I do it because it was explained to me why I should consider it and how to use the additional information (EDUCATION, can't. say. it. enough.). And I could see almost straight away how this improved my management of my type 1 diabetes.

I do remember, all those years ago, when I was told that I had to eat a strict "diabetic" diet and I absolutely HAD to take my insulin at exactly the same time every single day. If I didn't I would end up with all sorts of ugly diabetes complications.

But guess what? Some people do all the right things and still get complications. And some people don't take care of themselves and don't get any complications.

Those were the days when we had very little in the way of diabetes research or education to revert to. But by God we had fear! And it got me nowhere!!

What did motivated me to do all the things that I do to take care of my diabetes? Education, education, education and some more education. Can't say it enough times!!! And of course, a good support network:-)

DKA Kills and the Type 1 Diabetes Awareness Project

We don't know how many children or adults die in Ireland because of undiagnosed Type 1 Diabetes but we can be sure that it does happen here, just like it happens all over the world. 

As the news is travelling through the diabetes community of yet another life cut short, I'm awakened, with a jolt, as to why the Type 1 Diabetes Awareness initiative from Diabetes Ireland is so important... And needs to happen soon!

Diabetes Ireland are planning on launching this Type 1 Diabetes Awareness project early in the new year. 

Image graciously stolen from Diabetes Mine

Up to 23 Irish children are diagnosed each month with Type 1 diabetes. The majority of these present to their GP feeling generally unwell but 1 in 8 will not be correctly diagnosed at that time. 

This delay in diagnosis usually means repeated visits to the GP and can result in diabetes ketoacidosis (DKA) which is potentially fatal.

The aim of this project is to encourage GPs to consider Type 1 diabetes first, as a potential diagnosis when a child presents feeling generally unwell and secondly to raise awareness among the general population of Type 1 diabetes signs and symptoms (The 4T's; Toilet, Thirsty, Tired & Thinner).

However, Diabetes Ireland still need to find one quarter of the funding for this project. They are determined to commit to the February 2016 launch date but if they don't find the rest of the money they will have to amend the initiative, which would make it less effective.

Does anyone have a wealthy relative??? 

Image from http://res.public domainfiles.com/pdf_view/ 52/13526046019596.png

Maybe if we start sharing this with our friends and talking about it, the people who hold the purse strings will take notice that this is important to us?

Just in case you're wondering; what is DKA?

" Diabetic ketoacidosis is a life-threatening problem that affects people with diabetes. It occurs when the body cannot use sugar (glucose) as a fuel source because there is no insulin or not enough insulin. Fat is used for fuel instead.

When fat breaks down, waste products called ketones build up in the body." Find out more here.