Sunday 31 August 2014

Type 1 Diabetes Conference in Ireland

In April 2014, we, a group of volunteers with type 1 diabetes, posted survey to find out what type of type 1 diabetes event people would like to attend. This is a follow-up survey which contains more details on what you wanted. 

We would really appreciate it if you could spare a few minutes to complete it for us. 

Many, many thanks,
Grainne

Friday 29 August 2014

Family Day out with Type 1 Diabetes

My life with diabetes, in general, is very good. Some days I wake up, I've had a good nights sleep and the neverending and relentless challenges that type 1 diabetes brings to my life don't seem so relentless and challenging. I'm ready to tackle anything. Some days, diabetes just drags me down, down and down.

Thankfully, the upbeat days are many and the drag days are not so many.

On a family day out I was reminded that even on good days, type 1 diabetes can be an uninvited & unwanted guest. Our family (me, hubby + 2 children) were on holiday and visited the Zoo. We got as far as the entrance and ticket desk and already I feel it. Yes, the first hypo (lack of glucose in the blood and therefore lack of fuel for my body) of the day.

We were standing in line, there was nowhere to sit. I decided that I would just hold on til we got inside the entrance to check and treat. It was only a suspicion and I could have been just tired. While standing in line, aware of my suspected hypo, and entertaining children, I was thinking about getting inside the entrance and finding a spot to sit, test and treat.

Thankfully, we weren't that long in the line and we needed the bathrooms immediately. Sure enough, diabetes was making it's impact on our day. But, I contained it successfully. It was a mild hypo that I could treat quickly and continue with our day, I had tested while my people were in the bathroom, so the rest of the family didn't have to take a 10-minute break before we started our Zoo adventure and were unaware of it's existence.

As we continued with our day, my blood sugars were on the low-side (not hypo) at lunch which made me a bit grizzly but everyone was as hungry as I was and it was taking FORever to find a bench or picnic table (Dublin Zoo!!!!). My blood sugars continued to behave with some intermittent glucose tablet top ups, just to be sure.

However, I realised how easily my diabetes could've been more than just annoying during our day out. It could have hijacked it. And everyday that treat looms over my head. I'm so grateful that my mental disposition is one where I find it easy to focus on positives, have determination,  be defiant and down right stubborn that I will live well with type 1 diabetes.


Monday 18 August 2014

The Irony!



I attended the Children with Diabetes/Friends for Life UK conference in Windsor, England last weekend.

One whole weekend jam-packed of type 1 diabetes. A weekend of being surround by people & children with diabetes whose names I have no idea of but I felt like they are my friends. A weekend organised to make life less difficult for everybody. The organisers made sure that all the food provided to us came with carb content information.

Imagine eating at a restaurant where you didn't need to guess so much!

However, from the time I left my house on Friday morning until the time I arrived back to my house on Sunday evening I only had one blood glucose test under 7mmols!!!! The whole weekend my readings were low teens to mid teens. How ironic!

I wasn't too worried about it though because I knew as it was only two days, that I was doing a lot of sitting around yapping. I would try and fix them as best I could but I was far more focused on having fun and making the most of having soooo much support & education every where I looked.

I promise to post more about the conference as soon as my children go back to school because I'm bursting to talk and talk and talk about it. (anyone who knows me will obviously know that that is nothing new:-)