Working Girl!

I have been ridiculously busy recently from applying to colleges through UCAS (more on that in later posts!) to knitting christmas projects (I know its early but its a cheap way to make presents this year so I can save money! - I also know that knitting makes me sound like and old lady!) to starting work, which leads me onto this post.

I haven't really had a 'proper' job before, and by that I mean I had a small amount casual work at my parents business which I don't count as a proper job as I didn't have to do a lot of work to get it and I also didn't have any regular hours as such. So now I have a job in the Christmas department of a garden centre which is lets not lie pretty boring but also raises a few questions in terms of working and diabetes.

The first question I have come across is when, how and who do I tell about my diabetes? 
I think this is probably up to the individual and what sort of work place it is, I told the person senior to me who I am going to be around most of the time, after the interview and when I had got the job, this was because I'm worried about the interviewers seeing the long term disease and thinking 'It's not worth the risk, what if she's always off ill and isn't at all reliable?' I don't know how much of an issue this actually is but it does niggle in my mind a fair amount.
I explained about having type 1 in a casual manner i.e. 'Something you should know is I have Type 1 diabetes. It shouldn't affect my work but may mean that I need to do a blood sugar test at some points during the day.' If I'm honest she didn't really know what to do with that information and just sort of said 'oh ok then.'

A second issue when it comes to working is all the stuff you have to lug around with you everywhere you go when you have diabetes.

I have 3 vital things to carry

1. My pump: Carried in a handy leather case which it came with from Animas. This looks a lot smarter than being simply clipped to my trousers or tucked into my pocket.
2. A BG tester: Which I put in a SpiBelt around my waist under my T-Shirt with the tester at the small of my back. It can't be seen but isn't awfully comfortable.
3. A treatment for hypoglycaemia: I carry GlucoTabs with me at all times in a tube as they are easy to eat, at work I put the tube in another SpiBelt around my waist the same as my tester.

I'm have just ordered a SpiBelt with two pouches in so I only have to carry one belt which could be a bit more comfortable than carrying two.

How to handle lows? How do I test?
These are questions that can be different every time, obviously I can't really test right in front of customers on the shop floor so when it is busy testing becomes a slight issue, I try and find a quiet area to do a quick test discretely but that isn't always easy and can be made harder if I'm low and trying to get my tester out to actually do a test! There is a small desk I can 'hide' my tester behind to do a test but I still feel really conscious of doing where other people are, I'm not normally conscious but whilst working I just want to be a normal person! To prevent lows I have been using a lot of temporary basal rates generally of -50% and if I am low I just have a GlucoTab and continue at a slower pace! Being low is never the best time to explain to someone what being low is actually like!

So theres some of the things I'm finding difficult at work. It would be nice to hear some of your issues and tips for working in this environment! 

My Treatments

I apologise for the HUGE lack of posts on this blog. I mean I was going to do another video but I recorded it outside and all the sound was rubbish and I don't really have time right now to sit down and record another one due to being very busy.

So today I wanted to talk about what different things I use to either treat or help treat my diabetes. There are a whole multitude of different things I use because of the complicated disease this is. (This post may turn into 2 or more due to that!)

The Accu-chec mobile
BG meter

So the first thing that I use and can not even leave the house without (I am very attached to it - maybe too much!?) is my BG tester, I am currently using the Accu-chec mobile which is awesome as everything is all in one little machine that is just bigger than the size of a mobile phone. The Accu-chec mobile has a cartridge containing 50 tests in it as opposed to having a bottle of those pesky little strips, so it also means that strips that always get EVERYWHERE well just don't anymore. The tester also has a small cartridge of 6 finger pricks as opposed to having all those lancelets and lids that always seem to stray away from their holding pouch. I am lucky enough to currently have about 5 of these testers and so they are kept everywhere from beside my bed incase I'm low in the night to in my car incase I accidentally forget to take one out with me. Due to the fact they are everywhere I seem to do almost twice the number of tests that is recommended (I do around 10-12 a day!), I am not entirely sure whether this is a good thing but I always feel uneasy about not knowing where I am at with my BG level. Now if they could just combine this tester to use as a pump remote everything would be brilliant!

The animas 2020 Insulin pump

Moving on the second thing that is obviously very important in treatment of type one diabetes is that insulin stuff. I am currently using Apidra insulin in an animas 2020 pump which is working really well. When I was first diagnosed I was on two injections daily of a mix of insulin, I did this for about 6 years. Then once I was settled in secondary school I was moved over to a basal bolus system involving one injection of the  basal, long-acting insulin Lantus and three injections of the bolus, fast-acting insulin Humalog, this worked well for a few years but starting losing control of my diabetes slowly but surely and getting to the point as shown in previous blog posts where diabetes was stopping me doing things and ruining some important days. So around 6 months ago I started to think seriously about the idea of an insulin pump and mentioned it to my doctor, he told me it would be a good idea to go for it now whilst I'm still at the children's clinic. So I began carbohydrate counting and kept on at my nurse about how much we were struggling and about 2 months ago I was started on the pump with the new type of insulin. I have found that this was a brilliant decision as my life isn't the same day to day and so the flexibility the pump gives is just amazing! I mean I think someone would have to prise it out of my dead hands to take it away from me now!

I think that is a long enough post for now and I will carry on telling (typing?) you guys about how I treat my diabetes next time (maybe soon) including useful tools and apps I use on a day to day basis. I might also get around to recording another video soon so you can see my lovely face (?) at some point!

Danielle.