All the other type 1's

I never really thought about it before I discovered the DOC (Diabetes Online Community - always amuses me how its like the shortening for doctor because it is a bit like a community of doctors to help us out with the day to day things) but I have contact with quite a few Type 1 diabetics including a few around my age!

A gathering for JDRF's walk to
cure diabetes

There are two girls in my sixth form, one who is in my year and another in the year below me. This is pretty cool because I can complain about being high or low to the girl in my year who I'm pretty friendly with and she understands what I'm talking about and how it feels!
I also live on a street with two other diabetics, one who is the mother of some teenagers I used to play with when I was younger and the other a three year old girl who was diagnosed as a baby, its pretty inspirational to see her and her family handle such a young child with this disease.
One last person I know (well know of) is a family friend's brother, who was diagnosed as a child and is now the same age as my parents.

So overall I do know people with diabetes and I am lucky to do so as many people have no idea of the number that most likely surround them!

Lastly the countdown to my pump is now just 3 days which means just 3 (including tonight's) more doses of the stingy Lantus Woop Woop!

Insulin Pump

So, one of the main reasons for setting up this blog was because I had the possibility of getting an insulin pump in a month or so due to HORRIBLY out of control sugar levels that need to be reined in. This is becoming difficult on MDI even with changing almost everything possible so pump it is! :)

I know that getting a pump is not a final solution and a lot of work is needed but hopefully with all my efforts it will offer more control and flexibility for my lifestyle.
I now have a date for training and getting up and running on the pump next Wednesday! I'm excited now!

So what is an insulin pump?

The animas 2020 in blue!

I decided on an Animas pump mostly for the fact that its waterproof but also the way it works and all sorts of reason which appealed to me. So I'm getting a blue Animas 2020 insulin pump next Wednesday and hope it all goes well :) 

An insulin pump is an electronic device about the size of mobile (bit bigger?) that continually delivers insulin through a tube into the body with background rates that can be changed in accordance with activity or time of day. To give insulin for food the user programs in the insulin needed (in different ways on different pumps) to cover the meal. The user can administer corrections if the sugar level is high.

There are different companies which manufacture different pumps with different ways to set them and different ways of working so its up to the person on what they want to get from the pump as to which one they go for.

Tough times

So recently the old diabetes control has been pretty well... appalling.

This is something that has got me down because it has basically put a downer on a couple of important days in my life recently.
Firstly there was my birthday (and Olympic-torch-past-the-end-of-my-road-day) which was not brill as I woke up with a horrible low (you know one of those which is really difficult to bounce back from) this meant that I ended up embarrassingly stood at the end of my road waiting for the Olympic torch to be run past in floods of tears and clinging to my mother like a child in front of loads of people. It also meant that I can't really remember a lot of it other than those few things.

How I felt

The second day was Friday, my last day of school EVER!... in itself that is pretty scary but when you add waking up low on a hot day to the mix means that again bad day :/ So I slid myself out of bed and got myself downstairs with my apple juice, slowly got ready into my rock 'n' roll dress up and somehow got  myself to school with my friends. Everything was going well with all the celebrations until I got to the assembly in the boiling hot theatre, this meant my BG dropped fast, I treated but I ended being really confused and horribly shaky, I ended up stood outside in the heat asking my friends to help me get home, (I live literally 2 mins walk from school so can easily get home normally) they didn't do anything, I had to ring my parents and get the to pick me up even though they were both nearly 20 minutes away by car. Anyway my dad picked me up and I spent the rest of the afternoon (after lunch) sleeping and missing the rest of the celebration without a text or word from any of my friends to see if I was OK.
This experience has really scared me, what would have happened if I had collapsed? Would they just have stood there doing nothing? I don't know but I do know now I'm going to have to be EXTRA vigilant when I go out and are around them to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Low sugar blog post!

This is what typing a blog post when low looks like (don't worry I have treated it - after realising we had like the least amount of food in the house ever!).

OK so seeing as I am low let me tell you my (not everyone else's) symptoms of having hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). So the most common thing I get is feeling 'shaky' this actually became what I called a low sugar and still is, 'I feel shaky' is what I say :) another symptom is overall confusion, like what? I don't understand anything, this makes me annoyed and I often get upset and throw things (yeah I turn into a child :/). My heart beats fast and I get slightly sweaty. Symptoms that don't occur often are a massively tingly and numb mouth and tongue, and also being super hyperactive and running around before I feel any of those mentioned above this is the point where my parents say 'Danielle, do you need to do a test?' I normally answer with no, then they make me and yup I'm low!

I think that's all my symptoms but if I remember more then I will add below :)

Update: So I have looked back at this the next day, now I don't feel low and realised I missed off a huge thing that happens which is a lack of focus on anything, my vision gets blurred, its hard to explain but I can look at something and it can take me like a few seconds to focus on it. This is horribly frustrating and also happens with a high but more on that later :)

My Story - Part 1 diagnosis

Diagnosis

I was diagnosed at age 6 in 2000 around a week before Easter! (of all holidays the one FILLED with chocolate!). I don't remember a lot (because I was just a kid!) but what I do remember before diagnosis is drink TONES of the orange juice drink 'Sunny D' because I was so thirsty ALL the time! That's about all I remember about my symptoms of type one diabetes but my Mum did tell me that I was really skinny and you could see my ribs down the other end of the corridor in our house because of the weight I lost so fast.

My mum took me to the doctors on a Tuesday, they took a urine sample and called us back in the morning. We went in on the Wednesday and were told to I had diabetes, we then rushed off to Bristol children's Hospital in my mums car not really sure what was happening. I remember being sat in the car in the car park next to the Doctors office and asking my mum where we were going and if I was going back to school after that.

At the hospital i had a cannula put in my hand in case they needed to take any blood (I don't think I had any saline as my diagnosis was caught early so wasn't too dehydrated). It didn't worry me at all being in hospital, I was in for three days and went to radio lollipop (the radio station for the kids to go to) everyday and remember making badges with the other kids.

I also remember one nurse who told me to tuck my cat shaped pillow pet's tail underneath it so it didn't annoy me when I tried to sleep and rolled onto the uncomfortable stick. My final memory of my diagnosis that sticks in my mind is sitting a room with my Mum and Dad who were learning to inject me on a orange as all parents of type ones do. 

I stayed in hospital for three days and received a lovely handmade card from my school classmates which was pink with a picture of a vase of flowers on. :)