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When you break it down, diabetes is really all about food. Your insulin is measured by what food you eat as well as what exercise you intend on doing meaning you become incredibly obsessive about EVERY LITTLE MORSEL that enters your mouth. Others may disagree but I obsess frequently over it….so I thought I’d write about it.
It may seem sad to read but I have come to actively dislike food (I’ve been told hate is too strong a word so trying to use it less). Each mealtime has become an ordeal to the point where I’d rather not eat at all. Before you start panicking and think that I’m sat here starving myself, wasting away, a waif like figure in the wind, fear not! I do eat….I just don’t enjoy it.
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Recently, my boyfriend had a cold. As he cannot swallow tablets, I bought him some medicine. Thankfully, this worked for him: he could breath again, could sleep again and he was soon back to his usual self.
I’m not sure whether it is my engineering background or I whether I am normally too lazy. But I treat any over-the-counter medication as suitable for anyone. However, during a quiet few minutes, I found myself reading the notes that came in the box of this medicine. I spotted two points referring to diabetes:
“Do not use this medicine if… you have diabetes”
“Each 5ml of this medicine contains 3.5g of sucrose…This should be taken into account in patients with diabetes mellitus”
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Last night we went out to the cinema to watch the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special, ‘Day of the Doctor’. Jacqui had got the snacks sorted out and carb counted in advance, so we had nothing to worry about while we watched the movie. The place was packed out with Who fans young and old, buzzing with excitement, and the episode itself did not disappoint judging by the spontaneous applause that burst out as the final credits started to roll.
Appropriately enough, as we shuffled our way out of the cinema my mind started to travel backwards through time. The first Doctor Who story I ever watched was ‘The Sea Devils’, which was originally broadcast at the beginning of 1972, shortly before my seventh birthday. Not only have I been a fan of the programme since I was six, but in 1975 – at the tender age of ten – I went along to Woolworth’s in Lincoln to get my Doctor Who book signed by Tom Baker. I got there ages early and was right near the front of the queue, and a photo of me staring at the great man as he signed my book appeared on the front of our local newspaper, the Lincolnshire Echo.
Looking back, the programme I loved all those years ago was so crude and primitive. The scripts were sometimes a bit plodding, the video effects distinctly clunky, and the sets famously wobbly. In order to enjoy it, you had to add a liberal dose of your own imagination. Driving back from the cinema, I started to think about just how incredibly exciting the ten-year-old me would find it if he could somehow travel forwards in time and watch the stunning 3D visuals and breakneck action of ‘Day of the Doctor’. I also thought about how cool it was that the whole family had enjoyed such a cracking evening without type 1 diabetes stepping in to spoil it.
It hasn’t always been like this.
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There should be little doubt that living with diabetes can sometimes be difficult to the point of making you feel overwhelmed.
Having a good support network is key to helping you manage the times where you feel like you’re not sure where to turn or what to do for the best. Many of us are fortunate enough to have a group of close friends or a supportive family to help us when we need it; to listen to our problems and offer a sympathetic ear.
Some people are a little less fortunate or may even feel worried or embarrassed about revealing a particular problem or concern to someone they have a close relationship with. In these cases, Peer Support can be an effective tool for people with diabetes.
Peer Support is an incredibly valuable service that’s run on a purely volunteer basis aimed at providing anyone affected by diabetes, whether it’s you with the condition or you’re a parent or carer for someone with diabetes. All volunteers go through training provided by Diabetes UK to ensure they’re able to listen to whatever you have to say and provided support, advice or guidance wherever possible. Anyone can get in contact via phone or e-mail and you can read more about it on the Peer Support page
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Growing up, I felt very alone in terms of my diabetes. Being Diagnosed at 4 years old was a very scary experience, also due to the fact I knew of no other people around me with the condition. Through primary school, I was the only diabetic, which carried on all the way through until the end of college. During these times, I found that I had no motivation to attempt to fully control my condition, whereby I believe that this was linked to not having other peers to share my experiences with or ask questions etc. Everybody around me was ‘normal’, eating whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, with no care in the world, and to an extent, I seemed to follow.
However, as I started university, I met a few diabetics, whereby I felt a sense of relief. All this time all I wanted was somebody to ask questions and compare methods of control etc. I had so many questions to ask them, built up over the years, locked inside me. Since speaking to other diabetics face to face, this has had a huge effect on how I control my diabetes, whereby my motivation has increased significantly. Having somebody to turn to about the condition is a vital part of good diabetes control in my opinion.
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