Diabetes snapshots

For Diabetes Blog Week Karen set us the subject today of "Diabetes Snapshots". I haven't taken any diabetes photos, so instead I chose a video :D Enjoy!

Having diabetes is a little like "whack a kitty"...



Forever correcting high or low blood sugars! Just not quite as cute :P

Let's get moving

I grew up thinking that I was bad at sports. I'm a little bit uncoordinated, and I'm not too helpful in team sports, but I played hockey, like this:

(that's not me, BTW :P)

And I'm not that flexible or strong, but I studied kung-fu for 7 years, like this:

(Again... not I, said the fly)

I joined a gym for the year leading up to my wedding, and lost about 6 kilos, of which about 3 have returned since then, but I'm ok with that.

Most of the time now my exercise will be walking. We have a long promenade along the ocean front here, and at 10Km end to end, it's a good wee walk, or bike ride. I love biking. There's nothing better on a calm sunny day that pedalling and flying along on my bike.

I also do a bit of swimming, but it tires me out too quick and often causes me to go low. Having a low in a pool is no fun.

Most weeks I reckon I'd be lucky to get about 30 mins to 1hr exercise, but that goes up if you count gardening and vacuuming, which make me puff!

That's one good thing about being a growned-up, and not having to go to school anymore, is NO MORE PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

P.E., or Gym class always showed me up a someone who couldn't play netball, was scared of the volleyball-ball, and allergic to cricket. Being a kid, I would always forget to take emergency food with me, but I don't remember ever doing enough exercise at school to make me low :P

I did, however, have an awful low at the gym one time. I went with my sister, and we were just starting a new class with a new instructor. In the middle of doing warm-up stetches I blacked out and kind of slithered down the wall to sit on the floor in a heap. She went off to get me juice from the locker room. I remember watching her come back, walking quickly, but not running, so as not to cause a panic. I thought it was funny, it's a gym after all, you should be able to run sister! Get here now! :P

The poor instructor was terrified! He kept offering to call me an ambulance. And every time I showed up in the gym after that he would enquire if I was OK.

Ok, so I guess I've realised that I don't currently do enough exercise, really. It's coming towards winter here, and the weather is not much fun. I may have to look at some more organised form of fitness soon. :)

To carb or not to carb

I eat a pretty normal diet. An average of 150 - 170 grams of carbs per day. It's not a low carb diet, but it's getting close. It just happens to be the amount I eat which makes me feel neither hungry nor too full.


I tend to follow the advice of my Mum, and my first diabetes nurse educator, and dietician. They all recommend something like this:



It's worked for 27 years, and kept my weight at a healthy 60-65kg. Good for my height.

My only food problems came when I got really depressed. Unfortunately for me, my main symptom was nausea, so I stopped eating cos I couldn't face it. And lost weight... so much that I was diagnosed as anorexic, and sent off for counselling (and gentle anti-depressants, which moderate the lows, but also the joys, like putting a dampener on your emotions).


It worked, thank god, cos managing T1 diabetes with an eating condition was just awful. Now I watch myself carefully, if I get depressed, I take note that my eating is not gently dwindling away, and I can catch it in time. :)


My hubby is getting interested in vegetarian cooking, so I have been treated to some wonderful vege meals over the past couple of months :) Lots of chilli, tumeric, cumin, nuts, spice! Yummy! I don't mind not-eating meat, however I still say that the best vegetarian meals are the ones with bacon added! hehe


If food is in front of me, and I'm hungry, I will probably eat some. If I end up in a cafe, I always look for something with adequate carbs. If it's a restaurant for dinner, I might end up with a plate full of chicken and salad, but no carbs... that means I get to eat dessert too!

I don't count calories, but I have started logging the number of grams of carbohydrate I eat this year. Everything.


Food should be enjoyed, and I hate having to "emergency-eat" for lows, but on the whole I enjoy planting, growing, cooking and eating. Like it should be. I won't let diabetes ruin one of the great joys of my life. :)

My biggest supporter

Caring for my diabetes is a team effort, and I would like to say that no one is more important than anyone else on my "team". Sad fact is, there is one person who wins hands down as THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON. And that's me. If I'm not on board with the injections and the finger-pricks and the diet and doctor's appointments then no-one else can make much difference. I have to WANT to be better. I have to WANT to be healthy, and I have to be prepared to put in the effort to get there. :)

Having said that, my team of family, doctors, and friends who look out for me is absolutely awesome. By far and away my biggest supporter is my husband.

This man who I love with all my heart looks after me like no one else can. He is gentle and kind when reminding me I need a dinner-time test. He is forceful and strong-willed when he wants me to wake up and test in the middle of the night cos I'm making strange noises. He won't let me lay there in a half-sleep, he will roll out of the cosy bed to fetch emergency food. He has learned a lot in the 6 years I've known him, and he's never judged me or shown any preconceptions about my diabetes. He listens when I explain things, and he  understands when I can't eat something or do something. He helps me recover from lows, and will keep the conversation going when we're out together and I'm too high or too low to form a cohesive sentence.

He loves me and he cares for me. Because that's what we do. We look after each other. :)

Before I met my husband and moved out of my childhood home, my parents were absolutely amazing in tending to my diabetes. They never treated me as special, or different because I was diabetic. We just got on with things. They encouraged me to do what I enjoyed, and with their unwavering support I was able to grow up pretty "normal". Diabetes just happened to be a part of that.

My Mum did make some drastic changes to the family's diet, however, with a sugar-free diet introduced when I turned five, and a low-fat diet introduced when she got gallstones. So we grew up very healthy! Treats were just that - treats! :) I think that this is the main reason why my sister and I came out so slim in a family of non-slim folks hehe :P

I've had various doctors and endocrinologists over the years, and also diabetes nurse educators. There folks have been integral in monitoring and helping to control my diabetes. They have provided emotional support to us when we felt all alone with this thing, and they have never given up on the dream of me living a "normal" life.

Diabetes is a team support. One that never ends and has no winners. One that you just have to keep playing.

Making the low go

When I have a low blood sugar it can be scary, but most of the time I just get mildly annoyed.

A low slows me down and stops my brain, the most important part of me, from functioning. I can't think straight when I go low, my heart beats too fast like it's too big and restless for my chest, I get the chills, chills so cold that no matter how many blankets I curl up in just won't go.

I can't talk. The words are in my head, but somewhere the language gets lost. Or even worse, my mind goes blank, and I lose everything. No words. Ask me a question "Are you low?" and all you'll get is a dumb stare and maybe a frustrated moan.

I get grumpy. Grumpy as hell! Everything makes me annoyed when I'm low. I'm more likely to swear or lash out, even though I'm a gentle wee soul most of the time. hehe :P

I get tunnel vision, and sometimes my lips get tingly, or the back of my throat goes numb which makes it feel like I can't breathe.

I have collapsed, and blacked out.

I have had seizures so bad that I actually broke a vertebra. A compression fracture.

I've been to A+E.

I know what the inside of an ambulance looks like when you're lying down strapped to the stretcher, wrapped only in a summer sheet, listening to the medics talk on the drive to the hospital.

I know that weird feeling of being wheeled through corridors to x-ray and seeing light after light go over my head.

I know what it's like to hear my husband tell the medics that no, I don't want the glucagon, because I told him that it makes me vomit for 24hours. He's listened to me, and taken note of my wishes, but I'm SO hypo right now I NEED it, but too low to speak, so I end up not getting any glucagon. And when you don't have much of a natural reserve, it makes the ride back up none too pleasant. :(

But most of the time I can deal with a low well before it reaches anything nearing dramatic. Most people won't know I'm unwell, and only those who are really close to me will be able to spot anything wrong.

I carry fruit bars (15g carbs in an easy to chew form) and juice boxes (12g quick-drinkin' goodness). I prefer to have natural fast-acting foods, rather than lollies, to try and save my teeth. It also feels better to eat a banana, or a natural meusili bar, than processed sweeties or drinks. But I have a soft spot for jelly beans, so they are my emergency food of choice to live in the glove box of my car since they last ages and don't melt in the heat.

So yeah, that's all I gotta say about lows for now: They are a pain in the arse, and they can muck up my life, but most of the time it's not going to stop me from doing kung fu (studied for 7 years), or flying a plane (done that twice), or rock carving in the hot sun all day, or working a full time job, or marrying my sweetheart, or thinking of having kids, or playing backyard cricket with-walnuts-instead-of-a-cricket-ball with my 3 adorable step kids, or biking for 10Kms for a picnic by the lake, or driving my car between cities, or travelling overseas to visit my friends and family. It has never stopped me before, and I don't intend to ever, ever let it stop me in the future.

Awesome. Feels great to have written that. Enjoy your Tuesday :)

A day in the life...with diabetes

I've chosen to share a day with you. The day I got my flu vaccination! (as if I didn't have enough needles already)

Starts off with me sleeping through my alarm, and having my cat walk all over my face in an effort to convince me to feed him. Get dressed, throw cat biscuits at kitty, and race out to my car. Since I live in a small city, it's only an 8 minute drive from my house to my office. Still, I have been known to cut it pretty fine sometimes!

Get to work and thank my lucky stars that there is an on-site carpark ready and waiting for me. Into the lift, down the corridor, and get settled into my office. It's open plan, with 6 other people. My computer takes ages to boot up, so I use this time to test, eat breakfast, and take my insulin.

Breakfast test: 8.3 mmol/L, 5u Humalog and 11u Lantus, 23g carbs

People in my office hardly notice me doing my blood tests and injections anymore. I think most of them have never actually noticed, and those who do generally don't seem to care anymore. It's only exciting to watch the first time!

I work until 10am, when a bunch of us head downstairs to the cafe for tea and nibbles. I have a box of raisins and a cuppa tea with Equal sweetner.

Morning tea test: 7.2 mmol/L, 20g carbs

Then it's back to work until lunchtime, when I usually head off home for lunch. Today I've got an appointment at my GP's for a flu shot. I get one every year, as I had the flu one year and it felt like I was dying! Flu + diabetes /= fun! The nurse gives me the shot and I have to sit around reading crummy waiting room magazines for 20 mins to check if I'm gonna have a reaction. Lunch at home is some peanut butter and honey toast with another cup of tea, and feeding the kitty cos he thinks I'm mean to come home without feeding him.

Lunchtime test: 10.2 mmol/L, 5u Humalog, 35g carbs

Oh, work is so boring! So every now and again we have to stop for some lolcatz hehe :D

Afternoon tea test: 14.3 mmol/L Hmmm I think, that's a bit high, so a correction of 1.5u should do the trick. Probably the honey on the toast at lunch time coupled with the fuss of having the flu shot.

Middle of the afternoon and I start to feel a bit off. Eyes can't focus, I start to feel cold and get all chilly, my brain is in a fog and I find myself reading the same stretch of text over and over without taking it in. A quick test proves that I'm only 3.8 mmol/L so I hunt around in my purse and desk for a fruit bar or juice box. 20g carbs later, and the full "yuck" of the low starts to hit. I usually get my worst symptoms on the way back up, so it's not unusual to see me just sitting at my desk staring into space.

Ok, so work is not all boring. I'm a web designer for an e-learning company, and I get to work with some awesome folks to create courses that will be delivered over the interwebs. I am mainly responsible for the design of the online enrolment systems and delivery websites. It's not flashy work, but it needs to be done.

Work finishes up and I make my way home, stopping at the pharmacy on the way to collect a prescription. To get my diabetes supplies I email my GP a list of what I want, with how much I am currently using per day so he can work out the maths of how much to order me. He faxes a prescription over to my pharmacy, I call to ensure it's ready, then go and collect it. At the most, it will cost me about $15, but normally it's closer to $3 just for the prescription charge. Some days I really love living in New Zealand!

Dinner is at home on the couch watching the news with my hubby, we have tortellini with homemade tomato, olive and bacon sauce, and neopolitan ice-cream for dessert. I like the strawberry stripe best, and somehow it always runs out first.

Dinner test: 8.1 mmol/L, 5u Humalog, 9u Lantus, 40g carbs

Because it's a Thursday and there are no after-work activities planned, I can loll about on the couch and watch telly and surf the interwebs. I will often spend this time working on some freelance web design jobs, or downloading and processing photos off my new camera. Love Canon :)

Whoa, look at that! It's nearly midnight! Time to test: 5.0 mmol/L That's too low for my liking at this time of night, I need to feel a bit safer before committing to sleep. So 25g of carbs and another test at half-past midnight of 5.6 mmol/L confirms my blood sugar is gently rising, not crashing. Off to nap-land.

And that is my day, well, one of them anyway. Remembered as best I could with the aid of my log book.

Diabetes Blog Week

So I've only just started blogging about diabetes and stuff, I'm pretty new at it all. But I really like Karen's (from BitterSweet blog fame) idea to blog together as a community for a week about set topics.

I will give it a try :) Should be very interesting to see what other people write about too. Here is the "agenda":

• Monday 5/10 - A day in the life . . . with diabetes



• Tuesday 5/11 – Making the low go



• Wednesday 5/12 – Your Biggest Supporter



• Thursday 5/13 - To carb or not to carb



• Friday 5/14 - Let's get moving



• Saturday 5/15 - Diabetes snapshots



• Sunday 5/16 - Dream a little dream - life after a cure

Should at the very least get me writing a lot! :D