#4: Learning From Mistakes

Unfortunately some things have a way of repeating themselves.  I was rudely awoken by Diabetes shoving 2.9 in my face, at 3am.  Luckily I had learnt from yesterdays mistake and had taken some hypo treatment up to bed with me, so it wasn't too bad.  What wasn't great, however, was realising that I was low enough that my mouth had gone completely numb so I'd managed to chomp away not only through my chocolate bar, but also through my tongue. Ouch.

Have felt pretty stressed today, for one reason or another.  I feel like I'm struggling with my energy levels quite a bit - I'm tired pretty much from the moment I wake up, to the moment I go to bed.  The irritating thing is that I can't really figure out why I feel so lethargic.  My blood sugar levels aren't bad, I'm definitely getting 8 hours sleep and I'm eating pretty nutritious food too (if we don't include the chocolate bars for hypo treatments and my slight addiction to Diet Coke).  A visit to the doctor probably will be the way forward if it doesn't improve soon.

My second day of training at work went well!  I don't have much to report apart from the fact that I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to starting on a more full-time basis next week.

What is really cool is that my lovely friend asked me today if I knew any good, diabetes-friendly cake recipes because she wants to make one for her uncle who has type 2.  So it will be nice to ask around a little and find out the sorts of ingredients to use.  Anyone have any ideas?

Anyway I'm home, fed and ready for bed (I'm a poet and I didn't know it!)  By the way, I've decided that I'm going to turn the Diabetic Dais Diaries into a blog in itself, 1. because I thought it'd be pretty cool and 2. because then I can use Diabetic Dais for all of my more specific posts.  I'll let you know where to find it tomorrow :)

#3: Good Morning Diabetes!

I can't even believe Blogger deleted my post yesterday!  But I'm soldiering on, so here it is again :)

My morning yesterday didn't get off to a great start.  I awoke at around 5.15 am, went to the bathroom, got back into bed and tried to go back to sleep.  It couldn't have been any more than 2 minutes before I realised I was feeling a bit odd.  I tested my blood and surprise, surprise - 3.4.  I didn't have any hypo treatment in my bedside drawers (always a big mistake) which meant I ventured, reluctantly and weary eyed, downstairs to get some.  I ate a chocolate 'Rocky' bar and went back to bed.  By the way I'm aware that my choice of hypo treatments needs some serious reconsideration, but when I'm faced with a chocolate bar or dextrose tablets, I know which one I prefer.  Definitely not the 'right' decision to make in terms of the welfare of my diabetes, but I know it's something I need to work on.

A few hours later I woke up feeling thirsty, agitated and like my head was about to explode.  I pricked my fingertip and apprehensively watched my meter counting down, expecting the worst...13.4.  This came as a surprise as, considering how rubbish I felt, I thought I would be much higher.  I suppose this is a good sign because it might mean that my body's getting used to my blood sugars being within a more 'normal' range, so it recognises it more when they're slightly out.

I didn't get overly nervous about the first day of my new job, which was a good thing seeing as I didn't start until 5.45pm!  I spent my first shift 'getting to know the ropes' a little.  My boss showed me around the head office (I took extra notice of where the toilets, food and drink areas and first aid room were located!) and explained to me more about what my role will entail.  I'm working as a Fundraising Representative for a global charity, so I was also given some more detailed information about the organisation which was really interesting.  I met some of my new colleagues too and they were lovely, which is always a good thing!

When we went over the health and safety regulations and I was asked if there was anything I wanted the rest of the team to be made aware of in terms of my diabetes.  I said I'd have a think about it and get back to them but I don't think there's much anyone else needs to know, mainly because I manage my diabetes myself.  Maybe I'll just mention the 'just in case of a real emergency' stuff.  Any advice?

Anyway considering the not-so-good start to the day, I ended it on a complete high (emotional, not diabetic!)  Now, I'm just hoping that this post saves!

#2: Overestimating A Chocolate Brownie

Today has been lovely!  First of all, I'll let you all know that my cocktail from last night didn't seem to affect my blood sugars too much at all which was a nice surprise.  I gave myself 2 units of NovoRapid to cover what I estimated to be about 20g worth of carb in the Raspberry juice and that seemed to be enough.

I got up this morning and, admittedly, missed breakfast because I was in a bit of a rush to get ready.  It was ok though - I tested my blood sugar and I was 6.7, so just injected my Levemir as normal to (hopefully) keep it balanced!  Ant and I went to meet my dad and my step-mum Jane in Oxford city centre, who had come to visit for the day.

We spent some time walking around 'The Ashmolean' which is a museum of Art and Archaeology.  I didn't learn an awful lot by looking at the actual museum, because my favourite bit was going to the gift shop at the end, but it was so nice to spend time with my loved ones.

For lunch I had a delicious Sunday Roast, with pork, new potatoes, cabbage, carrots and pork crackling which was really tasty but a bit embarrassing to eat in a quiet restaurant, as every bite I took made it sound as though my teeth were cracking.

Now, for anyone who thinks a diabetic can't eat dessert, I'm about to set the record straight...I chose chocolate raspberry brownie, covered in white chocolate sauce (now that's a dessert and a half!)  This doesn't make me a 'bad diabetic' by any stretch of the imagination 1. because I can cover the carbohydrate in it by taking my insulin and 2. I don't do it often either!  Anyway, it was lovely!

After lunch I wandered off to the bathroom to take my insulin.  I've discovered that this is a diabetic topic for discussion in itself, as in the past I've had other people with diabetes ask me 'why go to the bathroom to take your insulin!?'  My answer for this is that I, personally, would rather not inject when other people are eating because it would put some people off their food and, also, I'd rather have a bit of privacy to inject into my thigh too!  Each to their own.

I took 5 units of NovoRapid for the brownie, which was a complete guess because I didn't have any way of working out how much carb was in it exactly.  Three hours later, when I was home and my hands were trembling and I was 3.3, I began to realise I'd probably over estimated the chocolate brownie.  A problem arose when I realised that, although I was hypo, I just wasn't hungry at all.  I was still stuffed from lunch so the last thing I wanted to do was eat.  A glass of milk was the answer!  In hindsight the raspberry juice, had we not used it all for our cocktails last night, would have worked just as well.

A light dinner; baked salmon (very salty because I had a habit of overestimating more than just the brownie today) and spinach, rocket and mozzarella salad.  No carbohydrate, no insulin - wonderful!

Tomorrow I start my first day of training for my new job...eek!  In these sorts of situations, you can usually guarantee that Diabetes will be affected by nerves/excitement so we'll see what my good old Glucometer has in store for me...

#1: Introduction to 'The Diabetic Dais Diaries'

Introduction:

Today I am beginning 'The Diabetic Dais Diaries'!  What this means is I am going to be writing here, every day letting you know the ins and outs of the time I spend with my good old friend, Diabetes.

In this 'diary' I plan to confess my blood sugars, carbs I've eaten and how much insulin I've taken, as well as how much exercise I've done, how I feel in terms of mood and physical wellness and lots of other non-diabetes related stuff too.

If I'm being completely honest, I'm a teeny-weeny, itsy-bitsy bit nervous about the prospect of this!  It's obviously quite personal and I rarely share what my blood sugars are with anyone.  I usually like to keep most of my diabetes management, on a daily basis, to myself, so this is a pretty big step!

I appreciate that many diabetics across the world will being thinking (or shouting at their computer screen) 'WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THIS!? ARE YOU CRAZY!?"  The answer to the first question is I'm hoping that other people with diabetes, and those without it, will find it interesting and will be able to relate to some of the stuff I talk about.  The answer to the second question is 'yes, quite possibly.'

I plan to start small with this...I'm going to begin with writing 2 weeks worth of diary posts, but I'm hoping to stretch it out for the whole month and possibly even longer - we'll see how it goes!  To be honest, I've never been particularly wonderful at writing a diary, or keeping a log-book of my blood sugars so combining the two together could be a recipe for disaster, but I'm determined it won't be!

Please leave comments, let me know what you think, get involved and if you fancy giving it a go too then tell me about it!  Scary stuff, but we'll give it a shot (no diabetes-pun intended, honest!)...

It's Saturday so everything's happened a little later than it would on a week day, mainly because in Daisy language 'Saturday' translates to 'lie in'.  This means waking up later, getting the day started later, eating later and therefore injecting my insulin later.

My day consisted of pet fish hunting (as in looking for a new pet fish to buy, not literally hunting down peoples' poor pet fish!)  My boyfriend's and my first ever pet fish Dawn died on Wednesday morning which was very sad.  Our other fish Leonard has been looking very lonely the past few days and, so he doesn't die of a broken heart, we decided we should go and find him a new friend to swim with.

I grabbed 30g worth of porridge before leaving the house, covered in probably a little too much artificial sweetener, and headed to catch the bus with Anthony.  It took us a while to actually navigate ourselves towards the right bus stop for where we wanted to go (we moved to a new city a month ago, so we're still getting our bearings!) but we finally did it.

We spent (believe it or not) 2 and a half hours in the pet shop searching for the 'right' fish, strolling past the same fish tanks over and over again.  I must admit that this was mainly my doing, but I didn't want to get the 'wrong' one, did I!?  We finally found a little, cute baby Lionhead goldfish and bought her.  We have named her Lola.

On the bus home, I tested my blood sugars because I felt really high.  I was wrong - 3.9!  This has happened a couple of times recently, where I've felt high and my blood sugars are actually quite low.  It's worried me a little because I don't like it when my body's giving me the wrong signals.  However it's just reinforced to me how important it is that I check my blood sugars instead of doing something drastic like just injecting a couple of units of insulin.

Anyway we stopped at Tesco and bought some doughnuts, so I ate one to raise my blood sugars until we could get home for lunch.  I'm aware there are better hypo treatments, but I was 3.9...that's not hypo.  They did the trick nevertheless!

I haven't done a great deal since getting home.  Ant and I introduced Lola to her new home and to Leonard.  They seem to like each other.

Diabetes has been pretty well behaved on the whole which is always nice!  However Ant and I are about to make some lovely alcoholic cocktails which contain puréed raspberries, raspberry fruit juice and gin, so we'll see how well good old D is behaving after that little concoction!  I'll be sure to let you know tomorrow.