D-Blog Week: The Little Book Of Carb-Counting Tricks

For a long time, I put up a lot of barriers towards carb counting.  When I was diagnosed with diabetes 18 years ago, my parents and I weren't taught about the importance of knowing how much carbohydrate you're eating, and how much insulin to take for it.  Instead of altering how much insulin I'd inject depending on what I was eating, I had set doses for each meal and that was that.  It was only when I was about 15 years old that I was encouraged by my doctors to attend a DAFNE course but, as far as I saw it, there was no need - I thought everything was just fine the way I'd been doing it.

Thankfully, I eventually realised that carbohydrate counting not only made a lot of sense, but it's also essential to balanced blood-sugar levels.  My lifestyle, and the amount of food I'd eat, would change significantly from day-to-day and administering the same amount of insulin, regardless of whether I was eating one piece of toast or a whole plate-full of pasta, was a recipe for disaster.

When I finally started to learn how to carb count and began to realise which foods had carbohydrate in them (it had never occurred to me that a lot of meat products like sausages and burgers are packed with bread-crumbs!), it took me quite a long time before I had the hang of it.  The book 'Carbs & Cals'  acted as a bit of a lifeline for me during this time.  Each page has photos of different portion sizes for so many different carb-containing foods, and it tells you how many grams of carbohydrate are in each one - it is genius!  

Although I either weigh my carby food, or look at the nutritional information on the back of packets to know how much insulin to give myself, I still find Carbs & Cals really useful.  When I go out for a meal, when I can't find out the weight myself, I know that I can flick through the book and compare the portion size to the photos on the pages.  I've also found that, nowadays, I don't even need to carry the book with me as I know instantly what 60g of pasta, or 70g of rice looks like on my plate, because I've seen it so many times in Carbs & Cals.

So if I could give one tip that makes life with diabetes easier (aside from not wearing all-in-one clothing, after my injecting difficulty when wearing my floral playsuit a few weeks back [read here]), it would be to buy a copy of Carbs & Cals.  You'll never be left guesstimating again!

D-Blog Week: Timeline of Diabetes Accomplishments

Most of the major breakthroughs and achievements I've had in my diabetes management have occurred in the last couple of years, which is great for my memory's sake!  My biggest accomplishment, which I wrote a post about a couple of months back, was reversing the diabetic retinopathy I'd been told I'd developed a year before.  It was probably the happiest day of my diabetic journey so far, but now I realise that there have been lots of smaller achievements that led up to that day and the wonderful emotions I felt because of it.

March 2013:  Reversal of diabetic retinopathy

November 2012:  16 year Diaversary! 16 years of being on the diabetes rollercoaster and I'd finally stopped screaming.

October 2012:  HbA1c of 7.7%, down from 10.2% in July 2011

July 2012:  'Diabetic Dais' was featured in an article about good health blogs, in the national magazine 'Take a Break' (read about this here)

March 2012:  I started taking care of my diabetes as well as I could.  I stopped skipping injections completely, started testing my blood sugars before eating and in between mealtimes and vowed to carbohydrate count to the best of my ability.

September 2011:  I moved away from home for the first time to start university.  This meant taking full responsibility for not just my diabetes, but my health and body in general.  Eating right (which starts with remembering to go to the supermarket and buy food!), remembering to put in and pick up prescriptions before running out of insulin and getting in from a student night out in one piece!

August 2011:  My results for my A Levels came in and I achieved higher grades than I required to get into my chosen university.  Considering that I took most of my exams with ridiculously high blood sugars, this was a massive achievement for me.

July 2011:  I took part in the DAFNE course, which my doctors had been trying to get me to participate in for years.  As it turned out, I absolutely loved it and it just happened to be the turning point in how I looked at my diabetes management.  It also provided me with the information and support I needed, as well as introducing me to some wonderful people living with type 1 diabetes too!  (Read about this here)

September 2004:  The amount of insulin injections I was taking increased from 2 to 4 a day, which I hated the thought of at 11 years old, but I realised it was something I had to do.

August 2004:  I went on my first children's diabetes camp with my hospital.  Before this I had never seen another child do an injection or test their blood sugars or go hypo.  Previously I'd only ever done my shots in my legs because I was too scared to do them anywhere else, but I was inspired by what I saw and actually asked my nurse to teach me to do my injections in my tummy whilst I was there. It was one of the most eye opening experiences and I hope I never forget it!

August 1998:  At the age of 5, and a year and a half after being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, I started administering my insulin independently and doing my injections and blood testing myself.

November 1996:  Being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, dealing with it and moving on with my life.

Diabetic Dais' 2nd Blogging Birthday!

Today marks two years since I wrote my first post for Diabetic Dais!  A lot has changed in two years in my personal life, in terms of my diabetes and at the point where both intertwine.  At 18 years of age, and when I started Diabetic Dais, I had a HbA1c of 10.2%, I couldn't carb count and I thought the only way I could manage my weight was to skip injections.  Now I have completed the DAFNE course, I feel dreadful if my blood sugar goes above 9mmol and my last HbA1c was 7.7%. This blog and the amazing people I have met through it have been such an incredible support system and I doubt I would be managing my diabetes in the way I am doing had it not been for them.

A few special mentions go out to Vicki Gibbs and the other wonderful people at Student Diabetics UK, Meagan Esler, Karen Watson, Simon Shaw, Ant Brown and Nicola Maude.  Thank you for being part of my diabetes and blogging journey so far.  Also, of course, thank you to everyone who continues to read my posts; your support means more to me than months of perfect blood sugars! xoxo

Day 27: Trials and Triumphs of T1

5 challenges:

1)  Doing my injections - I think this is one of the main challenges for most diabetics.  For me it's not because they hurt or I'm scared of needles, but because sometimes I just don't want to. Sometimes I feel I'm too busy, or I'm not in the right environment, or I just want to be non-diabetic for a day or two.

2)  Going to endo appointments -  I don't struggle as much with attending these anymore, but they used to feel like the bane of my life.  It didn't even matter that I only had to go every 3months in the paediatric clinic, just the thought of the whole ordeal would fill me with dread. Because I wasn't taking care of my diabetes properly, I hated finding out what my HbA1c was, having my insulin doses adjusted and being asked if I'd been recording my blood sugars, when I only ever felt that I was disappointing my diabetes team and myself when I hadn't.  The last thing I wanted to do was talk about my diabetes, when I was simply wishing it would disappear.

3)  Glucotabs and Lucozade - Because I've had diabetes since being really young, I've never acquired a sweet tooth.  I find anything that's really sugary to be absolutely repulsive.  However, two of the best quick-acting hypo treatments are Glucotabs and Lucozade.  Chocolate bars and cookies are appealing, but they won't raise your bg's quickly because of the fat in them and the way they are digested.  Glucotabs are the easiest to carry around with you and Lucozade is usually the easiest to get hold of in an emergency.   Convenient?  Yes.  Tasty?  No.  Sometimes I have to force myself to drink Lucozade or shove Glucotabs down my neck, even if I'm really low.

4)  Going for my retinopathy screening - Everytime I go, I work myself into such a frenzy.  Not only do I absolutely despise eye-drops, but I worry so much about what the results are going to be.  As soon as the screening is complete and they have the photos, I always hastily ask if they look ok, my voice quivering.  Sometimes I wonder if I should even go, but then I have to remind myself that ignorance isn't bliss.

5)  Doing the right thing -  I've often wrote about how diabetes doesn't give you a choice.  You have to do injections, test your blood etc.  However, I've realised that the thing that actually makes diabetes hard sometimes is that we do have a choice.  If I don't want to test my blood sugar, or give my insulin or treat my hypos I don't have to.  Although I know there will be horrendous long-term complications, sometimes it just feels easier not to at the time. So, for me, making the choice to do the right thing for my diabetes can be the biggest challenge of all.

5 victories:

1)  Doing the DAFNE program - Those on my diabetes team know that trying to just get me on it was like trying to make a sheep 'moo' for a long time.  I didn't want to know because 1. I was dubious that anything could be so amazing that it would massively improve my management and 2. I generally wasn't interested in anything that involved diabetes.  However after months of persuasion and going on and on about it, I did DAFNE.  They weren't lying, it was amazing.  I met some wonderful people and learned so much.  My HbA1c has improved significantly since doing DAFNE and I would recommend it to every diabetic.

2)  Talking to others about my diabetes - I used to be useless.  I'd get embarrassed and shy away from any situation which meant I'd have to reveal that I have diabetes.  That often meant that I'd end up in some sticky situations.  I'm not like that anymore.  I've come to realise that my diabetes is part of me and it's nothing to be ashamed of.

3)  Testing my blood - Estimating how much insulin I needed to give myself by seeing how high/low I felt at the time was never a good technique.  I did this most days for a couple of years and I regard myself as being lucky for not being riddled with diabetes complications as a punishment for my stupidity.  

4)  Carb counting - Hit and miss, hit and miss.  I was like that for years. I never really took notice as to why carb counting was so important and so, in my ignorance, rarely bothered to do it.  Nowadays, there isn't one packet of crisps or chocolate bar with unread nutritional information.  There isn't one rice dish or bowl of pasta that goes unweighed.  There isn't one place that I don't take my Carbs&Cals book.  My boyfriend and I even cook our potatoes/spaghetti/whatever in separate pans, just so we know I'm going to bolus correctly.  Some may say it's excessive, but I know I'm doing the right thing.

5)  Blogging - I see 'Diabetic Dais' and my Diabetes UK blog as victories because of how much writing them improves my diabetes control.  The more I write about diabetes, the more I focus on it and the better my blood sugars are!  Not only that, but I've met some beautiful diabetics through writing my blogs, who I wouldn't necessarily have had the pleasure of talking to if I didn't rant and ramble on like I do!