D-Blog Week: Saturday Snapshot Of My D-Heaven

For as long as I can remember, I've struggled with very high morning blood sugars.  This has had a huge impact on my daily life, because waking up feeling sick, with a headache and a dry mouth means that you never start your day feeling like the best version of yourself.  As my bedtime blood sugar levels were always stable, and mid-night hypos had also been ruled out, there was speculation about whether the Dawn Phenomenon (the Somogyi Effect) was the cause of my morning highs.  However, my doctors were pretty sure that there was something else having an effect on them.

Maybe it was a hormone thing which has started to settle now I'm out of my teenage years, maybe it's a miracle...I don't know!  But what I do know is that for the past couple of months, my morning blood sugars have been good.  I can't pretend I have even the tiniest hint of a clue as to why, because I haven't changed anything about my diabetes management.  Still, I couldn't be happier as I can now wake up and actually feel ready to start my day!  There still seem to be 'anomaly mornings', but at least it's the high blood sugars that are now the odd-ones-out.

My Saturday Snapshot is my blood sugar level from this morning...

...I couldn't wish for a better way to start my weekend! :)

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