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: 16 Years of Effort in 20 Minutes

Firstly, I just need to express that I am super duper excited for this year's Diabetes Blog Week!  I participated in D-Blog Week 2011 just a couple of weeks after writing my first post for Diabetic Dais and, not having really met or spoken to many people with diabetes before, it was amazingly eye opening.  Last year's D-Blog Week came at a time when I needed it, as I had recently been told that I had developed diabetic retinopathy and was struggling to focus on my diabetes care.  However, connecting with others through Diabetes Blog Week gave me the much-needed support and boost to motivate myself to get on top of my management.  So, in my third year of taking part in Diabetes Blog Week, it's fair to say that I'm really looking forward to what the next 7 days have in store for me and the rest of the Diabetic Online Community!

Over the 16 and a half years that I have had diabetes, there have been times when it's felt as though my diabetes care team don't fully understand what being a type 1 diabetic is actually like. The purpose of today's prompt is to express what we wish our doctors and nurses knew about what it is like to live with diabetes on a daily basis, but also admit the aspects of our D-Lives that we're glad they can't see.

Hey doc!  Just a note to say I guess it's easy to make presumptions about how well someone attempts to take care of their diabetes based on the results of a few tests that appear on your computer screen, after they've had their blood drained from them and urine bottled.  I also realise that when you compare my HbA1c percentage to what a medical textbook says a perfect HbA1c is, it's easy to assume that I'm doing something wrong.

What you don't see is that before I make my journey to see you, I've already spent a good few hours dreading the 20 minutes I spend with you.  I know what your computer screen shows you because I feel the results of those blood sugars and I know what you're going to say about my lumpy injection sites because that's my body we're talking about, remember?  However what your screen doesn't show you is my effort and how much I try.

Effort can't be shown in a number.  I can't bring you a logbook of how much I've tried, nor can you put my blood in a tube and send it off to the lab for me to be tested for it.  I understand that all the solid information you have is on your database, but I wish you could see how much I do to attempt to make my numbers on your screen match the 'acceptable' ones in your textbook.

I'm the first one to admit that my diabetes management isn't always the best that it could be; sometimes I forget to check the amount of carbs on a pack of tortellini so I guess how much insulin to take and I sometimes I forget to change my needle until it feels blunt against my skin.  Some days I'm so annoyed with my unexplained highs that I feel like packing it all in and not bothering to carbohydrate count, because what difference does it make anyway when my blood sugars won't come below 13mmol!?  Some days I'm annoyed with myself that I didn't check a blood sugar before bed, or that I ate that extra biscuit and didn't bolus for it, and some days I wish I could go back in time and take some of your advice earlier.

I don't expect to able to explain to you exactly what it's like to live with diabetes every day of my life in the 20 minutes we spend together every year, but sometimes I just wish you'd acknowledge that I do and maybe it's not as easy at it seems.

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

Small Changes Make Big Differences

In the 16 years I've had type 1 diabetes, I can't honestly say that there's been a lot I can be proud of regarding it.  Sometimes I feel like living with type 1 diabetes is kind of like watching the news; the information you're fed from it can be pretty negative.  A few times a week my glucose meter shows me a blood sugar reading I don't like. When I was 12 years old I had to increase the amount of injections I was taking from three a day to four. Once I had a virus which caused ketoacidosis so I had to spend a night in hospital and, this time last year, I received a letter informing me that I had developed background retinopathy.

It's probably fair to say I was sad about it, because sometimes knowing that you've damaged yourself and caused your own pain is equally as upsetting as feeling like you don't deserve the circumstance you've found yourself in. I cried about it, blogged about it and eventually came to the realisation that things needed to change.

I started carb counting when I knew that I could, completely stopped skipping injections altogether and started testing my blood sugars more regularly.  To begin with it felt like a battle and I just wanted to cook my potatoes without having to weigh them first and some days I wanted to leave the restaurant without having to give my insulin before I could get on the bus home, but I didn't.  After a while the changes were no longer changes, they were the norm and the battle was no longer a battle, it was a healthy routine.

Three weeks ago I went for my first diabetic retinopathy screening and yesterday I came home to a letter.  I opened it cautiously, as though something was going to jump out of the envelope, and took a deep breath before beginning to read the text.  To my absolute delight, I discovered that my retinas appear completely normal and they have healed to a good standard!  I flung my arms around my boyfriend, who has been so supportive with all aspects of my diabetes management, and cried tears of complete and utter joy.

In the 16 years I've had type 1 diabetes, I can't honestly say that there's been a lot I can be proud of regarding it, but this is one of the things where I can say that I am.  Sometimes living with type 1 diabetes is like watching the news, but I suppose that only makes the good things seem even better!

D-Blog Week: My Currant Dilemma

I thought I'd combine the prompt for today with getting a bit creative and using a wild card.  I've always loved drawing.  When I was younger I'd sit for hours and hours, doodling and bugging my parents with the dreaded 'what should I draaaaaw?!' question.  I took art A Level but didn't enjoy it as much as I'd have liked to because I felt that the rigid guidelines, as to what we could and couldn't produce, stifled creativity.  That's probably why now, 2 years later, I've reverted back to my childhood artistic style of cartoons.  Regression and plenty of block Crayola Crayon colour - a combination probably worthy of therapy.  I enjoy it nevertheless!


Anyway...diabetes.  I recently began to notice that my blood sugar levels were peaking ridiculously high post breakfast.  I've known for a reasonable amount of time now that sultanas, raisins, currants and most dried fruits are notorious for raising bg's because they're high in GI (glycemic index).  Still, what do I choose to eat in the morning?  Muesli.  Not only that, but I make no attempt to pick the currants out or limit how many fall into my bowl.  Instead I usually welcome them in because they're the bits that don't taste like cardboard.


Yum, yum, yum.  I finish my muesli and give my insulin.  As little as half an hour later I want to curl up into a ball and cry because my blood sugar levels are almost in the 20's and I feel dreadful.


There are a few things I know that I need to improve in terms of my diabetes management; trying to get good, controlled blood sugars means plenty of tweaking and adjusting.  Still, I suppose one of the main things I'd like to focus more on is eating a lower GI diet than I currently (currantly, haha) do.  I know what I need to do, I know the GI of most foods, I have the books and resources to do it, I just need to do it!


Here's my drawing.  Basically I like melon, but it's high in GI.  I like cheese and it's not!  I like beer, but it's high in GI.  I like wine and it's not!  What I'm trying to remind myself is that although there are foods I might miss if I'm on a low GI diet, there are always plenty of alternatives that I like equally as much and that won't cause as much harm to my diabetes. 


Tomorrow I'll change my breakfast, or have cardboard.