D-Blog Week: Diabetes Thankfulness

Diabetes Blog Week 2014 is coming to an end and I can't help but feel like it's gone super fast.  They say that happens when you're having fun!  With my University exams starting next week, I thought the past few days would have been pretty stressful as I attempt to learn and memorise an entire semester's worth of content.  However, thanks to the DOC, my week has been anything but.  To summarise why the past 7 days have been so special for me, here are some of favourite things from this D-Blog Week:

• I have smiled, giggled and even had a lump in my throat trying to swallow my own tears, as I've read posts from all of the wonderful bloggers who have taken part this year.  The best part is that I haven't even read them all yet and I've got even more to look forward to!

• Every participant in D-Blog Week reads the same prompt daily, yet each person's post is completely different!  D-Blog Week highlights our similarities and differences - this diversity, for me, makes the DOC an exciting and beautiful thing to be a part of.

• I know I talk about this a lot, but I love how D-Blog Week allows me to be creative.  The themes for each post encourage me to think and write about aspects of my diabetes I may not normally give much thought to, or inspire me to do it in a completely different way.

• This year, Friday's 'Diabetes Life Hacks' prompt was so helpful for me.  Other blogger's hints and tips about the things that make their lives with diabetes easier, reinforced to me how some little things can make such a huge difference!  There were definitely a few 'I wish I'd known about that years ago!' moments, but I know now thanks to you guys :)

• Karen Graffeo.  Not only has she brought Diabetes Blog Week to the Diabetes Online Community for 5 years and writes posts that are a treat to read, but she also reads other's posts, comments on them and gives so much encouragement to so many people.  Thank you for bringing us together!

• Finally, it means so much to me how, every year, D-Blog Week gives me the boost I need to pay more attention to my diabetes.  Sometimes we all need to turn the page and start afresh.  Diabetes Blog Week, for me, is like putting new batteries into my life with type 1, and pressing the 'reset' button.  Well, you know you're ready for a new start when you clear out all of the used, bloody test strips from your kit-bag...

(Is it bad that I think this is actually quite good going?! Haha)

I hope there will be plenty of annual D-Blog Weeks to come, as they make me thankful.  Thankful for the internet, thankful for my health, thankful for my life and, would you believe it, thankful for my diabetes.  Without it, I might not know some of the wonderful people in my life who I have met through the DOC.  It's amazing how something negative can bring about so much positivity, and I have you magical people to thank for that!

D-Blog Week: D-Thanks Fairy Does Diabetes!

I've opted for the wild card prompt of 'design your dream diabetes device' today, simply for an opportunity to bring back an old favourite of mine.  The first year I participated in D-Blog Week, and actually exactly 2 years ago today, I chose to use a wild card and wrote a story called 'Weeping Daisy and The D-Thanks Fairy'.  Since then, good old D-Thanks Fairy has made a couple of other appearances on Diabetic Dais and so I thought it would be a shame for her not to show her face again this year.

She used to be a whisper of encouragement in times of need but, as of now, D-Thanks Fairy is so much more!  When you are low, she sprinkles her magic dust on you and your blood sugars rise to them to a perfect level without a peak.  When you are high or you've just eaten a meal, she injects your insulin for you with super-soft needles so they never leave a mark (she may be only small, but she's wondrously strong!)  She never forgets to pick up your prescriptions for you and when you are about to run out of insulin in your cartridge, she senses it on the tips of her wings and flies to the fridge to bring you a new one.  She's an expert carbohydrate counter and she knows everything there is to know about diabetes, so you never need to see a clinician again if you don't want to - just ask her!

She lives inside your glucometer and some people think she answers to the name of 'NOT AGAIN!', but she doesn't really.  More often than not, she appears when she hears you say this because she knows it's when you need her most.  Her real name is D-Thanks Fairy and she's called this because she makes you thankful for the important things, like life itself.

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

D-Blog Week: A Magical Farewell

One of the posts I enjoyed writing the most for last year's D-Blog Week was a story called 'Weeping Daisy and The D-Thanks Fairy'.  The point I was trying to make in the story was that although diabetes can be royal pain in the backside sometimes, I can still be thankful for a lot of things because of it...D-Blog Week being one of them!

I've got a busy few days ahead reading through everyone's posts, but I'm looking forward to it :)  I am thankful to diabetes for uniting me with many wonderful people.  No - being diabetic isn't fun and we all wish there was a cure, but in the words of Pamela Curtis, THE DOC MAKE THIS LOOK AWESOME!

Here is my drawing of the D-Thanks Fairy, sprinkling her magic insulin droplets on D-Blog Week 2012  :)