Day 12: Spotty Dotty Diabetic Dais

Stream of consciousness day?  Guess this will be a test of how conscious I've actually been today!  Have felt a bit like a member of the living dead but, nevertheless, here goes...

This morning I looked in the mirror and wondered why I have yet another pimple/spot/thing on my face!  Before Christmas, I'd hardly had a single spot in my life.  Maybe the odd one on my chin or nose when I was ill or feeling a bit run-down, but apart from that I was one of those annoyingly lucky people with pretty good skin.  Now you could probably play dot-to-dot on my face if you wanted to, although I'm not welcoming offers anytime soon just so we're clear (unlike my skin, just to reinforce my point!)   Anyway, I've wasted plenty of money on Clean and Clear and other facial cleansing, spot destroying products that cost more than my weekly food budget and I'm not doing it anymore.  Just going to rename myself: Spotty-Dotty-Diabetic-Dais...I think it's got a ring to it personally.

Went downstairs to grab breakfast with my boyfriend, although it was about 11.30am by this point so I decided I'd skip brekky and have lunch in a couple of hours.  Anthony had a bowl of natural yoghurt mixed with Morrisson's 23p 'Mixed Fruits' jam which we discovered, after reading the ingredients, actually only contains the smallestttt percentages of apple and blackberries and something ridiculous like 86% sugar...so I gave it a miss.  Had a big cup of Earl Grey tea in my mahoosive Cath Kidston mug which made my insides feel very warm and I was sure that, if I'd jumped up and down, you'd be able to hear the liquid sloshing around in my tummy.  Nice.  So I didn't jump up and down.

I was feeling a bit grumpy - I'd woken up with some massively high blood sugar reading like 18.3mmol and had wanted to rage bolus but just about managed to keep a level head and gave myself 6 correction units of my fast acting insulin, thinking that it should bring me down to about 6mmol.  Injected my new best friend Levemir too.  13u - that should do the trick!

Started to notice that I'm beginning to look very much like a pin cushion.  The tops of my thighs and tummy are pretty bruised and 'dotty' (again, kind of like my spotty face!) My fingertips are covered with tiny little pin-prick marks, especially the ring finger on my right hand seeing as it appears to be my favourite to bg test on for whatever reason.  I try and move my injection sites around as much as I can, although I'm yet to brave injecting into the Gluteus Maximus.  

Ant gave me my lunch-time jab in the top of my arm.  I can't do my own injections in my arms because I have a thing about pinching before putting the needle in and I obviously can't do that unless I grow an extra arm, which would not only be a bit creepy but if I'm going to do that I might as well grow a new pancreas too.  Once I'm able to grow extra human organs, I'll save loads of people by making loads of new hearts, pancreases, livers, kidneys etc. (although they'll have to get them out of me quickly once I've started growing them because I'm only small so there's a very high chance that I would explode from an overdose of human organs)  To top it all off, I could go on Britain's Got Talent and perform for the Queen if I won...I suppose I'd have to grow Her Majesty some sort of diamond encrusted body part.  I'm sure she'd like that; gotta' be better than Susan Boyle or Diversity, right?

Tried to give Ant a hand with making the model for his building which was fun but eventually we both became frustrated because the table we were doing it on was too low down so we looked and felt the the Hunchbacks of Notre Dame.  At dinner time we attempted cooking a Panang curry from scratch after ordering a deliciousss one from a Thai takeaway the other day.  We both came to the conclusion that although it was a very tasty curry it was no Panang, so we have agreed to try again another time soon.  In the meantime, the mystery dish we conjured up tonight will be called 'Ant and Daisy's Special Curry'.

Now I'm sat in bed writing this, listening to the soothing sounds of David Gray and hoping that my knees will stop aching soon.  My fundraising job involves a large amount of running/skipping/hopping about (whichever makes you feel most enthusiastic and energetic when you're out and about) and my legs are starting to feel the consequences.  Considering growing some new ones overnight...y'know, as you do.

Day 7: Fat Lantus

I recently went to visit my Diabetes Nurse for a check-up and a chat.  When I moved away from home for University last year, I decided that I'd retain my diabetes care in Nottingham rather than moving it up to Leeds.  The main reason for this decision was my Diabetes Nurse.  She is, in a word, fabulous.  The quality of my relationship with her and her care and knowledge were of far more importance to me than the convenience of having a diabetes team in my city.

Most of all I'd been concerned about gaining weight.  I don't have some hang-up about thinking I'm fat or anything when I know I only weigh within the lower 8 stone region, but I'm also only 5ft 2" and even a pound or two extra is noticeable to me at least.  I'm not idle - I exercise regularly.  I love food, but I don't eat more than I should.  So why was I starting to constantly feel like I'd stored a large sack of uncooked potatoes somewhere in my body?

After a few conversations with other diabetics, I started to blame my long-acting Lantus insulin.  To those who don't already know, insulin is a hormone.  Hormones inevitably have an affect on your body in some way, whether they change your mood, behaviour or something else.  Lantus is renowned for increasing a person's weight, much to the disappointment of many diabetics.

My Diabetes Nurse understood my concern.  After all most people want to feel that they're in control of their appearance.  She said that an alternative insulin called Levemir would probably work better for me.

Levemir is also a long acting, basal insulin.  I am able to take pretty much the same dose as I did of Lantus, twice a day.  However it is different in three massive ways:

1. Levemir is more flexible.  If you need a dose adjustment you can do it and it will take affect straight away.  Lantus, however, can take up to 3 days before you even start to see a difference.
2. Levemir is not as acidic as Lantus, so it doesn't sting when you inject.
3. LEVEMIR DOES NOT CAUSE WEIGHT GAIN.

From this information it would seem that overall Levemir is more favourable than Lantus.  So why are diabetics even put on Lantus to begin with?  Of course I'm sure that lots of diabetics witness no negative side-effects of Lantus.  Still, when there are many who do, I don't understand why they should be made to endure weeks/months/years of seemingly unexplainable weight gain and other problems, especially when they could just be put on an arguably better insulin instead!

Sorry that this has been a ranty post - I'm sure there probably is a reason as to why Lantus would seem to work better for some people, but from my own experience it's just a recipe for frustration.  Backing good old Lev all the way!