D-Blog Week – Day Seven: What We’ve Learned

Today’s topic: Last year, Wendy of Candy Hearts made a suggestion for this year. She commented “I think Day 7 should be a post about stuff we've learned from other blogs or the experience of coming together online...” Today, let’s do just that!! What have you learned from other blogs - either this week or since finding the D-OC? What has your experience of blogging the DBlog Week topics with other participants been like? What has finding the D-OC done for you? If you'd like, you can even look ahead and tell us what you think the future holds!

I’ve learned so much from the DOC. I’ve picked up tips and tricks, found out about new technologies, and new ways to use old ones. I’ve met great people, and laughed out loud at their experiences of living with Diabetes, which reflect mine. I’ve marvelled at the way this community advocates for itself, and most importantly of all I’ve learned that I’m not alone, and that I can do this.

We are so much stronger together than we are apart. Keep blogging, reading, commenting and lurking folks!

D-Blog Week – Day Six: Saturday Snapshots

Today’s brief: Today is the only day I’ve brought back a fun topic from last year. Inspired by the Diabetes 365 project, let’s snap a few more d-related pictures and share them again. Post as many or as few as you’d like. Be creative! Feel free to blog your thoughts on or explanations of your pictures. Or leave out the written words and let the pictures speak for themselves.

The diabetes related pic:

(Time to tidy out my diabetes kit? - the tsunami of used test strips is evidence of how breastfeeding can play havoc with your blood sugars!)

Some pics of baby C, as requested by Layne! 4 weeks old today :)

D-Blog Week – Day Four: Ten Things I Hate About You, Diabetes

I'm re-posting this post from yesterday since Blogger has had some kind of major melt-down and it seems to have disappeared! I did post, honest! :)

Today’s brief: Having a positive attitude is important . . . but let’s face it, diabetes isn’t all sunshine and roses (or glitter and unicorns, for that matter). So today let’s vent by listing ten things about diabetes that we hate. Make them funny, make them sarcastic, make them serious, make them anything you want them to be!!

This topic is a little close to home for me right now. I’ve never really hated diabetes before, although it has been a major inconvenience for the last sixteen years! I’ve managed to get my doctorate, spend long periods of time living and travelling in Africa, hold down a pretty intense job and work all over the developing world, and diabetes hasn’t stopped me. It’s always been something that I just get on with – no point in complaining as that wouldn’t change things. However, since having an extremely traumatic childbirth experience within the last month, suddenly I see my diabetes in a different light, and have needed to process some pretty intense feelings…

Ten Things I Hate About You, Diabetes:

• I hate that you are gloriously inconsistent, and that ‘following the rules’ (whatever that means) doesn’t lead me to perfect blood sugars every day.
• I hate that there in fact aren’t any ‘rules’ and that most non-PWDs don’t understand that.
• I hate that you always deliver crappy blood sugars at the most inconvenient time possible (as a new Mum who’s breastfeeding, can I just say that it’s really rubbish to have a hypo just as your baby wants to be fed).
• I hate that you ruled every minute and second of my pregnancy, and that I couldn’t relax and enjoy it, since I was always thinking about blood sugars, insulin doses, what to eat, and how all of this might affect my unborn baby.
• I hate that even though I maintained an HbA1C of 6.6% or less throughout my pregnancy, my baby son spent five days on neonatal intensive care with blood sugar issues.
• I hate that this was probably a consequence of my insulin resistance – thanks for nothing, diabetes.
• I hate that diabetes meant that I had to be induced at 38 weeks gestation – since the induction went horribly wrong and I had an intrapartum haemorrhage, which led to foetal distress for my son, and probably compounded his blood sugar issues even further.
• I hate that diabetes will be my constant companion again when we try to have a second child.
• I hate that diabetes is in my genes, and that my children or their children might one day have to go through all of this too…
• And I hate that so many other people are also having to deal with living with you as an unwelcome houseguest.

**Rant over** – that feels much better, actually! :)

D-Blog Week – Day Five: Awesome Things

Today’s topic: In February the #dsma blog carnival challenged us to write about the most awesome thing we’d done DESPITE diabetes. Today let’s put a twist on that topic and focus on the good things diabetes has brought us. What awesome thing have you (or your child) done BECAUSE of diabetes? After all, like my blog header says, life with diabetes isn’t all bad!

Today’s post will be short and sweet…

The most awesome thing I’ve done despite diabetes is giving birth to my wonderful little boy, C – in fact it’s the most awesome thing that my husband S and I have ever done, full stop.

The most awesome thing I’ve done because of diabetes is to begin blogging, and to find the wonderful support network that is the DOC.

D-Blog Week – Day Three: Diabetes Bloopers

Today’s topic is Diabetes Bloopers: Whether you or your loved one are newly diagnosed or have been dealing with diabetes for a while, you probably realize that things can (and will) go wrong. But sometimes the things that go wrong aren’t stressful - instead sometimes they are downright funny! Go ahead and share your Diabetes Blooper - your “I can’t believe I did that" moment - your big “D-oh” - and let’s all have a good laugh together!!

A short post today... I wasn't sure that I'd have much to say about diabetes bloopers - I've done many daft things in my time, but not many that are laugh out loud funny! The classics include:

• Eating and forgetting to inject
• Getting interrupted during an injection and not being sure if I've had it or not... meaning either a double dose or no dose at all
• Mixing up my Novorapid and Lantus and taking a big whack of the wrong insulin (even worse when you're super insulin-resistant like me)
• Leaving the house with an empty pen, no test strips, or no meter batteries
• Digging in my handbag whilst hypo only to realise that the little piece of paper in the bottom is the empty wrapper from my glucose tablets
• Etc etc etc!
  

Grrrr! All rubbish things to do. However, this morning I managed to top them off with a real diabetes blooper. I dashed downstairs after feeding my little boy in order to feed myself and threw some toast in the toaster, which I then spread liberally with marmalade. Yum, thought I, until I got back upstairs, sat down on the bed, took a huge bite and remembered what my husband had told me yesterday when he baked the loaf... it was onion bread. I have to say that this was not a flavour combination to be repeated, but since I'd already breast-fed, was running a little low, and had bolused, I had little choice but to eat my avant garde breakfast. D'oh! :)

D-Blog Week - Day Two: Letter Writing Day

Today’s brief: In February the Wego Blog Carnival asked participants to write letters to their condition. You can write a letter to diabetes if you’d like, but we can also take it one step further. How about writing a letter to a fictional (or not so fictional) endocrinologist telling the doctor what you love (or not) about them. How about a letter to a pretend (or again, not so pretend) meter or pump company telling them of the device of your dreams? Maybe you’d like to write a letter to your child with diabetes. Or a letter from your adult self to the d-child you were. Whomever you choose as a recipient, today is the day to tell them what you are feeling.

If you've read my blog before you'll know a little about the person I've chosen to write to today. He's the doctor who turned my diabetes management around, not by preaching to me or telling me things I didn't already know, but by inspiring me to do better and supporting me every step of the way...

Dear Dr Inspiring,

Thank you.

I met you for the first time in January 2010, when I was referred to your pre-pregnancy clinic for diabetics. I’ve seen a lot of specialists in my time, and in 16 years of having this disease I’ve rarely had the opportunity to see the same doctor twice – a consequence of the way my previous hospital diabetes clinic was set up. I’ve seen you consistently since I started trying for a baby and throughout my pregnancy. I’ve seen good doctors and bad doctors in my time as a PWD, but you have been the most inspiring. Why? Because you understand. You know that living with diabetes is only part science, and that there’s an art to it too. You realise that whilst there are things I can control – carbs, food, insulin, exercise – there are also things that I can’t – stress, hormones, illness, and the random crap that life sometimes throws at us all. You don’t assign blame, or suggest that I should work harder, you just work with me to find things that I can improve, and support me to do this. You talk with me like an equal and don’t patronise me.

You go the extra mile – I’ve never before had a doctor give me their telephone number and tell me to call if I need to, and I nearly fell out of the bed when I was in hospital being induced and you gave me your home number and told me to call you at 10pm with my blood glucose reading so we could assess what doses I’d need! Finally you trusted me to manage my own diabetes whilst I was in labour and didn’t insist that I go on a sliding scale. That meant a huge amount to me, and I hope you feel your trust was borne out since I didn’t go above 8 mmol/l throughout the whole of my ten and a half hour labour, and was mostly in range between 4 mmol/l and 6 mmol/l (what happened during my emergency c-section I don’t know!) The fact that you telephoned the hospital on your day off to see how I was doing during my labour (more than once) speaks volumes about your commitment to your job, and I know that the diabetic ladies of North Bristol are lucky to have you!

Once again Dr Inspiring, thank you. You know that I’ve been blogging about my pregnancy anonymously, and on the off-chance that you ever find this blog and read my letter, I hope you’ll recognise yourself as Dr Inspiring.

My husband, my son and I owe you an incredible debt.

a.k.a Dia…Betty.

D-Blog Week – Day One: Admiring our differences

This is my first time joining in D-Blog week - I was determined to do so, but there is a little something which might make my posts a bit random and a bit short... actually it's a little person - my three week old son, C. So, forgive me in advance for any randomness - it's amazing how pregnancy brain turns seamlessly into mummy brain! Added sleep deprivation from the breastfeeding means I'm a little more off the planet...

Anyway, today's topic is 'Admiring our differences': We are all diabetes bloggers, but we come from many different perspectives. Last year, Diabetes Blog Week opened my eyes to all of the different kinds of blogs (and bloggers) out there - Type 1s, Type 2s, LADAs, parents of kids with diabetes, spouses of adults with diabetes and so on. Today let's talk about how great it is to learn from the perspectives of those unlike us! Have you learned new things from your T2 friends? Are D-parents your heroes? Do LADA blogs give you an insight to another diagnosis story? Do T1s who've lived well with diabetes since childhood give you hope? Pick a type of blogger who is different from you and tell us why they inspire you - why you admire them - why it's great that we are all the same but different!!

I found the DOC when I was reassessing everything to do with my diabetes and tightening up my control in anticipation of trying for a baby, and suddenly there was a brave new world out there of other people who understand what having diabetes actually means. It's a lonely old world if you're type 1 - there are so few of us, and whilst I wholeheartedly agree that all PWDs - types 1, 2, LADA, MODY, gestational and all of the other varieties - need to pull together, it's great for me that there are people out there blogging who totally get what my T1 life is like on a day to day basis. It's empowering to realised that you're not alone, to discover that other people are facing the same challenges that you do, and that [whispers] n0-one's perfect!

For me, the big difference between me and most other DOC-ers is location. Most of you guys are in the States, and there are a few others smattered around the face of the globe - Canada, Australia, NZ. There are comparatively few of us in the UK - people like Becky from Instructions Not Included, Siobahn at Click of the Light, and Caroline Parker at Diabetes Daily - Hi ladies from one of your lurkers! The DOC has given me a real insight into how diabetes care differes in other parts of the world. Pumps are extremely unusual in the UK, although some folk have managed to fight and win the battle to get NHS funding, and as for CGMS... well, they're almost unheard of (and certainly self-funded - oh, for that lottery win!) I'm relatively content to be on MDIs (my HbA1C has been excellent over the last eighteen months, so it is possible to control the D well without a pump), but I would LOVE LOVE LOVE the security that having a CGMS would bring, and the allied opportunity to fine-tune my control a bit more. You know what they say - 'knowledge is power'!

One thing that has fascinated me is just how much someone like me on MDIs can learn and adapt from the pumpers out there - there are tips and tricks which, whilst difficult to completely replicate on MDIs, have certainly changed my D-management for the better. For starters pizza and curry (naughty foods!) now hold fewer fears as I've understood that the fat content will cause my sugars to spike later than I might otherwise expect. Whilst I can't programme a fancy bolus to deal with this, I can certainly test again a couple of times in the hours after my meal and deliver a couple of small insulin doses to flatten out that spike.

The other thing that's been great for me is to follow all of the people out there who have blogged about their pregnancies with T1, and their experiences of parenthood. I don't think that there's another UK based blogger who has written about pregnancy and diabetes (but I may be wrong, and if so, I'd love to read what they have to say on the topic). Whilst I was pregnant I was able to learn a lot from the pregnancy D-bloggers in the US and elsewhere - including Kerri Sparling at Six Until Me, Cheryle Alkon at Managing the Sweetness within, Bethany Rose at Me with D (and previously Life as a Pregnant Diabetic), and Layne P over at Semi Charmed Life. Whilst the US and Canadian health systems might be totally different to the NHS system here in the UK, these ladies have been a huge inspiration, and have taught me things about pregnancy and diabetes that I wouldn't otherwise have know (and which I have been able to discuss with my brilliant doctors).

I believe that it's the diversity of the DOC, and the range of different experiences and opinions that we bring, that really makes us strong. We are not alone, and can learn from and support each other... and laugh with each other too.