Nightmares....

Imagine laying in bed, completely aware of everything around you. You can hear the radio you left on and can open your eyes.... but you cant move, your body is still, paralysed. Suddenly you hearnoises, strange blood curdling noises, an overwhelming sense of fear comes over you and you feel something sat with you on your bed, hear its breathing, its growling.... it begins to move up your legs and suddenly you feel the covers moving back, and its breath on your cheek, growling like some sort of demon creature, you cannot move, your stuck but you feel the fear...the nightmare that is sleep paralysis.

The photo about depicts this really well, This is what i experience, i dont tell alot of people about it as i feel that i sound like a bit of a freak! but this known phenomenom is called sleep paralysis and its a sleep disorder that is becming more and more known, when i had my first one years ago i had no idea what it was but after some research found out all about the disorder.

Basically when you fall asleep during the REM stage your body releases chemicals that paralyse you so you dont act out your dreams.... people with sleep paralysis something goes wrong and we wake up before this process is complete, we are half way between asleep and awake, aware of everything but unable to move, and then we see hallucinations and have a horrible sense of fear and intrusion! Nobody knows why, it has been said that it is to do with the paranormal and demons but others argue its just a state of hallucination with a scientific explanation behind it. Some people have even reported to experience out of body experiences! There is more information here.

They say that every person will experience this at least once in their lifetime, for me its more like 1-2 times a week which has increased recently, i was going to go see my gp but then the episodes seemed to decrease, i think because i was happier a few weeks ago and now im not as happy, its also been linked to stress and sleep patterns, and i have also found that mine is triggered sometimes by high blood sugars before i sleep but not always.

Id be interested to know of anyones experiences with this, leave comments or contact me as i find the whole thing fascinating altho still the scariest thing i have ever experienced whilst sleeping!

Scientific explanation or demons at work??

November challenge - day 6: exercise

Day 6: Exercise

Exercise usually ends up with my feeling like this.. Exercising when having type one is difficult! As your using more energy than usual and so it makes your blood sugars go low.. So then you have to eat to get them back to normal levels thus rendering the exercise pointless! Exercise could be anything, Iv gone low just walking to the shops! We can't just spontaneously go to the gym, it has to be planned! You have to take into consideration what you have eaten and when, how much fat was in your meal, the time between eating and exercising, how much insulin you have in your system already etc.. Sounds complicated? Yes it is!

November challenge - day 4-5 HBA1C and Insulin

Day 4: HBA1C A hba1c is a routine blood test that diabetics should have every 3/6 months to measure how well their diabetes is being controlled. The test measures how much glucose is being carried by the red blood cells, and therefore the higher the number outcome, the more glucose in the blood, and the poorer the control s you can see by looking at the chart. It is important to keep your diabetes under control and keep your hba1c low as failing to do so could result in nasty complications later on...




Day 5: Insulin

 Insulin is a diabetics life support, it is NOT a cure and without it we would die, simple as! Insulin is a very important hormone that our pancreas produces to keep our blood sugars stable, obviously in a type one diabetic this does not happen and so we have to inject our own...this is tricky as the pancreas releases insulin according to the food we consume and it releases just enough in very small amounts, this is very hard to replicate by injecting as we inject it all in one go, its hard to get the same effect and thats why we have to calculate very carefully the carbohydrates that we consume and the timing of our injections...no easy feat! some people choose to weigh their food, others choose to look at the portion size and make a guess! its important to get the dose right, too little insulin may cause our blood glucose to sky rocket and feel very ill! Too much will cause it to plummet and feel very ill! we have to get the balance right.

November challenge - Day 1-3: Selfie, injections and BG

As i have missed a few i will just catch up and start at the beginning :)

Soooo day 1: shameless selfie! Doesnt matter if your having a good hair day, or your in your favourite outfit, or you are just happy and want to share it, everyone loves a good selfie now and again, and if they dont, they are lying!! :p

Day 2: pump or MDI? I am currently using MDI, for the non diabetic community that is multiple daily injections. As a type one diabetic i cannot produce my own insulin, these pens are loaded with insulin that i have to inject myself with on a daily basis. These are my two insulin pens i use throughout the day. the blue one is whats called long acting insulin (basal) i take this twice a day to ensure my blood glucose is stable during the day and night. the other silver pen is called fast acting insulin (bolus) this one i use whenever i eat/drink something with carbohydrates. Its important when injecting that we change the area we inject into, if we dont we may get build up in that area and may become less resistant to the insulin which of course is not a good thing. 

Day 3: BG tester. As a type one diabetic, as well as stabbing myself multiple times with a needle, i also have to stab my fingers too! I have to check my BG (blood glucose) several times a day and even sometimes during the night. I will test before and sometimes after food, before going to bed, waking up from sleep, before driving, before and after exercise, if i am feeling low/high. This is so i know what my levels are, for example i have to test before i eat to make sure i can calculate the right amount of insulin for what i am about to eat, and this is done several times a day, you can only imagine how many that is in a year! My meter is quite clever as it calculates this for me and also lets me know how much insulin i still have in my system :)

November challenge!

So as it is diabetes awareness month i thought what better way to start the November challenge! I will post a photo a day of each of the topics and talk about it a little and also share my personal experiences, its all about raising awareness :)