When it rains...it pours

They say things come in 3's... more like 10's! Not feeling great the past couple days, not in a good place and feeling very down due to some bad news and developing circumstances that i cant disclose, as well as failing my driving test, family troubles, dental issues, and failed relationships.

Hate feeling like this, and stress, worry and tears do not help my blood sugars and they have not been too great, when i have been checking them anyway... Finding it hard at work also, having to leave the room because you start to think too much and can feel your eyes welling up and you cant stop it and cant tell anyone why, luckily my managers are amazing people and very sympathetic to things like that.

Its frustrating when you try so hard to be happy and positive, I consider myself a strong person because of my past and what i have been through... but you can only take so much shit before you get to a breaking point. This is one of the reasons i blog, it lets me get stuff off of my chest by writing them down, and somehow it helps.

Hopefully monday will cheer me up as i am going to look at some cars and if i find one i like i may get it by the end of the week! Not that i can drive it yet... :(

... Waiting for the rainbow!!

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 :)

Introduction

Ok so i havent blogged for over a couple years now and really wanted to start it going again! I thought it best just to start a new blog entirely as so much has changed since then... and i thought what better month to start a new blog as it is diabetes awareness month (although every month is diabetes awareness month to me lol)

So my introduction.... I am Nikki, im 26 and i was diagnosed with type one diabetes in 2010 just before my 22nd birthday. I was in a pretty bad way when diagnosed and was very lucky to make it but thats a story i will go into more detail on a bit later. I have had ups and downs with my diabetes over the years as we all do but i feel myself lucky in other ways, i have a job as a support worker which i love and i have the most amazing friends that anyone could wish for, and great family support as well as the online community :)


So hopefully this blog will open peoples eyes a little more to diabetes, the ups, downs, struggles, humour, and also just general day to day life of a 26 year old lol. I will update and post as much as i can, feel free to follow and share :) x