Diabetes Blog Week 2012: What they should know

Friday 05/18 Today let’s borrow a topic from a #dsma chat held last September.  The tweet asked “What is one thing you would tell someone that doesn’t have diabetes about living with diabetes?”.  Let’s do a little advocating and post what we wish people knew about diabetes.  Have more than one thing you wish people knew?  Go ahead and tell us everything.

If I was to list everything that I wish other people knew about diabetes, I'd be here all night (and possibly the rest of the weekend too...)  So I'm going to focus on one thing.  One thing that I want people who don't have diabetes to understand about living with diabetes.

It's not easy.

That's it.  One thing.  Living with diabetes and trying to manage it on a daily basis is not easy.  It's such a simple thing, but one that I think a lot of people just don't get.  I think we are very good in the DOC (and by extension diabetics everywhere) at making it look easy.  We just get on with it, because what else are we going to do? Additionally, a lot of the things that we do are invisible - people notice the finger pricking and the injections if they pay attention, and maybe treating a hypo, but the calculations that go through your head when you sit down to eat, or when you try to decide what to do about a walk into town, or how much you need to eat to treat that low, if your set needs changing, or if you need to order supplies, or why the hell are you high/low and a million other little things that we do on a daily basis just to try to keep ourselves ticking over?

Those things aren't really noticeable. I will never forget one of my co-workers saying to me one day that being diabetic was easy, because it just involved testing your blood sugar and taking a couple of injections every day.  That was seriously all that he thought it was about.  (I may have ranted at him for about ten minutes about how wrong he was.  He doesn't believe that anymore... ;) )  But it stuck with me how unaware people are of what we do as diabetics, and thinking about it, if you're not diabetic or looking after someone who is, then you don't really have any reason to know. 

I'm not complaining, because I don't really want pity or sympathy - this is part of my life and complaining about it isn't really going to help (though I reserve my right to rant at the diabetes fairy from time to time!), but I really wish sometimes that people would realise that just because I'm not complaining, and I seem to be doing ok with managing my diabetes and you don't see me doing something as obvious as falling over, it doesn't for one moment mean that it's easy.

Diabetes Blog Week 2012: Fantasy Diabetes Device

Thursday 05/17 Today let’s tackle an idea inspired by Bennet of Your Diabetes May Vary.  Tell us what your Fantasy Diabetes Device would be?  Think of your dream blood glucose checker, delivery system for insulin or other meds, magic carb counter, etc etc etc.  The sky is the limit – what would you love to see?
So there are many cool things going on in the world of diabetes right now - the artificial pancreas, the search for faster insulins, more accurate CGMs etc

So I'm not going to talk about them, but if I could wave a magic wand and have any diabetes device I wanted? I would have a magic carb counter.  Something that I could point at a meal, a piece of cake, a bowl of fruit, anything that I a about to eat and press a button and "bing!" it would tell me exactly how many carbs are in it. That would be awesome.  It would take so much of the guesswork out of managing my diabetes, especially when eating out, or away from home.  Hell, even at home when i just want to have a handful or grapes or some ice cream or something without actually weighing it or measuring it.

Not to mention those times where you're out and you order food and when it arrives it's one of those things that are really difficult to count (and don't get me started on sauces or soups - it's so hard to guess what people have put in them!) Or like when I used to go to formal halls when I was doing my PhD (basically fancy three course meals held at different colleges) and I'd be served something and have no idea what it even *was* never mind how to count it...

It's not a huge thing, and I doubt we'll ever get anything that will be that amazing, but it's one thing that I dream of. I'd love to be able to just eat food and take one of the variables out of it. That would be awesome. :)

Diabetes Blog Week 2012: One thing to improve

Wednesday 05/16 Yesterday we gave ourselves and our loved ones a big pat on the back for one thing we are great at.  Today let’s look at the flip-side.  We probably all have one thing we could try to do better.  Why not make today the day we start working on it.  No judgments, no scolding, just sharing one small thing we can improve so the DOC can cheer us on!

So I could probably write a list as long as my arm about things I could do better - I'm not perfect, and while I muddle along fairly happily with my diabetes management, there are lots of things that I could do just that little bit better.  


If I were to pick just one thing though, I think it would be basal tests.  I hate basal testing, as I'm sure everyone does, but it's not so much all basal testing as those in the afternoon/evening - the ones that cover lunch and dinner times.  I'm pretty good with the overnight ones, and the morning ones I'm generally fine with - it's just a case of waking up and not eating breakfast.  But there's something about the other ares of the day that I just find...difficult.

I'm not sure what it is - I think part of it is that it's generally when I'm up and about, and I'm hungry.  Lunch ones are harder because I'm at work, and I generally need something to keep me going, not from an 'I need carbs' perspective, but purely from needing fuel to get me through the working day.  Added to that, there's the whole thing about people asking why you're not eating lunch, and then the well-meaning sympathy that you get because you have to fast for a few hours.  The evening ones tend to be a bit the same - I'm aways hungry in the evenings, and it's hard to make dinner for Stu and then not have anything myself.

I do keep and eye on things in other way - I can usually tell if things are needing tweaking by looking at my levels around meal times, and I have a few ways of figuring out if I need to alter my basal or my bolus (and I love temp basals), but I know that I could always do better by doing a couple more actual fasting tests!

Diabetes Blog Week 2012: One Great Thing

Tuesday 5/17 Living with diabetes (or caring for someone who lives with it) sure does take a lot of work, and it’s easy to be hard on ourselves if we aren’t “perfect”.  But today it’s time to give ourselves some much deserved credit.  Tell us about just one diabetes thing you (or your loved one) does spectacularly!  Fasting blood sugar checks, oral meds sorted and ready, something always on hand to treat a low, or anything that you do for diabetes.  Nothing is too big or too small to celebrate doing well! 

Alright, one thing I do well.  Hmmm...

One thing I am good at is keeping my pencil case organised and fully stocked:

This is my little diabetes on-the-go stash.  I posted about it in my picture post from last years blog week (though I've got a new pencil case since then!), and it's probably one of the most sensible things I do with regards to my diabetes.  In this little case, I have my meter, strips, finger pricker, ketone meter and strips, hypo treatment, a spare pen, insulin, a battery, a spare infusion set and a syringe.  It's quite amazing how much you can fit in one little case, and I love that pretty much everything I need to keep me going for a little while diabetes-wise is in there.  I started using it for work, and then realised that I can just stick it in a bag whenever I head out somewhere.  As I've found that this really helps with being spontaneous while being diabetic (no need to try and find everything if someone suggests heading out for a while), I've really made an effort to make sure that it's always keep up to date, and that I refill it whenever anything runs out.  It's just a little thing, but it's one thing I do well, and something that I find makes living with diabetes just that little bit easier. :)

Diabetes Blog Week 2012: Finding a Friend

Monday 4/14 It seems the most popular thing about Diabetes Blog Week is that it helps us find blogs we weren’t reading yet and connect with some new blog friends.  With that in mind, let’s kick off Diabetes Blog Week by making some new connections.  Think about the d-blogs you read that you think we may not know about and introduce us to one that you love!!  Let’s all find a new friend today! 

There are several blogs I follow regularly, and you can see them on my reading list at the side here ->
I'm looking forward to seeing what other people post today and hope to pick up a few more blogs to add.  It was difficult to pick a couple of blogs to highlight from my own list, but here goes!

Shootuporputup  This was one of the first diabetes blogs I came across when I first started poking around the DOC.  I immediately loved the attitude that Tim and Alison showed towards diabetes, and the blog is informative and funny and, when I first started reading it, one of the rarer UK-based blogs.  I love the slightly irreverent view of diabetes while still acknowledging it as a serious thing.  I'm very much a believer in using humour and fun to help you through things, and this site is a great example of that.  One day I will make it to a shootup meetup - despite coming from Glasgow and visiting fairly often, I have yet to time it so that I'm up when there's a meetup in Edinburgh!

Everydayupsanddowns  I came across Mike's blog after reading some of his posts on the diabetessupport boards.  I found his blog to be just as thoughtful and interesting as his forum posts, and I continue to enjoy his posts.  He posts wonderfully though out posts about his diabetes experiences, and I've particularly enjoyed reading his transition from MDI to pump.  As someone who had no doubts of reservations about pumping, it has been really enlightening to read what it's like from the point of view of someone who was came at it in a more cautious way.


Sixuntilme  I'm sure pretty much everyone already reads Kerri's blog, but it's one that has always struck a chord with me.  I love the way Kerri blogs about life with diabetes, and again, it was one of the first I came across and had the whole 'omg it's not just me!!' revelation.  One of the things that had particular struck me about this blog is that Kerri's a little bit ahead of me in dealing with the big things in life, like marriage and kids, and it's been especially inspiring to read about these things  from someone who's actually going through it.  I actually took printouts from the post about pumps and wedding dresses to my wedding dress person to show him what I wanted him to do with my pump, and it worked fantastically, and so when I think about what's going to happen in the future when we start thinking about kids, it's blogs like this that actually make me believe I can do it. :)

Diabetes blog week 2011: What we've learned

What we’ve learned - Sunday 5/15: 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 think this might be my favourite topic this week. I owe so much to the DOC.

When I moved to Cambridge about five years ago, I was on two injections of mixtard a day, my HbA1c was in double figures, I barely tested and had stopped carb counting.  I wasn't because I didn't know how to do these things, or didn't realise their importance, it was just that it seemed that nothing I did made a difference.  I'd test, the number would be high, and there was nothing I could do - I had no fast acting insulin, or knowledge of how to correct even if I did.  I didn't know how to adjust my insulin, and it didn't seem to matter what I ate or did, my numbers were always Bad, and so I just stopped bothering.

The first thing the clinic at Cambridge did was switch me to MDI, which helped, but I was still suffering from what I now realise was a fairly extended burnout.  My HbA1c came down down a little, into single figures but only just, but I still felt like there was nothing I could really do, that I was powerless in the management of my diabetes.

And then, one day, I can't even remember how, I came across the DOC.  I've alwasy been fairly active online, parts of various forums and mailing lists (huge geek here ;)), but I'd never thoguht to look for anything diabetes related. I came across a couple of websites (diabetes daily was the first, I think) and it was amazing.  Here were all these people with diabetes, getting on with things, helping each other, talking about problems they were having and, most importantly, people who got it, who understood what it was like to live with diabetes.  It was a revelation.

I joined a couple of these forums, and began reading.  It was inspiring, especially knowing that there were people who had similar problems to me, but who had improved their diabetes control.  who still made mistakes, and tried things that didn't work, and had the random highs and lows, and didn't beat themselves up about it.  It gave me the motivation I needed.  I picked up a couple of books that were recommended for MDI, I learned about pumps and how to deal with whatever diabetes tried to throw at me.  I asked questions, and I took every opportunity to learn that I could, and put the new information I had to use.

And it worked.  My HbA1c came down from 9.1 to 7.5 in three months.  I felt so much better, and I realised that it was possible to live with diabetes and not have it control me.  It was so empowering.

Now I have a pump, and my HbA1c had been around 7% for the last three years.  All thanks to the wonderful DOC. :)

Diabetes blog week 2011: Awesome things

Awesome things - Friday 5/13: 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!


Well, this post would have been rather timely! On the 14th May 2011 I graduated from my PhD and officially became Dr Angie. It's taken a long time, and there have been more than a few bumps along the way, but on that day I finally reached the point I'd been aiming at for so many years.

The reason this post is particularly appropriate is that diabetes is the thing which set me off on this path. I've been diabetic since I was 4 years old. I have no memory of a life without diabetes; to me, this is "normal". I plodded along for several years, not really thinking much about the whys or the hows or the wherefores, just living life with diabetes. However, when I was about twelve, I started to wonder more about why I was diabetic - not in a 'why me??' way, but wondering what was it that was wrong with my body that made me diabetic.

I picked up a couple of books from the library (no easy access to the internet back then!), and started reading about the biology of diabetes. I found it fascinating. I loved learning about all the things a pancreas was supposed to do, and why mine didn't, and about my immune system committing treason, and on and on. It sparked an interest in science, and in investigating the world around me that has only grown since then.

I always said that I'd love to be a research scientist, and especially one involved in diabetes research. However, when I was at school I had no idea how the hell you actually got into that kind of career, and it wasn't really the kind of thing that people at my school aspired to. This was when my amazing biology teacher helped. She explained the different ways of doing it, and suggested school qualifications and later uni courses that would I would need. I took all the science classes I could in school, and when it came to deciding what we wanted to do after school, continuing in science was completely natural.

I did my undergrad at Glasgow Uni in Medical Biochemistry, which involved a year's work placement in Bedford carrying out human studies and an honour's project looking at insulin resistance in young sheep (yes, really...). I then decided to carry on studying, and was offered a PhD place at Cambridge, and jumped at the chance.

And four years later, here I am. I'm now officially a doctor, I'm working as a research scientist, and while I might not be working directly in a diabetes research lab, I'm in a lab that is studying related things, and who knows when I might end up in the future. Diabetes was the thing that kickstarted that love of science that led me here. I'm made so many wonderful friends through this, both through uni and in the places where I've lived while studying. I've had so many wonderful experiences, and I'm proud of what I've achieved.

For once, thank you diabetes!