Dealing With Diabetes (Written By PWDs).

A little while back, I received an email from a guy named Joe. He works for a company called Voucher Codes Pro, and was writing an article about dealing with diabetes to be published on their site. I was asked to contribute something, which I did (disclosures and all that). And I'm sharing it here with you because I think it's a great piece that Joe has put together.

"I'm Joe, I'm 26, and a type 1 diabetic, and part of the content team here at Voucher Codes Pro. Not the smoothest opening line to your possible future wife, is it? I was diagnosed at the ripe old age of 18 when I was about to venture into the world of booze, university and relationships. Thanks to a pancreas that was more interested in taking a permanent holiday than producing the insulin my body so badly needed, I knew I had a battle on my hands."

To read the rest of his article, please click here.

And, thank you, Joe, for asking me to contribute! 

Wicked-Smart Insulin.

I've lived with type one diabetes for the last four, almost five, years now, and in that short space of time, I have witnessed a number of developments in the way in which diabetes can be managed. The use of CGMs, insulin pumps, the new Flash Glucose Monitoring system from Abbott...the list is constantly growing. The latest buzz is all about smart insulin, which is what I'm talking about over on the JDRF blog site today.

"Over these last five years, I’ve seen many new options to manage my condition – from multiple daily injections to insulin pump therapy and from simple blood glucose meters to smart meters. These transitions and developments have physically made my life with type 1 diabetes easier. An insulin pump has allowed me to make more precise changes in my insulin doses, and the introduction of a smart meter before I went on my year abroad has made calculating these so much easier (because the meter does most of the work for me!) 

But diabetes is still the first thing I think about when I wake up – and the last thing I think about before I go to bed. I am seeing the benefits of starting on an insulin pump in terms of day-to-day blood sugars, my HbA1c, and how I feel. Using it is easy. But owning it and integrating it into my everyday life was, and sometimes still is, difficult."

To read more, please head over to the JDRF Blog Site. Have a good weekend! 

University Life And T1D.

University and type one diabetes is all I've ever known. I wasn't a child with type one diabetes. I was hardly a teen with diabetes. I was, and am, somewhat, an adult with diabetes (does being a student count as being an adult?!). And that's the theme of my post on the JDRF UK Blog today:

"I was 17 years old when I was diagnosed. I was due to sit my A-Levels in about a month's time, I'd just paid off my holiday with the girls from school and I was planning on going to university that September. When I was sat in that hospital bed, I remember my Mum looking at me. She didn't say anything, but I knew what she was thinking, and, despite the uncertainty in my mind, I turned around and said to her "I've just paid off my holiday, so don't even think about trying to stop me from going! Same goes for uni! If I get the grades, I'm gone!" "

To read more, head over the the JDRF Blog, where you'll also find posts from the likes of Roddy Riddle and Gavin Griffiths (aka Diathlete). 

And finally a huge thank you to the lovely people at JDRF for publishing my post!