Oh, Hi There Glowing Screen!

So life's kind of got in the way this past week. An update, in bullet point fashion:

 

Source.

• I registered with a new GP. I was told that during the "registration appointment" I would be able to discuss the things I wanted to discuss. Well, I couldn't. The appointment was with a nurse. She had to refer me to a DSN to discuss diabetes and another nurse to discuss the pill. Brilliant. Two extra appointments. I did get the flu jab though. So that's one less thing I need to do. 
• I'M EMPLOYED!! Last Friday, I was offered a job and I accepted. I started on Monday, and have just finished my first week there. So far, so good.
• Our Diabetes celebrated a year of tweet chats and support this week. A huge well done to founders David Cragg and Laura Cleverly! It's something I'm honoured to be a part of.
• I was reminded of how much ketones suck. Not that I really needed reminding. Sitting at my desk with ketones, but a blood sugar of 5.1mmol, left me baffled. Until I remembered starvation ketones. Note to self: eat breakfast, no matter how early I have to start work.
• I attended the JDRF Discovery Evening in London, which was such a great night. I met those behind T1 International, caught up with Gavin Griffiths, aka Diathlete (who has just finished his American tour) and got to give the very lovely Jen Grieves the hug I've been wanting to give her since she wrote That Post. (Capital 'T', capital 'P'). I also had the chance to put a few faces to twitter-handles, which was awesome. A huge thank you to all those at JDRF for organising the night!
• Thursday saw the Quality in Care Award Ceremony for Diabetes, with Roddy Riddle winning the People's Choice Award. A full list of results can be found here.
• Diabetes Awareness Month is fast approaching (how are we more than halfway through October?!) Already, advocacy campaigns are popping up on social media, such as the Smash Diabetes initiative from Glu and JDRF UK's Type Onesie is also making a comeback. I'm looking forward to hearing more as November gets closer.

 

Happy Saturday!  

What I'm Watching.

A couple of things have caught my eye recently.

First - it's not "All About That Bass", but All About That Cure.

 

Second, this brilliant speech (finally found the video to insert here!) that Kim (Texting My Pancreas) gave at the Medicine X Conference last month. All I can say is WOW! 

Happy watching!

Stuff.

There's been a digital silence here recently. I'm working through some stuff, so blogging just hasn't happened. I'm still here, just lurking in the background for a while. In the meantime, some other stuff for you to explore:

• Abbott have released a Flash Glucose Monitoring system called the Freestyle Libre. The technology behind it is pretty darn awesome! A number of PWDs have been given the Libre to test out, including Laura, Mike, Jen and Dave, who have all written blogs about their experience with it. You can also see Pete talking about it here, and Kev has also written a piece.
• Whilst you're reading Dave's blog about the Libre, also have a read of his post about Time.
• Kelly Kunik talks with Sierra Sandison, aka Miss Idaho. 
• Gavin Griffiths, aka Diathlete, is Stateside raising money for Majorie's Fund. He ran seven marathons in seven days (crazy man) and you can follow what he's up to here. 
• Speaking of crazy, Sébastien Sasseville is STILL running across Canada. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it on this blog, but I found out that this dude was gonna run across Canada in the name of diabetes awareness! Well, he's still going! You can follow his progress here.
• The EASD (European Association for the Study of Diabetes) conference is well underway, and you can follow what's happening with the hashtag #EASD2014 on Twitter. 

"I'm Gonna Pick Up The Pieces..."

Trying to un-Monday this Mondy morning with the help of Ed Sheeran, a strong coffee and a good ol' bullet point list of links. 

• "29 Things Only a Person With Diabetes Would Understand".
• "Dear Diabetes..." - a great blog by Kelly.
• A different spin on advocacy: check out @darthskeptic on Twitter.
• Ellie (My Bitter Sweet Life) writes honestly about her planned hospital admission to help get her diabetes back on track.
• Diabetes consultant Partha Kar writes about racism within his profession - an absolute must-read!
• Kelly of Diabetesaliciousness writes a lovely post following the passing of Robin Williams.
• Kim (Texting My Pancreas) took to the DOC a little while back, asking those who wear an insulin pump to tell her what you wish you were told about how insulin pumping affects you emotionally. Here, she blogs about what was said. 
• Mike blogs for Diabetes UK about their "Make The Grade" campaign.
• "To pump, or not to pump?" - a question faced by Jen, who's been weighing up the pros and cons. 

Reading List.

I know posts this month have been few and far between, but I have been keeping up with other blogs/articles/videos/conferences/other stuff that catches my eye, despite the tumbleweed here! Browse at your leisure.

Image taken from Google Images.

• Our Diabetes was invited to do a live tweet chat using the Melbourne Declaration on Diabetes debate at Westminster Hall. David attended, and you can read his thoughts here, and can watch the debate for yourself by clicking here.
• One of the more emotional blog posts I've read in a long time.
• The American Diabetes Association recently held their annual Scientific Sessions conference, and you can find write-ups and insights by: Partha Kar, Chris Snider, Mike and Amy at DiabetesMine, to name but a few.  
• What type are you?
• Check out Anna (and her brother, Chris') new venture: Adventure D. It looks amazing, and I look forward to (hopefully) taking part in some weekends in the not too distant future!
• Jen's thoughts on cycling from London to Brighton.
• Have you heard of Type 1 Uncut? If not, I urge you to check out the Youtube channel and watch the videos!
• "These parents should be sent to Azkaban" -- I thought the video at the bottom of this link was hilarious!
• Top 15 diabetic movie titles - "50 Shades of Ketone Sticks" is my personal favourite.
• It's the Children with Diabetes Friends for Life Conference next week, in Orlando, Florida. Being in the UK, and just out of uni, it's safe to say I won't be attending, but I will be following the hashtag #CWDFFL14 on Twitter. You should too.  

Mellow Monday.

It's been a busy few days what with coming back to uni after Easter break (and promptly leaving again to take a trip to see Lizzie and Louise). So whilst I properly settle myself back in, feel free to have a browse through these links:

• My lovely friend, Jess, was interviewed by Operation Beautiful UEA about life with type one diabetes. Great read (if I do say so myself).
• Chances are you're aware of the comments made by Matthew Wright on his Channel 5 show regarding diabetes. There have been some great responses to it written by Anna, Anna's mum and Jen which are all worth a read.
• Some shameless self-promotion: tomorrow (Tuesday) I'm hosting the Our Diabetes chat and we're gonna be talking blogs. 8pm, Twitter, using #ourd, come and join in the fun!
• Miss Daisy Watson Shaw became reacquainted with blogging once more over Easter weekend and I'm so excited to see her writing again - her voice has been missed.
• The Pendsey Trust are hosting a pub quiz in London, details of which can be found here. 
• The Essex Diabetes Peer Support group, ran by Louise, has a launch date set for June 10th at Basildon Hospital. Details to follow. 
• Mark, fellow type one, wrote a fabulous guest blog post over at Laura's blog about being a paramedic and dealing with diabetic emergencies.

 

Happy Monday, everyone!    

Filling Back Up.

Finished!

My dissertation has been submitted. 

I'm done!

And it feels SO good! 

Now I have the time to fill back up in my personal life and my diabetes life. So, without further ado, bits and bobs I think are worthy of sharing.

• Save the date (well, week) guys and gals: Diabetes Blog Week is back thanks to Karen at Bittersweet Diabetes. This year it will be May 12th to the 18th.
• A great video was submitted to the You Can Do This website about encouraging independence in children and teens with T1D.
• Okay, so this post was actually published almost a month ago, but I stumbled upon it the other day, and it was a great read. "Diabetes is so gay" - what do you think?
• Oh, to be three again when this is the biggest problem in the world!
• Another Diabetes UK Big Collection will be happening June 13th, 14th and 15th and you can sign up now to volunteer.
• Which glucose tab flavour are you? Mine was orange. Which is interesting as I hate the orange ones.
• What I miss: Renza and Georgie write about what they miss about life pre-diabetes.
• What submitting your dissertation looks like. 
• The Pendsey Trust turns 1! The charity achieved so much in year one, so let's hope this continues into year 2!
• You can now sign up for the Junior World Cup with Medtronic! Head to their website to find out more!
• I Feel Low.
• Look how far we've come! Glu takes a look at diabetes advancements.

Happy Friday, folks!

Five For Friday: Eye, Eye.

My Twitter feed is currently filled with people sharing information about the Google Smart Contact Lens (link below), so I figured I'd jump on the bandwagon and share it too, along with a few other links! 

1. "Google unveils smart contact lenses that lets diabetics measure their glucose levels" - it's pretty awesome how it would work! Technology's amazing!

2. Last weekend, there were a lot of tweets in my feed with the hashtag "#MedtronicDAF". I read around and found out it was a Diabetes Advocacy Forum put on by Medtronic and Bayer. It sounded like a brilliant weekend, and there are various write-ups written by Kerri, Kim, Karen, Kelly (all the Ks!), Christel and George to list but a few!

3. As I started typing this post, David wrote a blog post about his diabetes diagnosis and the positive impact the nurses had. A very good read.

4. The first Monday of February is Diabetes Art Day. It is "a web-based initiative for the Diabetes Online Community to "tell a story" about life with diabetes through creative visual expression...you're encouraged to break out of your linguistic comfort zone, bust out some art materials, and make a piece of artwork."

5. My Diabetes Secret has been going for a while now, and I can't stop checking it out. So many resonate for me, some 100% break my heart, but I'm so glad that there is this "safe place" for people.        

Catching Up.

I know I carried on writing whilst I was on holiday, but staying on top of emails and things just didn't happen! I receive a lot of emails that are diabetes-related. As I read, a lot of the time I think "that's interesting...I should link that on the blog..." and I never do. So, whilst I'm re-adjusting to UK time once more, I'm finally doing it! With bullet points!

• Something that caught my eye whilst I was away: Theresa May, Home Secretary, has been diagnosed with type one diabetes.
• Strip Safely Campaign - this one has been on my radar for a long time. I think it's mainly a US based campaign, but an important issue for diabetics.  The following is taken directly from their website: "Blood glucose test strips are at the centre of diabetes life. The FDA acknowledges there are inaccurate strips in the marketplace but has no process to remove them. People with diabetes are at risk from inaccurate strips."
• Test strip restrictions in the UK - I personally haven't had an issue with this (yet!) but the way I see it, the cost of test strips is significantly less than treating diabetes-related complications as a result of not being able to check blood sugar levels frequently.
• Have you signed up for the Diabetes UK Big Collection Weekend?! From October 4th to October 6th, lots of Tesco stores will be participating. You only need to do one three-hour shift on one of the days and all money raised will go to Diabetes UK (obviously!)
• Kim who blogs at Texting My Pancreas had a baby girl! Yay! Kim has written throughout her pregnancy - click her name to go read her posts.
• A little while back, I was asked to test out a new diabetes app called Carb-O-Mentor. I have and I love it. Expect a full blog post on this in the near future. Also, if you haven't tried using the MySugr app, I highly recommend you do! It's awesome! (Disclaimer: yes, I was contacted to provide feedback on the Carb-O-Mentor app, but I have not been paid to do so; it is just my opinion of the app. Likewise, I am not being paid to endorse the MySugr app either. I just love it. Full disclaimer can be found here! We good?!)
• And finally, I want to share with you a new JDRF campaign video called Believe. Brilliantly done, in my opinion.

Think that covers everything! I'm pretty certain all the links are correct(!) If they're not, I blame the jet lag!