My American Adventures.

Busch Gardens.

Two weeks ago, I boarded a plane ready to spend two weeks Stateside. To say I was excited is an understatement, and it's safe to say the last two weeks have been beyond incredible! I have had the time of my life!

After I land in England, I would have flown four times in fourteen days. For someone who's a nervous flyer, that's a big deal!

There have been cotton candy lows and voices have been heard.

I was offered different options when I asked for sweetener at a coffee shop. It's the little things that make me smile.

In keeping with the little things, I also found that you can buy glucose tablets in pots of 50 here, and the range of flavours you can get is vast. Tropical, Grape, Cherry, Strawberry, Orange! Amazing!

I took part in the DSMA tweetchat. So much fun. And so many more blogs to check out. 

I went to New York City and had the most incredible, and tiring, weekend catching up with some very good friends!

I had my first peanut butter cup. I loved it so much that when I went to TGI Fridays, for pudding, I had the chocolate peanut butter pie. Such a thing should not exist when you have a pancreas-gone-rogue. Very bolus-worth though!

My feet ache from walking and I am so ridiculously tired, but I have had the best time. Seaworld, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Busch Gardens, and the streets of NYC.

What a way to end my year of travelling after year abroad. 

Time to re-join the real world. Gotta go get me a degree! 

The City That Never Sleeps.

Top of the Empire State Building.

New York City. NYC. The Big Apple. The city that never sleeps.

Trust me when I say I've hardly slept these last three days. But I have had the best time. 

Thursday, August 1st, I flew to NYC to meet some friends from my first year at university. 

My weekend has been incredibly busy, but I managed to do so much: Times Square, the Rockefeller Centre, Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge, Seaport, Empire State Building, The Met. We pounded the streets doing as much as we possibly could in the two full days my friends and I had. And it was so worth the sore feet and insane tiredness I currently feel!

It's safe to say I became a coffee afficionado. So much for going decaf! Caffeine was 100% necessary! And I didn't see that much of an affect on my blood sugar, maybe because of the walking (?), so that's something I'm going to investigate. Would be so great if I didn't have to worry about the spike in blood sugars, especially going into final year where caffeine will more than likely be my new best friend!

If anything, I spent the most of my weekend on the low side: I had a fair few hypos that I did not like! You know, those ones that come on quite quickly, and then there's that panic that you're not coming out of them? Not fun. But they were just background events whilst I created bigger and greater memories. 

Similar to what I said back in May, diabetes you've had your moments since you entered my life. But NYC?! That belonged to Lopez and I, and a few other friends.   

Hypo Hangover.

It was 2am when I started hearing voices again. But being the stubborn person I am, I rolled over and tried to ignore them. My blood sugar was 9.8mmol/l before bed at midnight and I didn't take a correction dose. I shouldn't have been low.

"You need to check your blood sugar, kid" that internal voice tells me.

I, of course, still chose to ignore it. Logic told me that I shouldn't be hypo, so therefore I'm wasn't!

"Gibbs! Blood sugar! Check! Now!"

But I still wasn't having any of it. Logic was telling me otherwise.

"Blood. Sugar. Check."

I don't know how much time passed, but I arose from my slumber, shaking, sweaty and disorientated. 

I reached for my meter and tried to check, but shaky hands made it impossible. So I just treated with glucose tablets (ones I bought from Walmart that come in pots of 50 - it's the little things in life...)

My eyes were heavy, probably due to both sheer tiredness after spending the day at Universal Studios and the hypo itself. 

After the shakiness had lessened, I reached for my meter again to check my blood.

2.8mmol/l.

"Woah, I must have been low!"

I carried on treating the hypo with glucose tablets and I ate a granola bar too. I changed my pyjama top, re-checked my blood (8.2mmol/l), and once again allowed sleep to take over my body.

Damn that internal voice always being right! Very glad to not be leaving the villa today!

Cotton Candy Low.

Cotton Candy or Candy Floss to us Brits: It's a new way to treat a low and it made a nice change from the chalky glucose tabs and apple juice cartons I usually chug when in this state! Damn not anticipating my swim this morning!

Sky High.

I'm a very nervous flyer. My blood sugar levels rocket to prove it too. Today...yesterday...I don't even know when my body's so out-of-whack right now, I sat on a plane for 10 hours: the time it took for the journey from London Gatwick to Stanford, Florida. And my sugar levels were sky-high throughout the journey.

I began my day at 5.30am GMT on a lovely 6.6mmol/l. 

On arrival at the airport, the nerves were setting in and before breakfast I was at 12.1mmol/l so I took some extra insulin with my pain au chocolat.

An hour into the flight I was at 13.4mmol/l. 

When they came round with lunch around midday I was at 12.6. Again, I took a correction dose with my mealtime insulin.

I actually managed to get some sleep after lunch, for about 3 hours, and I woke up on a 5.6! Yay! But then as soon as I woke up and remembered I was on a plane I shot straight back up to 14.7.

Towards the end of our flight we were given sandwiches and scones (very English!) 13.8 before. Correction with normal insulin dose, yet again!

And, like always, as soon as we touched down and I was no longer in the air, my blood sugar came down to a lovely 5.5. Hello, happy dance!

We made it! Now for the American Adventures to begin!

Jet-setter.

Image taken from Google Images.

I've travelled so much over the last ten months or so (see Year Abroad), you'd think I'd be done for a little while! 

But you'd be wrong! I am once again all packed up ready for a whilrwind two weeks Stateside.

This trip has been in the pipe-line for a long time now. This year, my siblings and I all have "big birthdays" - my brother turned 13 back in February, my sister turned 18 in April and I turn 21 next month - so Mum and Dad decided that we would do a family holiday to Florida for two weeks. This is the first time my siblings and I will go to the US and we are so excited!

Knowing I would be in the US, I begged my Mum and Dad to let me self-fund a trip to see some friends I'd made during my first year of uni, particularly my friend Lopez, one of my flat mates from first year. And they said yes! So, we chatted and decided to do a weekend in New York City together. My first time on American soil and I get to go to Orlando, Florida and New York City?! Amazing!

Despite travelling a lot over the last ten months, I've never worked with a time difference greater than an hour. So going Stateside is a bit of a learning curve what with taking my Levemir, but I feel relatively confident with what to do there. I'm a very nervous flyer, so to say I'm apprehensive about the ten-hour flight that lies in my future is a bit of an understatement! But I know once I get there it will all be worth it (or so I've been told!)

After this trip (or trips if you count from Florida to NYC), I really will be done with travelling! For now, anyway! As excited as I am for this holiday, seeing Lopez, maybe taking part in the DSMA tweetchat seeing as I'll be on American time, I'm also very happy to know that once I'm back that's it for the foreseeable future.

But, for now, let's see how my busted pancreas and I get on Stateside! 

Bring on the next two-week adventure!

Packing.

All packed up - Toulouse, 2012.

I usually hate packing. I hate unpacking too for that matter. If I could close my eyes, click my fingers and just move everything from one place to another without needing a suitcase, I would. I hate the logistics of fitting everything into one case, and I'm rubbish at deciding what's essential and what isn't. As far as I'm concerned, everything's essential! 

However, over the last ten months or so, I have learnt the art of being an efficient packer in order to fit all the crap I want to take with me in one case! When packing to leave Alcalá, I even managed to get my case below the allocated 23kg, which caused me to do a happy dance at 6am at the check-in desk! And when I travelled, I only ever took my little cabin-sized case, in which I would fit my clothes, shoes, toiletries, make up and all things diabetes, and diabetes alone takes up so much space!!

So, having only just recently unpacked all of my things, packing for a week in Norwich didn't phase me like it would have in the past. In fact, I think I actually enjoyed it! In one holdall-type bag I managed to get my clothes, sleepwear, underwear, toiletries, make up, spare pair of shoes, extra insulin, needles, test strips, some hypo treatments to keep me going for a few days, my Brownie uniform (finally going back to Brownies!!), and a couple of cardigans and my laptop and chargers for said laptop, mobile phone, kindle and ipod. And then the only extra thing I had to carry was my handbag with my purse, the aforementioned mobile, kindle and ipod, my diabetes bag and the standard hypo treatments I carry in my handbag.

See? Efficient!