All Things Diabetes.

Norwich.

I'm currently back in Norwich where I'm basically having an "All Things Diabetes" week. It's also an "All Things Brownies" week too, now I think about it! They are definitely the two things that have dominated my last two days and will continue to dominate my life for the next week:

Yesterday (Friday) - Arrived in Norwich. Staying with a friend who's also type one. Surprised the Brownies by going back. Made leader in charge cry (something to cross off the bucket list!)

Today (Saturday) - Birthday lunch with friends who happen to have type one diabetes. It was a bit like diabetics reunited. Got caught up on some diabetes-related projects. 

Tomorrow (Sunday) - Brownie stuff: clearing out store cupboard and church hall followed by church parade and picnic.

Monday - Coffee with a friend from year abroad. Neither diabetes nor Brownie related!

Tuesday - Catch up with Brownie leaders.

Wednesday - Diabetes clinic. Just thinking about it feels me with dread!

Thursday - Out with same friends as I was today (Saturday).

Friday - Brownies.

Saturday - Greater Minds Inspire event: I'm very excited about this event. It's open for 10 to 21 year olds. You can find out more by clicking here, and you will also find details on how to register for the event (which is completely free!)

Busy, busy week! But I'm looking forward to it. Apart from clinic. I'd like to skip that part! Pretty certain we all would if we could, actually!

Together.

My Person and My Chica.

I'm not really in touch with anyone from sixth form anymore, and those I am in touch with are, quite literally, my best ones: Nem, Jones and E.Hales.

But Nem's in a league of her own as we go to uni together too. 

So Jones and E.Hales.

My Person and My Chica. 

My extended family, where E.Hales is Supermum to Doodle and Jones and I have "Auntie" titles. We call each other out when we think a person's in the wrong. We tell each other when lines have been crossed. We drink ridiculous amounts of tea. And coffee for that matter. We (well, Jones and I) enjoy playing with Doodle's toys more than Doodle actually does. We can find a Friends quote for every situation (some may say we have an unhealthy addiction to that show...we disagree!)

But, most importantly, we pull through for each other no matter what. We don't always agree on things, but we never stop caring. We've been through a hell of a lot over the years, and we've always been there for each other.

Old friends. New friends. Boyfriends. Heartbreak. Family problems. Diabetes. Pregnancy. University. Moving. Year abroad. And a hell of a lot more. 

It's been a long couple of days, and I am drained. As excited as I am about going back to Norwich, the timing sucks. I'm needed here with them. Not only am I needed, but I want to be here with them. 

It's days like today when I remember just how lucky I am to have them in my life. We've been through too much together to walk away from each other now.

"Welcome to the real world. It sucks. You're gonna love it."

And we will. Every minute of it. The good, the bad, the ugly. Together.

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!

Old School.

I honestly cannot remember the last time I filled out a log book, until about 20 minutes ago! Having been graced with a blood sugar of 17.9mmol/l and feeling like crap, I decided to start copying my glucose readings into the aforementioned log book whilst waiting for my blood sugar to come down (which it hasn't and I'm now annoyed!)

Why, I hear you ask?!

Because on July 3rd I have my post-year abroad endo/dsn/health MOT appointment, but this time round I'm not seeing the endo I usually see. 

When it comes to sugar logs, my endo has only ever requested two weeks' worth down on paper prior to my appointment, and I've loved that system. I can work with that system. I don't want to be writing down every single number and insulin dose and correction dose. You get what I'm saying. Two weeks' worth is fair. In order for her to do her job, she needs something to work with. And I want to stay healthy, so I want to give her something to work with, without having to log obsessively. It's a win-win situation!

My DSN is happy to just take my meter and look through it herself, jotting things down on her little pad of paper, bless her. I just leave her to it. She always looks like she's in her element and having fun!

But, like I've said, I'm seeing someone new. And I don't know what they'll be expecting of me when I go in to see them. So, I'm being prepared. My meter saves all my sugar readings anyway, so should new endo (I don't even know whether this person is male or female!) wish to just browse through my meter, they can. If not, I managed to find a spare log book, and I've copied all blood readings and insulin doses into it. I've also done more than two weeks' worth. I've copied over everything since I got back from Spain, so it will be about a months' worth by the time my appointment actually comes round. 

I hate seeing new endos! 

Pet Hates.

Image taken from Google Images.

Yesterday evening, I went out for dinner to celebrate my Granddad's birthday and, as lovely as it was, there were a couple of "incidents" that really got under my skin.

First off, we arrived at 6.15pm, and I checked my blood sugar - 4.5mmol/l - and then went a bought a small lemonade as I knew we wouldn't be ordering for a while and I didn't want to risk having a hypo. I'm standing at the bar, and my Mum asks what I'm getting and I tell her. Then, she starts talking really loudly about how I might hypo and I need sugar.

NO!!! I'm not okay with that. No big deal was needed in that situation. I wasn't hypo. I might not have even had a hypo. I was just being cautious as it was a big family dinner and I didn't want to be dealing with a low blood sugar whilst there if I could avoid it. The fuss my Mum made was not necessary at all. So I snapped at her telling her to stop! And this occurred 10 minutes after arriving!

Pet hate number 1: Making a big deal out of nothing. Check.

Pet hate number 2 happened after we'd ordered our meals. My Uncle asked me what I'd ordered, and so I told him "the pie and mash with seasonal vegetables." The response I got?!

"Vicki! You can't eat that! I can't believe you ordered that! You should know better!"

I looked at him confused. And then it clicked. Diabetes Police. 

"What do you mean I can't eat that?! I've got my insulin. As long as I adjust my insulin to cover the carbs, I'm good!"

But that response wasn't good enough, and he (pancreatically-fine) still thought it was necessary to lecture me (pancreatically-challenged) about my food choices and how it was really bad of me to choose that meal. 

Pet hate number 2: Being lectured about what I can and can't eat. Check.

Then, when dinner was served, I got my Carbs and Cals out so that I could work out carb content (I'm not confident enough yet to do it just by looking) and then he "scolded" me for carrying such a book! 

"You shouldn't be worrying about carbs and calories!" 

I did just tell him that have to adjust my insulin according to the amount of carbs I consume. I was so close to snapping, but then I remember it was a family meal and there were 20 or so other people there.

So, naturally, I did what any other person with diabetes would do.

I ordered a pudding as well!

Child's Play.

My godson, Doodle, is at that age where he's fascinated by everything, particularly technology. Mobile phones, ipods, the DVD player, the games console. My Blackberry is something he loves to get his hands on (but can't figure out how to use it as E.Hales has an Iphone, and my Blackberry has buttons - Auntie Vicki 1, Doodle 0!) He knows how to turn the DVD player on, change disks and then play a different movie (and this happens in the two minutes when E.Hales and I are in the kitchen waiting for the kettle to boil!) It's crazy!

Another thing he's recently become fascinated with is my blood testing kit. Except, out of all the bits of technology I carry in my handbag, it's the one thing that really can't be used as a "toy". Except, what do you tell a two-year-old other than "no". I felt there needed to be some sort of explanation as to why I wanted him to take my Blackberry over the glucose meter.

- "Doodle's?"

- "No, Doodle, this one's Auntie Vicki's; I need it to stay healthy."

- "No, Doodle's."

- "Sorry, Doodle. Here, play with my phone."

- "No!" 

- "Doodle, you can't have this one. It's special. Auntie Vicki has diabetes. Can you say 'diabetes'?"

- "Diabebes!"

- "Close enough! Auntie Vicki uses it to check her blood. Do you want to help? [Doodle nods] Ok, take a srtip from the pot...just one! Good boy! [I put strip into meter and it turns on - Doodle's amazed. I get finger-pricker and place it on my little finger] Now, I need you to press this button here and you'll here a clicking sound when it's done. [Doodle presses button. I check my blood. Number appears.] What number's that, Doodle?"

- "Six!"

- "And what does the other number say?"

- "Nine!"

- "And what colour is the rectangle next to the number?"

- "Green!"

- "And what does 'green' mean?"

- "GO!"

Close enough. Then he found something else to play with. 

Locked Out!

Image taken from Google Images.

Last night, E.Hales and I had a girls' night in. With me being back and forth all the time because of uni, it's not often we get to sit down and have a proper catch up, so we took advantage of this. Doodle went to bed, we ordered in Indian food and out came the bottle of white that had been chilling in her fridge since I arrived (I brought the important things - alcohol and insulin!) We watched crappy tv, gossipped, caught up properly for the first time in, what, about 10 months?! I mean, we'd seen each other in between, but this was a proper, proper catch up. There's a difference!

What with eating Indian food, drinking wine and eating chocolate, it's safe to say there was some mad sugar-watching going on on my part...until, for some reason, when I went to switch my glucose meter on, the screen lit up with the picture of a padlock! I don't know how, or why, but I'd been locked out of my glucose meter! And, of course, I didn't have a clue how to unlock it! 

I tried turning it off and on again, I took the batteries out hoping that would fix it. Nothing. So, next, I'm browsing the internet on my Blackberry trying to find the solution and had no luck. Phoned home and asked Mum to see if she could find the instruction manual to the meter and tell me how to unlock it...again, no luck! I'm getting frustrated at this point - my glucose meter (particularly this Accu-Chek meter with all the fancy functions) is up there with my Blackberry and Ipod in the sense that I couldn't be without them, and the thought of having to ring up Accu-Chek for a new one and then wait for it to arrive...no!

Ready to throw the meter at the wall at this point, E.Hales takes it from me, presses some buttons and she's unlocked it. Panic (on my part) over.

E.Hales, 1. Vicki, 0.