<p class="">There are lots of people on social media doing their bit for diabetes awareness, and this is fantastic. However, raising awareness seems to be a big buzzword these days, but what does that really mean, and how do we raise awareness of something effectively? Should I do it by sharing a random image on my Facebook feed that doesn’t tell any of my friends anything at all? Or should I use my social media to share information?</p>

There is no such thing as a diabetes holiday or time off from diabetes, is there? When we go on holidays abroad, we deal with unfamiliar foods and their associated carbohydrate content, completely different routines with different activities, aka exercise, different sleep patterns, and hot climates. Taking diabetes on holiday can feel like anything but a holiday. My post this week is about dealing with diabetes when on holiday and how, for me, on my holiday last summer, it wa

<p class="">November is diabetes awareness month, and World Diabetes Day is Monday the 14th. I’m not actively involved this year but here’s a few thoughts I had on the important parts of World Diabetes Day and diabetes awareness. </p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Navigating your diabetes clinic can be so confusing. This is a guide to the who’s who in your diabetes healthcare team which is extremely useful because it can save so much time and frustration during your appointments, when you direct your questions to the appropriate person.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>There is a new sugar tax coming into effect in Ireland in April and as a person with type 1 diabetes, who has to keep high sugar edibles and drinkables on hand all of the time, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it at first.</strong></p>

The HSE discriminates against people with type 1 diabetes on the Freestyle Libre reimbursement scheme announced on January 19th 2018. The HSE states that it bases it recommendations on the Health Technology Assessment Group (HTAG) Advice Note so “that numbers being treated do not exceed that expected”. The HTAG Advice Note recommends that:  “Careful patient selection should be part of the agreement, with hospital consultant initiation, and preference for children and young

<p>The Department of Health announced the HSE’s decision to approve reimbursement of the Abbott Freestyle Libre for Children and Young Adults with type 1 diabetes. The news that approx 10,000 to 12,000 adults with type 1 diabetes have been excluded completely from this scheme caused a lot of anger.</p>

Food is the single biggest influence on blood glucose levels when you have diabetes. The topic of food and diabetes will come up in every conversation. It is a massive minefield with so many people offering advice and so many people who are passionate about a single way of eating with diabetes. DISCLAIMER; I'm not a nutrition expert or anything even close but here are the food choices I've made over my 24 years of living with type 1 diabetes. One of my personal pet peeves is

Do you have any Christmas traditions in your family? We had a couple when I was growing up and now as we have created our own family we have created new ones. Apparently though, my husband doesn’t think we have any! The other day, his colleague asked him if our family had any Christmas traditions. To which he replied that off hand he couldn’t think of any other than going into town on Christmas Eve afternoon and not being able to find any gingerbread men! Yes, that is one, bu

Mid October, I went to the DiabetesSisters Weekend for Women conference Alexandria, Virginia. See disclaimer at the end. One of the outstanding presentations I attended was by Thriveabetes 2016 speaker, Gary Scheiner ’s presentation on “Making use of the Glycaemic Index”. This should not be a surprise to anyone has read Gary’s book “ Think Like a Pancreas ”. I will be honest here; when I heard the words “Glycaemic Index” I pretended I didn’t. And the reason is that several y

Back in October, I had a steroid injection in my hip. And yes, it drove my glucose levels bananas! For those of you who may not be aware of it, steroids are one of the medications that truly mess up glucose numbers for lots and lots of people.  The ultimate craziness only lasted two to three days but the residual crazy lingered a couple of weeks. Here’s a little of the backstory behind why I got a steroid injection. I have been complaining about my right hip for some time and

One of the factors not included in Diatribe’s 22 factors that influence glucose levels is the weather. Sometimes the weather plays with my diabetes management. And here’s how. Do you remember that really, really wet day we had last week? It seems like a distant memory now and I don’t think it had a name, like a storm name, but most of the country was flooded under a yellow weather warning. When I got up that morning and look out the window I thought “ Nope, I’m not walking,

For the last three years, I have used the first fourteen days in November, to give a little insight into my life with diabetes and try to dispel some of the myths around the public perception of diabetes on my Facebook and Twitter profiles with my friends, family and followers. Why the first fourteen days in November? I do it for only 14 days because I'm only human and just can’t do it for the whole month. But I also bring it to a close on World Diabetes Day , which is Nove

My life is finally slowing down after a number of weeks of events, diabetes awareness "stuff" and children being off school for mid term break. I have so many blogs posts in my head and no time to write them. But soon... In the meantime, while I was fast asleep, my husband had a moment of inspiration about living life with type 1 diabetes and what common human experience might come close to describing the type 1 diabetes experience? Yes, there are a lot of questions to ask ab

<p>Some people might assume that the word “<a target="_blank" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/technology">Technology</a>” means the discussion would be around Apps, Smartphones and computers. But in reality, people with diabetes have been using “technology” since insulin was first discovered. I would consider the topic of Diabetes Technology to include every device we use from the humble BG meter, insulin pens all the way to the DIY closed loop.</p>

Last weekend, I went to the DiabetesSisters Weekend for Women conference Alexandria, Virginia. Disclaimer: Diabetes Sisters paid for my conference registration and accommodation but also gave me a contribution towards my travel costs. All they asked for in return was that I would write a blog post about the conference which I had to do anyway because I learned so much that needs to be shared;-) There’s nothing like a diabetes conference! Seriously, diabetes conferences are

Last week, Johnson & Johnson  Diabetes, who own Animas, announced that it was “exiting” out of the insulin pump business, effective immediately in the US and Canada. And eventually in the rest of the world. Once I read all the way down the press release to realise that it was just USA and Canada for now, I was relieved. Then I was seriously miffed, but not completely surprised. Since the Vibe insulin pump was introduced, a number of years ago, innovation seemed to have stalle

Every year, around this time, I have a conversation with myself about whether or not I should get the flu vaccine. And every year I make a different decision. Two signs of insanity right there; talking to myself and complete indecision. Whose worried? Not me! Oops, there I go again, talking to myself.  😆 Should everyone with diabetes get the flu vaccines? Well that is completely totally up to you. So far, I've only gotten it once and that was the winter I was pregnant with m

The general consensus around the availability of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems in Ireland among patients and health professionals is that they are only for the select few. And while this may be somewhat true I believe that this conversation will change very soon. By the way, do not be put off by what I just said about them not being available right now; if a CGM is something you feel would make a difference in your diabetes management then go for it! Here 's a p

My children have been back to school for almost two full weeks now and since their first day back I've been spending a couple of hours most days planning Thriveabetes 2018. A month ago, at our fundraiser, I was asked to explain what Thriveabetes is, why people with diabetes need it and why I was asking people to give money to it. After my nerve wrecking speech, several people commented on how they had no idea that living with diabetes was so involved and required so much wo