In the diabetes community we talk a lot about diabetes burnout and diabetes distress but I seem to experiencing a form of life burnout at the moment. It’s everything but diabetes burnout. Yesterday, my daughter asked me, as she does most mornings on our short walk to her school, what I had planned for my day?”. I sighed and said “I have so much to do and I really don't want to do any of it”. My response made me realise that it’s becoming a problem. And if I'm really honest I'

The Irish health service is a mess! You probably know this! I know this! I've known it for a very long time. I’ve been a regular customer patient of our health services for many years, and I continuously tell people about how terribly under funded it is and the chronic shortage of endocrinologists and diabetes nurse specialists. Yet , I still wasn't prepared for the shock when I walked into the Accident & Emergency department to find my mother on one of three trolleys (that

Have you seen those posts on Facebook where you copy and paste a message that supposedly creates awareness for a heartbreaking illness without actually giving us any information about said illness? I come across them a lot, usually not for diabetes though. And then I saw this from a lady I had met recently. Now this is Awareness! You see, no amount of copy and paste onto my facebook profile page will create any awareness if I don’t mention something I know about that illness.

When you plan for the unexpected and then the unexpected happens you never feel more grateful for the time you spent on the “just in case” supplies. Last week, our family took a road trip across the country to GO TO IKEA!!!! It was very exciting as we were finally converting our Playroom/home office to a Teen Cave… home office (I’m not sure we’ve told them that yet? ;-s Oh well. Oops! After a very long, but successful day, we were on our way back west. Our plan was to stop at

I'm going to be an auntie again, after a 7 year gap in the birth of nephews and nieces. It’s going to happen any minute now. An-ny minute!!! And like any good big sister I've been sharing valued advice about the last days of pregnancy. I'm sure it's very welcome advice too:-D OMG, I can't wait to kidnap babysit this small baby. ONE MOMENT PLEASE! Sarah, please tell baby to get the head down, engage and one big whosh from in there:-) WHERE WAS I? All this sisterly advice has p

I've been using an insulin pump for almost seven years and it's unlikely that I will go back to injection pens. However, I know that things change over time and how I feel about things also change, so I will never say that I will never go back to injection pens because the future is unpredictable. This week, I have been thinking a lot about all the times I've changed the way I manage my diabetes and how difficult some of those changes were.  I remember when I was transitionin

Last week, our local type 1 diabetes support group organised a talk on heart disease and it’s association with type 1 diabetes (with a great speaker and a good crowd - thanks to all who attended). I feel that out of all the complications of diabetes it’s not talked about as much as the diabetic retinopathy, foot disease or kidney disease complications. Yet, I also feel that it’s the sneakiest of all the complications. There are warning signs for diabetic retinopathy, foot dis

This post was inspired by the Diabetes Dominator - Danielle Hargenrader and her video series This is how I do Diabetes . Thank you so much, Danielle. My recent visit to my diabetes clinic took five hours door to door. This is probably not unusual for many people attending outpatient clinics in public hospitals in Ireland. However, for someone who has good management of their diabetes and is a very low maintenence patient; it seems a bit ...  uumm, Not Sensible. Here's how my

23 years, 10 months and 9 days! That's how long I've been an “insulin only” chick with type 1 diabetes. Last week, I started taking an additional medication in the form of a statin. Alas, now at age 44 and a cholesterol of 5.7 (the recommendation is 4.5 for people with type 1 diabetes) and a LDL of 3, I'm statin a new phase of diabetes. I have lived with type 1 diabetes for almost 24 years. I've gone from hypodermic needles, to refillable pens, to disposable pens, to an insul

Now that January is over I can stop saying “It's the new year!” I know, I know! I’m probably a couple of weeks behind everyone else. New year's resolutions are a distant memory as is a reason, as good as any, for some people to have a new beginning. And, apparently, that only ever means a diet, maybe a gym membership that never gets used and a bombardment of media ads to be healthy, get fit and go on a diet. I felt this year it was more annoying than usual. I actually have a

My next diabetes clinic appointment is next week. It’s been eight months since I was last there. I’m not sure how I feel about having such a long time between appointments but maybe that’s another post? Diabetes, especially type 1 diabetes, is one of the few conditions where you actually have to prepare for your clinical review appointment. It’s how you will get the most out of your visit. For a lot of years, I just showed up with my “diary” and walked out of there disappoint

My diabetes clinic appointment is coming up next month and I scheduled my blood draw for my labs with my GP’s surgery. I usually get them done about 2-3 weeks before my appointment so that I have enough time to collect and copy them for my own records. The regular blood draw for labs is one of the "joys"  of having type 1 diabetes. And for this one,  I scheduled a fasting blood sample because my cholesterol was due to be checked. However, I have read that being fasting for th

Last week this happened but I was only just getting back into the swing of things and so only writing about this week. Jetlag day 4 and feeling like a functioning human being again. I must have slept really well because all my aches and pains subsided. See last week's  depressing post . It's also Day 2 of the kids being back to school and day 2 of me getting back into my walking regime. I was feeling so good and my ankle was feeling so good that I decided to try that hill. Th

It was my birthday last month! Sarcastic yah! I turned 44. I know that anyone older than 35 thinks that 44 is young but I am not happy at all about being in my forties, especially because the aches in my joints make me feel older that I am. And because of that achy hip and torn achilles tendon that just won’t heal, I feel that my best, physical, years are behind me. So my birthday is a bitter sweet mix of "hurray, it's a day all about ME" to "Boo, another year older". But, I

It’s difficult to believe all the goods things that have happened to me through Blood Sugar Trampoline this year, and with all the other diabetes related stuff that I do. Sometimes I have to pinch myself. Every year, when I write my Christmas cards, I include a letter with a bit of a summary of what our family has been up to for the year. When your family lives on two continents it’s important to keep the connection in this way. It was while I was writing this letter that I r

I have lived with Type 1 Diabetes for 23 years. I know how lucky I am to not have any diabetes complications…. so far. And yes, a decent HbA1c does play a role in that, but more than we want to think about it, some of it is down to luck. However, it is a lot of hard work to pull off a decent HbA1c and people are very often surprised when I tell them all the things I do to try to achieve that. Maybe I make it look easy? Or maybe they’re wishing for something easy, but the easy

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about attending Diabetes Ireland’s Health Awareness Exhibition in Dublin and that I was most looking forward to attending the medal ceremony to people who have lived with diabetes for 50 years. Read more about the other happenings on the day here . It was SO worth the 3 hour drive with kids in tow. There were 16 of these soldiers receiving medals. Each one was called up to receive their medal and Kieran O’Leary, Diabetes Ireland CEO, gave a brief

I’m not American. Nor do I live there. But, I am surrounded by them; married to one and both of my children are US citizens. And so Thanksgiving features strongly in our household. This year, we had an Expat Thanksgiving and celebrated it on the Sunday after the actual day so that none of us were working. It was lovely and it was lovely to be with our american friends living in Ireland. However, as a person with type 1 diabetes, dealing with celebration feasts are a huge chal

I was 20 years living with type 1 diabetes before I hit THE wall. The wall where I was done with it! Every blood glucose test was a nightmare, and no amount of insulin brought my blood glucose levels down to a respectable number. I’d had enough of diabetes and it needed to go away RIGHT NOW! You may not know what I’m talking about, if you are one of those people who just gets on with diabetes management, without feeling an overwhelming mental burden, you are lucky. But I’m as

At the end of November, I will have been wearing my Continuous Glucose Monitoring System (CGM) for one year. And I really don't know how I lived with type 1 diabetes without it? I know that I am unusual in that I get 21 to 30 days out of each sensor I wear. Or maybe my immune system is just completely useless altogether? So, I thought I would take a photo diary of the life of one of my CGM sensors and take you through what it looks like.