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.

Hypos, or low blood sugars happen! They do. And they happen no matter how much time and effort I put into trying to avoid them. But have you ever asked yourself “How do my hypos affect everyday life and how do I feel about that?” “More than 9 out of 10 people alter their insulin doses out of fear of hypos” “50% of people worry about hypos often or all of the time” Before last weekend, I had never asked myself either of those questions. And then, I attended Medtronic Europe’s

Those that know me, know that I do everything I can to stay healthy and that sometimes it doesn’t work. So in times when I behave like a person who does not have type 1 diabetes I struggle with guilt. Does that make me a bad diabetic? No! I am not! Am I a bad diabetic when I have days and weeks of blood sugar readings well outside of the “good” range? No! I am struggling with life outside of diabetes and need a hug. Am I a bad diabetic because I have a Glass of wine? NO! I am

World Diabetes Day is in a few short days and I feel like this year has been AMAZING!!! There are so many campaigns to be part of such as The Big Blue Test , and the JDRF's T1D Looks Like Me and Diabetes Footprint campaigns. If you would like to find out more of what's going on, here is a really good round up on Diabetes Mine . I've also been posting daily diabetes facts/thought/experiences on my  facebook page and sharing with my family and friends. Others are welcome to s

The long, long, long, long, long, long awaited Abbott Freestyle Libre has been officially launched for sale in Ireland on November 1st. Click here to purchase. The Libre is a less invasive method of checking blood glucose levels and provides a profile of blood glucose trends in a graph on a reader device for up to 14 days. And for most people with type 1 diabetes, the finger prick blood sugar check is not the worst part of living with type 1. But, the not knowing what your b

This year, one of the things I am doing for World Diabetes Day, is taking part in the Big Blue Test by Diabetes Hand Foundation. Between October 14, and November 14, participants perform physical activity and then report their results at BigBlueTest.org or by using the iPhone or Android smartphone app. Each entry will result in $1 donated to three diabetes charities ($3 total; up to $5,000). And people who do not have diabetes can do it too!!! Why? Well, because it's simple.

This post is a reaction to the broadcast of BBC’s Panorama programme “Diabetes: The Silent Killer” which aired Thursday September 29th. Since the programme aired the makers have issued an apology but I feel that it fell short. They only apologised for one medically incorrect statement. I didn't watch it out of protest of the scare tactics used and the sensationalism, but in hindsight, maybe that was not the best way to protest? However, I am so glad so many members of the di

Writing blogs posts is so therapeutic for me and my life with type 1 diabetes.  And in the last couple of months, I've had so much I wanted to write about and no time to do it while we were organising Thriveabetes. So now that Thriveabetes is over for another year, I thought that I would end up bored because I have so much free time. Yeah right!!! There is so much going on in the diabetes world right now, so many events I want to attend and I'm still struggling to keep up. Th

Many of you will know already that I'm up to my armpits involved with a type 1 diabetes conference called  Thriveabetes  and so for the next couple of weeks that's where you can find me. But for the benefit of my new readers and followers - let me catch you up:-) Thriveabetes came about because myself and a few others recognised a need for more that just a diabetes conference. We wanted a space where we could learn something new but also to spend a day with others just like u

This is part 2 of my Diabetes Discrimination post. The first part focused on Diabetes Discrimination in your career choices . This piece was prompted by a presentation on “Diabetes Discrimination in the Workplace” at the Diabetes Hands Foundation MasterLab 2016 conference. Unfortunately the recording is no longer available. I’ve never had a problem in any job that I’ve had but I also did not talk openly about my diabetes. I should probably add that I haven’t worked outside of

Lucky for me, or maybe for the world :-O, I never aspired to be an astronaut or an airline pilot for my career. But I have met just a few people with diabetes who did. In particular, a couple who all they wanted in life was to fly airplanes. But when they were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes they ruled it out. At the Diabetes Hands Foundation MasterLab 2016 conference there was a fantastic presentation on “ Diabetes Discrimination in the Workplace ”  that prompted me to featur

Renza from Diabetogenic wrote this piece on "fudging" our bg numbers in our blood glucose diaries and it fuelled my fire. It’s such a coincidence that we both attended conferences where the “Fake” blood glucose diary of a person with diabetes was held as an example of a “bad” patient! Renza’s piece is well worth a read on how she handled the situation and spoke up for all of us. She rocks!! My experience was more of the sitting quietly at the back in disbelief that this was

I really don’t know why I have to learn this lesson over and over. I think maybe it’s because I’m so focused on one key message when I am advocating for diabetes that I forget I need to explain the very basics of diabetes before I launch into that message. The Diabetes Hands Foundation’s MasterLab Advocacy conference in 2015 was where I heard this lesson for the first time; never assume that people know what living with type 1 diabetes is like. Really like! OR know much about

Last May, I was asked by the organisers of the Future Health Summit to give a presentation on how I became an empowered person with diabetes. Some friends asked if I could blog about it. The reason for my topic choice was because the theme of the conference was Empowering the Patient, Information, Choice & Accountability and I decided to focus on Empowering the Patient element for my presentation. I feel like I am one, that diabetes does not have power over me, I have a lot o

Aaaageees ago you may remember that I ask for you to nominate this blog and the  Thriveabetes blog  for an Irish Blog Award. Well, guess what!!!! We all made the long list!!! Both Thriveabetes and Blood Sugar Trampoline are in the Best Health & Wellbeing Blog category. And Blood Sugar Trampoline is also in the Best Blog Post category . I'm afraid I could not pick from all the amazing blog posts from all of you to nominate one for Thriveabetes. So what's next in this award pro

Every now and again the DOC sends you something wonderful in real life, or in this case someone wonderful, who you would never have met otherwise. And I feel lucky that I've had a couple of those opportunities already this year. On Saturday last, I met one such person; Gina Gaudefroy. I don't know how Gina found me last year but she did and sent me an email. We exchanged some of our stories in a couple more emails. Gina shared that she is originally from Limerick but now live

It's summer, which means for a lot of people it's holiday time. “They” say that diabetes never takes a holiday but what “they” don’t tell you is that when you take a holiday you should be warned that your diabetes will behave as if it’s gone wild in Ibiza and partying like it’s 1999. I took a holiday for the last couple of weeks. I didn’t go anywhere though. My brother in law and his family were visiting from America, hubby took ten days off work and the kids are on their sum