Chances are that if you found my website you already know a little something about diabetes. But, you might be like me and always want to learn more. And there's ALWAYS is more to learn about diabetes. In this page/post I will attempt to give you my interpretation of diabetes. But I will also refer to medical people who can get more technical. I will also talk about the symptoms of diabetes, the risk factors and different types of diabetes. Diabetes is not easy to explain and

My son and I are reading a book called “Danger is Everywhere” at bedtime at the moment. It’s a very cute and funny book about… well about Danger being ABSOLUTELY everywhere and a huge thank you to David O’Doherty, the author, for writing it and the sequel “Danger is still everywhere”. As my son was reading the bits he thought were too hilarious for me to read because, obviously I would not do it justice. I was thinking about what would happen if Dr. Noel Zone, the level 5 dan

Last week was completely mental for me. Definitely not the life of a stay at home parent and way too  exciting. Wednesday, a bunch of us diabetes advocates went to Leinster House to meet with our TD’s and Senators. This is the equivalent of meeting with congress in the US, kindof. I won’t go into detail here but if you're interested in what happened I posted about it here on Thriveabetes last Tuesday. Thursday was the complete opposite, live moving from a developing country t

I have been using a Continuous Glucose Monitoring device (CGM) for six months and I feel that I have enough information now to share what I have learned about my diabetes management in those short months. A couple of weeks ago I shared how I came to get my hands on this little golden nugget and you can read about that here . So here it goes, in no particular order, what I have learned. Rapid acting insulin is not that rapid at all! If my blood sugar levels dare to go ⇑ and be

I had so much to write about from the Future Health Summit  on Friday 27th May last that I had to divide it into two post. Disclaimer: The organisers of this conference reimbursed me for my travel expenses to attend as a patient speaker. But all opinions are my own. Here is my review of the  Diabetes Summit Event  which was chaired by Dr. Ronan Canavan, co-chaired by Anna Clarke from Diabetes Ireland with our panel being chaired by Dr. Eva Orsmond. This was the event that I s

The end of May marked six months since I got CGM'd. WOW! It just flew by.  After two years of persistence, I finally got my CGM on November 27th 2015. When I announced this on social media I has a number of queries about how I managed to get approved and how difficult others were finding their quest. As always, the one thing that the diabetes community is brilliant at, is sharing knowledge through our personal experiences for the benefit of others. So, here is the story of ho

I have so much to share from the Future Health Summit last Friday I really don’t know where to start. So. Much. To. Write. It was very much an honour to have the opportunity to attend and to get a glimpse into the health care professionals' world and to have access to a diverse range of AM-azing speakers from all areas of health. Friday morning, I arrived in, what I thought, was plenty of time to browse the exhibits but due to a minor mix up in the timetable I lost forty fiv

This train wreck started with a decision to skip the spud at dinner, in my opinion. We were having Chicken Maryland and so there was enough carb on the breading to double my usual dinner carb count and I decided to forego the mash potato. This middle/2nd dip below the blue line in my photo opposite shows the low blood sugar after dinner. I, mostly, eat low to moderate carbs to help maintain good blood glucose management. It’s a decision that I made for myself and I would neve

This week I’m  taking part in the 7th annual Diabetes Blog Week , which runs from 16th to 20th May. Founded by Karen at Bitter Sweet Diabetes . My Day in Food - Wildcard WARNING - this post will be boring!!! I feel like I’m the only person with diabetes in the world who doesn’t cook. I hate cooking!!! It goes back to my childhood where as the eldest girl it was expected that I would cook and I do NOT like being told what to do.  It was also enabled by my husband, who when we

I’m  taking part in the 7th annual Diabetes Blog Week , which runs from 16th to 20th May. Founded by Karen at Bitter Sweet Diabetes . Today's topic is  The Healthcare Experience Most people who live with a chronic illness end up with a lot of experience when it comes to dealing with health care. How would you improve or change your healthcare experience? What would you like to see happening during medical visits with your healthcare team? How about when dealing with your heal

This week I’m  taking part in the 7th annual Diabetes Blog Week , which runs from 16th to 20th May. Founded by Karen at Bitter Sweet Diabetes . Language is so important in all aspects of life, isn’t it. Sticks and stones, and all that, really is a load of BS (and I don’t mean blood sugars). We advocate for the importance of using non-stigmatizing, inclusive and non-judgmental language when speaking about or to people with diabetes. But last year, I realised that I have not be

This week I’m  taking part in the 7th annual Diabetes Blog Week , which runs from 16th to 20th May. Founded by Karen at Bitter Sweet Diabetes . Today's topic is The Other Half of Diabetes and I asked my other half, Mr. Blood Sugar Trampoline, who goes by the name of Phil, if he wanted to write something. I'm so thrilled he accepted. And speechless because.... well read for yourself. The short version: I've learned that we cannot control my wife's diabetes any more than we can

I’m sooooooooooooooooooo excited about taking part in my very first Diabetes Blog Week , the 7th annual Diabetes Blog Week, which runs from 16th to 20th May. I’ve admired Karen at Bitter Sweet Diabetes for a number of years so I’ll say it again. I’m soooooo excited!  We are all kicking off Diabetes Blog Week by talking about why we do what we do. I write a blog because is a form of therapy for me - even since my early teens I used writing as a way to feel better about the w

I am very privileged to know lots of people in the diabetes community. I also know a lot of people who aren’t particularly bothered about being called “Diabetic”. I respect their choice on that. However, I am not one of those people. I may have been once when I felt so uncomfortable talking about my diabetes that I felt it was easier and quicker to say “I’m diabetic” rather than say “I have diabetes”. These days though, the harsh sound of the ‘ic” at the end of the word makes

I am extremely honoured to have been selected as a patient speaker at the upcoming Diabetes Summit which is part of the Future Health Summit on Friday 27th May. The Future Health Summit runs over two days, May 26th and 27th, in Dublin’s Citywest Convention Centre. The Future Health Summit is actually a series of 15 separate summits covering areas such as mental health, medtech, oncology, wellbeing at work, clinical leadership, diabetes, ehealth, and homecare. The Summit dire

For this piece I have combined information I found on;  Diabetes Daily written By Ginger Vieira on January 4th, 2016,  from Beyond Type 1 WRITTEN BY: Kyla Schmieg, BSN, RN and f rom The Type 1 Diabetes Network Australia Type 1 Diabetes Starter Kit When I was diagnosed in 1993, I don’t remember hearing the word ketone back then. In fact, I don’t think I hear it until the early 2,000’s. Remember, diabetes education didn’t exist in Ireland before then - not to my recollection

I hate when the hypo just comes out of nowhere and hits you hard! It a very rare occasion that I have a hypo around lunch time. But yesterday, totally unexpected and without hardly any warning a 2.6 mmol/l (46.8 mg/dl) knocked me for 6. I had been working upstairs doing light household chores. I decided to take a break and make some lunch because my CGM alarmed telling me that my blood sugars were 4.3 mmol/l (77.4 mg/dl) and I felt a bit on the shaky side but not much. I thre

Are you as tired as I am of hearing about sugar and all its evils? The Great Sugar Confusion was originally posted on the 9th October 2013 . I have taken a different spin on it this time. Everyday, it seems like there’s another “sugar scare” story! -  March Call for voluntarily ban on sale of energy drinks; too much sugar - February  High-sugar diet is as 'damaging to your brain as extreme stress or ABUSE - January   Sugar Crash - November 2015  Be Sugar Smart Campaign And y

As promised, the Not-So-Good Day of Diabetes.  When I was trying to decide which "Not-So-Good Day" experience to post about, I had too many to choose from. On this occasion I choose this one because it's not all to do with diabetes. It's the other stuff that affects diabetes or vice versa. When I wrote this post I hadn’t had an uninterrupted night's sleep in about 4 nights. It’s my diabetes but it’s not just that. It’s the decisions I make too. Like to have 2 squares of choco

Today is the my diaversary of 23 years living with type 1 diabetes. 23 years and I'm still here!!! Diabetes, you still didn't get me. You can keep trying but I will keep fighting. I like watching that number get bigger. How am I going to celebrate? Today is also my first born's 12th birthday. That's how I'm going to celebrate! :-) There could be no better way.