Take a deep breath everybody! I can just picture the steam coming from all of your ears, but let me tell you that in this instance, where I was asked this question, the only purpose it would serve would be to accelerate global warming! I have never been asked this question before in all of my 22 years living with type 1 diabetes and it really caught me off guard. Firstly, the person who asked had a number of alcoholic beverages taken so any worthwhile, educational response fr

Disclaimer: I am not a scientist, nor do I have anything close to a medical degree. The views and opinions expressed are my own interpretation of the information and training I have received with my diabetes over 20+ years. What is a CGMS? CGMS is Continuous Glucose Monitoring Sensor. It consists of a sensor pod, which contains a very thin needle-like component inserted under the skin. It's about an inch long, the width of two strands of hair and just as flexible. The sensor

Anyone notice the change in the NovoRapid Insulin packaging? When I go to my pharmacist, or chemist as we say here in Ireland, I always watch as they pack my one month supply into a bag. Sometimes I get it wrong and order the wrong thing or sometimes they get it wrong. Recently, as Catherine was packing my bag I saw something "foreign" looking. Is that a 100ml vial of NovoRapid?, I asked. So we both examined the package and determined that it was. But why does it look differe

This past week has been a little bit mental, what with children on mid term, a bit of a raffle  going on, some wedding invitation making and a bathroom demolition (*%$#@@). I really didn't think I would have time to write a blog. However, I just had to write a quickie for this. Thanks to Animas , I am starting my trial of a CGM with my Vibe tomorrow!!! It's been a year in the determination.  I don't know if it will make a huge difference in my life but I will let you all kno

I was extremely honoured to be asked to speak about "Looking after my family and my diabetes" at the Diabetes Ireland National Diabetes workshops and exhibition last November. I was one of three speakers who were asked to talk about their lives with Type 1 Diabetes. Brian spoke about his love of running which has developed into a love of Triathlons. Brian was diagnosed 4 years ago and only took up running as a way to help manage his type 1 diabetes. Niamh spoke about her rec

I came across a piece called " What is a Diabetic Diet? " on Diabetes Daily in the last couple of days and thought it was worth sharing. The question of "what can I eat?" comes up  a lot at our local Type 1 and the Type 2 support group meet ups. And even though, we would reply to our group members that nothing was off the table, the explanation doesn't end there. The author of the piece says: One of the biggest questions for anyone with diabetes is: what can I eat? The real,

This month, I will have been writing this blog for five years. Holy Moly! What started out as a way to find more people with type 1 diabetes became therapy for me. And because it started out as a way to try and find more Irish people with diabetes, and more specifically to connect with more people with type 1, is why I named it Diabetes People. I didn't think that there was enough thoughts in my head about my own life with diabetes to maintain a blog and so I had intended to

The Friends for Life conference  (FFL) was started by the Childrenwithdiabetes.com organisation in the United States where families could meet each other and have a vacation in Disneyland. Today, the FFLconference has evolved into a national mega-conference that 1,000 people with diabetes attend. It's open to ALL family members, including grandparents and now has programmes for the adults living with type 1 diabetes, as well as all the age groups of children and young people

Living with type 1 diabetes, actually any diabetes, is a commitment to lifelong learning. My diabetes changes all the time and I need to learn all the time to keep up with those changes and adapt. I don't remember the first time I heard the words "Diabetes Burnout" so I think it was at least 5-10 years ago. I do remember that while at that time that I had no experience of diabetes burnout.  However, knowing about something and realising that it was happening to me were two di

In March 2011, I wrote about taking the leap to an Insulin Pump. I decided to revamp and update this old post because I've been asked more questions about what it's like to use one and be attached to one.(If you are not sure about how an insulin pump works or what it even is, go to this link .) I have been using an insulin pump for 5 years. The first one I had was the Animas 2020. In 2014, I upgraded to the Animas Vibe, which can be used with a Continuous Glucose Monitoring

I started a new chapter last week in my life with diabetes. I have moved around a lot in my 22 years with type 1 diabetes. This also means that I have changed where I received my diabetes care a number of times too. I firmly believe that my health care team should be one that I like, that I can open up to and that they know their diabetes stuff (believe me some are pretending). I had found that in my previous endocrinologist, Dr. D. She always told me that I was too hard on m

I volunteer with our local type 2 diabetes support group. They are a great bunch of people and so appreciative of everything you do for them and every piece of information you provide them with. The great thing about our get-togethers are the faces change often and I meet new and interesting people all the time. It's not a requirement that you attend every meeting but I'm happy to say that most people attend most of the time. At our get-together last week, we talked about a l

Small talk can lead to big revelations sometimes. I just got a reminder of how un-normal I am because I live with type 1 diabetes last week. And it was good! As I was out with my walking Bud after St. Patrick's day, last week, she mentioned that she was feeling very bloated after having a McDonald's 3 days ago. I replied that McDonald's has a tendency to do that to me too but only for a day! Then she said that maybe it was all the stuffing her face she did over the bank holid

I really enjoy a beer! Especially, on Friday and Saturday evening. I'm a stay at home mother so on Friday evening when all the young people in my house are tucked up in bed, I reach for a bottle of beer and that's what signals to me that it's the weekend. I have 2 beers on each of those nights. This morning, I was thinking about how much I used to drink in my twenties. And about how if I knew then what I know today about the risks of "boozing" would it have made me more respo

I do all I know how to, to keep my blood sugars between the lines on the "good control"graph. But sometimes all the forces in the universe collude against me! One such occasion occurred last week, I had parked myself on my couch with my night-time herbal cuppa and settling in to watch The Mentalist. The children were in bed and not a peep out of them. Universal influence No. 1; Hypo. I could feel my temperature rising and I could feel some droplets of sweat on my skin underne

It always grates on my nerves when I hearing myself described as a person who has suffered with diabetes. You know, that fingernails-on-a-blackboard noise type of annoying. I felt that the word "suffer" implied that I was weak or ill. But I don't look like either of those things, so how can I be a sufferer? Especially when I'm having a good day? But then, I tried to come up with another way to describe my life with type 1 diabetes I have decided that while I don't like the wo

One of the many ways people manage their type 1 diabetes is Carbohydrate Counting or Carb Counting. Carb counting has been a successful way to help manage type 1 diabetes while giving us a more flexible lifestyle since the 1990's. But it has only really taken off in Ireland since the noughts. Carb counting is based on the idea that if the carbs in our food make our blood glucose levels rise consistently, then it makes sense to try and measure them and come up with insulin to

I have lived with type 1 diabetes for almost 22 years. My husband and I have been together for 15 years; married 13 of those. And since he came into my life I'm happy to say that I have not lived with type 1 diabetes alone. He is with me every step! He wants to know as much about diabetes management as I do and often he does. Sometimes, he looks at my record book to help me figure out patterns in my blood glucose levels. It may be my diabetes but my whole family lives with it

OK, I want one of these!!! The people at HealthSmart and Diabetes Ireland have designed a weekend retreat especially for people with type 2 diabetes who want help to tackle their type 2. one of these for adults with type 1. I have copied all of the information below from the HealthSmart website. Diabetes Ireland and HealthSmart have developed a weekend break for people living with Type 2 Diabetes, or at an elevated risk of developing Diabetes. The Retreat focuses on the key

A couple of months ago, there was a press release that caused a wee bit of a frenzy in the diabetes online community? This was before the "is it an artificial pancreas or is it an insulin pump" press release, that's currently doing the rounds. Abbott announced the availability of their Freestyle Libre in the UK.  People very quickly saw that it was a way to test blood glucose without finger pricking and interest from the diabetes community was instant. Myself included. A few