After this hypo happened last February I wrote it down how I was feeling as a way to cope with the aftermath. It really shook me up and felt like a hellish experience. It really shook me up and felt like a hellish experience. I found it today when I was looking for some inspiration for this weeks blog post and the feelings I felt then are still with me six months later. So here is the Hypo Hell and other afterlife terrors. 3 February 2018 I could feel the full force of this

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that my driving licence was due for renewal this month. Thankfully, the very next day, my renewal form arrived in the post, so that was nice, something I didn’t have to do. However, I’m a little embarrassed to find out that what I’ve been telling other people with diabetes for the last couple of years about being able to get a ten year licence has been wrong. The way the guide is written for healthcare professionals means they can’t- they can o

Some of us know that diabetes care in Ireland is not where is should be. One way to help improve our service is to speak up: be an advocate. Speaking up isn’t for everyone but we do need to hear more voices in this area to be heard more. Anyone can be an advocate. But how? Where do you start?  I am not an expert in diabetes advocacy but I have learned a couple of things over the years that help guide me and may help you if this is an area you would like to get involved in. I

One of the tools we use to help us manage our type 1 diabetes a little better is carb counting or carbohydrate counting. And it’s incredibly useful regardless of what diet/meal plan you have chosen: Keto, low carb, high carb, no carb, Atkins or Bernstein.  It’s still good to know how to carb count and all that comes with it. To me, this makes perfect sense: after all, if the carbs that we eat are what has the biggest impact on our glucose levels then measuring them and matchi

I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when I was twenty and life as I knew it completely changed forever. I was a student, in my third year living away from home and I had finally moved out of my uncle's house and was doing the whole grown up thing of having a part time job, paying bills, buying and cooking food, doing laundry, etc.  I hadn’t been feeling well for a few weeks but put it down to the unsociable hours of working in a fast food chain. But, when I literally slept f

As promised last week here is my DXDublin2018 post - part two because there was so much packed into these two days. The “dX” events were created by Abbott Diabetes Care to facilitate the exchange of ideas within the diabetes blogger community hence, Diabetes Community Exchange or “dX”.  dXDublin was two very full days of workshops and presentations and, of course, exchanging ideas and stories with people living with type 1 diabetes from different countries. So as you can imag

DXDublin on July 13-15 was the biggest and most global dX yet. So proud! There were 30 bloggers from 14 countries and it was a bit like the Eurovision in a sense as we had representatives from Brazil and Canada too. See my disclaimer at the bottom. I had intended to publish this post in the week following dXDublin but I had to catch up on three days of laundry, pack and go on holiday in two days. So needless to say it did not happen. My holiday was wonderful, thanks for askin

Do you know about the Irish Diabetes Online Community DOC? It's been around for almost 10 years. It’s been amazing! And it’s lead me on the most wonderful and exciting journey.   You would think, living in a small country, where every one knows everyone that it would be easy to find other people with diabetes. But, as many of you know, sometimes, diabetes just doesn't come up in conversation and therefore you never know that the person you just met has is living with diabetes

The National Clinical Guidelines for Adults with Type 1 Diabetes were launched by the Minister for Health, Simon Harris on Monday the 25th June 2018.  I was hugely honoured to be invited to the launch and to be in the company of fellow people with type 1 diabetes who contributed to producing the finished product. I was also impressed by all the speakers who expressed huge commitment to making sure that these guidelines are implemented and that the resources needed are availa

What is your Diabetes Superhero power? I feel like this is a question that has been asked online before but I've never had an answer for it. However, as I lay awake after yet another night interrupted by diabetes, my answer came to me like a bolt of lightning. I’ve never had an answer to this question before.  I was wide awake, very, very early, after the fourth time my low glucose alarm went off on my CGM. At least, I think it was the fourth time - it felt like there were mo

When my glucose levels are high, the emotions I feel are far and reaching; from mild dispair to total frustration. But the emotion that I have learned to summon to tackle high glucose levels effectively is patience. There are always a few exceptions but, in general, I find low glucose levels a bit easier to deal with than high glucose levels: just knock back a few glucose tablets and call it done. Of course there are many other frustrations with low glucose such as I may have

This week, I'm struggling with how society sees me and sees my diabetes and I'm struggling with the whole "what's the point in advocacy" disillusion. I’m calling it Diabetes Survivor's Guilt . It started with a couple of events on Tuesday that left me beaten down, deflated and with nothing left to fight for the things I need to live and thrive with diabetes. And nothing left to fight the public perception of people with diabetes. It all started with: It began with hearing fro

There are so many benefits to being a part of the diabetes online community. It’s so, so, so valuable, informative and, well, supportive. I wouldn’t have survived all these years without it.  However, it does have a couple of major pitfalls and it can go really, really wrong. Desperately wrong. I’m talking about advising other people to take extra insulin without knowing their full circumstances. When you think about it, how often do we actually get it right for ourselves? L

On referendum day last week, as people were voting, I tried to keep myself off twitter and lower my anxiety levels by catching up on diabetes blog reading.Over the last two months in Ireland the right for a woman to choose what happens to her body has been the main topic of conversation and I, like so many others, was personally invested in the outcome of this referendum. So it wasn't surprising then when I read about the launch of a new insulin pump in Australia  last week t

You would think that after 25 years of living with diabetes I would have gotten the hang of this diabetes craic! That I would never forget to take insulin before I eat or check glucose a lot! Yet, for the second time this year, I left home for the day and forgot my blood glucose meter. Despite the fact that Every single day, multiple times a day, I leave my house and ALWAYS grab my keys, phone and my meter which also contains my glucose tablets. I, even keep all three of thos

<p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"></p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://talkingaboutdiabetes.co.uk/" target="_blank"><strong>TADTalk 2018</strong></a><strong>. TAD - Talking about Diabetes is in its third year and brings together individuals who have inspirational stories to share in the context of living with diabetes.</strong> </p>

If you live with type 1 diabetes and travel, those three words: “Airport Security Hypo” probably strike fear into your heart. Airport security is stressful enough with type 1 diabetes, even when it goes smoothly but if you throw in a hypo it’s nerve wracking. I traveled to London last Saturday solo and this happened as I was coming home. I was in line at the metal detector, I had put all my stuff on the belt and that’s when my CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitor) alarm went off,

Approximately 90% of the diabetes community in Ireland use insulin pens to manage their diabetes. A study published in 2013 claims the two thirds of the injecting diabetes population has lipohypertrophy - BD Medical (Becton Dickinson) was involved in this the largest study of its kind.   Last week, on one of my multiple trips to Dublin I was invited to attend an engagement workshop and factory tour organized by BD Medical (Becton Dickinson) where the word lipohypertrophy came

Last week, on a regular old Wednesday morning, I went about getting my teen and preteen ready for school. It was the usual morning routine.  Just before I sat to breakfast my Continuous Glucose Monitor CGM alarm beeped - “your blood glucose level is below 4.1 mmols.” I had absolutely no symptoms, so I replied “Sometimesyou such a fibber!" Yes, I have conversations out loud with my CGM. I know I'm not alone! Lots of conversations. I pushed a button to see what my CGM thought m