Parenting Teenagers With Diabetes – Coping Tips for Mums
How to let them go when you really don’t want to…
Teenage Kicks: Being Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in Your Teens
How it feels, and how parents can help
Managing type 1 diabetes with Omnipod (UK review)
How we moved from multiple daily injections to a tubeless insulin pump
Why your diabetes jokes are rubbish unless you’re diabetic
How not to offend a diabetic with misconceptions
Living With Type 1 Diabetes: 5 Reasons to be Glad
At first, it feels like the end of the world. But here’s the upside of a diabetes diagnosis
Diabetes Anniversary: Not Drowning But Waving
A diabetes anniversary is always a time for reflection. If you’d asked me three years ago how I felt about diabetes, I would probably would have burst into tears before I’d managed to utter more than a sentence. But here’s why I’m glad, 3 years on, for the lessons it has taught us…
An Open Letter to Type 1 Teens
On 22 July this year, Connor lost his life to type 1 diabetes. He was a normal teenaged boy, with everything to live for. But he had diabetes, an incurable condition that is relentless in its need to be managed, every hour of every day, for life. It is a difficult physical condition, yet what you very rarely see is the emotionally exhausting psychological burden of living with type 1, that is every bit as tough as the medical. In the weeks following Connor’s death, Nicky, his mother, wrote this letter in the hopes that if just one young person read …
Free to Dream (Freestyle Libre review)
Hey, stop what you’re doing for a minute, will you? I just need you to do something for me. It will take about 2 minutes – if you’re lucky – then you can carry on with your work/play/nap/dancing (delete as appropriate). Hey, can you stop again please? Sorry, I just need you to do that thing again, won’t take too long. I know, I know, you’re dancing/singing/talking to your friends/marking coursework. Sorry, but it’s got to be done. Hey, sorry to interrupt AGAIN, but can you just… yes, again, yep I know you’re busy, I know it’s important, you’re having …
Stable Diabetes: it’s Mission Impossible #DPC16
I don’t know who this photo belongs to, but if anyone does, I’ll gladly credit. The man is a genius. If you’re living with diabetes I know you’ll be nodding at this point; if you’re not, please believe us – stable diabetes is not something that ever happens, particularly if you’re type 1. “Is she not stable then..?” There is nothing that infuriates a diabetic more than this question. Apart from possibly “Are you allowed to eat that?” See this image for the answer to that question. Then I promise we’ll crack on with the point of this post, but allow …
Diabetes: forget sugar and injections, it’s all about education. #DPC16
I’ve procrastinated with this post. Last week I was one of the official bloggers at the Diabetes UK Professional Conference (DPC). Professional. That means scientists, doctors, and researchers presenting findings from their studies, and debating new approaches in diabetes care. I run a parenting blog. Some of my readers are parents of children with type 1 diabetes, by virtue of the fact that I occasionally write impassioned posts on the subject since GG’s diagnosis. I applied for the position of conference blogger, but I questioned why I was awarded it. Most of my readers do not have diabetes on their …
Why diabetes is like a toddler
What would you say is the worst thing about having a toddler? The obsession with the word no, and a refusal to comply with any request? The sleepless nights, as your child won’t sleep, or will sleep, but not in his own bed, and only for intermittent bursts? His unpredictability, and tendency to tantrums out of nowhere? His uncanny knack of figuring out a way round all your best laid plans? Or his lack of common sense and logic, which frequently puts him in dangerous situations, as you hurtle in to save him? It’s the same with diabetes. Toddlers and Diabetes at …
The Ghost of Christmas Past and my Perfect Christmas
We put our tree up this weekend. It’s always a big deal, never a chore. In the pursuit of family traditions, I’ve always made sure that Christmas tree weekend is special. So no, you can pass on those Chelsea tickets, welcome the cancelled football match, and even – just this once – skip swimming lessons. Put on the Christmas playlist, overboil the mulled wine, and warm up some mince pies, because Christmas tree weekend has to happen in a certain way every year. I apologise if I’m a little prescriptive, slightly bossy, and rather a neat freak, but this …
Diabetes: This is WAR
This weekend we played a game of Bananagrams. One of those games that you either love or hate. My need for order and precision, my discomfort with change means it’s not my favourite. But it grows on you. Those who like to shake things up, change them for the sake of it, experiment, they love it. It makes GG happy. If she doesn’t like a word she’s used, she’ll change it. I wish everything was that simple. I left them to tidy up, and when I next looked, they hadn’t. They’d all wandered off, apart from her. She sat at …
Parenting: The truth about diabetes
Today is a difficult day. Today I have mixed emotions. On this day last year I took my nine-year-old daughter to the GP, expecting to come home with a prescription for antibiotics. Instead, we were sent straight to hospital and admitted for training in how to manage type 1 diabetes, and life as we knew it was over. I asked her how she wanted to mark the anniversary of her diagnosis; if she wanted to just forget about it, or if she’d like to celebrate how far she has come since that awful day. She saw it as an excuse to …
Why Type 1 Diabetes is like a newborn baby
This time last year I was excited about an impending event. The MAD Blog Awards finalists had just been announced and I was on the list. I rubbed my hands at the thought of a great night out with some fabulous bloggers, and started planning my dress. I probably cracked open a bottle of something fizzy and told Twitter all about it. It’s a big deal, The MAD’s and I’m always so thrilled to be a part of it. Six months later I arrived at the awards ceremony with bleeding heels from a last minute stagger along Knightsbridge, having thrown …