Type 1 Diabetes

Dear Type 1 Diabetes

Raising money for JDRF, the Type 1 Diabetes charity

Dear Type 1 Diabetes, I’m just writing to let you know what I think of you. I haven’t ranted too much in the last year since you rudely set up camp in our lives, but the time has come. It might get sweary. Actually, strike that; this is going to get totally sweary, and I make no apologies, because it’s about time you were told. Type 1 Diabetes, you are a nasty, vindictive little terrorist, with an impeccable and malicious sense of timing. I have gradually come to accept that you are a law unto yourself. It’s not about food, …

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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 …

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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 …

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Being Brave: BritMums and Type 1 Diabetes

In June 2015 I attended the BritMums Live conference for parenting bloggers. I have been many times to the event, and have transitioned from nervous new blogger to being relaxed and excited to catch up with friends and discover new brands. I have spoken at the event in previous years, and gained valuable experience in public-speaking. I have even read a blogger keynote speech before – a funny one that gave me the satisfaction of a few audience laughs. This year though, I was brave. This year I spoke out about what it means to suffer a life-changing event in …

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Why Type 1 Diabetes is like a newborn baby

Winning Best Schooldays blog at the MAD blog awards was an emotional moment

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 …

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Dear Coleen Nolan, diabetes is not my fault

Stupid questions your mum will ask about diabetes

Having to take insulin injections is not the worst thing about having diabetes. Having to prick your fingers before you can eat or exercise is probably worse than needing to inject a synthetic hormone into your body, but it’s not the worst thing about having diabetes. Working full time (and it is full-time) to keep blood sugars under control, and the sense of deflation when all that hard work doesn’t pay off, is one of the worst things about having diabetes. But it’s not the worst. Public misperception around diabetes is the worst thing about having the condition. I struggle with …

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Type 1: What my girl would like to say…

I wasn’t going to write about World Diabetes Day. This is a family blog. It’s a happy space, where I record the things in our lives that I want us to remember: the holidays, the letters to Father Christmas, the amusing anecdotes about funny toddlers that will make guests at their weddings laugh. It is not a blog about diabetes. But as I think about my daughter, about all she has had to come to terms with in the 3 months since her diagnosis, I know that I can’t let the occasion pass without some comment. I was going to …

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Diabetes: Wot so Funee?

Type 1 Diabetes - how a child is coping

Now I know what you’re thinking. What could possibly be funny about diabetes? And you’d be right. It’s not funny at all. Every single aspect of it is just bloody awful, and the fact that it is occurring to a child makes it infinitely worse. But you know what? She is doing it. All those fingerpricks, injections, snacking at odd moments, not snacking when she wants to – she is beginning to take it in her stride. And she has found things to laugh about – oh what a joy it is to see her infectious smile still there, to …

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It never rains…

It never rains but it pours

I like to think I’m an optimistic person. I don’t count magpies and assume the ugly thieves have the power to change my life. I put umbrellas up indoors – it’s practical when drying. And new shoes always go on the table for labelling before they make it to the cupboard under the stairs. It would be bad luck if they didn’t, given my children’s capacity for sending their stuff to lost property. But recently I’m wondering whether I’ve accidentally offended the gods of fate. As some of you know, my 9 year old daughter is dealing with a recent …

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Expressions: Silly questions your mum will ask about diabetes

Stupid questions your mum will ask about diabetes

The Type 1 diabetes diagnois came just over a week ago. We were diagnosed at the GP, and sent straight to paediatric A&E for training in how to manage it. Of all the questions I expected to hear my mum ask the doctor there, this one never crossed my mind: Will she ever be able to experiment with illegal drugs..? My mum is a worrier. She projects into the future. Whilst I reassured her that I’m only 9, and really not interested in heroin, she thinks about all the things I might want to do as an adult, that she …

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Expressions 20: My brave girl

This is GG, aged 9 and 3 quarters. On Tuesday she was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. This is her 24 hours later, in hospital, having already learned to prick her own fingers for blood sugar testing, and inject herself with insulin. I am proud, and humbled by her bravery. She is the most amazing person I know. This is her 48 hours after diagnosis. She will not let this change her: I will not be sharing posts this week; we have just so much to get to grips with right now, and I need to focus on my family …

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