Type 1 Active - Active Living with Diabetes

The perk of living with diabetes came to me last week when I had a small operation on my left foot. Strange, but stay with me… I was at the hospital for most of the day and was allowed to eat and drink as normal before and after. My appointment was booked for 11am and as I expected to be in and out quite quickly I didn’t take food. Well, aside from my usual banana and cereal bar snack, but usually I would take packed lunch if I knew it would take so long. I didn’t end up leaving the hospital until 5pm. There was 7 other people under the same nurse as me, waiting just as long and didn’t appear to have brought any food either. We were in our gowns by 11:30am so no leaving the ward to go get some either.

Anyway, the nurse in charge was aware that I have type 1 diabetes so she kept asking if I was ok throughout the day and if I needed anything. I was fine and didn’t need anything, until lunch time passed and my belly was growling for food. I did a pretty intense workout earlier that morning which tends to expand my appetite. At this point I had already eaten my banana and cereal bar that I mentioned earlier and my blood sugar was at a happy 6mmols.

Around 2pm, the first 2 people on the list went down (I was 7^th) and the rest of us were told that we would be fed when we got back from surgery which was going to be over the next two hours depending on the list. Two minutes later, I was called to one side and was given the option to have a cup of coffee and some toast before surgery because they didn’t want me to risk a hypo during the procedure. Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t need to eat to prevent a hypo because the basal setting on my pump is pretty accurate for that time of the day, but because I was so hungry I took that toast and coffee (who wouldn’t want a coffee) and gladly ate it. Diabetes does have a perk…. I have found the perk of living with diabetes.

“I get special treament around food :)”

I didn’t realise they would give it to me in front of everyone else which was awkward. One of the other women looked furious when she saw me with the toast and coffee and said “I didn’t know you had been down to theatre already. I have to wait until I get back”. I said “I haven’t been down yet, I’m diabetic and they would prefer me to eat now for my blood sugar”. She didn’t say anything. Bless her, she must have been very hungry too. I wanted to share my toast but I don’t think that would’ve went well with the nurse in charge. She brought some biscuits for them shortly after.

This reminded me of all of those diabetes memes that refer to diabetic school kids being allowed to eat in class and their mates aren’t allowed. I never experienced that because I wasn’t diagnosed until after I finished school. When I got to uni everyone was allowed to eat in class anyway.

In case you’re wondering, I was allowed to keep my pump on during the op. I had to attach it to the hospital knickers lol. They would only ever really take it away if you were unable to control it yourself. My foot is ok. It’s a little painful at times and has stiches in at the moment. I was told I can’t dance for 2 weeks which is very sad, but in order to stay sane and to keep reaching my goals I have planned a few upper body / abs workouts that will not harm my foot in the slightest.

Do you have a something you regard as a perk of living with diabetes?

Rowena x

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24 hours without my insulin pump has taught me just how much appreciation I have for that little device. It makes everything so convenient, but more than anything else I feel safe because I know what I’m doing with it. My limited experience with shots (I was only on them for two weeks after diagnosis) made me feel like I couldn’t make a decision for myself and I actually didn’t want to eat or drink anything other than water because I didn’t want to take a shot for it. I’m sure if I used injections more often I would get used to it, but for now I would like to say that the post I had written about the pros and cons of pump therapy should be updated to say that the pump wins hands down for me.

https://youtu.be/2dtxtTcpotI

Here’s what happened. I woke up about 6am and went for a morning power walk which lasted about 45 mins and ended with a blood sugar of 5.6mmols. During my walk my pump started alarming me that it was running low on battery. This was strange to me as I had recently put a brand new battery into the pump. After the first two “low battery” alerts the pump cut out and then told me I would have to replace the battery to silence the alarm. Dreadful sound, but very effective as it prompts you to want to change the battery quicker.

The minute I go home I changed the battery and as I was rewinding the pump it flashed “low battery” again and then cut out. At this point I thought this particular packet of batteries may be faulty so I tried another, but the same thing happened again when I tried to load the cartridge.

Hmmm. What to do…

Luckily it was my day off so I had time to think. When their office opened at 9am, I rang Animas to order a new pump. After answering a few questions they said they would deliver a new one within 24 hours. Great! That was sorted. Next call was to the doctor to find out how much insulin I should take for background. They said to take 10 units of Lantus, I did, and it made my bum feel numb for ages. I went through the day bolusing for my food as normal with the same carb / insulin ratio.

I had a CGM sensor in my arm and I didn’t want to have it on my body if it wasn’t connected to anything so I thought I would try switching the pump back on, but instead of rewinding / loading it with the intention to use it I just left it to connect back up to my CGM and it did. I wore my pump for the majority of the day and it was giving me accurate blood sugar readings.

I went high during the night to 15mmols so I attached my pump and took a correction. When I woke at 5:45am my BG had come down to 9.3mmols. I then took another correction and a reduced bolus for my workout which I would start around 9am.

At the start of my workout I had very little insulin on board. Maybe 1 unit which is usually fine for pole training and yoga. However, not this time because I was low for pretty much all of my workout despite drinking a full bottle of Lucozade and eating a banana. Oh, and a cereal bar. Near 100 carbs and my blood sugar wouldn’t shift past 4mmols. I then went on to eat 40 carbs of cereal that usually spikes my blood sugar in the hopes that it would help. It didn’t. So I ended up eating around 140 carbs with less than 1 unit of insulin on board and whatever Lantus was still floating around in my body.

Throughout the whole day I also took readings from my blood sugar meter instead of just relying on my CGM in case it was incorrect due to the faulty pump. It wasn’t. Anyway, I’m so pleased to say that I have my pump back and I will never complain about it again. Even if it gets in the way sometimes, even if it wakes me up in the night and sometimes makes me feel very uncomfortable, it’s ok. Sometimes technology fails. It’s the way it is.

Rowena x

p.s. Here is a vid of my latest performance. Hope you enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i55GYmfG_gM

Carb counting tips for diabetics because carbs, carbs and more carbs – We’re always counting them. 6 for protein coffee, 14 for a slice of bread (depending on the bread), 20 for a medium sized banana, 40 for a portion of pasta etc. I now know my carbs extremely well and it is down to 3 things. My Fitness Pal, Carbs and Cals App and knowing my carb / insulin ratio. These 3 things take the guess work out of carb counting whilst offering me a fairly accurate estimate of the carbs in my food. How many carbs you eat is up to you. Here are my 3 tips for maximum carb counting accuracy.

My Fitness Pal

I’m always raving about this app and I will continue to do so because it is free and it takes the guess work out of carb counting. Download it now. Type in what you’re about to eat if you prepared the food yourself, or scan the label of the food you’re going to eat and you will get an accurate reading of the carbs in your meal. You can add as many foods as you like to one meal and it will tally up the total of each macronutrient for you. In this case you would be looking at the carbs only.

Carbs and Cals App / Book

I find this most useful when I eat out at restaurants because if I were to order something with rice I don’t know how many grams of is on the plate. You just type in the name of the food you’re eating and it gives you about 4 pictures with 4 different sized portions of the food you want to know the carbs of. This is very useful as they also have a book.

Know your Carb / Insulin Ratio

It might sound obvious but you should know your ratio. How many units of insulin you need per gram of carbohydrate. This can change throughout the day – mine is now 1 unit per 7 grams in the morning and 1 unit per 15 grams in the evening. Knowing this information will help decrease the amount of hypers / hypos you have throughout the day. To test this you should eat 15 carbs and take your current amount of insulin per gram of carbs and if your blood sugar rises more than 2mmols either way it is time increase your insulin. Your diabetes team can help with this if it is confusing. Also, during the test you will not want to eat carbs that contain a lot of fat because this could lead to an inaccurate result.

I hope these 3 carb counting tip will be useful for you and your diabetes management. All of the above really help me when it comes to carb counting. When you get it right you will feel like a carb counting master.

Rowena x

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My day started with a Leg / Ab session at the gym. Very short, about 40 minute, as I had some work to take care of quite early on. Afterwards I went to my mums to have breakfast and shower etc. At this point I was really excited because I knew that in a few hours I would be learning how to use my new CGM; less finger pricks and a more accurate reading of my blood sugar. I also felt really positive that it would help me fix my night time blood sugar mishaps – highs, lows – waking up sweating etc.

I arrived at the diabetes clinic at 9:40am with the intention to start at 10am. I was early and in need of some coffee, so I went to the Costa which was shut so I had to quickly run across to Starbucks. I felt like I was cheating on Costa, but I wanted my Americano.

Anyway, when I got back to the diabetes centre 9:50am I was sat in the waiting room wondering who was going to be on the course with me. It turned out to be everyone apart from 1 person. Lol. There was 6 of us in total. 2 males, 4 females (including myself) of mixed ages. Plus 2 nurses and 1 extra male who was the partner of one of the girls.

As I walked into the meeting room I saw that the boxes were all laid out for us. Similar to when I  started the course for the pump. We were given a brief talk about how the sensors work with the pump, what the arrows mean and how long you could expect each sensor to last. I was told that they would last for around 1 week, or two weeks at a push. If you already have a Dexcom, is this accurate?

Next, it was time to get connected – Individually, we went into a room with a nurse who helped guide with inserting the sensor. Everyone was given the choice as to where they would put the sensor. I chose to do mine in my arm so she literally had to do it for me because I couldn’t grab my skin and put it in at the same time. I thought it was going to hurt but it didn’t. It was virtually pain free, just a little scratch. It hurt much less that the pump infusion sets.

After waiting for a few hours I was able to see my graph. I had to enter 2 separate blood sugars within a 5 minute time frame in order to calibrate the CGM. I was 4.4mmols and then 5mmols.

Not only will this little sensor help me with my night time difficulties, it will also settle my curiosity as a researcher by allowing me to experiment with exercise in more detail; dance, weight lifting, pole dance, yoga, HIIT and walking. I’ll be sharing results on my blog so keep an eye for future posts.

What difference does a continuous glucose monitor make to your life?

Rowena x

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The textbook definition of Type 1 Diabetes is an “autoimmune disease that develops when the insulin-producing cells in the body have been destroyed and the body is unable to produce any insulin” which is what I tell people if they ask what diabetes is. They usually ask after they have seen me checking my blood sugar or if I was giving myself insulin via my insulin pump. I tell them the textbook definition because it’s much shorter that what I perceive diabetes to be. To me, it is…

…an energy thief. Both physical and mental.

Diabetes is a constant reminder that nothing is what it seems. Just because you can’t see something, it doesn’t mean that it is not there.

Diabetes is, at times, painful.

Diabetes provokes me to question my perception of reality; “is this my life”, “do I really have to make myself bleed” “Do I really have to count the carbs in that food in order to calculate insulin”.

It is a challenge that makes me both mentally and physically stronger every single day.

It forces me to pay attention to detail.

Diabetes shows me how much I care about myself whilst asking me how far I am willing to go for the feeling of health.

It makes me sacrifice what I want NOW for what I want MOST.

Diabetes reminds me to be patient with other people when they lack information / education that I have with regards to nutrition and fitness.

Diabetes is asking the same questions repetitively, but never getting the same answer.

It’s a vice.

Type 1 Diabetes is something I am grateful for.

It’s emotional.

It’s a heavy weight that shows me how strong I am to be able to lift it and carry it around each and every day.

Diabetes is a reminder that I can and will handle ANYTHING to the best of my ability.

Diabetes is a bad dream that I am struggling to wake up from.

Type 1 Diabetes is something I did not ask for and it is something that I hope will one day go away.

I’m not sure where the impulse to write this came from, but I would love to hear you describe your experience with diabetes in your own way. You can email me [email protected] or leave a comment below.

Rowena x

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