Worth it... :)

1 hour and 20 mins of pain....and here is the result!

I never thought i would be brave enough to get a tattoo! i had always wanted one but never got the courage to go through with it and i cant belive i did it!

I was shaking like a leaf when i went, had butterflies and was so nervous...i felt a little better however as my wifey came with me, even though they didnt let her actually come with me (not too happy about that) she waited for me in the shop for 2 hours bless her!

The tattoo itself i am soo pleased with, it means so much to me as it has the date i was diagnosed and also the diabetes ribbon encorporated into the centre! the guy who did it was really nice and reassuring, always asking if i was ok and chatting away to me, he asked about my diabetes and i told him the story and he just made me feel really at ease :)

And the big question your all asking...did it hurt? in a word....YES! lol but as the title says it was sooo worth it!

I would like to say a massive thankyou to Sue, as without her i would not have been able to have this done :)

Putting faces to names!

Well on saturday i swapped my usual lazy, lie in with a hangover sort of day, and got up super early to catch the train! Why u ask? to meet some fabulous people from the diabetes forum of course!

It was a great day , i met with shiv, duane, and tom at the train station and we headed down towards the good old weatherspoons where alan, amy, sam and a few others were waiting!

Nice day, had some yummy food and went on to walk the southampton walls and ended up in a nice little pub :)

It was soo nice to meet all the people that had helped me through the tough time when i was first diagnosed, and lovely to put some faces to the names on the forum! I am very much looking forward to the next one and perhaps meeting even more people :)

Not many photos taken but the one above features all us stuffing our faces :D

hard to say goodbye....

Long time no blog!

Emotional week this week as all the children at pre-school are growing up and are now leaving to go to the infant school in september :( am gonna miss all of them sooo much, the two years i have known them all has been brilliant and some of them being my key children makes it even more difficult to say goodbye :(

We had the leavers presentation/fun day today, parents brought in pressies, and flowers galore and all the children were dressed up and looked fab! was a really good, but emotional day i think most of the staff were welling up including myself...so now my cupboard is full of chocolates and i am wishing i was not diabetic lol.

Things are starting to look up :)

Im really looking forward to going back in september as i managed to get myself a job :) its just cleaning but it could not be more perfect...its an hour and a half a day and starts straight after i finish my pre-school work so it will just be like working a normal week and i still get my weekends! And to top all of this off i got a pay rise which will start as of september woohoo so hopefully all these money problems i have been having will be behind me :D

Not only this but as i have finished work for the summer...6 weeks!! i have managed to get myself a summer job covering staff holidays in a nearby nursery so that i keep busy and earn lots of money which is greatly needed!

I am so happy that things are starting to turn out for me finally after all my bad luck! i just have to keep optimistic about everything and hopefully nothing bad will come along and burst my bubble!!

Oh and powerwalking starts monday!!

Now for those chocolates...... :p

One of those days.........?

Arghhh!!

Quick rant i am so frustrated right now!

So after some really good levels and a good hba1c result my blood sugars just are not behaving today! i went to bed on 5.9 and woke up on 7.9 ??? had breakfast perfectly carb counted and also an extra unit to bring me back into range.. and four hours later i am still 10.3! WTF at this point i wanted to throw my meter out the window...:( not hungry at this point decide to have a late lunch (bar a handful of nuts inbetween) so check levels at half 3..6.5 a little better thankyou! bolused for some liz granola and low and behold four hours later....8.2 :'(

I know these levels arent like reaalllyy high but i just do not understand them! and it is so frustrating as i think im the one not being able to control it...is it just one of those days or have my requirements changed :(

Just a numbers game......

Got my very first HBA1C result.......*Drumroll*........ 6.7 :D

Needless to say very happy with that, shocked it was not higher! i really thought it would have been as only 4 months in to diagnosis and didnt think it would be well controlled...well its made me feel alot better and that i have some control i must be doing something right :)

So all this has got me thinking about numbers...i mean thats all diabetes is at the end of it all just a numbers game where you may win successfully...and also lose really badly! sometimes you may get lucky and other times you may not be so fortunate, and as for the prize at the end of the game? a better chance of living a happy and hopefully longer life even though we all should have been entitled to this anyway....so here are some numbers i have been thinking about relating to the 4 months i have been through on my diabetes journey so far...

2.5 - The millions of people diagnosed with diabetes in the uk alone

210210 - Date of my diagnosis

5 - Nights i had to endure in hospital

24 - My sugar levels that nearly sent me into a coma

540 - The number of times i have injected myself..tho posible its more

2.6 - The lowest reading on my meter...so far

4 - The number of packs of jelly babies/glucotab i have consumed for hypos

896 - The number of times my poor fingers have had to endure a finger prick

18.4 - The current highest reading on my meter

116 - The gramms of carbohydrates in a tub of my favourite ice cream!!


Those are just a few i can think of now, there is probably alot more i could write such as there is not even a number for the times i have been angry, upset or cried my eyes out because of having this stupid disease, the countless times i have thought about the possibility of developing complications late on in life...

So when we think about it...its all numbers...and here is another one:

17 days since i ordered my zebra stripe case!! Hurry up Bayer! :p

My new shiny thing!!

Woohoo it came last week! unfortunately me and my dad have not yet managed to get all the glucofacts working due to me not having a windows computer :( but should be up and running soon :) So here is a quick review:

Like a kid on christmas day when i unwrapped it and saw how pretty it was! sleek, slim and SHINY! as soon as i opened the box it told me to charge it in my usb port and a quick 2 hours later i was ready to go :) I use my multiclix fingerpricker all the time which is slightly larger than the one that comes with this meter but i prefer it every time, the pain with this one is that you have to carry lancets around with you (even though they are really cool muliticoloured ones) i just dont have the extra space! but i did try it and it was not painful and easy to do as well.

pretty straightforward - put the strip in, no coding and the device also has a handy port light if you need it for night testing (bonus points for bayer) really big, easy to read colour screen. before you receive your reading you have the option of selecting before and after meal - and can also add comments for readings like feeling sick, or exercise which i think is a really good little feature. After the 5 seconds your reading shows up massive for a few seconds before being logged in the logboook. The system will also flash a high or a low reading in a different colour, you can set these default high and low readings using the set up menu. You can also view your averages over 14 days by pushing the trends button on the very easy to use menu screen.

As an extra bonus when you register your meter you can get a free skin cover and also a zebra...yes thats zebra striped case as well as a free wall charger! Mine are all currently in the post :)

Using it in public is the biggest change for me, its very discreet and looks more like a funky mp3 player rather than a glucose meter!

Overall i am very impressed with this little miracle machine and would rate it a very respectable 9 out of 10 - just for the trouble i have been having getting the software to work, other than that its brilliant!

I want to finish this post with a big thanks to my dad who was the one who got me this meter...without him this post would not have been written :D

Guess who's back....

Well....this has been the image i have been greeted with every day for a month.....until today!! The internet technician geek decided to finally bloody turn up and fix our connection problem after two cancellations and a no show!! So i am back on the net and catching up on all me channel 4 od programs :D


Update: After posting about not being able to have the contour USB, my dad saw the post and has just informed me that one is in the post for me! Thank you dad!!! :D :D i cant wait to get it, and will post a review once i have had a play..!

Have my very first HBA1C coming up beginning of july...not sure what to expect but i think anything below 10 i will be happy with, i have been trying my best and i havent seen a high reading in a while...well when i have checked that is!

I hope everyone has been well in my absence....apparently i have ALOT of blog posts and forum threads to read...so i better get started hehe!

In the words of Tigger...Tata for now!
xx