chloesdiabeticthemepark

[chloesdiabeticthemepark]

It always baffles me how people are so blaise and joke about diabetes like it isn't the actual death of an organ. You don't ever see people making jokes at the expense of people on transplant lists........

Diabetes isnt the 'ate too many sweets disease'. It just fucking is not. It's your body slowly losing an integral function needed to nuture and energize it. Its your pancreas shutting down, its your blood cells rejecting your attempts to feed itself, its not enough insulin to go around. Its you slowly getting colder and weaker, gorging yourself with healthy food and getting next to no benefit, its being so exhausted you cant sleep. Diabetes used to kill, straight-up KILL. So no, I don't think I will be laughing at your diabetes joke.

[chloesdiabeticthemepark]

A whole 24 hours in range!

[chloesdiabeticthemepark]

Today was a big day for me, diabeticly speaking.

Ive never really been a "good diabetic" when it comes to limiting things that aren't necessarily good for my sugars.

I know this isn't good practice. But I've been diabetic for 24 years of my 28 year life. And that's too long to go without the odd maccies that might make your blood sugars rise, just because it will make my sugars rise.

Anyway I've never really figured out how to do it so my sugars didn't rise with it. Usually if I eat stuff like that I do it fully in the knowledge that I will spike and probably have to correct to get myself back down again.

Not today.

Today, post mcdonalds reading - 7.3.

This is huge for me, and I am so so happy ❤️

Don't let the pricks get you down and may the hba1c be ever in your favour!

Clo xxx

[chloesdiabeticthemepark]

I started the DAFNE course today!

So I am 29 in August, been diabetic since i was 5 so almost 24 years. I began with basal bolus at the age of 13, so nearly 16 years. I considered myself to be a veteran diabetic, who knew everything there was to know about my diabetes. When I agreed to do the DAFNE course, i did it because I knew that it was the requirement to continue to get my libre system on the nhs, i didnt think that there was anything left to teach me. 

Boy, was I wrong. 

Turns out, not only have I been a little mistaken in some of my carb counting, but I was also doing the very base of things wrong - for years I have been injecting wrong. ,

You are supposed to air inject 2 units of insulin before you inject - i had no idea. You are supposed to leave the needle in the body for a count of 10 after plunging - I had no idea. 

You are supposed to inject 10-15 minutes before food. I did actually have an idea about that, but I have not done it for many years after a bad experience at a restaurant that I will go into in a different post. 

So, for this next week I have to change my injection technique a little bit. Focus a little bit more on injecting for things I didnt even know i needed to inject for (scrambled eggs, I’m looking at you). And start being brave and injecting before I eat. 

Seperately, i have really gotten a lot out of being surrounded by other diabetics. I have a diabetic colleague at work, i have a diabetic friend in my neighbourhood which is awesome, it helps you not feel so alone. 

I still have another 5 weeks of DAFNE to go, and there is a lot of work to do at home, behind it. But i am ready to take a bit more control, i am ready to get a good hba1c and improve my chances of a good quality of life for longer. I am ready for the challenge. And after my eye opening today, I am ready to concede that i might not know what i think i know, and my mind is a lot more open and willing to learn. 

Dont let the pricks get you down and may the hba1c be ever in your favour! 

Clo

xxx 

[chloesdiabeticthemepark]

Rest in peace, Queen Elizabeth 2nd.

I have never been a royalist, and I still arent. However, this lady so full of strength and character and rebelliousness. Who has given up 70 years of her life in service to her country, was part of the war effort. Made a promise at 25 years old that she would give her life for her country and kept that promise right up until the very day she died. Who sat alone at her husbands funeral in solidarity with her people, even when given the option not to. She deserves our upmost respect. She has brought the UK together and been a steadying force through many years. The photo of her at Phillips funeral, sat alone with a black face mask on is one of the most harrowing photos, and yet she did what the UK government did not have the common decency to do at any point - she did not use her power and influence to bend the rules to fit herself, but she sat alone as countless widows had had to do before her in the UK during the pandemic. And she solidified herself as one of us. I may not be a royalist, but I recognize her compassion, strength, humour and humility. I am sad to hear of her passing, and humbled to have lived in the UK during the reign of the longest reigning monarch. History will be kind to her. Rest in peace your majesty, 70 years of service and tenacity has earned you this peace now. 

[chloesdiabeticthemepark]

Covid caught me......

So, I somehow managed to avoid it for over 2 years but it's finally got me.

So far I'm not doing too bad as people suffering with covid go. I have a throbbing head, nasty throat and cough, a body that feels like it's been run over by a steamroller and limbs that feel like lead weights, and an unshakeable tiredness.

But man alive, my blood sugars 🤦‍♀️ I'm at a loss, they're everywhere. I have zero control. Honestly, 100 percent do not reccomend this 😂

Send help (remotely so nobody catches anything 😂😂).

Don't let the pricks get you down, and may the hba1c be ever in your favour!

Clo xxx

[chloesdiabeticthemepark]

Any other diabetics just get super irrational with low sugars?

I went low, for the millionth time this weekend (my diabetes and the hot weather are having some major disagreements). And I tried to open some bread since I was starving and needed the carbs. But the hypo had robbed me of my motor skills so I couldn’t undo the little tab that keeps the bread fresh. And so, at 27 years old, with a masters degree under my belt, I sat in my kitchen and cried. Over bread.........

[chloesdiabeticthemepark]

The best thing about the diabetes representation in Turning Red.

Everyone got pretty understandably excited to see diabetics represented in Turning red, but for me it went deeper than just seeing people with CGMs and insulin pumps.

The fact that we had representation was awesome. But what made it even better for me was the subtlety. It was clear that they had the devices, and diabetics who know will know what they are and feel seen, which is awesome. But usually when diabetes is represented it is done as a plot point, and usually a really negative one.

I remember a film where the big issue was a diabetic going into a hypo (which the poorly researched film makers later had her fix with insulin). I remember one of those nurses programmes where the story had been a diabetic whose father didnt want her to have insulin that came from an animal, and another where the girl outright hid her diabetes and would have taken it to her grave had her friend not spoken up and saved her life. 

Not to mention that god damn moment in Hotel transylvania - diabetes is the scariest monster of all. Fuck you whoever thought that line was okay to show diabetic kids. 

My long winded point is when diabetes is represented, it is shown at the highest levels of disaster, or it is shown as a joke. And that is not all there is to it. Most of us are just diabetics, living our lives, managing our condition alongside whatever else we have to face and whatever other things we accomplish. By showing diabetics just in school, using the facilities, chilling in the classrooms, they reinforced the idea that diabetes does not have to be something big and scary and disastrous, and that people can just live a normal, happy, healthy life in spite of it. That is the kind of representation we have been missing, that is why i absolutely loved seeing it. 

[chloesdiabeticthemepark]

The best of driving instructors.

So I restarted my driving lessons recently. I was incredibly nervous. Before I met him for the first time i explained to him that I am a type one diabetic and what this means for me in terms of the driving rules (5 to drive, 45 minutes etc). When I eventually met him he told me that I am his first type one diabetic that he has taught, and while he isn’t worried about it he still wanted to make sure that I am safe and that we stay safe together, so he created me a little hypo pack with glucose tablets and sweets. 

Honestly I was so touched. I carry hypo treatment because you never know and also because other people are not responsible for my diabetes care as an adult. But he didn’t even think like that, he just wanted to make sure his student was safe just in case, and he used his own money to create something to keep in the car that is going to help me stay safe. 

He earned so many brownie points from me! Just another example of the non-diabetics who help the diabetics <3 

Don’t let the pricks get you down and may the blood sugars be ever in your favor! 

Clo xxx

[chloesdiabeticthemepark]

nondiabetics are so funny (bloodcurdlingly irritating) because you’ll eat something in their presence and they’ll have a fucking panic attack over it. newsflash: diabetics eat. i don’t know why you think we don’t

[chloesdiabeticthemepark]

Diabetics, you are amazing.

Your pancreas may have decided to give up, but you didn't. You're still here. You're still pushing on.

It's okay if you've not figured everything about your diabetes, you're doing amazing so far.

And don't forget that you're more than your diabetes. You are you, and diabetes is just part of you.

From one diabetic to another, you're amazing and I'm so proud of you. Keep doing your best.

Non-diabetics, you can reblog, but please don't clown around on this post.

[chloesdiabeticthemepark]

Pour one out for us immunocompromised

[chloesdiabeticthemepark]

This is amazing! If I might proffer a suggestion for a number 15 - Sugar, we're goin down by Fall Out Boy 😝

The Official Type 1 Diabetes Soundtrack

1. “Pump It”- Black Eyed Peas: For when you decide you’re ready to transition away from shots. 

“JUST PUMP IT! LOUDAAAAA!” ♫

2. “Shots”- LMFAO ft. Lil Jon: For when you decide, wait, actually, you’ve had enough of looking like a robot and it’s time for a pump break. 

*Fist pumps*

3. “Low”- Flo Rida: For when you’re all ready to go out with your friends but then your blood sugar drops suddenly and everyone has to hold up while you treat it. 

“Hold up wait a minute do I see what I think I, whoa. ”   ��� 

4. “In the End”- Linkin Park: For when you wake up ridiculously high and give a million corrections but stay stuck in the 300′s all day. 

5. “Get Back”- Ludacris: For when that friend-of-a-friend finds out you have type 1 diabetes and feels compelled to tell you that her grandfather “cured himself by cutting out sugar and exercising.” 

“Get back, mother f*cker, ya’ll don’t know me like that.”  ♫ 

6. “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody”- Fergie: For your birthday when you decide to eat ALL the cake and not give a damn about your blood sugar. 

“A little party never killed nobody, so we gon’ dance until we drop!”  ♫ 

7. “Underneath Your Clothes”-Shakira: For when your SO sees you in all your naked diabetic pump/CGM glory for the first time. 

“Underneath your clothes, there’s an endless story.”   ♫

8. “Billionaire”- Travie McCoy ft. Bruno Mars: For when your insurance company tells you they aren’t covering your pump supplies any more because they aren’t a “medical necessity.”

“I wanna be a billionaire so f*cking bad, buy all of the things I never had.” ♫

9.  “Bad Blood”-Taylor Swift: For when you put your blood on the test strip before your meter’s ready and get the annoying ER3 message.

10. “Love the Way You Lie”- Eminem ft. Rihanna: For when you insert a new CGM sensor and it keeps telling you you’re LOW and dropping rapidly, but your meter says you’re actually 135. 

“I can’t tell you what it really is, I can only tell you what it feels like.”  ♫

11. “She Hates Me”- Puddle of Mudd: For when you see your endo and they tell you that your a1C is still too high even though you’ve been working your ass off trying to get it below 7.5. 

“I tried too hard and she tore my feelings like I had none.”  ♫ 

12. “Team”- Lorde: For when you stumble upon other diabetes Tumblogs and realize there’s a whole community of people out there who totally get you. #tumblrbetics

“I’m kind of over getting told to throw my hands up in the air, so there.”   ♫ 

13. “Overprotected”- Britney Spears: For when you go away to college but your parents still text and call you every five minutes to make sure you’re testing your blood sugar and eating right. 

“I need to make mistakes just to learn who I am, and I don’t wanna be so damn protected.”

14. “Happy”- Pharrell: For days when you’re actually okay with the fact that you have type 1 diabetes and realize that, despite the (literal) ups and downs, you’re gunna get through it.

“I should probably warn you I’ll be just fine.”  ♫

[chloesdiabeticthemepark]

Accurate!

[chloesdiabeticthemepark]

me at 3am waking up

[chloesdiabeticthemepark]

My sister in law bought me these for Christmas after finding out that another of her family members bought me diabetic chocolate (despite the many times I've explained that it isn't actually necessary for me). I'm really touched, that's a great diabetic ally ❤️❤️ happy Christmas my diabadasses, may your sugars play nicely and your chocolate be sugar filled!

Take care beautiful people.

[chloesdiabeticthemepark]

the six (6) hyperglycaemia moods

-haha!

-dissociation

-sleep time

-⭐️ s e n s o r y o v e r l o a d ⭐️

-Anger™

-“???????????”