#Ask me anything about T1D

[ivys-head-is-spinning]

hi so as some of you probably know from me mentioning it, or have seen my bio/pinned post, you would know that I am type one diabetic!

now today is my diaversary meaning the anniversary of the day I was diagnosed. I have been living with it for 13 years. (It’s my golden one cause it’s 13 years on the 13th day of December).

every diabetic is different, some choose to celebrate their diaversary, some don’t. I personally do so feel free to wish me a happy diaversary or send me pictures of your cats as a gift lmao. But ask your diabetic friends before you wish them a happy diaversary cause it can be a hard day for some

now in my day to day life I have gotten quite a few stupid questions or unwanted advice from people who know nothing about diabetes but try to pretend they are experts. SO. In honour of my diaversary, I want to open the conversation and talk about what it’s really like to live with type one diabetes.

I don’t mind questions, because as someone who is comfortable talking about T1D I can answer things and raise awareness so that way people who don’t like talking about it don’t get asked about their omnipod or if they can eat sugar or not (type one diabetics CAN EAT SUGAR. I don’t speak for everyone and it depends on their treatment plan, but just ask me if I can eat the cake instead than assuming I can’t. Real life thing that happens btw)

so ask me ANYTHING. Wether it’s about my favourite flavour juice box, or how I found out I was diabetic, or anything else, ASK ME.

I don’t mind any question related to T1D and if it’s too personal I just won’t answer so don’t be ashamed to ask anything, even if you think I’ll think it’s dumb.

either ask me in the comments or reblogs or even my ask box!

[architectureenthusiast]

Everytime my sensor alarm goes off I get filled with indescribable rage.

Like shut the fuck up why are you making noise I will look when I care to or when it's convenient to me 😭

Why are you so obsessed with me 😭

[madsworld15]

Brian/Justin Fic Excerpt

I am a Type 1 Diabetic, and the last few nights, I’ve had the worst time of it. I went to bed both nights with blood sugar levels in the normal range for sleeping. Only to wake up a few hours later to find them in the danger zone for low blood sugar. In my continued exhaustion, because you can’t exactly go back to sleep with your body keyed up like that, I wrote such experiences into my T1D Brian Universe fic.

Justin was sitting on their bed applying lotion to his arms when Brian exited their bathroom with a frown on his face. He was staring at his phone, not even aware that Justin had taken notice of him and his demeanor.

“Everything okay?” Justin asked with bated breath as Brian pulled out his insulin pump and pushed a few buttons.

After he was done, Brian stuck the device back in the pocket of his sweatpants, placed his phone down on the bedside table, climbed into bed, and then leaned over to kiss Justin.

“Yeah. My sugar is a little high, but I gave myself a correction and it should go down.” Brian gave his bicep a squeeze as an extra form of reassurance.

And honestly, Justin didn’t worry. Brian’s numbers fluctuate all the time and he managed things just fine. It had been ten years since his last extreme diabetic emergency. With a responding smile, Justin finished up what he was doing and got under the covers with his partner. Once the lights were off, Brian’s arms immediately enveloped Justin.

A few hours later, Justin was pulled from a deep sleep by the loud alarm on Brian’s phone that indicated a low blood sugar. He rolled over to find Brian was already sitting up, but he wasn’t moving into action like he usually did when his blood sugar went low.

“What can I do?” Justin suddenly jumped into action, placing his hands on Brian’s shoulders. “You need juice?”

Brian simply nodded. So, Justin walked quickly to the kitchen and poured him some juice. By the time he got back to their bedroom, Brian was right where he’d left him, which Justin had expected. What he hadn’t expected was to see him extremely pale and shaky from the effort.

Justin knelt in front of Brian and forced his chin up. Brian opened his eyes, but Justin could tell he wasn’t registering much of anything. With gentle hands, he guided Brian to drink from the cup he held up.

After the juice was gone, Justin stayed where he was but grabbed Brian’s phone. He inputted Brian’s passcode and stared at the CGM reading, daring the arrow to point upward and the number to get bigger. After what felt like hours, but was really only 15 minutes, Brian’s number only went up 2 but was trending upward. Justin breathed a sigh of relief.

He briefly left Brian’s side once more to get him a glass of water and a couple of crackers with some sliced cheese for an extra boost to his numbers and help them steady out and maintain.

This time, when he came back to the bedroom, Brian had moved so that he was leaning on some pillows against the wall behind their bed, his legs stretched out in front of him. Brian had turned on the TV and was flipping through channels as he sucked on a hard candy from the drawer in his bedside table. Justin lifted his eyebrow in question and Brian just shrugged.

“My sugar dropped back to what it was before the juice, so I decided this was a safe backup.”

Justin nodded silently and handed Brian the crackers and cheese before he placed the glass of water down and got back into bed. He immediately scooted his body up against Brian’s and wrapped his arm around his partner’s waist. Anytime Brian had a low like this in the middle of the night, Justin got clingy. He felt he needed to hold onto Brian to prove the man was still there and wasn’t going to simply disappear. It was something they’d experienced many times over the years, and despite his prickly feelings about cuddling, Brian allowed Justin this one vice on nights like tonight.

“You should try to get some sleep. Just because my body won’t calm down enough to let me sleep doesn’t mean you have to miss out, too.” Brian mumbled against the top of Justin’s head.

Justin leaned back so that he could make eye contact with his partner, “When have I ever gone to sleep while you battled recovery from a low?”

Brian sighed. “I know. I just thought I’d suggest it. Like always.” He then gave Justin a smirk before kissing him on the temple. “I love you.”

Justin didn’t respond; instead, he snuggled up to Brian’s chest a bit more and listened to his heart, and felt his chest go up and down with each new breath. It calmed the anxiety raging within him.

[type1diabetesinfandom]

Hello I hope you are having a nice day! I am planning on writing a haikyuu fanfiction where one of the characters has type 1 diabetes with celiac and epilepsy They are serious about pursuing volleyball professionally. and i was wondering if you could point me in the right direction. How would he need to adjust insulin levels for practices and games? How often should he check his blood? Would seizure medication affect sugar levels? If he ingests gluten how would that affect his sugar levels?

(haikyuu anon pt2) which insulin pumps/glucose meters were available in the late 2000s/early 2010s? Does pricking your fingers make them sore? Does injecting insulin into your gut make that area painful when pressure is put into it(when diving for the ball)? could the pump/monitor be placed on the body unlikely to be hit by the ball? Will seizures affect sugar levels and what to do then? Sorry for bombarding you with these questions. If anything else comes to mind please add to it! Thanks you

hi!!!

these are some wonderful questions, and i'm gonna throw a lot of info and resources at you! first, anecdotally, celiac and t1d are pretty commonly comorbidities (occuring together) bc they're both autoimmune diseases. i know a lot of people with both, including one of my best friends from when i was a kid. and i have an epileptic family member, so i'm just all around excited about your ask :D

How would he need to adjust insulin levels for practices and games? How often should he check his blood?

for t1d and sports, i recommend checking out this page on diathlete, which is all about managing blood sugar while doing (often very competetive) sports. (i am NOT a sporty person, but i DID do karate extensively for about fifteen years, and a lot of activity comes down to: checking bg often, keeping low bg supplies nearby in case, and having a lot of protein before activity to keep your blood sugar steady.

modern pumps normally have an activity mode built in, but before that, most people would manually reduce insulin before/during a game. not everyone has to do this tho.

(common snacks are PB and bananas, cheese and crackers, yogurt, etc. stuff with some carbs to go with the protein.)

(this got LONG, holy stars. putting everything from here on out under a cut)

Would seizure medication affect sugar levels? Will seizures affect sugar levels and what to do then?

for anit-epileptic meds, idk enough about them to say if they affect bg, unfortauntely. if you have specific meds in mind, i would look up common side effects on drugs.com (i promise that's a real, professional, non-shady site lol)

idk if seizures affect bg, actually! great question! i'll say that stress (such as, having a seizure) tends to make blood sugar go up. however, i'm tempted to think a tonic-clonic seizure (the kind with heavy shaking) could count as a form of activity? i'm not sure how to guide you here, unfortunately

some webpages talking about t1d with epilepsy:

If he ingests gluten how would that affect his sugar levels?

people with celiac who ingest gluten are going to experience severe inflammation, which is commonly known to increase blood sugar levels AND make a person temporarily more insulin resistant. high BG also causes more inflammation, so. feedback loop.

also, gluten is a carbohydrate, and if your character isn't used to eating it, will probably have trouble figuring out exactly how to bolus insulin for it. (even if they know the exact carb counts, different types of carbs take longer to digest and can require bolusing earlier or later than for other types of carbs.)

some links to resources talking celiac and t1d:

which insulin pumps/glucose meters were available in the late 2000s/early 2010s?

so i found this AWESOME page from the Wiley library from 2010 talking about the history of the insulin pump. def recommend reading through it, it's not that long and it's really cool. i also stole the following image from there, which answers your question.

animas went out of business or was discontinued a few years ago but was popular for a while before that. i have the omnipod, and have had the omnipod since 2006/2007, so if you have technical questions, feel free to throw them my way.

that's all you need for your question, if you're interested here are other sites talking about insulin pump and cgm hx, bc im a nerd:

as for glucometers, don't feel like you have to mention brand names. they all work basically the same way; turn on, insert strip, poke finger, hold bloody finger to appropriate edge of strip, yell a lot bc you didn't get enough blood or the meter timed out, and rinse repeat until everything is successful.

brand names from 2000s/2010s i can think of include: freestyle, one touch (my old beloved), accu-chek. the original omnipod handheld controler (the PDM) had a meter inside it, which was awesome.

Does pricking your fingers make them sore?

yes.

it doesn't always hurt, but, imagine poking yourself with a small, fast-moving needle. if you get just the right spot, you won't feel it. if you get the WRONG spot, g-d help you cause you'll feel it for days.

also, constant pricking creates scar tissue. i haven't really pricked my finger for about two years now unless my pump/cgm stops working, but i still have limited feeling in my fingertips. like, can tap hot pans to see how hot they are without causing pain. i don;t recommend this but i do it, so. don't be like me :'D

good news is the visible scars--little black spots--went away eventually!

Does injecting insulin into your gut make that area painful when pressure is put into it(when diving for the ball)?

it sure can!

bruises are common from injecting, pumps and cgm sites also cause bruises. like after you get a vaccine? some areas bruise worse than others, this differs person to person and site to site. but if someone can feel it, it's just like making contact with any other bruise.

could the pump/monitor be placed on the body unlikely to be hit by the ball?

general recommend placement sites are, for starters:

back of the upper arms

abdomen on either side of the belly button to the hip

thighs (front or side, some people also do back of thigh)

upper buttocks (the fattiest area)

lower back (where love handles show up)

ideally you want it placed in fattier areas. muscle is ok but moves a lot and can disturb the site. bony areas = 0/10, do not recommend. much pain.

people place sites basically anywhere bc scar tissue builds up and you run out of room eventually (rotating sites is very important bc it delays scar tissue forming!). some popular alternative, non-insurance-approved areas are:

the back of the forearm (i recommend shaving first, this hella hurt when i peeled off the adhesive and idk why it's so popular)

back of calf (i like this one)

shoulder blades (love this spot, but awkward to reach and awkward with bras)

and chest (have not personally tried)

which is the least likely to get smashed into by the ball, the ground, or another player? idk, i never played volleyball. back of the arm, probably? that, stomach, and thighs are typically the go-to for most people, i think, so you can't really go wrong there. it's good that you're thinking of it, bc it is a concern that athletes have to consider

there are also sleeves and extra adhesives available to help keep sites from ripping off or falling off. this website has a few different types so you can see wim.

omnipods are cool for sports bc they don't have any tubes to get tangled up or caught on something. other pumps all have thin tubes connecting the insulin reservoir and electronic parts to the actual site, and i have never understood how people manage to play sports and NOT get their tubed pump ripped off??? but lots of people don't have major problems with it ig.

lmk if you have any more questions! i love to talk about this stuff!

[notquiterobin]

Into/explanation/boundaries post:

So into/explanation first: This is a DC rp blog with an oc of mine! If you don’t like things like that, just don’t interact with it, if you do that’s great! Feel free to interact through reblogs, comments, or asks! So going into the actual character:

Alexandra Catherine Todd-Wayne:

- Daughter of Willis and Catherine Todd

- Younger sister/sibling of Jason Todd (6 years younger)

- Adopted by Bruce Wayne at age 5 with Jason

- 16 years old

- Ace, bisexual and Demigirl

- Aspired to be Robin when she was younger, is now a non-Batman-approved vigilante named Corvid (as a lot of corvids are preditors of robins, plus it’s the name I usually use online/lh)

- Generally keeps the non-killing rule as Corvid, but is a bit more harsh then some of the other bats

- Has similar goals to the robins (improving Gotham, keeping down crime, and generally keeping people safe) but after Jason’s death no longer wanted the moniker

- General appearance stuff: | 16 | 5,1 | blue eyes | black hair | human | has a few scars but notably one on the side of her left cheek |

- closest to Jason, but still very close to most other members of the batfamily

- In true bat fashion is usually very closed off about trauma and other emotional issues

- Nicknames: Alex (name they usually go by), Allie (mainly used when they were younger, so mostly used by Jason, Dick, Barbara, or Bruce), Lexie (less used, still open to it)

- lmk if I forgot anything important

Boundaries section:

Dni’s:

- Homophobes

- Transphobes

- Ableist’s (I’m disabled, a lot of that will reflect in any character I write or make)

- Racists

- Zionism

- Terf’s

- BATCEST. (I do not care how you try to rationalize it, I don’t want to see any Dick/Jason, Bruce/any of his children, Alfred/any of his grandkids. Any Dick/Tim, Jason/Tim, or Damian/Tim. Just no batcest okay?

- I’m dyslexic, if you find spelling mistakes please just ignore them unless they completely change the meaning of the scentence, autocorrect can’t catch everything

About me:

So if you got this far, hi! I’m Raven/Corvid (Corvid is mostly an online name but Raven is my name),

I got by primarily They/Them pronouns, I’m an aroace Lesbian

and I am a minor so please keep that in mind (I’m fine with any ages on here just keep it in mind that I’m under 18),

I’m disabled (not gonna put out my whole medical history but shortly put: chronic pain, t1d, autism & adhd, c!ptsd, dyslexia)

I’m a pretty longtime DC lover (on and off since I was 5), mostly Batman and Batman adjacent stuff, hellblazer, green arrow, young justice, and teen titans

Al Ghul lover, seriously I love them sm

Very into music (specifically Hole, Nirvana, Babes in Toyland, Big theif, Fiona apple, Mcr, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Bandhees, The cure, Ghost, Green Day, Alex G, and Elliott Smith)

^ also if you think Courtney killed Kurt fuck off, seriously I’m not going to argue with you, either don’t bring it up or just go away

Closing stuff:

Absolutely feel free to interact with this weather in character or not, I’d love any questions or asks it just may sometimes take me a second to get used to them

list of my other blogs: @not-a-robin, @dr-pamela-isley, @cassandra-e-sandsmark @bludhavens-finest @average-exasperated-gothamite @adeline-lynn @eirian

[ask-sibverse]

Can you do a mix of x and y? A flash of anger and tears for td1 and nightmare please?

What is it with everyone and giving me angst? Not complaining but damn. Btw any T1D Reader asks sent for this will be uploaded to AO3, Ill do one big batch Sunday

You absolutely hated how your blood sugars effected your moods. An anxious crybaby when low, irritable grouch when high. You were probably a feast for your boss, Nightmare. Or did he actually feed off his employees? You could never tell...

And yet, here you were again. Blood sugar through the roof. CGM and even your monitor couldn't read how high it was and you couldn't tell if it was coming down. You'd changed the pump site, seemed to be a bad site so maybe things would finally start going down.

But for now, you were high as a kite and feeling miserable. Your head hurt, even thinking about food made you nauseous. Which was making Horror upset because you hadn't eaten anything at all today. Which was making Cross anxious because Horror was stressed. Which meant they both were crowding you and fussing over you.

"JUST STOP!" You yelled, unable to take it anymore. You knew you'd feel guilty for yelling at them both but right now you were too overwhelmed and frustrated to care. You stalked off, looking for somewhere to be alone for a while.

You ended up in the library. Only Nightmare ever used it, so it was empty right now as he was busy with something or other. You curled up on one of the couches, frustration reaching its peak.

You felt the cushions shift as someone sat next to you. "Well someone is certainly having an emotional day today."

You hated this. You hated your condition and how fragile it made you feel. You hate having to rely on pumps and insulin to stay alive, and even magic couldn't fix it. Hot, angry tears rolled down your cheeks as you screamed into a pillow.

"I hate this." Your voice was muffled, face pressed into the pillow. "I hate having to rely on technology to live. Technology can fail like today and make everything horrible and no one can fix me. Magic cant even fix me."

Tentacles wrapped around you, the coolness soothing as you leaned into them. "I know, dear. I am here."

(We've all had days like this, right?)

[t1d-culture-is]

welcome to the blog!!

this is a blog inspired by other of similar name (for example @bpd-culture-is and @ocd-culture-is, among many others) and servers a similar purpose to those! sharing experiences related to Type 1 Diabetes.

i thought of making this because I noticed we don't have anything similar. so why not! we also deserve a space.

as any other culture blog, you choose to send your ask anonymously or not, and you may phrased it as follows:

* "T1D / Type 1 / Diabetes culture is [...]"

* "T1D / Type 1 / Diabetes and ___ culture is [...]"

* and anything else as longs as it talks about your own diabetes experience! some might relate to it!

* this blog has no DNI whatsoever, but I have the right to block anyone who makes me uncomfortable.

submissions are now: OPEN! thank you for reading.

[cyborg-empress]

A Type One Diabetic's List of No-Nos for Non-Diabetics

This is a guide for non-diabetics to better understand what NOT to do when interacting with type 1 diabetics. This is meant for educational purposes and is based on my opinion and experience. If any T1Ds want to add their own suggestions, feel free!

(Note: The things on this list probably somewhat apply to type two diabetics too, I just have no experience with that so I can't comment.)

Dear non-diabetics, please:

Don't make insensitive jokes. Saying stuff about "getting diabeetus" because you're eating too much junk food is really annoying and simply not how it works. Yes, my friends and I make dumb diabetes jokes, but that's because they've talked to me and know I enjoy specific types of jokes.

Don't act like it's my fault/choice. I didn't get diabetes because I did anything wrong. Nothing about my lifestyle caused me to get diabetes. I was born with it. Implying otherwise really pisses me off, especially if you act like somehow I deserve this.

Don't touch my tech. Please don't touch any of my diabetes technology without my permission. It's literally attached to me!

Don't ask for/steal my food. I'm totally open to sharing snacks, but not after I've counted the carbs and not if I'm eating it because I'm low! In other words, I might need that food for my health, so please don't take it!

Don't pity me and treat me like I'm less capable. I'm not. I can do everything you can do. Yes, the disease sucks. I appreciate empathy and you can totally be mad at it with me, but please, no pity. Just be understanding if I'm struggling or having a bad diabetes day.

Don't compare the things I don't eat because of my diabetes to your voluntary diet. When I say that I don't drink full sugar pop (unless I'm low) telling me that "you understand, you're not drinking it either because you're trying to lose weight" isn't helpful. I totally understand that you're trying to sympathize, but it makes me really frustrated because you get a choice and I don't, so it's not the same in the slightest.

Don't call diabetics "Cyborgs" unless you have their permission or they call themselves that. It's a common label because many diabetics have technology attached to them to help them manage their diabetes, making them, technically, part machine like a cyborg. Some diabetics feel like it's dehumanizing and makes them feel different and disrespected. Others, like myself, (it's literally in my username) fully embrace the title as an excellent and fun part of their identity. Make sure that you know how someone feels before you call them that!

Don't be afraid to ask polite questions! As long as it's not the only thing you ever talk to me about, I'm totally happy to answer questions about my diabetes. There is a lot of misinformation and misunderstandings out there and I would love to try and clear it up and share accurate information!

I'm sure there is way more I'm not thinking of at the moment, but the baseline is: be kind! Being diabetic isn't easy, but interacting with kind people makes it better.

Thank you so much for reading!

[raccoon-queer]

violet, white carnation, jasmine, red rose, peony, aster, lavender

i know it's a lot, sorry!

(my system name is a flower on that ask game, as well as my friend's system name. it was weird /pos seeing them!)

-nonbinary gf

don't be sorry for sending a lot, I love talking about myself alsdkjfsd also flower system names my beloved <3 also also I shall put this under the cut for the sake of my mutuals

violet— do you like to cook or bake? if so, what is it that you like to make?

I used to, but then I got diagnosed with celiac and T1D and now I cannot eat anything that I could bake skdjflaksk I do like cooking though. I like sautéing mushrooms (or other vegetables) and putting random spices on them bc it makes me feel very fancy and I don't care if it tastes weird bc only the texture matters. hashtag autism moment lmao

white carnation— would you ever want to get a piercing? if so, where?

I have your typical ear piercings, and I plan to get a septum. I might get another ear piercing later? but I haven't thought about it too much, I'm way too focused on getting the septum bc septums my beloved <333

jasmine— describe your dream partner or best friend. what kind of personality traits do they have?

oh I have thought about this so much! I would like any partners or close friends to be open, honest, and straightforward, as well as compassionate and good at both talking and listening. I love people who are affectionate in the same ways that I am - I love gifts, acts of service, and affectionate words, but I'm not a huge fan of touch unless it is Good Touch (aka explicit consent before any kinds of touching and only firm pressure bc I hate the feeling of skin. hashtag autism moment part two electric boogaloo)

I also love when people have both an interest that overlaps with mine as well as an interest that I don't necessarily have. then we have something we both love to talk about, and something I can listen to them talk about when I don't feel like talking

red rose— how do you tend to act around someone you have romantic feelings for? (are you more shy, do you prefer to be bold, ect.)

honestly? about the same. most of our alters interact with people the same way regardless of whether we like them romantically, platonically, or just consider them an acquaintance. I'll be just as silly and weird with people I have a crush on as with people I'm friends with

peony— would you consider yourself to be tall, short, or average height?

deeefinitely short. alas I am a mere 5'2, 5'4 when I wear my heeled boots :') one day I will definitely be investing in platforms

aster— do you have any 'fictional crushes' on any movie, tv show, or book characters? who and why?

nope, I've never had a crush on a fictional character before actually

lavender— what is currently on your mind (aside from this ask game)?

literally the only thought in my mind right now is that I feel like I am sitting in an aquarium fskdlfjsd my led lights are on aqua and I am listening to atlantis by seafret on repeat and I feel like a little fish boy

[oimoi-op]

when were you diagnosed with t1d?

Ok, so storytime! Short answer is, as of today, barely over two months ago. 

(Very long post warning y’all, contains hospital mention and extensive, possibly upsetting descriptions of health conditions, specifically DKA)

My family doesn’t really have a history of T1D or even T2D, though my second-cousin-once-removed has had T1D for over a decade now. So, there was never any reason for me to try and get tests done for it. The only sign I really had up until last semester was two copies of a variant of an HLA gene that I knew about from a 23andMe report (which, according to the report, put me at a higher risk for celiac’s and nothing else), but of course at that time I had no idea that that could mean anything serious; after all, that sort of thing only happens to other people, right?

My college started in-person classes in the latter half of August. By October, I started feeling tired, having a lack of appetite, and needing water very, very badly. I actually went to my school’s clinic, and my erratic heartbeat prompted the doctor to recommend me for a Covid-19 test. My school’s protocols meant that I had to quarantine at my home (since I live within two hours of campus) until I got a negative test result. At home, I was drinking water all the time and sleeping constantly, and my parents had commented on how I’d been losing weight. I thought these were all good things. I had been slightly overweight at my high school graduation, and I’d always heard that drinking a lot of water is good for you, so I thought I was actually in excellent health even if I kind of felt like shit most of the time.

Well. Uh. I was wrong.

When finals came around in mid-November, I was just fucking tired. I’d get a decent eight hours of sleep and still have to take naps during the day. Hell, I was even late for work because I slept through one of my nap alarms. Studying was a pain in the ass. Attending classes was a pain in the ass. Staying awake for Zoom classes was a pain in the ass. I was waking up at 5 am to go to the bathroom, and then I would drink the rest of my water, refill it, drink half of it again, and then go back to sleep. Finally, November 20th rolled around, and I got to leave campus. It was my birthday (yeah I am a Scorpio and that weirds all of my friends out lol), and my parents took me to Fusion. And I just...couldn’t eat at all? I love hibachi, but I couldn’t even eat half of my food. The chef even got me a delicious banana split that I had to basically bully my younger sister into eating with me.

For the next week, I was sleeping about 18 hours a day. I didn’t think this was weird because I’d just had finals so yeah, it makes sense that I would be tired after exams and whatnot. I went shopping with my mom, sister, and sister’s bff. We were only out for a few hours, but I was fucking wiped out y’all, like in pain. Thanksgiving arrived, and again, I love food, I love eating, but I was not hungry in the slightest. I basically had to force myself to eat some of my favorite holiday foods just so I wouldn’t offend my mom, and then I didn’t eat for the day.

The very next morning, I was puking my guts out.

This started a pattern for the next few days: I would eat chicken noodle soup or some other food, sleep like the dead, and throw up every morning and every night. I started chugging large bottles of Gatorade constantly (which, if you know about diabetes and its health complications, did not help my situation in the slightest). I started breathing erratically after very little exertion. Like, I’m talking standing up and stretching brought about heavy, labored breathing. I weighed myself on my parents’ scale, and I was under 130 lbs. Now, for some people this might seem like a lot, but due to my height and build I could fucking see some of my ribs. That was when I started to realize that something was very, very wrong, but “losing weight is good” and I didn’t want my parents to laugh at me for voicing concerns (though, for all their faults, in hindsight, I doubt they would’ve). Yeah. Don’t do that, folks, that’s not a good mindset to have. 

On Sunday, my mom took me to town to get tested for Covid. This was despite me saying that I didn’t have symptoms (which I knew very well due to some of my friends catching it at school). Rapid test came back negative, so I did a culture test. Hell, while I was sitting in the damn chair, I was about to pass out. I asked for a nausea pill but my mouth was too dry for it to dissolve. I got a cup of water, downed it all, and felt like my throat was on fire. For the rest of the day I felt so, so awful. At some point I was walking toward my bed in my room and I fucking fell. I’m fucking lucky there was carpet. 

Regarding the rest of that night, things start to get blurry, for the lack of a better term. I legitimately cannot recall everything that happened that night or the following two days, so I will just try to explain it in the way I remember it best.

Around...midnight or one??? I was on fucking fire, so I went to my bathroom and decided to lie on the floor. The floor was hardwood and not at all cold, and it wasn’t fucking comfortable even in that state, but I was just in so much pain I didn’t even care. My mom must’ve heard because she found me there and asked me what I was doing. I said something about the floor. She asked me to go back to bed, but I must’ve scared her because she asked me if I wanted her to lie in the bed with me. I don’t remember what I said to her, but we were in the bed and she was trying to hug me, but she was too warm and so I told her to stop. I kept feeling this burning just below my chest, like there was acid in me (which I guess wasn’t too far off), so I would randomly sit up to try and alleviate the pain and not cry. I remember asking my mom to take me to the hospital in the morning.

My mom put me in the truck (I think around 5 am is what she told me). I remembered hearing my dad. I was lying down. Then I was awake, but I was on the floor. I thought this was wrong so I tried to tell my mom that but I guess I couldn’t talk. Then I was in a hospital bed, the ER I assume. My mom gave me some water with a sponge, and I was just so fucking thirsty. Then I was in the ICU hooked up to a bunch of machines. I didn’t know what was going on, but my mom kept giving me water with that sponge. That is all I remember from Monday.

I remember a little bit more from Tuesday. My mom said something about diabetes, but that didn’t make any sense to me because I wasn’t “fat” and I’d been losing weight, even! What had I done to get diabetes? I was thirsty and tired, so I slept a lot. At some point I really needed to use the restroom so I unhooked my IV???? (I mean I must’ve disconnected myself somehow but I can’t remember the details) which set off a shit ton of alarms and people were Very Concerned and kept asking me Why Did You Do That? But I just needed to go to the restroom, and they told me to use the Red Button to Call the Nurse (it was already there, and I now realize that we’d probably had a similar conversation about the Red Button to Call the Nurse possibly multiple times before this) in the future. A Chopped Teen Tournament from 2017 was playing on the TV nonstop. There were commercials for CGMs. I thought that God wasn’t being very funny about the whole thing.

As of now I remember even less of Wednesday, but I know that felt better. There was this diabetes specialist who kept talking about insulin and life at college moving forward, but I wasn’t really there, either because of being so out of it for health reasons, disassociating, or a combination of the two. My mom told me she had emailed a professor so he would give me an extension on an assignment that was due by then, and I remember crying because I thought that was just so nice of him. That night, this guy got me in a wheelchair and put me in another room, which I would later learn was the ACU. My night nurse was this nice woman named Tanya, who had a very thick Eastern European accent. She got me orange juice to take some potassium pills, but it felt like swallowing rocks. I didn’t really get a lot of sleep, so I was awake when the nurses changed shifts. I remember one of them expressing surprise that I was out of the ICU so early.

My mom took longer to come that day because nobody had told her I’d been moved. I’d had plain Cheerios and orange juice for breakfast, but I couldn’t really eat because my throat hurt so badly. I talked to a lot of doctors. I guess at this point or somewhere near it I accepted that I had diabetes, but it wasn’t really real until the same diabetes specialist was going over carbs. I thought I was never going to eat shit I liked ever again. I really wanted a fucking McChicken sandwich. I signed some papers for Medicaid because I had aged out of the CHIP while in the hospital. I finally texted my friends and explained to them what had happened. I was so fucking tired.

I got out the next day, so that was Thursday. Normally, I would’ve been in the hospital much longer (especially because my Medicaid hadn’t been approved, meaning no insurance had approved of my insulin yet), but Covid cases were on the rise and the hospital wanted me out of there. The diabetes specialist and one of my nurses snuck me two fast-acting and two basal insulin pens, and I was out. I ate half a McChicken, a small fry, and drank my first Diet Coke. It tasted like diesel mixed with piss. 

That’s the gist of it. The hospital staff was very nice and thoughtful the entire time, I think. I felt as though everyone involved cared about my health a lot. 

For those of you who aren’t T1D or just don’t know, what I experienced is called DKA, short for diabetic ketoacidosis. To simplify, I was very close to entering a diabetic coma. My sister later told me that our dad had said (I assume a doctor had told my mother, who, in turn, had told him) that I was “approximately 45 minutes” away from death. DKA happens when a diabetic (usually a T1D like me) has too much blood sugar in their body due to them lacking the insulin necessary to break the sugar down, so their body breaks down their fat reserves and muscle to get the energy it needs. This is why I lost around 50 pounds over the course of a few months (I was 118 lbs. when I entered the hospital, the lowest I’ve been since grade school). I was officially diagnosed with T1D on November 30th, just ten days after my 19th birthday, which is a little older than normal I believe. It’s...well, it’s not fun, but I feel very grateful for my large support system, and tomorrow I’m trying out a CGM for the first time and applying for both it and a pump, so things are really looking up 

[kinkykinard]

*waves in fellow diabetic*

idk why i felt compelled to send you an ask other than just this passage of your reblog:

"The only thing diabetes has ever stopped me from doing is going up into outer space as a NASA payload specialist.  Even then, one of my all-time heroes, Cmdr. Chris Hadfield, told me that I could do more good down here on Earth with my passion and drive than I ever could in space anyway, so it’s not all bad."

hit me hard for some reason. Maybe because that is what is what I worry about the most, this thing that happens to be a part of my existence taking my dreams away from me. idk.

I guess I also just wanted to say hi, let you know that you are awesome, and I am sending in range levels to you 🤣💙

also this shanty is a bop (do i understand like a 1/4 of it? sure. but still a bop)

Heyyyyyy!!!

There are so many more of us diabetics on here than I ever thought, I stg. Like a quarter of my mutuals are T1D haha. Amazing!

Your diabetes will never stop you from living your dream. Sure, it creates situations where you need workarounds sometimes, but it's all manageable, I promise. Treatment is growing and changing and getting better each and every day, and as it does, your odds of even having to find workarounds decreases because things become more streamlined and easier to handle with less mess. I promise that no matter what you want to do in the future (one day maybe even space travel!), you'll get to do it.

And I'm glad you enjoyed the shanty. :D There's some great information in there, so if you're ever bored and looking for some reading to do, dig into the history in the song!

And hit me up any time about anything. I am always down to dish. 😎

[arretoskore]

Hi! For the ask game - 10, 11, 20, 29 & 31? Sorry there are so many, I'm just very curious :D You can answer only some of them, if you want to!

Aaaah don't worry it's a nice distraction from all the studying I'm procrastinating lol

10 - I’m one of those people that tends to recharge with alone-time BUT with a very big exception for my closest friends. Also I tend to get trapped into my own head if the situation is particularly stressful, so no I wouldn’t want to go alone, even more so if I could choose who to go with (and let’s be real, I hate to do things alone usually bc my social anxiety goes through the fucking roof)

11- this is soooo difficult....I don’t think I have anything in particular? Like at this point I hope people are done being scandalized by kinks so not that. Maybe my easygoingness (is that even a word??) about dying? Like it’s probably tied to T1D but I had to accept at 11 yrs old that one slip up with insulin could easily cost me my life so I reached the conclusion very early that death was not something I had to be scared of. Otherwise, it being a very real possibility, I wouldn’t be able to live my life. I think a lot of people with t1d, when they accept the illness, make this reasoning (more or less consciously) but I never heard anyone talk about it. (also as dear Epicuro said, why be scared of death if you won’t experience it while alive and conscious?)

20 - hopeful! I’m a sucker for science and space!!! like I would go nuts just if we found like very weird bacteria on other planets, let alone intelligent beings! Also being a philosophy student I can’t wait to see how we’ll have to re-think what “life” means when we inevitably find something that doesn’t fit in our parameters. the only sad thing is that it probably won't happen in our lifetime... :(

29 - hmmm I probably know more than this one but “Il Gorilla” by De André (the greatest Italian songwriter ever). Like I get the metaphor ( it’s a social commentary about how the justice system -and those who enforce it- doesn’t think twice about condemning someone to death. Also it's not his song, the original is from the 50's).  I really do but... it’s about a gorilla raping a man. It's upsetting to say the least.

I sure there are other but right know this is the first that comes to mind

31 - eh I try to breathe. I’m not frequently scared... usually just very stressed/anxious. Generally, when I’m distressed I try to use some techniques my therapist thought me years ago. otherwise I just... cry. Lol I almost never cry but sometimes it works really well. Just like a few tears when I’m really frightened usually get me back in check ahahaha

[type1diabetesinfandom]

I'm thinking about writing something with a character who has type 1 diabetes. Where might I find information about what it's like to have it?

That's awesome!

Start with my #how to write t1d tag!

It's got a mix of do's and dont's, infographics and legit how-to-write-this posts, and also will give you some blogs you can browse for daily lives as t1diabetics.

You are ofc welcome to browse this blog as much as you find useful!

Some fic recs for a good look at diabetic perspectives, written by diabetics or people familiar with the disease, are:

My fics When the Warmth Hits You and Lost were written specifically for diabetes awareness and are long enough to cover multiple aspects of it. You should be able to read them both fandom blind, especially if your focus is on the medical stuff.

@rpgwrites's Pathfinder, Truthseeker series and her Diabetes Awareness Day series.

Outnumbered by @heartofcathedrals.

A Painting of One Thousand Voices by WolfieChan12.

Wescott Preparatory Academy by adder574 is a good view at t1d care and life ~20 years ago. Note that the medical information is dated, but useful for stories taking place 20-ish years ago.

(God I can't believe it's been that long 👵)

A New Low by Rosie_Rues.

Anything tagged with Diabetes by Carbon65.

Ditto with witchry9.

Some OG fiction books I recommend borrowing from the library or however you get books:

Let Me List the Ways by Sarah White.

Sal and Gabi Break/Fix the Universe by Carlos Hernandez.

Sweetblood by Pete Hautman.

Sweet Desire by J.M. Cagle. (You can get part 1 for free).

There are lots of bloggers, youtubers, and podcasters who share t1d focused content. I don't really pay attention to these so I'm not going to recommend specific ones, but definitely poke around. You'll find cool stuff.

The JDRF and Beyond Type 1 websites have easily-digestable medical info, but note that anyone can post on BT1 so it's not as accurate as I would like it to be.

Dr. Bernstein is also awesome for medical stuff, but hardcore, and his methods are extreme, although effective.

Now There's a rabbit hole if you want to explore differing medical opinions 🤣

You are always welcome to send me asks or dm me directly if you have specific questions! And if you decide to get seriously into the research, I have a discord server with a specific channel for asking questions about how to represent t1d, that's open to all diabetic peeps in the server.

Hope this helps, and I'm excited to see your character someday! Good luck writing!

[rpgwrites]

Hi there! I was wondering what your thoughts are or how you handle when someone is uncomfortable with you checking your blood sugar (if you do finger pricks)? The reason I ask is because I was just made aware at work today that a couple people are uncomfortable with me poking my finger at the break table before I eat lunch and I've been asked to be more discreet about it. I kind of have mixed feelings about it and am interested in your input since you're also T1D. Sorry for the long ask!

No need to apologize. I love long asks.

This is something I have always wondered about. I don't have a lot of experience with this but I'll talk about mine and how I felt about it.

Since I was in school I always tried to do it so many people don't notice. I would do it under my table on my lap and I could see the weird looks I got so I ignored them. I did it at times I absolutely had to. One day in music class one of the people I thought were my friend told me how uncomfortable it made him feel when I did it. And how he wished I would just go to the bathroom. It makes people uncomfertable. I was at a loss for words. I didn't know how to feel about it. So for a while I decided to stop. I wouldn't take my sugar or anything in class anymore. Only later I would do it. But as time went on I decided people will just have to deal with it. This is part of my life if it makes them incomfertable that's on them not me.

Right now I somehow feel the same way. I won't go out of my way to do it infront of people. If I need to inject myself I will go away to inject myself somewhere privately but with doing my sugar I will do it where it is. (Not with crowded people) I do feel uneasy when people or uncomfortable with this becuase this is something we have to do everyday whether we like it or not.

I'm sorry you have to do deal with this. I hope people will treat it better in the future.

Thanks for asking!

[ask-sibverse]

-points- A SCIFI x T1D READER -runs away giggling-

Once again the two exceptions to "I will not do a crossover between T1DReader and sibverse" is either if my co-authors/editors @jumpybox or @dreamseersystem request it OR someone pays me to.

When Scifi asked you on a date you'd been expecting something more... Romantic. At least a picnic or something. While Scifi was banned from cooking (his mysterious ability to set literally anything on fire without even trying was an enigma, for sure), you'd thought he'd have put together something at least vaguely date-like.

Instead he handed you your own pair of goggles and lab coat and dragged you into his laboratory to help him with experiments. You usually just watched him sometimes so this was definitely something new for you.

Still... Seeing the way his eyes lit up while passionately rambling at you about different SOUL preservation methods and the reactions different traits were having to the conditions he was testing on them, you decided it wasn't a bad date. You liked seeing him so happy and at home better than anything else

Notes: Scifi is a SOUL researcher. His methods are questionable at best, but its him. He also doesn't have a romantic bone in his body, his spouses are literally a "me and the bitches I pulled with the power of my autism" kind of situation

[neonwizardheehee]

since today seems to be a day of  rants have another one:

I don’T know why I still can’t bring myself to work.

am I just too lazy? in my mind all will be fine when in reality i haven’t written smth good.... thought it might be bc i don’t have ANY pressure. with my thesis i had smth at least and my sis and irl friends to keep me up. and now i obv dont. idk why it doesnt work online as well as it used to. mayeb I’m too goot at tricking my brain? have i come too accustomed to doing nothing?  i thought about shutting down my phone for a few hours but... insta is still on my laptop accessible T.T and it feels weird to not have it open. but i guess that’s smth i can work on - to be present in going “offline” and work. as much as i love being online 24/7.... i cannot focus properly like this i have to acknowledge that and focus on fixing that. bc i know i love uni ... so why am i not doing it? it’s not even that i have too mcuh stuff going on ... so it had to be the fact itself that i’m being “online”. 

- > be THERE for going offline

next thing is food...again i know and i hate it

i thought i had put my ed behind me.... learned better ways and accepted my body as it is. well.. joke’s on me bc as of now I’m at my lw for 7 years or smth. and i didn’t even diet. but i know that I’m eating shitty. bc of my t1d i don’T really have an appetite anymore (meaning i don’T pay it any attention) but now i don’T even get hungry. I can’T eat as much as i used to...which was a low normal amount i’d say. so yes it’s bad. and usually it fixes itself once i recongized this and figured out how to not do that anymore. not this time tho????? I’m tired all the time, I don’t have motivation or strength to do anything. I’m afraid to do sports T.T i don’t want that!!! last year it took me half a year to healthily loose 3kg and now when i think... i might’ve even lost more in the last 2 T.T that is so so scray T.T i wanted to do research and one tiktok kicked me even more back into that ed fear. tbh i just want to cry. i don’t want to loose my energy! why am i so afraid of doing sports? idk why i just can’T bring myself to eat - i fucking love eating???? coffee and sometimes cheese is the only thing i look forward to sometimes - the rest is just “ugh i gotta eat” T.T that is not me - that never was me T.T why now huh? T.T  shit is so personal i dont even know who and what to ask tbh... i’m so scared and i don’t even know why T.T maybe it’s a mental thing? 

the last month kicked me really mentally with the semester ending, me missing my friends, me recognizing how bad 2021 will be and how much of my usual self i lost bc i can’T bring myself to do the things i used to love. T.T 

tbh the only thing that keeps me happy is talking to my girl and making memories with her. altho the missing is real - that’s new for me too and maybe i’m reacting more badly than i thought. or i just got too much into my head with all the ffs i’m reading as a coping mechanism. maybe watching gotham fucked me up more then i imagined. who knows. not me.

today i downloaded and food tracker app again and i already want to cry. bc i wanted to hurt myself more i checked the history of that app and wow I’m sad again. idk why IDK WHY this is happening. pls let me just work on my papers and enjoy my time with my girl???? why do i have such sad thoughts? T.T 

when i tried to explain my uni problem to my parents they said to make myself a schedule and goals - and i wanted nothing more than to cry bc i know i cannot do that.

i think i’m slowly realizing that for me life before was better - before everyone cared about mental health - u only had to be a functioning human and be the best . that was smth i liked to do and i was good at it. now after the issues kept piling up and got names.... it get’s more scary for me since i find excuses to be not-functioning. whether it’s uni, t1d or sports .. practically anything T. T

now everything seems like a chore i can do but don’t have to do. and thus i don’T do it T.T how did i become like that? how can i change back? 

thing is idk what my problem is. so i cannot ask for help even tho i want to and i know sb would help me. but idk what to ask since i became too good in downplaying......everything???

the other thing is... i have so many good things in my life?????? why can’T i focus on them? why do i feel the need to be miserable? that doesn’t make sense to me!

so another idea i have to fix this is give myself a new task. and not a task i do for myself (like make myself food to eat) but to do smth for others again! seeing it as i work better when others have expectations for me and i work around them to fulfill that - i want to do that again. instead of putting off posting o insta i should bring myself to post again and good content at that. so tell me to cook u smth for dinner or bring wine for a night out - i can make sure to do my uni work before and have brought wine and food! even dressed up bc it’s smth for you! bc even if i don’T care - you do and i should use that for myself. 

i want to be powerful and cool again - and i want to be really proud of my achievements and not bc i got lucky or know the right people and are manipulative enough to make people say what i want to hear :P

(fun fact: while writing this i had “my demons” had been playing in the beginning and in the end it was “when you’re evil” so that prob explains a lot hahahah XDDD no I’m onto Alaska Thunderfuck so HELL YES BIICHES)