Getting back on the right track......

Another update style blog to get up to speed with things that have happened since my last proper post in November.......

I got my HbA1c result that had been taken on 11th November.....it had gone up slightly (as I had predicted it would) from 8.1% to 8.3%.  I have to say I was a bit disappointed, even though I had known it was going to have gone up. My DSN didnt seem to be too concerned though and it made me determined to get it below 8% next time.

Diabetes UK Santa Dash - Sutton Coldfield
My other half, Gareth, my brother, Daniel and my step-brother, Simon all raised money for Diabetes UK by taking part in a 'Santa Dash' on 5th December 2010.  I'm not really the running-type so I just did my bit by supporting them at the start and finish lines!!! It was a lovely day, very cold and icy but really sunny with blue skies.  Everyone taking part got a Santa suit to wear - they weren't great quality so there was plenty of giggling when the boys put them on - there were belts breaking, trousers looking less than flattering and beard fluff flying about all over the place!!! Anyway, in the end there were around 200 Santa's milling around at the start line and to get everyone in the mood some of the Diabetes UK people did a warm up so there were a couple of hundred Santa's ranging from about 3 years old to 50 years old doing star jumps in the middle of a park.....it was certainly a sight you dont see every day!!!

There are plenty more pictures and a video on my Facebook page on the following links:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=301736&id=598130812

http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=108968282511539&id=100001017402090&notif_t=feed_comment_reply#!/video/video.php?v=10150095141665813

Anyway, the boys all did me proud and they did brilliantly to even get round the route without injuring themselves - there were people skidding and sliding all over the place due to the ice!!! They helped to raise money for a great cause which is obviously very close to me heart so thank you boys!!! :o)

2011 Fundraising Challenge
I had been wondering for a while what I should do for the 20 year anniversary of my diagnosis or whether I should do anything at all....then I was inspired by Siobhan Murphy, a fellow Diabetic who had put a status on Facebook asking for people to take part in a skydive with her!!! I had always thought people who did skydives were slightly insane but when I read that status I suddenly felt excited and had an adrenaline rush and thought "Yes!!!!!!!!! Thats perfect, I can do that as a great way to mark my 20th anniversary".  So since then I have been set on doing a skydive to raise money for JDRF.  It will be my 30th birthday on 16th April and my 20 year Diabetes Anniversary on 24th May so I think a skydive will be a really exciting thing to do for both of those reasons.  I had decided to book it for the middle of July this year to give me time to raise plenty of sponsor money and also so that, fingers crossed, the weather wil be half decent.  Before you can book you have to get a medical form signed by a doctor (if you are over 40 or if you have a number of medical conditions - Diabetes being one of them) so I went to get my form signed last week......Gutted!! My doctor wouldnt sign it at the moment as I have something wrong with my hands and wrists and he has said that its not a good idea to book it until I get a diagnosis for whatever is wrong!!!!! I'm really disappointed but I understand why he has said no for now and I am still 100% determined to do my skydive so watch this space!!!! ;o)

Christmas Weight!!!
Well, Christmas was a bit of a disaster food wise - as I'm sure it was for a lot of people!!! I ate and ate and ate and used my pump to compensate for all the sweet treats I was enjoying!!! Then came all the talk of post-Christmas diets and adverts on TV etc. so I took the plunge and weighed myself - bad idea!!! The scales screamed at me to get off them and I was shocked at the numbers I saw - I genuinely didnt think it had got so bad!!!! Anyway, that was the turning point and I decided to go back onto the Slimming World diet which I have tried before.  I started the diet on 10th January and to date I have lost 4 lbs.  I wanted to have lost more by now but after seeing my DSN last week I'm happier with 4 lbs as she said I should be looking at losing half a pound or 1 pound per week to do it healthily.  I have had quite a lot of hypos since starting the diet but I think thats down to the fact that as Im eating less carbs I need to adjust my basal rates - after discussing it with my DSN I'm going to do a series of basal tests to figure out whats going on at different times of the day and night so I can make the proper adjustments and then hopefully stop so many hypos!!! I've had a few wobbles in the last week where I havent stuck exactly to the plan but I am determined to stick at it  :o)

Hands
Just before Christmas I started noticing that I was getting pains in my hands and waking up with pins and needles during the night and also in the morning.  I have also been getting increased stiffness in my fingers (I've had stiff fingers and hands for as long as I can remember which I had put down to 'Diabetic Stiff Hand Syndrome' - not being able to press fingers together in a 'prayer sign').  You can find out more about this and other musculoskeletal conditions related to Diabetes on the link below (Diabetes UK website):

http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Other_associated_conditions/Musculoskeletal_Conditions/

Anyway, the symptoms have got steadily worse with me also getting tightness in my wrists and feelings of a 'dead arm' and feeling like I need to 'click' the bones in my fingers (hope that makes sense).  I went to the doctors and he is more r less convinced that its Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, which I had already read is more common in Diabetics, but he wants to rule out other things first such as Diabetic Neuropathy, vitamin deficiencies and thyroid problems so he has referred me to the hospital to see a neurologist for nerve conduction tests which wil test for neuropathy and also I have had a blood test to find out if I have any vitamin deficiencies or thyroid problems.  I get the results of the blood test tomorrow.  I am really hoping that its not the start of neuropathy so got everything crossed.  If it is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome there are a number of treatments to try including wearing wrist splints at night, steroid injections and surgery.  The pain, stiffness and tightness is always worse first thing in the morning and in the evening and its also causing discomfort during the day at work so I'm hoping that something can be done to start treating it pretty soon.

Happy HbA1c
As you will know from my post last week I had my HbA1c done again and it has come down from 8.3% to 7.8% which I am elated about.  I really thought it would have gone up due to poor diet over Christmas so I couldnt believe it when the result flashed up on the screen!!!! Next time I want it to be well under 7.0% so I'm working extra hard to achieve it!!!!

Bleed
I have also had another bleed in the back of my eye due to the retinopathy.  It was very very scary and happened late at night when I sat up in bed to turn the light off - one second I was fine, the next second this dark red 'blob' appeared in my vision in my right eye - needless to say I didnt sleep very well that night!!! It resulted in a trip to A+E and the eye infirmary the next day to get it checked out.  Apparently I will get these bleeds from time to time and as long as they are small and dont affect my whole vision they should go away on their own in a day or two.  If my vision gets completely blurred or I get a bleed which covers my whole vision I need to go back straight away.  They said I dont need anymore laser treatment at the moment which is good news!!!

As always, lots of things going on in my 'Diabetes World' but I think thats quite enough for one blog post....