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....

Happy HbA1c

It's a very brief post for my first one in about 2 months but I need to work myself back into blogging nice and slowly!!!  :o)

Went to the insulin pump clinic today and had my HbA1c done.....Was expecting a slight rise since my last one in November which was 8.3% but I was in for a pleasant surprise when the machine beeped and it said...... 7.8%.

I cant remember ever having a result that good!!!! Last April, when I started on my insulin pump journey, my HbA1c was 11.6% so I've made quite a lot of progress since then.


My DSN was really pleased too, so much so that she asked me if I wanted to take a photo of the result!!!! ha ha!!!!


Next time I'm aiming for below 7.0%


Wooooo hooooo!!!!! I'm SO pleased that the hard work is paying off!!!

Back to Blogging.......Finally!!!

It's been a while, but I'm finally returning to my blog........

It's been just over 2 months since I last blogged so it's about time I stopped neglecting it.  I enjoyed (and needed) the break from it I must admit but over the last couple of weeks I've been feeling the occasional urge to get back to the world of blogging.

Time to press the rewind button.......

My last post was all about the laser treatment (for Diabetic Retinopathy) that I had had on 31st August, which I had thought was going to be my last one for a while.  Anyway, it turned out that I needed to have one more session so off I went back to the Eye Infirmary on 4th October for approx 1200 laser burns in my left eye and I was told that the next time I have to go in it will just be for a check up in 3 months time which was fantastic news.  I'm really hoping that at the check up things will have stayed stable due to having better sugar levels since being on the pump!!! Fingers (and toes) crossed!!

So, what else has happened since my last post.....

We (me, Gareth and our 2 pooches, Poppy and Daisy) took part in one of Diabetes UK's Walk the Extra Mile events at the Lickey Hills Country Park on Sunday 12th September.  I'd like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who sponsored us.  We managed to raise £248.00 in total which I was really pleased with and it's more than I have raised in the other years that I have done the walk.  Next year I want to try and get up to at least £300.00 if possible.  The weather was lovely and we had great fun, in fact I think the dogs enjoyed it way more than us!! I posted some photos on my Facebook page which you can see if you click on the link below:

http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1462007632199&id=1293715580#!/album.php?aid=280099&id=598130812

Now onto the most important part......the pump!!! I've now been 'attached' to Posy for 3 and a half months and I have to say its the best thing I ever did.  Ok, so I've had some 'moments' (like yesterday for example) where I've wanted to rip the damn thing out and throw it against a wall but 99% of the time I'm very very happy with it and the results I've seen.  When I started carb countng (in April) in preparation for going on the pump my HbA1c was 11.6 (horrendous I know), it had dropped to 8.8 in July and in September it had dropped a little bit more to 8.1 so although its not perfect yet, I'm certainly getting there!!!

I've had a few scary moments with the pump such as infusion sets popping out of their own accord and a "no delivery" alarm during the night which sent my blood sugar up to 33.  I've had a few 'wobbles' about being constantly attached to a contraption forever, like when I'm in the shower and I see the pump sitting there on the side waiting for me to re-connect myself to it, but these moments soon pass and I just re-connect and carry on!!! I've also had a few instances where when changing the infusion set and priming the tubing the drops of insulin get onto the paper on top of the sticky bit and this then makes the sticky bit become unsticky - hope that makes sense!! It's quite frustrating when this happens, especially if I'm getting ready for work in a morning and I'm in a bit of a rush because it means starting again!!!! I use 'Mio' infusion sets so this might not happen with other types. However, one of my friends in the D.O.C. suggested a solution which I'm going to try tomorrow morning when I do a set change (hold the set upside down so the drops of insulin drip onto a tissue instead of down onto the sticky part - Thanks Angela, you're a star x x )

While I've been away from blogging we've had a bit of a stressful time at home which unfortunately had a bit of a negative affect on my dedication to the pump.  Nothing drastic, but instead of being completely focussed on looking at patterns in my blood sugars and making adjustments according to those patterns, I have been tendng to just see the result and do what I needed to do at that point in time rather than building up a picture of whats going on with my levels at different times and whether certain foods make my levels rise etc. etc. I was comfort eating a fair bit too and just using the pump to compensate for any rubbishy foods I fancied eating!!! I did start to feel guilty about it all and had a bit of a confessing session when I last saw my DSN on 4th November.  Funnily enough she said that when I started 'confessing' she thought I was going to say I didnt want the pump anymore so when she found out all it was was not paying quite as much attention to my levels as I had when I first got the pump, she was quite pleased!!! She also said that the way I started off being so focussed and dedicated to it was not a realistic way to carry on which made me feel a bit less guilty.  The last thing I wanted her, or anyone else, to think was that I'd got my pump and was now just abusing it by eating tons of crappy foods and using it to compensate.  I am very grateful for my pump and always will be but I do think that sometimes "life" takes over and other things get in the way and it really isnt realistic to focus on absolutely nothing but Diabetes every single second of the day.  I hope this is making sense to at least a few Diabetics out there!!!! Anyway, I felt much better after "confessing" to Gill, my nurse, and she said I need to stop beating myself up so much because I have done brilliantly so far.  We agreed that as my morning levels are still rising I need to do 3 overnight basal tests where I get up to test at 4am, 6am and 8am and then make adjustments to my basal rates according to the results of those 3 tests, over 3 days.

Since my last post I have met up with a lovely lady at work who also goes to Stafford Hospital and sees the same DSN (Gill) and consultant (Dr. Coates) as I do.  We met up for lunch a few weeks ago which was great.  I was really good to 'compare notes' and I must admit I did find it funny when we both sat down and immediately got our blood testing kits out!! (I've never been in that situation before so it was nice to not be the only person in the canteen doing a blood test!!!! Lol).  She is on a different pump to me but it was good to see a different one in action and talk about the issues she has with hers.

I saw my consultant on 11th November and he said he is really pleased with my progress and that, if anything, my HbA1c has come down faster than they usually like to see.  I had my bloods done again whilst I was there so I'm waiting for those results now.  I dont expect it to have come down this time and if I'm honest I think it may even have gone up slightly but Dr. Coates said not to worry about it too much so I'm trying not to!!!! We also discussed, with my DSN and dietician, my next challenge which is to try and reduce the amount of carbs in my diet - easier said than done!!! Apparently my diet is pretty high in carbs and I need to have a re-think about my daily intake!!!!! Bad news as I LOVE my carbs!!!!! They said that they are pretty surprised that I haven't put a lot more weight on, especially as I apparently eat such a lot of carbs,  because usually with every 1% drop in HbA1c you can expect to put on around 4 pounds in weight which would mean I should have put on approximately 12 pounds but I have only put on 2 pounds (so far).  They mentioned to me about maybe starting to take Metformin in the future which is a tablet that can help with insulin resistance, appetite control and weight loss.  I'm not ready for that yet though as I want to make sure I've tried everything I can with the pump first before starting to take yet another tablet - I'm sure I would rattle if I jumped up and down!!!

Well, I think thats quite enough for one day, its great to be back but I need to ease myself back into it gently I think!!!! Lol  :o)