Injection Sites

I think people should be more aware of injection sites. 

When the doctors tell you to rotate your injection sites DO, because if you don't lots of bad things can happen, trust me, I know.

From experience you can get very comfortable with a certain area, either for easy of access or it's less painful. It gets less painful because you can kill of the nerve endings in that site, so you don't always realize whats happening because the feeling isn't there anymore.

 There's always the major risk of building up the insulin too. When you inject the insulin it absorbs into your body, if you inject into the same area each time (or the same few) then over time (and surprisingly it can be quick) the insulin builds up as it waits for the last lot to absorb, that's where the lumps come from. So you think your inject 10 units of insulin but in reality you might only be getting half of that because of the build up. So then you have to start injecting more and more to combat that which in turn makes the build up bigger and bigger, it's a real catch 22. I did this with my stomach when I was young. I disfigured my stomach horrible because of it, its taken nearly 20 years (and that's not exaggerating) to get back to a more normal shape, it's the one area of my body that I am most weary of. It also started to build up on my thighs to, but never as bad as my stomach. 

 Because of the build up and then because of the huge doses of insulin I had to inject, I became insulin resistant (which isn't what you need for an insulin dependent Diabetic lol) 

 But it isn't always injecting in the same sites that can build up insulin, it can also be the size of the needle your using. 

 Again when I was quite young I found the normal sized needles painful (I was stick thin, no meat on my bones at all) so my mum got specially ordered extra short needles, which was great for me because they didn't hurt as much, but the insulin wasn't going in deep enough so was taking longer to absorb. That also doesn't help with the lumps. So not only do you get the umps but you can also get bruising too and damage nerve endings. 

Injecting isn't just dialing up how much insulin you need and sticking it into your body. It's a delicate balance that most forget about, but it can help so much for the future not only for your control but beings happy in yourself too.

The First Signs of Trouble

When I was young my Diabetes was great to control. I did every blood test that could fill the book, injected each time I was suppose to, never ate what I wasn't aloud. But it wasn't easy.
 It's hard growing up and trying to be normal. You look normal, there isn't anything outwardly wrong with you, yet you can't do everything they can.
They would eat chocolate and sweets in front of me but at the time I wasn't aloud them. Having to go out of class and do my bloods and insulin (because it was a distraction to the other kids in class). But you make it work and you carry on. Of course you have good days and bad days, just like anyone else, and sometimes the kids would tease (one of the big things that would come up was about using my Diabetes as a tool to get out of classes).
 Sometimes it's just because they don't understand what Diabetes is, so to help things I set up this mini workshop with my Diabetic nurse, she came to my school and during lunch she taught my friends what Diabetes was all about and even how to inject themselves. It helped with school life a lot because half the time my friends would notice my bloods dropping quicker then I would.
 Primary school was easy when it came to my Diabetes, they where understanding and helped when they could, it also helped a lot that one of the teachers there happened to have a son who was Diabetic so she knew a lot to help when she could. It was when I started down the whole puberty route that things started to turn ugly. It's hard going through puberty at the best of things times but having your bloods out of control added on, not very peachy.

One night I was very sick, I couldn't stop throwing up, At first my mum thought it was something to do with left over stress from my exams (the judged what levels i would be placed in secondary school) but then as the night progressed and the vomiting didn't stop she started to think it was the flu or something along those lines. When it was morning and I was still ill ma took me to the hospital. Turns out that I had ketoacidosis. (It's when theres to much sugar in the blood and not enough insulin to combat with it, so the body uses fat instead, but form that you get something called ketones, to much of these and it starts to poison the body)
 It was horrible and most of the time I wasn't awake enough to know what was going on. My friends from school came to visit, my mum and step dad stayed as long as they could everyday. I got better after a week or so, my insulin was adjusted and I was sent home. Things went back to normal.
 I was still very tired the first few days home and i'd lost tones of weight (not that I had a lot to loose at that time in my life) and I even passed my exams with better grades then predicted. But it was a horrible experience and the whole family was shaken up by the whole thing but we moved forward and things went back to normal for a little while,

The Discovery!

I was officially diagnosed with Diabetes when I was 5, but the symptoms started way before then.

 I don't really remember a lot about that time, so most of what I tell you from this is from my mum. I was extremely thirst, it got so bad that ma would catch me with my head standing on a kitchen chair with my head under the kitchen tap, guzzling as much as I get. So obviously from the extreme drinking I was basically living on the loo too. That constant wanting to drink anything is the body trying to flush out the poison and the longer you go without either having insulin or being diagnosed the more poison builds up and the more your body wants to flush it out.

 The longer I went the more tired I got tired. I honestly was falling asleep on my feet. So I'd wake up long enough to guzzle as much water my little body could hold, pee for Briton and then fall sleep again.

It wasn't to that extreme straight away of course, it built up and got worse over time until my parents rushed me to hospital.

 Again I don't really remember all that much, just snippets here and there. Like when they initially took me in, I was laying on this bed and the nurse came over and slathered this thick white cream on my hand and a giant see through plaster, it was squidgy (it was a type of numbing cream the hospital hand for kids to help with putting cannulas in)  and then I was moved into this room, so they could put the cannula in, the ceiling was decorated with birds.

I  don't know how they teach people now a days but I was taught how to inject with a syringe and an orange. Later I had a go on ma (with saline not actual insulin). That was one of the moments I actually remember quite vividly, I was very very scared to inject my mum. I had syringes for a long time, I didn't have the fancy pens until I was around 6/7 and then when I did get them I didn't stay on for long, there was a lot of trouble with jamming and not delivering properly, so I ended up going back to syringes and staying with them until I was in my teens. That was my preference, insulin pens are a lot better now then they where. But everything has it's ups and downs.

There is on other thing I remember about my hospital stay. We where in a huge room with tones of beds (probably wasn't as big as I remember but it seemed huge at the time) and there was an older girl on the next bed from me all I remember is her name was Jessie and she was really kind to me, always talked to me and included me in things, I named my favourite Barbie after her, which I still have to this day (she was my favourite Barbie because she wasn't like the others, dark shoulder length hair and flat feet) having that person to even say 'how are you doing today?' really helped.

Sometimes when people are diagnosed they have to change their whole life styles and food habits. It was easier for me, not only because I was so young I didn't really know any different but I was never aloud to have lots of sweets, chocolate or stuff like that so it never was a drastic change for the family as a whole. I always think that was lucky to get it so young so I wasn't stuck in bad habits that would be so hard to break (not that I don't have any now).

Going through that whole process was hard on me because of what your body is going through and then the learning to not only do blood tests but injections and the like but I think it's harder on the family because they have to watch whats happening and feel helpless. I can't imagine what my poor mum went through hoping for me to have the lesser of two evils, she told me she sat there and hoped that it was Diabetes because at least I could survive.

The Blogs First Steps

This is the first time I've ever done anything like this. I'm hoping with this Blog I can help people living with Diabetes, not only them but maybe give the people that spend their living with, whether thats friends or family, what it's truly like to live with Diabetes, theres a lot more to this then most people believe or understand,
 It's not going to be a lecture or clinical, I'm just going to share the struggles and triumphs I have had and am going through. I wasn't the best Diabetic, in fact I was horrible with my control, but by sharing what i went through and in some cases my thought processes then maybe I can help at least one person going through what I did, because at the end of the day the Doctors can say they understand all they want and try to lecture you on the dangers, but coming from someone that actually went through it all might just help a little.