Illness and levels

Sorry I haven't written on my blog in a while, I have been busy because of work experience and then I was ill this week. This gave me the idea of writing a post about how being ill can effect your levels. Illnesses and infections as well as stress will make your levels go high because as part of the body's defence mechanism for fighting illness and infection causes more glucose to be released into the bloodstream and prevents insulin from working properly. This happens even if you are off your food or eating less than usual.

Last weekend after I had just finished my work experience my levels started running high and I couldn't work out why. I thought it might be because a had a bit of a cold or that I was upset about leaving the work experience because I was going to miss the children and babies.

On Monday norming I woke up at 1am and I could hardly open my left eye because it was all gooey so I showed my mum and she said it was probably conjunctivitis so I cleaned my eye up and went back to sleep. I didn't sleep well though because I kept waking up in the night because of my eye. I woke up at 1am, 2am, 4am, 5am and 7am so in the morning I was really tired and felt rubbish so I didn't go to school or do my paper round. In the morning my mum rang the doctors and said that she couldn't drive me to the doctors because of the operation she had on her back and then she explained to them that my eye was really gooey, bloodshot and sore and my levels had been running high. They said that we could buy some eye drops at the chemists. So my stepdad brought them on the way home from work for me. I started using the eye drop on Monday but my levels where still running really high because of the conjunctivitis in my left eye.

On Tuesday morning I woke up in the morning and I could hardly open my right eye as the conjunctivitis had spread to my right eye as well as my left eye. So I went and did my paper round and then came home and told my mum that the conjunctivitis was in my right eye as well as my left eye. So my mum put the eye drops in both of my eyes and said I was alright to go to school. While I was at school my eyes started to really hurt in science so I closed my eye for a bit as it made them feel better, I nearly fell asleep though. Then at lunch I took some paracetamol as my right cheek started to hurt and I felt so rubbish so thought it might make me feel better. Everyone of my teacher kept asking if I was alright because my eyes were so swollen and bloodshot they thought I had been crying when actually it was just because of my conjunctivitis.

On Wednesday morning I woke and went on my paper round. When I got home I didn't have school as the school was on strike for the day so I just sat down and relaxed for a while. I then started doing some of my patchwork blanket because it is the last thing I need to do to complete my Duke Of Edinburgh bronze award so I thought I would get some of it done. My right cheek started to hurt again but it hurt more then yesterday so I told my mum and she said to take some paracetamol because that should help, I also checked my levels and they were really high so I thought I would put a temp basal on off 170% to try and get my levels back down. I then went to sleep for a pic so that I wasn't in pain anymore and when I woke up my right cheek still hurt so I told my mum again, she said my cheek was really red, swollen and hot. So I checked my level again and they were still over 15 so something wasn't right as I was having 70% extra insulin and my levels were still really high. My mum called the doctors and explain what had happened with my eye and my cheek and that my levels were still running high even when I was having loads of extra insulin, The doctors said that it was classed as an emergency appointment because of my diabetes so they fitted me in an appointment at the end of  the day. So my step dad took me to the appointment when he got home from work as my mum couldn't drive there. The doctor said I had conjunctivitis and sinusitis which was why my right cheek had been hurting so much so they gave me some antibiotics to help with the conjunctivitis and sinusitis, they also said that my levels were running so high because of the infections I had and that I needed to keep the 170% temp basal on and keep checking my levels to check what they were. My mum told me that I should tell the paper round lady that I wasn't able to do paper round on Thursday morning as I wasn't well enough to do it and she told me that I wasn't going to be going to school on Thursday either as she wanted me to rest so that I would feel better on Friday.

On Thursday morning (today) I woke up feeling a little bit better. So I had some paracetamol, my antibiotics and my eye drops and relaxed for a bit as I didn't want to over do it and make myself feel more unwell. At lunch time when I did my levels they were 9.1 which is the best they have been in ages and I didn't even have a temp basal on. At dinner my levels went up to 23.3 and I started to feel ill again, my right cheek started to hurt again and my levels weren't helping at all. I gave myself a correction and then put a temp basal of 150% on to try and get my levels down again.

When you have an illness or an infection your levels will go high and it can be really annoying as it can make you feel worse. The best thing to do is not to panic because if you panic that will make your levels go higher, so if you have any questions or you are unsure on what to do stay calm and contact your diabetes team because they will able to help you. You should test your levels more often, like every 1-2 hours so that you can make sure your levels aren't gong higher or dropping too quickly. Try and stay well hydrated, so have a bottle of water with you because high levels can make you really dehydrated. You should test for ketones if your levels are running high, if you have ketones and you aren't really sure what to do, don't panic, just contact your diabetes team can give you some advice on what to do.
I know it can be really annoying when your levels are high because you are ill and you aren't doing anything wrong to make them high but just remember you will get through it because you are stronger than you think

Exercise

Exercise can effect your levels a lot. It can make your levels go low but it can also sometimes make your levels going higher after you have exercised. I have always wondered why my levels sometimes when I test my levels before PE at school they will be fine and then after doing PE when I test my levels again they are a little bit high then before PE but normally my levels do go lower after I have done exercise.

I thought I would look it up on the Internet to find out why our levels go low and sometimes high after doing exercise.

"When you exercise your muscles need more glucose to supply energy. In response, your liver increases the amount of glucose it releases into your bloodstream. Remember, however, that the glucose needs insulin in order to be used by your muscles. So if you do not have enough insulin available, your blood glucose levels can actually increase right after exercise. Basically, stimulated by the demand from your exercising muscles, your body is pouring glucose into your bloodstream. If you do not have enough insulin available to "unlock the door" to your muscles, the glucose cannot get into your muscles to provide needed energy. The end result is that glucose backs-up in your bloodstream, causing higher blood glucose readings." https://www.joslin.org/info/why_do_blood_glucose_levels_sometimes_go_up_after_physical_activity.html

Yesterday my friend asked if I wanted to walk the dogs round the village with her and I said yeah sure as it was I really sunny day and I had been inside all morning doing homework and cleaning. So my friend came to my house and then we went on a long walk with the dogs round the village and then we sat on a bench near the park and let the dogs of there leads and run around after each other. Then my friend said about going to the post office to get a drink and something to eat but the post office was closed so she said we could walk to the bp (petrel garage) and eat something from there. The thing was it was a really long walk to the bp and I didn't really want to walk that far just to get a drink and some food so we walked back to my house and got a drink for us and the dogs. Then my friend persuaded me to walk to the bp with her but we weren't going to take the dog as it was too far for him to walk. Before we went I checked my levels and they were 8.6 so I had something to eat and didn't but it in my pump as I knew my levels would drop while we walked there as it was a long walk. When we got to the bp the walk didn't actually seem as long as I thought it would have but I think that because we were talking and listening to music the whole walk. I checked my levels again to see what they were and they were 9.4 so I brought a drink and a bay of crisps and me and my friend walked to Ely and sat on the grass and relaxed for a bit. Then we followed a path to see where it took us and we ended up at a park, so we played at the park for an hour and then we started walking back to the roundabout where the bp was. It was starting to get dark so my friend rang her mum to see if she could come an pick us up and drop us home, her mum said that she would so we waited for her to come. While we were waiting my friend said that I should test my levels again as we had been playing and messing about in the park, when I tested my levels I was 6.5 which was really good. I had a really fun day with my friend and my levels had been really good however my feet did really hurt when I got back home.

Exercise can make your level low however I always I always check my levels before I do exercise and if my levels are bellow 8 I always have a biscuit to make sure my levels don't go low. Sometimes I have a biscuit if my levels are bellow 10 but it depends how much exercise I am doing and what exercise I am doing because different types of exercise effect my levels differently. Remember everyone's diabetes is different so you need to see what happens when you do exercise. Since doing my Due of Edinburgh bronze award where I had to walk 8 miles on the first day and 7 miles on the second day, I have leant that my levels always drop when I go on long walks so I always have something to eat before I go if my levels are under 10.

Hopefully you now understand why your levels go low and sometimes higher after exercise. I know your diabetes can make it harder to exercise but all you have to do is check your levels before you do exercise and have something to eat without giving yourself insulin if you think you need to so that your levels don't drop while you are doing exercise or after.       
Always remember you are stronger than you think.  

Work experience

At my school when you are in year 10 you go on work experience for 2 weeks, everyone get to decide where you want to work for the 2 weeks. You could work in a primary school, preschool, shop, hairdressers, building site....there are so many places you could go. I was really excited about choosing somewhere to go but at the same time I was worried about how my diabetes might get in the way and make it harder.

I decided I really wanted to work with children on work experience but I wasn't quite sure what type of job I would prefer to do. I talked to my mum about it as she works in a preschool so I thought she might know some places which would be happy for me to do my work experience at. She said about a daycare place near to wear I live who look after babies and toddlers. I went there for an interview to see what the daycare was like, what the staff were like and to have a tour of the daycare. After the interview I was so excited about starting work however I was a bit worried what my levels were going to be like as I am not used to being active all day an working long hours.

On the first day of my work experience I was really worried as I didn't know any of the children there or any of the staff, so my levels were running in the morning because I was so worried and nervous about starting. Luckily by lunch my levels had gone back to normal which made me feel better. I was worried at first that I might need to do my levels while I was meant to be looking after the kids but the staff were really good and told me that if I needed to check my levels or I didn't feel well and needed to sit down for a bit all I had to do was tell one of the staff and then I could go to the office and sit down for a bit and sort myself out.

I realised that I never needed to worry about my diabetes as they were really understanding and my levels weren't effected that much by working longer and being more active however I was really tired and kept having to go to bed early haha. I have now been on work experience for one week and I am really enjoying it and it has made me realise that my diabetes doesn't stop me being like everyone else at work. Always remember your diabetes doesn't have to stop you from doing anything, you are stronger than you think.

No different

Having diabetes doesn't make you any different to anyone else. Even though we have to test our levels before we eat and when we don't feel well, inject or put information in your pump before you eat, have a pump attached to 24/7, go to hospital appointments every 3 months.... we are still the same as everyone else.

When I was 6 years old , in year one at primary school, I found it really hard and upsetting because some people at my primary school decided they didn't like me because I have diabetes. One day when I was in year 1 I was lining up outside with my class waiting for the teacher to let us inside. While I was waiting three people in my class came up to me and said "I don't want to be friends with you because you're diabetic" then they just walked off. I had no idea what to do, it wasn't my fault I was diabetic and now no wants to be my friend. They upset me so much. I didn't tell the teacher what they had said to me because she wouldn't have been able to do anything about it. When I got home I went to room and cried about what they had said to me, I wished I wasn't diabetic. I told my mum about what had happened and she wasn't happy, so she rang the school and told them what had happened. The next day at school my teacher spoke to the three people who said they didn't want to be friends with me. They came up to me and said they were really sorry. After that they were really nice to me and never said they didn't want to be friends with me again.

Ever since that happened at Primary school I don't  really tell anyone at school that I have diabetes, only the people that need to know at school know. All my teachers at collage know that I have diabetes just in case I start to feel unwell in class and need to check my levels or things like that and my friends know I have diabetes too because I test my levels a lot while I am round them and so that they can help me if I don't feel well because of my levels. At first I didn't really want anyone at collage to know I had diabetes because I didn't want them to treat me differently or not like me because of my diabetes.

I was thinking about doing a fundraising event to raise money for JDRF and I thought it would be a really fun thing to do. One of my friends at school said that it would be a great idea however it would mean everyone in the school would find out I had type one diabetes. I said to her that it wouldn't matter because most people in the school already know I am diabetic. When I got home I thought about what my friend had said to me and realised most of my year probably knows I have diabetes but the other people in the other years in collage probably don't know. It mad me worry a bit that what happened in primary school wound happen again but I really wanted to raise money for JDRF. So I talked to one of my friends who doesn't have diabetes and doesn't go to the collage about it. They said  to me 'You are no different to me at all, always remember that'  It made me feel so much better after what they said to me and made me realise that I am actually no different to anyone else.

Even though we have diabetes we are no different to everyone else and we shouldn't be treated differently. Diabetes is only one part of us, we are so much more then diabetes so don't let people treat you differently just because you are diabetic. Always remember you are stronger than you think!

Reality Check

This time last year I went through a stage where I wished I didn't have diabetes. I wished I didn't have to test my levels or give insulin before I ate, have a pump attached to me 24/7, have hospital appointments, worry about my levels and hba1c count. I just wanted to be like I used to be before I got diagnosed with diabetes. I just wanted to be normal! 

I ended up being admitted onto a ward at the hospital because I stopped testing my levels and I was just putting a random number as my levels into my pump and then being the amount of carbs I was eating. However this made my levels really high because I wasn't correcting my levels when they were high because I was guessing what my levels were. When I was admitted in to hospital the nurses were checking that I was checking my levels and doing everything that I was supposed to be doing. They were checking my levels every 2 hours so that they could monitor them.

While I was in hospital I was on a ward which mostly had children who had cancer on. I was in a room with this little girl in the bed next to me who had cancer, the girl had been in hospital for 5 months. She was so ill and was crying all the time because she was in pain, it must have been so hard for her parents having to be with their daughter and see her in so much pain and there was nothing they could do to help her. It was sad knowing that she had been in hospital so long and that she was so ill, all she wanted to do was be at home and not be ill or in pain.

I have never had the courage to tell anyone this before or been able to admit this to anyone before so it is quiet a big thing for me to write this on my blog and it has taken a long time to write.
The reason I got back on track with my diabetes and am where I am today is because being in hospital and seeing some really ill children my age and younger with cancer made me realise that having diabetes isn't actually that bad, it could be a lot worse. If I looked after myself I would never had ended up in hospital whereas all of these children were in hospital and it wasn't there fault, they didn't really have a choose about being in hospital but I did. It made me want to look after myself, get a better hba1c, try and get better levels because I could make these changes and then not end up in hospital. It still really upsets me thinking of that little girl and all of the other children who I saw on the ward with cancer, it was bit of a reality check for me and made me realise that if I look after myself diabetes wont control me and I can still have a normal life whereas there are some people that cant because they are really ill and have to stay in hospital loads.

I know I shouldn't have stopped checking my levels in the first place but at the time it felt like the right thing to do because I just wanted to be normal but I am so glad I have now realised that having diabetes isn't that bad if you look after yourself. Always remember you are stronger than you think!

Bloodcount meter

It can be really hard to find a bloodcount meter that you really like and that works well for you. There are so many meters to choose from. I always found it really annoying that I had to do my bloodcount and then remember what it was and put it in my pump, I would sometimes forget what my levels were and then put it into my pump wrong.

Recently when I was at a hospital appointment this lady in the clinic showed me and my mum the Contour Next Link bloodcount meter. I was already using the Contour Link meter and the Contour Next Link was a newer version of my meter. At first I wasn't really sure about changing meters as I really liked the meter I was using and if I changed meters it would mean having to get new test strips that the new meter used and also it would mean I would have to learn how to use the new meter as all meters work differently.

The lady was explaining to me and my mum what was different between the Contour Link and the Contour Next Link. She said that the Contour Next Link had a USB connection for charging and downloading readings, this meant I wouldn't have to pay for batteries for my meter as it didn't need them and I could also download my meter on to the laptop so that I could  if I had any patterns in my levels. On the Contour Next Link when you tested your levels and they where running high or low the meter would let you know by the colour of the numbers of your levels. For example if your levels were 3.4 the numbers would light up orange as say at the bottom of the screen that your levels would low. You could also set reminders on the Contour Next Link, so if you need to check your levels in an hour because they were running high all you have to do is set a reminder on your pump and it will make a noise to remind your to test your levels. Also on the Contour Next Link you can see how your levels have been trending and tells you your average levels over 14 days.  I really liked the sound of the Contour Next Link so the hospital let me take one home with me to use.

I have now been using the Contour Next Link for about a month and I love it. We did loss the USB led to charge it though so my mum had to ring up the company and they replaced it for me and send me a spare meter too encase I loss the meter or if it brakes. I honestly think the best meters I have ever used are the Contour Next Link and the Contour Link, its so much easier having a meter that links to your pump so that you don't have to remember what your levels were.

I know it can be really hard to find a meter that you really like and that works best for you but there are so many meters I am sure you will find one. If any of you are on a Medtronic pump I recommend you try the Contour Next Link meter or the Contour Link meter.
Always remember you are stronger than you think! 

Friends at school

We all have days where are levels are running really high or really low, and we have no idea why. It can be really hard when you have days like this at school because it can make it really difficult to concentrate and learn things when your levels are all over the place. It can be really annoying when you just want to get on with your work and be like other people in your class, and then you start to feel unwell. So you ask the teacher if you can check your levels which mean the whole of your class find and it stands out that you have diabetes (I hate when this happens).
The school gave me a card called an 'exit card'; I can show this card to any of my teacher at any point in the lesson and it means I can leave the lesson without telling the teacher why or where I am going. This means the rest of my class don't know why I am leaving the lesson and they don't even see the card when I show it to the teacher, they think I have just gone to get a drink or gone to the toilet when actually I am soring my diabetes out. Its made it so much easier to look after my diabetes at school.
 
So yesterday at school I checked my levels in form because I wasn't felling that well. My levels were 20.4 which didn't make sense because my levels were 12.7 before I had breakfast which was an hour ago, so I had no idea what was happening with my levels. I gave myself a correction and then I put a temp basal of 150% on my pump so that my levels would come down. I then went to my next lesson which was Core RE, I didn't really have to do I lot in that lesson so that was ok. All I had to do was write down some information from this sheet of paper, I did find it really hard to concentrate. At the end of my Core RE lesson I thought I would check my levels as I was feeling worse then I did when I was in Form. When I was checking my levels my friend saw I was checking my levels so asked what they were, I told her they were 26.0, I couldn't believe that my levels had gone up instead of down even though I had given myself so much more extra insulin.

My friend kept telling me that I need to go do some exercise like doing lap round the school to get my levels down. The thing is I really just wanted to sit down and wait for my levels to go down because I didn't feel well. My friend was really worried about me so she walked to my next lesson, science, with me. I told her I was fine and that my insulin would start working soon so my levels would go down.  My friend said no I am telling your science teacher. I said its ok, I will be fine, don't worry. My friend didn't listen to me, she went up to the teacher and told her that my levels were 26.0 and that I needed to do some laps of the school to get my levels down. At first the teacher had no idea what my friend was talking about and then she realised. My teacher asked to talk to me so I went over and spoke to her. She said I needed to do some exercise. So I told her that I had given myself some insulin and all I needed to do was sit down because I wasn't feeling well.

Throughout the whole of my science lesson my teacher keep checking on me, to see that I was feeling ok and that my levels had came down. The good thing was she did it without the whole class knowing what she was doing. Luckily by lunch my levels had gone back to normally and I was feeling a lot better, however by 8pm I was really tired and ended up falling asleep, which isn't normal for me as I normally go to bed at 10pm.

At the time when my friend told my science teacher about my levels I wasn't very happy with her, however after my science lesson I totally understand why she told her, and I am quiet glad she told my teacher as I wasn't able to concentrate in science as my levels were so high and I didn't do as well as I could have in my science test.

It is really good to have friend that look after you at school, I know it can sometimes feel like they are telling you what to do but its only because they care about you and don't want you to be ill. Sometimes you need someone to help you with your diabetes and your friends are really good at that.
Always remember you are stronger then you think.