Circle D 2nd Anniversary and Forum London Meet

Well, it finally happened on Saturday, April 24th - thirty members of Circle D and Diabetes Support Forum got together in London to celebrate Circle D's 2nd birthday! Weather was gloriously sunny, and actually warm - hot even! I met up with Tom, Tez and Shiv at Victoria and, once Tom had recovered from the hypo he was having (!) we set off, map in hand, to make our way over to Leicester Square. Thankfully, the route was fairly straightforward, or so we thought: up Buckingham Palace Road, onto The Mall, round Trafalgar Square and up Charing Cross Road. Well, it mostly went to plan, except that The Mall and in particular the area in front of Buckingham Palace was packed with crowds of tourists watching the changing of the guard. We decided to walk through St James Park, very pleasant and peaceful and a far better option to travelling underground on such a lovely day!

After a little unplanned detour we finally emerged onto Leicester Square where I managed to spot Yates down in the bottom corner, my brain still just about functioning as the jelly babies kicked in after my en route hypo. Shelley was waving like a woman possesed and difficult to miss! And so the day was set for the next six hours for me, and much, much longer for a few of the others who partied on into the night. Shelley was the perfect hostess, making sure that everyone was welcomed and introduced. There was a real mix, in part due to the fact that Circle D is a group for 18-30 year old diabetics and who therefore provided much of the 'youth', plus one or two old timers (erm, like me!). Becky had travelled furthest on the day, from York at some ungodly hour, and Steff had travelled furthest overall having come all the way from Geordieland.

It was great to renew acquaintances and to put faces to names of the people I hadn't met before. Everyone had a great time, except maybe the poor barman who served Becky a non-diet coke when she'd ordered a diet one - diastix were being used in abundance to test the presence of sugar in 'diet' drinks, a frequent problem for diabetics. Bar staff don't realise the possible impact of a full-sugar drink on a diabetic person's blood sugar levels which can become unexpectedly, and sometimes dangerously, high. I finally got back home at around 9:30 pm after a good coach journey and a fortuitous encounter with a Number 3 bus as I was just passing the bus stop! Well, pictures speak louder than words, especially when they move, so here is Becky's wonderful video of the day's shenanigans:

And a selection of photos - mostly by Shelley, but a few of mine too!

Number of the Beast

I’ve been frequenting an American forum recently, and trying to get used to the different units of measurement they use over there. Here in the UK a blood glucose meter reading is measured in millimoles per litre (mmol/l), but in the US it is measured in milligrams per decalitre (mg/dl). These produce wildly different numbers – a healthy reading of 5.0 mmol/l equates to 90 mg/dl – and it can take a little time to get used to what is seen as acceptable. To convert from UK to US readings, you multiply the US reading by 18, so I was having a play and worked out my level at diagnosis, which was obviously very high. In fact, it was 37 mmol/l which equates to…666 mg/dl! The Number of the Beast!

This got me thinking of what a beast diabetes can be at times, some days dominating your every waking hour, and even disrupting your sleeping hours. Keeping those levels steady and in range can be a tough task at times, and it can get you down when you have to consider every meal, every day, continually testing your blood, injecting insulin, and trying to perform some enormously complex calculations solely by intuition and guesstimation.

It can be a problem if you let it take over. I can’t get rid of it, but I can decide not to fear it. After all, it’s just a lack of insulin in my case. It’s called a disease, but it’s a strange one. In theory, if I could get everything right I could just inject exactly the right amount of insulin at the right time so that it perfectly matches the glucose release of my food and my liver, and there would be no problem – the disease wouldn’t exist. Well, of course, that’s not really true. A fully functioning pancreas is far more subtle than the ham-fisted injection method, and who knows what problems that disparity of finesse might present in the future? But, it’s all I’ve got to work with at the moment, so there’s little point in worrying about it. I’ll be very happy if they find a cure sometime soon though!

I know you Beast, I know your name,
You hide amid the gloom
And darken days that once were bright,
And beckon me to your tomb.

Creeping, cruel and cursed Beast,
Insidious and sly,
You think you scare me, but you don’t –
And here’s the reason why…

I don’t have diabetes,
Just a lack of insulin,
And since I can inject that,
You must see you cannot win!

So I declare you dead and gone,
You never did exist!
No monster lies beneath my bed –
Dear Beast you won’t be missed!

You don’t hide in my cupboard,
Nor lurk behind the door,
And if I turn my back on you,
Then I’ll see you no more!

I’d like you, please, to stick your head
Inside a dead bear’s bum,
And let that be a taster of
The things you’ve got to come!

Beast? Pah!

Icelandic volcano? No – my blood pressure!

A couple of weeks ago I went for a routine check up at the doctors and had my blood pressure taken. The doctor could hardly believe how high it was, and checked several times to make sure the equipment was working correctly! She told me to double the dose of my BP medication and book another appointment, which I attended yesterday. This time, it was still far too high, although an improvement on the previous visit, so I am to double my medication again (although this is still a relatively small dose).

Blood pressure, or rather the high or low varieties, are something unseen and largely unfelt. Low blood pressure can sometimes cause dizziness or fainting, but high blood pressure can often not show any symptoms at all. If high BP is allowed to continue for any length of time, however it can do major damage to the arteries, kidneys and eyes, os it’s something I have to tackle quickly. Hopefully, the new dose of medicine will make an appropriate contribution, but I am also staying well away from alcohol and being especially careful of things like salt content of food. I’m also back to running again, now that I have recovered from the bad cold that I suffered with last week, so hopefully this will bring more improvement. I have to report back in about a month’s time and am expecting to hear the words ‘130/80, that’s perfect!’

Blood pressure setting is on overload,
My arteries will burst, my head will explode!
My kidneys will leak, my eyesight will fail!
My systolic pressure is right off the scale!

I could pump enough blood to sustain a blue whale!
I must change the ending of this sorry tale,
My diastolic pressure is over the ton,
Like the cold hard metal of a loaded gun!

How could I have got to this stage of distress?
I must be a wreck, a physical mess!
But no, I don’t feel it, what hypertension?
No symptoms to speak of, or not worth a mention…

But I’m not too dismayed, though the figures are bad,
For to fret and to worry, why I’d drive myself mad!
So I’m working on ways to bring it right down,
And try to keep smiling, and never to frown.

Spring has sprung -finally!

First true Spring day today! I'm basing this on the fact that this is the first day this year I have been able to hang my laundry out to dry in the Sun and gentle breezes - and everything was dry in less than an hour! At last the Spring flowers are blooming - yellow and pink are the predominant colours at this time of the year. If only I didn't have this wretched cold I would be feeling marvellous, grrr! The week started well, with runs on Monday and Tuesday, but then the sneezing started and scuppered my plans for getting back to fitness. Interestingly, despite all that I have ever read about being ill when you are diabetic, my blood sugar levels have been practically faultless, staying well within range throughout. I'm very grateful for that - I wonder what it is about my body that means it can cope with illness when others can't? The common result is that levels climb high, despite extra insulin, and ketones (and consequently the threat of ketoacidosis) appear. None of that for me, so far - touch wood! Anyway, here are some of the lovely plants in their Spring glory!

Kerria Japonica

Magnolia

Flowering currant

Camelia

Forsythia

Oh Weeping Nostrils!

I have a cold. Typical, just when I was getting back into my running now that the better weather and brighter days have arrived. I shouldn’t really run when I’m ill as it puts extra strain on my system when it’s already trying to fight the infection. The last time I had a proper cold I didn’t have diabetes to go along with it. Now I’m having to keep a close eye on my blood sugar levels to make sure they don’t climb too high, and it’s quite possible that, if they do I’ll have to start peeing on sticks to see if I have any ketones (they’re the nasties that turn your blood into acid and put you in hospital). Oh, woe is me! Actually, I seem to have got off quite lightly since diagnosis, illness-wise, so I can’t really complain. I’m just hoping this cold goes soon so I can start clearing the backlog on my 1000 mile/1000 km challenge that I’ve got significantly behind on due to the awful winter. If only Kate Bush would pop round and take a few hours out of her busy schedule to minister to my needs…

Oh Nostrils, why do you weep so?
And Throat, why feel so sore?
And Eyes, who filled you full of sand?
And Head, could you hurt more?

It’s flu, I say! Despite my jab
That should save me from harm,
My sugar levels are creeping up,
I may have bought the farm!

Oh where is Kate, with her soft hands
To mop my fevered brow?
No doubt gone Wuthering on the Moor…
Oh what shall I do now?

OK, it’s man-flu, I confess,
It’s sympathy I seek,
Or else, I swear, it’s certain I’ll
Be dead within a week!