Hello there, gorgeous people!
If you clicked on this post then you’re probably either a) a
writer or b) one of my friends. Either way, I’m glad you clicked on it. Today,
in part two of my Writing Resources series/project/thing, I’ll be talking about
the nitty gritty of Type One Diabetes.
Firstly, if you have no idea what this is or who I am, click
here to read the introduction post I did. Secondly, check out the first part
where I talked about things non-Diabetics shouldn’t say to Diabetics. Now,
let’s get started.
I’m talking mainly about the more medical side today. I’m
going to try and keep everything in the most basic of terms, but if there’s
anything you don’t understand please feel free to leave me a comment or e-mail
me. Also, I mentioned this in the first post, but this is just my
experiences—every one has different symptoms and effects and opinions and
preferences so please just remember that.
The first and most important thing…Insulin. This stuff saves
lives, literally—it’s the only reason I’m still alive. For those of you who
might not know, insulin is created in your pancreas and is pumped through your
body to keep your blood sugar at a reasonable level. Those of us who are
diagnosed with Diabetes have a pancreas that decided to stop producing insulin
for no reason, because of that we need to inject insulin.
There are a few different ways we can do this. There’s the
typical syringe method, though I’ve never met a Diabetic who has willingly done
this as it means measuring up your own doses. Secondly, there’s this invention
called an ‘Insulin pump’—it’s basically this little machine that is attached to
your body (usually stomach or legs) that administers insulin. I use the third
method, insulin pens. This is basically a ‘pen’ that has (usually) about 3mL of
insulin in it. You attach a little needle to one end, turn a dial on the other
(depending on the amount o what to inject) and there you go. Each person has
their own preference, I’ve only ever used the pens but I like them and they
suit me, and my lifestyle.
Secondly, we have blood glucose metres/blood sugar
metres/monitors/many other things. These are the ‘finger pricks’ that many non-Diabetics
have told me that they are terrified of. They aren’t the worse things in
existence, really. So these are little (or big) machines that tell us the
amount of glucose in our bodies, which then tells us how much insulin we’ll
need. Basically, we put these little strips into the machine, prick our fingers
and squeeze out enough blood until the machine makes (usually) a (very loud)
noise.
Here’s a fun fact. Despite the fact I’ve tried this many
times, you can’t just guess what your bloods (little slang term) will be. Attempting to do this is something that will make your care team very angry with you. Doing
these tests suck because sometimes you end up doing them up to six or eight
times a day. I have these little red dots on the sides of my fingers from
testing so much and I’ve seen other people whose fingers have gotten infected.
No, these tests don’t actually hurt that much but it is a daily reminder that
you are different to your friend, which sometimes, sucks more than the disease
itself.
I’m going to do yet another post just on blood sugar
levels—what’s a good level, what’s not, how certain levels make you feel and
all that. I feel like this one is getting a bit longer and I don’t want to
bombard you all with too much.
I hope this post helped you somehow. Let me know if there’s
another topic you’d like me to discuss or find other resources about. Thank you
all for stopping by!
*Bonus content: Googling 'blood sugars' all turns out to be a fun time.
