Daily Injections and Sweet Treats for People with Type 1 Diabetes

I injected myself in public toilets to hide my eyes.

Now, if I am having dinner, I shamelessly place my injection with my knife and fork, ready to decapsulate and inject the amount of insulin needed for a sting in the stomach. .

Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) and his paraphernalia have been my companion for over 25 years and, unless medical miracle, will be for the rest of my life.

When I talk about four or five injections I give myself one day, the answer Often, "I could not do that."

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This is not a choice. I would die without needles.

I tell people, "It's like brushing your teeth" – that's for your health, you have to do it and it's a routine

The Biggest frustration is to handle the misconceptions about T1D.

"Is this the good or the bad kind?" "Does that mean you have to eat sugar?" "So you can not eat cakes and lollipops?" "How is it that you are so thin if you have diabetes?"

Type 1 diabetes may have two words in common with type 2 diabetes, but they are separate.

I was diagnosed with diabetes during my first year of high school

Symptoms include extreme thirst, weight loss, fatigue, frequent urination, and hunger – all this was the case

and the teenagers. It is an autoimmune disease usually caused by the immune system that destroys the insulin-producing cells, making the organ producing insulin, the pancreas, useless.

For those who are not bothered by T1D, their pancreas produces insulin each time they eat or drink so that blood glucose stays between 4 and 7 mmol / L – for T1D, it is handled manually.

At least four times a day, I take out my tester blood, I prick a finger and hope that my blood sugar is in range.

The result and my meal predicts the dosage of insulin.

It's not just my life, it's the life of over 20,000 Kiwis.

I do not let myself be fooled – I did my share of endurance events, I travel and I eat what I like when I love it.

The only signs of T1D are given by the way I treat myself as a human pin cushion or when my blood sugar level drops below 4 mmol / l, called hypo.

Hypos, or lows, can be caused by a number of ways – usually by having too much insulin and not enough food or exercise. That's when the jelly beans come out.

A depression feels that all the energy has been sucked in by me and the best way to fix it is to stop what I'm doing before I collapse, down there. handful of candy followed by a regular cookie and about 15 minutes to sit down.

Eating sweets is not limited to stockings. I eat cakes, cookies and lollipops, I just have to make sure that I have enough insulin for them. So yes, please, give me this slice of carrot cake with a side of ice cream.

T1 diabetics can live a normal life up to old age as long as blood glucose levels are close to normal. Complications related to chronic hyperglycemia include blindness, nerve damage and kidney failure – stories of grandmothers who have "lost a leg" because of diabetes

Technology and the Education facilitate happily life.