Today, I'd like to show you what a different aspect of T1D looks like.
A year ago, on WDD2014, I started a collection, of sorts. The 'D365' project. It's not quite complete, but I thought I would share a preliminary look with everyone now that the initial collection is finished.
This is what a year with Type 1 Diabetes looks like:
125 Set Changes.
125 times I pushed a cannula into my leg, stomach or back. That's 1 cannula every 3 days.
Some of them hurt. Alot. Some hurt for the entire 3 days they were in. We don't have any way to x-ray ourselves & find the nerve clusters before we put each cannula in.
3282
3282 Testing Strips. That's how many times I poked a sharp needle into my finger, hard enough to make them bleed.
3282, is an average of 252 tests per month, 62 tests per week and 9 tests a day. Even when my fingers ache.
208. The number of hypoglycaemic events experienced. The number of times that my blood sugar was not high enough to sustain life long term and required immediate attention. That's 1 low blood sugar every 1.75 days. Sometimes, you can have 4 in one day, and sometimes, none for a week.
There is no way to predict a hypo (or trust me, we wouldn't have them!).
But in Diabetes land, we have this amazing tool to help us manage our diabetes. It's called CGM.
CGM is expensive. But it can stop hypos. Want to know why I was hypo free for 5 days straight? CGM.
Think 3282 is an awful lot of pricking & poking? CGM gives my fingers a much-needed break.
I'm not holding out for a cure. I don't believe in one and I don't particularly feel like I need one. I can and do live my life just fine with my T1D. What I do want are the tools to HELP ME live with this disease, day in, day out. Like CGM. And in future, the artificial pancreas, or closed loop system, or the smart insulin patches.
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Reasons Why I'm Hypo:
The counter has been reset. I went Christmas shopping.
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