The Joys of Diabetes

[everydayupsanddowns]

Thanks for the extra positivity. 🙂 Yes! Done for another 12 months!

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[Neens]

Thanks @everydayupsanddowns - I could originally do all of the above but for some reason the site wasn't working. It may have been my 200% screen at the time messing things up!

 

[Neens]

I always used to get a splitting headache too, with the drops but don't any more. No idea why. Having had both cataracts done in recent years you'd think I'd have got used to the drops - but no. The really good thing about the cataract op is the fact that the first drops that go in are the numbing ones so when the dilating ones are added - they don't sting!

I have to remember to take hankies cos they make my nose run too!

Thanks, Jenny - I got the headache but it went, eventually.

 

[Neens]

So all in all about 6 hours for vision to return to my normal. Eyes still feel a bit scratchy and I panicked this afternoon when I saw Left eye still very dilated. Decided being on screen wasn't wise, but also found this 2012 thread which put my mind at ease.

https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/retinopathy-screening-it-this-normal.24680/

Especially Northerner pointing out what you can't see in the waiting room. I wish it had been explained that there was a 20 minute wait for it to work, I knew it would take some time but envisaged a really tough 20 minute eye procedures apt. rather than just quick sight test and the photos. Also amused by the fact they show you on small laptop screen, 4 even smaller images and I am like, yes that looks like Mars, thank you!

I have had the retina photos at the opticians I am sure, perhaps as part of screening. Like all things in life my fictional interpretation of how events would unfold was far more horror than the reality, although I did have a tricky ice walk to get there. Having an evening appointment when the bright light of winter days is over is another good idea from this thread. I will see if that is possible next year, also then I can just go to sleep when I get home and earn money by not having a day off work!

Thanks again to everyone who took some time to respond to this thread today - you all made it a better day for me.

Cheers

 

[Neens]

🙂
More joys...

* You get to make book orders online without feeling guilty! - G, Becker

* You get WILDLY excited in the supermarket when you discover Pak Choi and even more delirious when you see how low carb it is! (1.9g for 100g)

* You re-discover you love to cook (when did we ever have time in the last few decades).

* Your half of the Christmas chocolates is going to last a lot longer than ever before (you could re-gift them for Easter)!

* You feel good when you read some information that confirms you have made the right food choices/decisions regarding your diabetes.

* For a few seconds on first waking you may even forget you have it!

* Stealth weight loss. It is winter - so losing weight is hidden under woolly jumpers... imagine everyone and their surprise when Spring comes and there is less of you than they realised!

* If, like me you made lots of dietary changes you may have had to manage bad skin. That will disappear without you even noticing and then one day, a few months later you will touch your face and feel how healthy your skin is (this last one may be too specific...)!

* You find out that it is possible after all to only eat one square of chocolate.**



** Please note if you don't know yet - chocolate is not limited to one square - I bought 70%cocoa and as a white chocolate lover - one square is usually enough... this is not a dietary restriction placed on us. Some of us eat it and some people don't.
I just never would have thought a bar would last as long as it does. I have bought tiny mini bars and they last weeks! // Full disclosure I usually have more than 1 square and it comes to 5g carbs but I would never have expected happiness to come from just the 1.
*

 

[Ljc]

The joy of having a meal that I don’t have to bolus for, it tastes even better too.

 

[ColinUK]

What a lovely positive post.

I hope your eye check goes well. I have a phobia about anything being done to my eyes, even the glaucoma test is a nightmare for the person attempting to do it as well as me lol .

I always jump when there’s that little puff of air but I count myself lucky I’m not a cat. Mine had to have pressure in the eye checked recently and they do it not by a puff of air but by actually bouncing a probe on to the cornea six times in rapid succession.
Made my eyes water just watching it!

 

[ColinUK]

It dawned on me yesterday that every single meal I’ve eaten since being diagnosed has been cooked from scratch. Not all by me! And I realised that I’ve actually enjoyed cooking again 🙂

 

[Neens]

The joy of having a meal that I don’t have to bolus for, it tastes even better too.

I don't know 'bolus' - I have seen it posted about.
Good for a meal to bring you joy! 🙂 When I first started food became energy - now I am enjoying tastes, although some are my choices are a little bland when I am just jigsawing a meal together rather than cooking up a recipe.

 

[Ljc]

I don't know 'bolus' - I have seen it posted about.
Good for a meal to bring you joy! 🙂 When I first started food became energy - now I am enjoying tastes, although some are my choices are a little bland when I am just jigsawing a meal together rather than cooking up a recipe.

Bolus, A rapid acting insulin for the carbohydrates we’re going to eat , in my case Novorapid .
Basal . A long acting insulin injected once or twice daily.
It’s funny but I really do enjoy a meal far more when I don’t have to bolus for it.

 

[Ljc]

I always jump when there’s that little puff of air but I count myself lucky I’m not a cat. Mine had to have pressure in the eye checked recently and they do it not by a puff of air but by actually bouncing a probe on to the cornea six times in rapid succession.
Made my eyes water just watching it!

Poor cat , that sounds horrible.

Me with glaucoma test, I sit, they aim , I move , they aim again, I move ....... 😱

 

[AJLang]

I always jump when there’s that little puff of air but I count myself lucky I’m not a cat. Mine had to have pressure in the eye checked recently and they do it not by a puff of air but by actually bouncing a probe on to the cornea six times in rapid succession.
Made my eyes water just watching it!

They do that when you have glaucoma tests at the hospital which I have several times a year. The probe goes three times on each eye but they do numb it with drops first. I actually prefer it to the puffer test. The probe is more accurate than the puff of air.

 

[PhoebeC]

🙂

* For a few seconds on first waking you may even forget you have it!

*

This one!!!!!

Also I wake most mornings thankful that I have woken up.

I am not sure if it is mainly a T1 thing. Night Time hypos scare me so much. It happens, just not waking up again.

And tying into that just being thankful to be here and taking the joy in little things, like a bird signing or someone saying hello in the street, little acts of kindness like someone letting you on the train first!

 

[Neens]

@Ljc thanks for explanation.
@ColinUK poor cat. I am the same with puffer test takes them ages to get one into an open eye. Great to add joy too.
@AJLang that sounds just as bad. It is hard anything to do with the eyes I think. They are wonderful at self healing after being probed and flashed though.
@PhoebeC thanks for adding your joy.

 

[Ljc]

When some time after diagnosis you realise you are starting to feel better and not drinking and peeing for England anymore

 

[Neens]

@zoombapup posted this lovely message and I thought I would link the positivity chain.
https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/a-nice-positive-message.84781/

A nurse offers something golden to hold onto...
diabetes is one of the few conditions where patient efforts can have a significant impact on their wellbeing.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

A nurse offers something golden to hold onto...
diabetes is one of the few conditions where patient efforts can have a significant impact on their wellbeing.

Yes I like that too, that we are not passive passengers on this journey, and we can make a positive difference to our futures. It offers hope, that no outcome is inevitable, and that the effort (And man... sometimes it really is an effort!) is worth it.

Of course, there should be no shame or stigma for anyone who encounters difficulties down the road (sooner, later, or somewhere in between). Diabetes is fickle, illogical and unfair. Sometimes you can try your absolute best, and it will still come after you.

All you can do is the best you can to reduce your risk, with the resources you have (mental, physical, technological, pharmacological), but there are no guarantees, and facing or living with complications doesn’t mean you have ‘failed’, it’s just part of playing the hand we’ve all been dealt.

 

[Neens]

@everydayupsanddowns I am beginning to learn this...
Of course, there should be no shame or stigma for anyone who encounters difficulties down the road (sooner, later, or somewhere in between). Diabetes is fickle, illogical and unfair. Sometimes you can try your absolute best, and it will still come after you.

I think this is the bit that it is easy to feel down about... and a reason it is a chronic disease.
But you're right - if we do the best we can and it still gets us - at least we did the best we could.