I have been up, down and inside out. Waking up with low or high blood glucose, setting my day up for a fall. Chasing my tail and wearing myself out. Maybe it is due to the exercise I do, perhaps it is my gastroparesis, or maybe it is just one of those things. The frustration and exhaustion of these rides really sucks. The feeling that you can not grab control back, even worse. If you live with diabetes, particularly type 1 diabetes you may know what I am talking about.

I work in diabetes, I study diabetes and I live diabetes. You would think logically,that this would mean a never ending blood glucose of 6 mmol. But while I am a huge advocate for learning as much as you possibly can being one of the keys to healthy diabetes control, at the end of the day this disease just does not make sense sometimes and no matter how much you know, you end up on the rollercoaster. Hoping I can hop off some time today and go for a stroll.

Helen Edwards

Letter from me

by Georgia Hall

The last few weeks have been extremely hectic, but for me I like to keep busy.  I also think it’s important to take some time out to relax and be reminded of what matters.

I’ve had a few Doctors appointments recently, one including a Biopsy testing to see if I am in fact coeliac.

It was a mix of feelings, I knew that the chances of me having it were high, so when I got the results back and I tested positive for it, I wasn’t surprised, yet I always held on to the chance of  miracle.

I’ve allowed a space in this newsletter to elaborate on coeliac, what it means and how it has shaped my life so far.

Beside that everything else has been falling in to place, and I’ve realised that life is about chances, the ones you take and how they create new ones each and every day and the ones you decide not to take.

About a year ago I was on the trip of a lifetime (that you regular readers would have heard all about, and for you not so regular readers, I’ll sum it up for you: I was fortunate enough to go on the Titanic Memorial Cruise – which went the exact route the Titanic once did 100 years ago to date). The trip was life changing and it got me thinking about the year just gone, how much has changed, yet how fast it has come and gone, and better yet how unpredictable it all has been.

I know there are many surprises, good and bad (no doubt) that lay ahead, but I am so excited to see what life brings me, and to look back a year from now and see where I am.

Coeliac

Not too long ago, I was confirmed Coeliac.  Leading up to the biopsy, I had a gut feeling I was, and the doctors had layered on the chances pretty thick.

I wished every night I wasn’t, hoping on that 1% chance that I will get off easy this time, but that’s not the case.

It rattled me in the beginning, I had a snappy attitude about it, but a month on and it’s not as bad as it seemed.  Sure it’s a huge inconvenience at times, and given the option I would rather not have to be gluten free and having to cut out some of my favourite foods was difficult.  However I know I could have it a lot worse, and there are so many accommodating places around which surprised me.

At lunch the other day with my cousin, I didn’t want to be the ‘burden’ so I let her choose the restaurant.   I asked the man at the counter if they had a gluten free menu, I felt like such a difficult customer, but his response set me happily at ease.  ‘Just order what you want and we make it gluten free’.  With a skip in my step my cousin and I split the pizza, and she said she doesn’t mind at all having gluten free, in fact 2 days later she said we should go get that pizza again.

It just goes to show that it’s not as bad as it seems.  I was told  from various sources that gluten free tastes like ‘cardboard’, true, some foods aren’t the same, but I’ve had my friends over and mum has made gluten free and they didn’t even notice the difference.

I would rather go gluten free, than have all the other side effects that sadly come with coeliac disease if it wasn’t detected early or you didn’t keep up with the diet.

My aunty has coeliac as well, although hers is a lot more critical than mine, we now have that extra special bond, a common denominator that only we have, which means having our own ‘special’ toaster.

As I said, if given the choice I would go back to bakers delight in a heartbeat, like everything there’s a way around it, and I’m slowly discovering all the places that disguise the gluten free taste the best they possibly could.  My favourite being the macaroons at the Unley Road ‘Free’ shop, the shop is called free, it’s not actually ‘free’!

One thing that has made this change in diet smooth sailing, is my huge supportive family and close friends.  One of my friends, before I got diagnosed said ‘if you’re gluten free, then so am I’.

Interview with Sarah

Sarah shares her heartache of going through her 2 year old son’s diagnosis with type 1 diabetes.  This Mother of 8 can still remember the smell in the air the day the dreadful news struck home. 18 years on, it’s not easier, only you learn to live with it and be as supportive as can be.

 “Perhaps people who know someone with diabetes, either directly or indirectly or just happen to be fortunate and know something about diabetes might have twigged, but we didn’t.”

Christopher was 2 years and 5 months old, when he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.  The family, just like everyone in the surrounding district had the flu, it was just flu season and it had gone through everyone in the house and ran the usual 2 week course and we all got better, however even though Christopher’s flu symptoms had recovered, immediately following that his appetite really spiked so, he got hungrier than usual and his thirst went through the roof.  Now keeping in mind he was a very little boy not quite 2 and a half, and probably an average size for a baby that age, but he was probably over the next course of the week’s guzzling urgently, about 5 litres of water a day.
You and I would be struggling now to get through 5 litres, I mean we try and do the two litres as recommended for good health.  So here we have a very little person drinking about 5 litres, increasing over time to about that much, which was just crazy, and as a result he started wetting the bed, which is not something we had a problem with prior, he seemed otherwise okay not particularly grizzly.

He was starting to lose weight, over that time and we thought, his appetite was increasing, he’s drinking so much and yet he’s losing weight, perhaps people who know someone with diabetes, either directly or indirectly or just happen to be fortunate and know something about diabetes might have twigged, but we didn’t.  We didn’t have a relative with that disease and we didn’t know anyone who had that disease and we­ didn’t know that those were indicative symptoms of that disease.

We had no idea, and I recall that I had made two prior doctors’ appointments to the one who gave us the diagnoses, but I had cancelled them, and I never do that, if I have a doctors’ appointment I make sure we keep it, but he seemed to pick up and we must have been especially busy at the time so I ended up cancelling them.

I remember one afternoon he was invited to another little boy’s birthday party.  His lunch that day was a large slice of continental bread with honey, grapes, a large drink of milk.  By the time we went down to the party he was also very happily nibbling on all sorts of party foods. I expressed my concerns to the mother and she said ‘oh, have you thought about diabetes’? Now, she ended up being the third person I’ve come across in those two weeks that had said that word to me and I was starting to get annoyed,  thinking to myself ‘what is going on’.  As it turned out we had our third appointment at the doctors’ that same evening.  Christopher is number 3 of our 8 children, so I had some practice at taking children to the doctor and figured that the doctor is probably going to want a urine sample, because he was drinking so much his urine sample was as clear as water, because it was just straight through.

It only took a few moments for the doctor once I had described his symptoms, he would have known instantly, he then did  a strip test which then confirmed.  He said, ‘you need to take your little boy to the Women’s and Children’s hospital’, I still get choked up (remember back), ‘you must take him now, go home, grab some clothes and go immediately to the emergency’.   They did blood work on him and the usual tests, but as a reminder he was only very little and he was screaming ‘mama’.  According to the scale they were using then, our BSL’s ideally should be around 7mmol, his was 56mmol, they said the only reason he hadn’t gone in to a coma is because we were giving him lots of water, that’s not a situation that could have sustained him indefinitely but just kept him up out of the extreme danger zone.

We were admitted and they put a line in to his hand so that they could then draw blood as regularly as they want to without having to use needles all the time.

We were on a ward with children for a week, having all sorts of conditions, such as cystic fibrosis and numbers of other things.  Christopher was otherwise okay, he wasn’t vomiting or feeling particularly unwell but we had to stay in for that week, first of all so we could stabilize his blood sugar levels, and so the doctors could determine what sort of insulin doses he would need to be on.  It’s not an easy business initially, especially when they are trying to bring them in to a stable position, little ones are not stable genuinely anyway, they’re kind of all over the shock and they can’t be made to eat a certain amount of carbohydrate when they’re so little, you can encourage them of course, but at the end of the day they’re still pretty much babies.

It’s a fretful time because they can’t express to you how they’re feeling, for example ‘mum, I think my blood sugars are going low’, or vice versa, they don’t express that, they just cry so you have to try and figure everything out for them.

Because he was so little, with this potentially life threatening on any given day condition, Christopher was home schooled till grade 3.  This was not only for my own sanity, but for his safety and out of consideration for any teachers that he might have. I felt it would be overly burdensome for a teacher responsible for 25 odd children to take notes of those sometimes very subtle cues that something might be going wrong.  With Christopher his eyes would become bloodshot if his BSL’s were low and he would start to look like he was drunk, slurring his words, and would stare blankly when you spoke to him.  He was a bright little boy and we home schooled him very successfully until such time when he was able to do his own finger pricks, administer his own insulin and know the signs when he didn’t feel right and be able to report to a teacher when he wasn’t feeling well and needed to check his blood sugar levels.

One of the worst things apart from the diagnosis was we were unfortunate to get a home-care nurse whose responsibility was to come and visit us every couple of days, just to see how we were coping and how Christopher was going.  I called her the death-knell nurse, she would come to me, a parent of a baby newly diagnosed, already fretful, already panicked, upset, distressed and grieving. Grieving because you go through a loss of what you hoped would be a long healthy life for your child, which of course they can still have with diabetes, but as a newly diagnosed child, you feel as if that’s compromised.

The nurse would stand at my door and ask me how Christopher is going and I would say ‘he’s asleep at the moment, he’s having his afternoon nap, he should be waking up very soon’ and she would say ‘what was his BSL before he went down’, he was getting on the low side, ‘it was 3, but I did this and this, she would then suggest that we should wake him up and check on him right now, because we don’t want him to die in his sleep.  She would say those sort of things every visit and to someone who is already worried that you are going to lose your child, however this women seemed to really want to hammer that right in, unnecessarily.

I still recall every day in that first year, standing at his doorway waiting in the morning for him to move to know that he was alive.  As empathic as people can be when they hear that, until you are a parent and that is your baby there and you have that very genuine fear, it really is impossible to describe what that feels like and this woman did a lot to cement that feeling.  It was very wrong of her, she could have imparted all of the same education and precautions without putting that kind of degree of fear in to a parent’s heart, that became a lot to get through.

We went through a little boy who was growing quickly and then into adolescence and the ‘don’t care very much’ attitude.  I remember at the hospital during a clinic visit, looking through a magazine aimed at parents about their ‘teenagers with Type 1 Diabetes’ saying ‘you may experience, uncooperativeness, not doing BSL’s, not having insulin at the right time, not eating at the right time’ this was all prior to having the pump, which does make a lot of those things easier.  Basically not cooperating with the regime at all, I’m going down this check list going ‘tick, tick, tick’ and at the end there were parents who were tearing their hair out.

He wasn’t diagnosed with coeliac disease until years later. Once we got his diabetes under control everything was okay, still up and down. He didn’t experience a lot of the common symptoms, stomach pains and weight loss.  In fact we would not have known if it weren’t for the fact that his blood sugar levels started going lower and lower.  We were getting lows all the time, virtually throughout every day, we thought we were doing the right thing and reduced his insulin dosage.  Until we thought ‘this is crazy’, we were hardly on any insulin, yet he was going to the bathroom all the time and had the symptoms of being high.  We didn’t know what was going on, we had no reason to think of coeliac disease, I didn’t even know what it was. We then spoke to someone at the hospital; they did all the routine tests, and then scheduled an endoscopy to confirm what they already suggested it might be.   I remember thinking, ‘one incurable, potentially life threatening disease was more than enough, thank you very much, now we have a second, for the same child’.   I was well and truly over it, I was cranky.  Not at the doctor but at the situation, they did say if you were going to choose anything to have this would be the one to choose, you don’t require medication, it’s just a matter of changing your diet and you’re pretty much all good.

That would all be fine, except on the occasion we find hidden wrappers of foods in his room, that he knows very well contain gluten.  You come to a point as a parent for your own sanity, and because they reach a particular age where you just have to let go.  Christopher already knows the deal regarding his diabetes and coeliac and the consequences.   He will cooperate to a certain extent, but not fully.

Every now and then you’ll see a story in the media, for example a young person did pass away in their sleep, because their levels went down too low.  Now he doesn’t always do finger pricks and I’ve pleaded with him, if you were to do only one, make it the one before you go to sleep at night.

Fortunately he has never had a hang up on it, he would give class talks when he was very young, ‘Hi my name’s Christopher, I’ve got Type 1 diabetes and this is what it does and this is what I have to do’.  Not socially, not in the family, not anywhere.  To me that’s a blessing, for people that do have a hang up, that can be a heavy burden to carry.

I could badger him all day about it, but all that would do is alienate him, hopefully one day that aspect of his nature will mature and he will become more responsible.

If there was a way I could take this from him, I would in a heartbeat and I think that’s most mothers speaking.  No one wants to see their child go through anything like this and if there was a way to alleviate that, I would.

Thank you for sharing your story Sarah.

Winter activity (rural)

Winter is probably my favourite season, I know it isn’t officially winter yet, but it’s just about so the ‘winter’ title is fit!

The best thing about winter for me is getting to rug up, sit by the fire, or on the coach with a nice thick blanket wrapped around me.

We have a place up the river and it’s great in both winter and summer. In winter you get to watch movies and listen to the rain on the roof.  There have been moments when you can see the storm rolling down the river.  There are other times when I’ve come back drenched in mud after going on the quad bike in the rain.

It’s a great time to bake those yummy wintery foods, soups, stews, puddings.  To get immersed in a good book, or taking walks through the hills or on the beach, then watching the sea fight against the rain.

If you’re a parent all these can be kid proof! I remember my dad rugging me up in raincoats and boots, to the point where I look like a yellow marshmallow to go play in the creek and look for frogs.  Then it would be the total opposite, with mum we would get the paints out and spend our days drawing, artwork which now hangs on our walls up at our shack.

Winter is also a time for me where I tend to get hungrier, my appetite picks up ergo so does my insulin dosage and ask I tend to turn in to more of a sloth during winter. I’m not getting an active balance that tends to help my blood sugars.

However, supplementary foods are around and it’s your challenge this winter to find them! And when you do, let me know, because I’m getting peckish now and it’s hard to find low carb snacks, but one thing that I have been snacking on is fruit.  Fruit is mostly consumed in the summery seasons, but there are alternative ways to serve fruit, whether it is with custard or in a smoothie and it serves as a healthy alternative.

I hope you have a great winter! No doubt I will bring this topic up again soon, because as you can tell I’m a fan!

Stay warm!

Winter recipe

Hey all you chefs out there, here is a great recipe that will keep you warm this winter – thanks to Helen Edwards for the recipe! Good luck!

Sweet Mash and Ricotta Pie

Helen Edwards

Main Ingredients

1 sheet of reduced fat pastry

¼ of a Butternut Pumpkin (to make 2 cups mashed)

1 Sweet Potato

1 Small tub of low fat ricotta

2 eggs

Reduced Fat Feta

Salt and Pepper

Sweet Basil or Thyme (paprika is also nice)

Method

1. Take the sheet of pastry out of the freezer to thaw
2. Peel Sweet Potato and Pumpkin and chop into pieces
3. Steam or microwave until soft
4. Line a lightly greased 23cm fluted loose-bottomed tart pan.
5. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line the pan with baking paper, fill with rice, beans or nuts and blind-bake for 10 minutes.
6. Meanwhile mash cooked sweet potato and pumpkin together and add to a large mixing bowl
7. Add the tub of ricotta and the eggs to the mash and mix well with a hand mixer until lovely and smooth
8. Add salt and pepper, as well as a teaspoon of basil or thyme and mix
9.  Pour mixture into the pie base
10. Crumble Feta on the top of the pie
11. Cook until the pie is firm and the feta is browned – about 30 minutes

Serving Suggestions

Serve with a tomato and baby spinach salad dressed with balsamic vinegar

Video blog intro

Very soon we will be producing short video blogs, including everything from short bio’s, a day in the life of people living with and dealing with diabetes across Australia, cooking tips, talks from Dieticians, professionals, gardening ideas and many, many more, so make sure you stay tuned for details on subscribing and where to watch them.

Also if you are interested in participating, whether it be on camera or wanting to share your story through the newsletter, email me at:
ghall@adam.com.au

The 2013 Channel 9 Telethon Distinctive Home & Land Lottery

The 2013 Channel 9 Telethon Distinctive Home & Land Lottery is starting late June! Diabetes Counselling Online is once again one of the lucky charities participating in this valuable fundraising project. You can purchase tickets to support our unique and vital services and have the chance to win a fantastic home fully donated by Distinctive Homes, Lanser Communities, and Taste Furniture.

This year’s home is located at Aspire Estate, near Gawler, South Australia and is approximately 45 minutes north from Adelaide’s CBD.

Tickets will be on sale from late June, and will be $10 each or you can purchase a book of 5 for $40.00 and get a bonus ticket and the chance to win $5,000 cash! With your support Diabetes Counselling Online can continue to deliver our FREE diabetes counselling and education services to people with diabetes and their families across Australia. We are the only organization providing this service.

Look out for more details on how to support Diabetes Counselling Online and purchase tickets to win this fabulous home in the next edition of “Sweet Bytes”.

Hope you enjoyed this month’s newsletter!

Part of the balance is in finding good support systems. A place, people, a forum, in which you can seek support on the days you need it, but also, feel you can step out of when needed. Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing as they say. Social Media is offering people with diabetes connections like we have never had before. When I got diabetes the only option for me was a camp for kids with type 1 diabetes and I totally rejected it. I was not ready for this mass gathering of all of those people with diabetes. At that stage I did not identify myself with diabetes. I wanted to hide from it. Twenty years later when I had accepted it and wanted more than anything to find people who got it, there was nothing. So I started Diabetes Counselling Online!

And here we are, 12 years later, with a massive online network for people with diabetes and most other conditions, problems, issues and passions you could think of. Everyone is online. So much so, that we know people are starting to lose the ability and desire to communicate in person. Kids are losing their motor skills due to lack of writing and too much swiping screens. People are hooked up to technology 24/7. And I am one of those people who is constantly connected via my smart phone which is kinda not really that smart.

I try to take the weekends to stay as unconnected as I can to the online world and as connected as I can to my family and the world around me. It is tough. There is always the thought to share a photo, upload a thought, write a blog……check what other people are up to. Ultimately I end up not working online so much on the weekends, but still jumping in and out of the online space as I wander through the joy of a weekend with the kids, pottering around, having outings and living life.

Does the online diabetes community offer you greatly needed support? Yet do you sometimes feel obliged to connect? Do you sometimes experience online overload? Or do you feel a good balance between on and offline life? If you can do that then you will find peace with diabetes and with yourself. See you on Facebook

Right now, I can happily say that life is good.  Trying to figure out what you want to do for the rest of your life is difficult to say the least.  However I think, well I believe, I am on the right path. I have always loved writing – hence me having this job, and journalism is a big passion of mine, along with fashion.  So I have enrolled in a ‘Stylist’ course, as well as working at a few different media companies. I believe I have found my niche, but what I have learned recently is it takes a lot of work and a lot of contacting, but I know now I am doing something I love and am passionate about, writing to you guys and I hope you like what you read.

Please if you have any ideas, or people who you think deserve a story contact us, I know there are a lot of people out there that want their voice heard so if you are one of them, speak up!

Life is a journey, that’s for sure and I’m all about living life to the fullest and being a teenager since I was diagnosed with diabetes, I feel like I’m stepping in to the next phase of life, adulthood – as daunting as that is.

Which means transitioning – which I’ll be focusing a bit on in this newsletter.  There are so many different forms of transitioning and the one I am going through right now I believe is taking control, not only of my life but my diabetes too.

There’s a lot of responsibility that comes with it and it’s a lot of pressure, but instead of taking the passenger seat in my care, I predominately am driving.  Now I’ve got my hands on the wheel and it’s a lot of power.

I believe you never stop learning and one quote I live by is ‘you can never be overdressed, or over educated’ – now one of the main reasons that quote really hits home to me is because I love dressing up!

Well I think you’ve heard enough from me now, I hope you enjoy the rest of the newsletter and once again send your feedback forward!

Dining in with diabetes®

During March we invited you to get on-board and support Dine In For Diabetes®. This worthwhile and fun event helped raise awareness and funds for the FREE counselling services available to family and friends of people living with diabetes. If you have not donated yet the donations portal is still open for the next month so you can hop on and make a donation even if you did not hold an event. All donations are tax-deductible and a receipt will be automatically sent to you.

Thank you to all who got involved, hosted an event and shared the celebration of your relationship with food with us online.

Diabetes Counselling Online is the only national charity offering free e-counselling and diabetes education to all people living with diabetes and their families. Did you know that people with diabetes suffer twice the rates of depression and reduced wellbeing? Many people are confused and distressed by their relationship with food and the dietary changes needed to have a healthy body. In today’s busy world fewer of us seem to take time to cook, to share healthy food with family and friends, and look after our body and our minds.

Mount Gambier – dealing with change and transition – a review

On the 7^th and 8^th of February a team of us headed down to Mount Gambier to host a workshop on ‘Transitioning’ within diabetes.

The trip was definitely worthwhile, an experience I will never forget.

The workshop consisted of two days at Mount Gambier, first day including speeches and discussion from people living with Diabetes, who are transitioning, or got diagnosed later, educators and doctors.

The second day was similar, however including a breakfast and an open discussion – which to me was the highlight, seeing how much it affects everyone, knowing you truly aren’t alone and there’s someone out there going through similar rough patches like yourself.

It was a great chance, to talk to people and share stories, to someone who understands.

I believe, overall it was a success, and it definitely has opened up a few doors on how we can help these rural communities, who aren’t as privileged with their diabetes care in the future.

A big thanks to everyone involved, especially Lorraine who organised the event – she is a big inspiration to us, the changes she wants to make and her dedication is admirable.

If you want to find out more head over to:
https://www.facebook.com/you.chooseyourtransition

Lori’s story

I have type 2 diabetes since being diagnosed in March of 2011 (so I believe)

I’m 36 years old, and am a closing coordinator at a title company. My husband, Doug, is 43 years old and Molly is our only daughter.

My husband was told he couldn’t have kids so I never considered the situation of getting pregnant. When I found out I was pregnant my A1C was 6.2 thank God.  I hadn’t been taking prenatal vitamins or anything. I worried my whole pregnancy if the baby would be ok.

Now, she is very happy and healthy!

The pregnancy itself was awfully hard on me. I had to really start watching what I ate and had to start taking insulin. I went from two pills a day and checking my sugar 4 times a week to checking my sugar at least 4 times a day and 4 insulin shots a day.  I work full time so this made it all more difficult. I saw my endocrinologist once a month and faxed him my sugars at least once every week, sometimes twice a week, for insulin adjustments.

Starting at 31 weeks I believe I had non-stress tests 3 times a week at my gynaecologist’s office. I had a C-section , 2 days before my due date my daughter weighed in at 8.8 pounds.

The most difficult thing overall was the worry about not taking prenatal AND being diabetic and not knowing I was pregnant for the first 7 weeks.  I was extremely worried about her organs, etc.

I am 99% sure I won’t have more kids. The pregnancy was very hard on me; I also developed SPD or Symphysis  Pubic Disorder, which was/is very painful and I hear it gets worse with subsequent pregnancies.

While I would like for Molly to have a sibling, I doubt it is in the cards for us. But that is not 100% just 99% there is a small chance I would consider having another.

It is amazing having a daughter. I can’t believe God blessed me with such a beautiful gift.

The best thing is of course that she is so healthy so far!

Managing your diabetes with work & study

It’s a tough thing managing your diabetes in general, but when it comes to work & study, it’s a whole different ball game.

I know with study for me, it can affect my blood sugar levels at times, especially when I’m under a lot of pressure.  For all you high school students out there, there is some help for your convenience, called special provisions,  it takes a little research and a few discussions with the staff at your school to find the best health care plan for you.  From applying  for  extensions and exam sitting.

While I was at Uni, I had to apply for an extension once, due to a bad week with my diabetes and fortunately the faculty were very understanding and I had no problems, however this isn’t always the case, sometimes they may require you to do more leg work, or have supporting documents which make it that little bit trickier, but remember that if you’re not feeling well and haven’t been able to put 1000% in, you need to speak up, sometimes I never did, when I should have.

Work is also a complicating factor, as the last thing you want is for someone to treat you differently, but depending on what job if you’re having trouble with your blood sugar levels it can affect not only your work performance but the rest of the team too.

The best way, is honesty, let them know that it is under controlled however if something were to happen this is how to go about it.

They need to know what they have to do, and what you can handle on your own.

Transitioning through school in to adulthood

I would have to say I’ve done a lot of growing up in the past 2 years, since leaving school and the Women’s & Children’s hospital, I definitely have gained a lot of independence and have really learnt how to manage my own diabetes, however saying that I am still learning and believe I always will be.
They say once you’ve found an educator and endocrinologist you’ve transitioned.  I disagree, I am still figuring out to this day and to tomorrow what best suits me, sometimes it gets really stressful, but that’s only normal.

So don’t panic if you haven’t settled in to a ‘steady’ routine, you’ll find your way, just remember there are so many options out there and to take as much time as you need in finding the person or team of people who you feel comfortable with and confident they know how to help you.

Snack time

I put it to the vote and asked your opinion on what your favourite carb free or low carb snacks were – here’s the verdict, for all you out there who are struggling to find some good snacks and always find yourself wondering your house looking for food to eat that is light and won’t trouble your blood sugars too much, here’s some quick ideas for you!

Kelly: Lettuce being her favourite free food, as this is what she was told to eat 25+ years ago, now has days she craves it!

Helene: I love Lettuce hearts, I could eat 3 probably, I also love cauliflower, raw, cooked or pickled

Deanne: Cucumber and carrot for the little one and pickles too!

Sean: I love eating raw lettuce, straight from the garden. I also love cauliflower and broccoli!

Tuija: Olives for me!

Putting the brakes on burn out
Helen Edwards; Founder & Director of Diabetes Counselling Online

www.diabetescounselling.com.au

Diabetes burn out is a common problem for many people, but what is it? Basically this occurs when you grow very tired of managing your diabetes. You might experience feelings of exhaustion and instead of sticking to your regular blood glucose checks, medications, exercise, insulin and other self- care tasks, you only do them partially or possibly neglect them altogether for a period of time. It is more than just having a bad day. You just can’t seem to muster the motivation to keep on managing  and the guilt and stress about what this is doing to your body just builds up…..adding to your distress.

The challenge for people living with diabetes and this includes family members and caregivers, is to walk the fine line between stress and worry about diabetes, with feeling comfortable about where diabetes sits in your life. You need to try and have perspective about what your goals are and what you can realistically manage at this moment. When you balance this you are able to better manage under times of stress and prevent burn out. One of the biggest things that can help is to have good support. This includes from family, friends, other people with diabetes and your health care team. Exercise and relaxation strategies really help. Learning mindfulness, which teaches you to worry less and be present in your daily life helps to reduce anxiety and distress. Being able to feel in control and have a tool kit for what to do when things feel like they may be getting out of control in any aspect of your life really makes a difference. Diabetes is not just about your blood glucose and stress and problems in other areas of life will have an impact on you control. So it is important to make sure you stay healthy in all areas of your life and keep on top of stress.

Diabetes is different to other chronic disease as it requires self-management by you on a daily even hourly basis, with guidance from your health care team. It can be easy to become overwhelmed by all the tasks you need to do and the day to day effort needed to manage. Burn out is particularly likely if you work really hard at managing your diabetes but the results are not what you would like. It is also more likely when you have pressure or stress in other areas of your life that you feel you cannot control. Diabetes burn out can last a short time, be ongoing, or can come and go. Studies have shown that a majority of people living with diabetes do experience worries, fears and negative feelings at some stage. Some high risk times where you may experience burn out due to added stress or changes in your life include:

1. If you are not meeting diabetes targets, frustration with lack of movement towards your health goals
2. Experiencing family/relationship problems, breakdown or violence
3. Transition or times of change in your life
4. Loss of someone you care about or other grief/loss
5. Experiencing poverty or homelessness
6. Drug and alcohol problems
7. Problems with work and financial stress
8. Other physical or mental health problems – such as another chronic disease, depression, mental illness, eating disorders
9. Pregnancy -  planning pregnancy and trying to conceive, during pregnancy and parenting when you have diabetes yourself
10. Growing older and dealing with changes to your body, your health and your diabetes
11. Diagnosis of diabetes complications

The recent 2011 study Diabetes MILES which surveyed over 3000 adults with diabetes in Australia found that overall, people were least satisfied with their health, as compared to other aspects of their life. Adults with type 2 diabetes who were using insulin had lower levels of satisfaction across all life areas (e.g. health, relationships, safety, standard of living) as compared to adults with type 1 diabetes or with those who had type 2 diabetes but were not using insulin. Adults with type 2 diabetes who were using insulin were also more likely to experience moderate to severe symptoms of depression and anxiety than other respondents. Moderate to severe depressive symptoms affected 35% of adults with type 2 on insulin, as compared to 22% of those with type 1 and 23% of those with type 2 who were not using insulin.  Moderate to severe anxiety symptoms also affected 19% of adults with type 2 who were using insulin, as compared to 15% of those with type 1 and 14% of those with type 2 non-insulin-managed diabetes. Adults with type 1 diabetes were more likely to experience severe diabetes-related distress than other respondents. 28% of adults with type 1 diabetes experienced severe distress, as compared to 22% of people with type 2 insulin-managed and 17% of type 2 non-insulin-managed diabetes. The most commonly reported problem area for respondents (consistent across diabetes types and treatment regimens) was worrying about the future and the development of diabetes related complications.

Rates of diabetes related distress are high yet people are often scared to ask for help, particularly if they have not been managing well. It is important that you DO ask for help and remember there is no such thing as a silly question! Most of us get tired of doing everyday tasks and diabetes sure adds to those! Few people can maintain all the tasks of diabetes care week-in, week-out AND keep blood glucose and HbA1c’s in the narrow target range all the time.  Without realistic expectations and practical strategies for managing the thoughts, feelings and emotional side of diabetes, the risk of burnout is higher. The way we think and talk about diabetes has a major impact on how we feel and manage diabetes. Using words like “ high and low” blood glucose instead of “good and bad” can help and so does using CHECK instead of the word TEST when talking about blood glucose monitoring. The reality is most people have an immediate reaction to a high or low BGL. That is normal and fine, but once you have this reaction move on to looking at the number and working out how to manage this and prevent it in the future if possible.

Seven Steps to dealing with Burn out

1. Consider what particular areas of diabetes are causing you problems – usually it is not all of it! Then develop steps for sorting these areas. Get help if needed.
2. What else is happening in your life that might be conflicting with diabetes care, or making it harder?
3. How might you address these things?
4. What are your expectations for your diabetes management? Do you need to lower or increase your expectations?
5. What sorts of thoughts and feelings are you having about diabetes/
6. How are you managing these and are these strategies working? What have you tried?
7. Do you have any support? Is it the right support? Is it enough support? If not, how can you get this?

Support is vital. Make sure you get this from a variety of sources:

• Health Care Team
• Family and friends
• People with diabetes
• Online and in person
• Books, magazines and other sources of information
• Counselling and other specialists
• Take time out from diabetes and other stress – try to be a “human being” not always a “human doing”!

Diabetes might thrive on maths – to be corrected and added up BUT You are not a maths problem! See yourself as a sunset – not something to be solved, but appreciated –your achievements, attempts at change, dreams and goals – sit back and appreciate them from time to time and remember there is more to life than diabetes.

Feeling Lucky?

Congratulations to Jenny Gaunt of Perth, WA for her winning suggestion for a great idea for a high tea. Jenny wins a free 12 month subscription to Diabetic Living Magazine.

Jenny said: “Fruit is a perfect idea for a high tea! Fruit scones, fruit with custard or low fat yogurt or fruit on its own.”

Thank you to all who got involved, hosted an event and shared the celebration of your relationship with food with us online.

Diabetes Counselling Online is the only national charity offering free e-counselling and diabetes education to all people living with diabetes and their families. Did you know that people with diabetes suffer twice the rates of depression and reduced wellbeing? Many people are confused and distressed by their relationship with food and the dietary changes needed to have a healthy body. In today’s busy world fewer of us seem to take time to cook, to share healthy food with family and friends, and look after our body and our minds.

With 275 people diagnosed per day with diabetes in Australia alone, most people have a connection to diabetes in some way. All the money raised in the month of March for Dine In For Diabetes® will help us establish a 1300 counselling service as an extension of our existing online counselling services. Diabetes Counselling Online is a FREE counselling service, vital to the health and wellbeing of people living with diabetes.
We look forward to sharing this event with you again in 2014!

Please if you have any ideas, or people who you think deserve a story contact us, I know there are a lot of people out there that want their voice heard so if you are one of them, speak up!

Life is a journey, that’s for sure and I’m all about living life to the fullest and being a teenager since I was diagnosed with diabetes, I feel like I’m stepping in to the next phase of life, adulthood – as daunting as that is.

Which means transitioning – which I’ll be focusing a bit on in this newsletter.  There are so many different forms of transitioning and the one I am going through right now I believe is taking control, not only of my life but my diabetes too.
There’s a lot of responsibility that comes with it and it’s a lot of pressure, but instead of taking the passenger seat in my care, I predominately am driving.  Now I’ve got my hands on the wheel and it’s a lot of power.

I believe you never stop learning and one quote I live by is ‘you can never be overdressed, or over educated’ – now one of the main reasons that quote really hits home to me is because I love dressing up!

Well I think you’ve heard enough from me now, I hope you enjoy the rest of the newsletter and once again send your feedback forward!

** I AM DIABETES & I SHALL BE WITH YOU FROM THE MINUTE I AM FOUND TILL YOUR LAST BREATHE **

By Our Guest Blogger – Vette Marie Drew

Something held me. Something kept me hanging. Even if by the thinnest of threads.

What is that something? The thing that on days where for example I feel like giving up on writing a report, working on my PhD research, cleaning the house, finding ways to keep our charity afloat, dealing with the never ending relentless drag of my diabetes, or today, when the personal trainer was making me do things that no 45 year old woman should ever try to do – that I don’t give up?

I think for me, it is a lot of things. It is my competitiveness. The fact that I want to win. My stubborn streak some would say. My capacity and drive to grab hold and hang on for dear life. My family, my children, the desire to spend as much time loving them as possible. My passion. My basic love of life, of all the things in nature, the sky, the clouds,the sunshine, the rain and the stars. All the wonderful animals in the world and the way my own – my cats, love me. The pleasure of sitting in my chair at the end of the day knowing I have used both my body and my brain in positive and wonderful ways and as much as I possibly could have during that day and can sink into a bit of mindless television and a chat with my lovely husband. My philosophy of “go hard or go home”. The people I meet every day and hearing their stories. The possibilities of the future, what might lie ahead today, next week, next year, in ten years. The pain and the joy of the past. The people I have loved and lost. Living life and the fact that I have been given the chance to experience it and that I understand ALL of us find it tough. ALL of us have these battles. We are one in this. That this is life.

Yes, I might go into battles each and every day and feel like giving up sometimes, but at the end of the day I would be giving up on life and that is just not playing the game the right way is it.

Helen Edwards

Hello everyone,

My name is Ryley Eckert, and as part of my Year 12 Research Project, I have decided to explore the question ,” When Unmanaged, how does Type 1 Diabetes affect the body over time?”

The Research Project is a compulsory project for all South Australian year 12 students, and as an investigation into the above topic, I have decided to conduct a survey of a range of people who have Type 1 Diabetes.

This survey will be a big part of my primary research, so every response really helps me out a lot!

** All information will be kept completely confidential, and your name will be kept anonymous **

I’d like to thank you in advance for taking the time to take my survey.

Ryley

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/M55LKZY