Friday, April 19, 2013

Normal

My blood sugars have been weird lately. "How have they been weird, Sarah?" You ask. Well, they have been...

NORMAL

I had been skipping breakfast because I didn't think I had time to eat anything. Tuesday morning (One day after having a horrible stomach ache/ nausea. Note: Thank you to the chemists that created Zofran. Another Note: The endo gives all diabetics Zofran prescriptions; no one wants a vomiting diabetic. Vomiting + Diabetes = DKA), I decided to eat some breakfast, chex mix and soy milk to be exact. Suddenly, I stopped having my morning spike. I also remembered to cover after school snacks/ pre-cover food, and now my blood sugars have been great.

I should probably change my sensor, but I'm lazy. Can you tell?
And by great, I mean not high. I've been constantly hovering in the 70's-80's. Sometimes, I will go low, I'll get to 80, then I'll go down again. My blood sugars won't go up for anything. Today, I went to the nurses office with a BG of 73. I went because my high school has two campuses separated by a practice football field; walking across a football field with an almost-low BG is not a good idea. I drank a large juice box, a caramel Level Life (I'm not endorsed by them, I swear. We were sent free ones because my Dad signed up for them to send us a free sample.), and peanut butter crackers. I had 63 carbs, covered none of it, and I only went up to 103. Don't ask me how stuff like this works because I have no clue.

Moral of the Story: Normal is really weird.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

HAWMC Days 8 and 9: Care Giving and Wordless Wednesday

Hi; I'm really sorry that I haven't been posting daily. School has made me busy, and I just can't post everyday.

Yesterday's prompt was-
Patients, what advice or tips do you have for caregivers out there – professional or otherwise!
My simple advice for caregiver is: always ask.

Simply ask what their dinner time blood sugar was.

Ask how school went.

Ask about her new blood tester.

Ask.

Asking little questions like these can hint other, much more important things in someone's life.

It also shows that you care.
--

Today's prompt is-
It’s often hard to like pictures of ourselves – post your favorite picture of yourself.
I think this is my favorite picture of myself because I'm just having fun.
(I'm the fourth from the left on the back row/ the only one with glasses.)

Monday, April 8, 2013

HWAMC Days 7 and 8: Sensationalize and Animals

Yesterday (when I forgot to blog) had a prompt that was all about sensations!
Here it is
What’s the most ridiculous thing you've heard about health or your condition? Where did you hear it and what did you think?
I think the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard about diabetes is that it is contagious. No one has actually told me they thought that, but I've so many blogs post about this awkward presumption about diabetes. I'm pretty sure that none of the chronic illnesses known to people at this time are contagious. Therefore, diabetes cannot possibly be contagious; after all, it is a chronic illness

And today's prompt is all about my one of my favorite things, animals!
If your health condition was an animal, what would it be? Is it a real animal or make believe?
Okay, every member of the DOC knows that unicorns are the mascot of the DOC, so diabetes would obviously be a unicorn. It wouldn't be a cute, innocent unicorn, though; it would be a queevil (cute + evil = queevil) unicorn. On the outside, most people think that the unicorn doesn't look that bad, sometimes it actually looks nice. When other people are gone, it turns evil. Giving you high blood sugars, low blood sugars, occlusions in pumps, dead spots, and so much other crap is deep inside the unicorn of doom.
The unicorn sends out good vibes to normal people, but stores bad vibes and gives the to diabetics.
Well, that's it for days seven and eight!

Saturday, April 6, 2013

HWAMC Day Six: Letters

Today's prompt will be written in letter format; get ready!
Write a letter to your condition – what do you want to get off your chest?
Dear Type One Diabetes,

We've been together for almost 9 1/2 years- I didn't want this to last. You've been extremely problematic since day one. You scared me so much that you made my mom give me my first shot of insulin. It probably would have hurt less if the doctors did it, but you scared me too much to let them do it.

 You made me get an insulin pump, which gave a girl a reason to exclude me from her group of friends. I still cringe a little when I see her, and she never apologized.

You introduced me to glucose tabs; one day I ate a whole bottle and I had to ask how to raise my daily bolus limit because I needed to cover them.

You've made me go to the doctor four times per year. That's 33 times since age five.

You've made me go to the hospital twice. Once for diagnosis and another because I went into DKA.

You've made so many bad things happen to me.

So thanks.

You suck, but you've also done a few good things for me.

You introduced me to Camp Kudzu, AKA the best place in the world.

You also made me start blogging, which has given me so many new friends.

You've made me who I am, and for that, I am truthfully thankful.
- Sarah

Friday, April 5, 2013

HWAMC Days Four and Five: Sharing Resources and Aspirations

Okay, I have to put these both into one blog post, or I will keep forgetting to post.

First, I will be giving everyone some resources, so they can successfully advocate for themselves.

Here's the prompt:
Create a “care page” – a list of your best resources that someone who is newly diagnosed could go to when starting to advocate for themselves or a loved one. Remember to include sites that lead to successful self advocacy!
Online-
If you are going to participate in online advocacy, here some great places to go to get started!

  • Diabetes Social Media Advocacy- This is the place to go to connect with other diabetics on the web. There is the DSMA tweetchat, held every Wednesday at 9 PM EST, the monthly blog carnival, and  so many other ways you can get involved.
  • Check out WEGO Health, they run HWAMC twice a year and have many tools for bloggers!
  • Okay, I'm really not that fantastic at coming up with ideas for this, so I'll just say that you should look at your fellow bloggers for examples of great online advocacy. You can ask them questions; I'm sure that they would love to help you out!
Real Life- *DUN DUN DUN*
  • The ADA's advocacy page has tons of resources -for advocating at school, at work, and even talking to your representatives.
  • The JDRF also has an advocacy mini-site with tons of ways you can advocate for your diabetes.
  • The IDF's website is also a great place for advocacy ideas.
Now, to Part Two of the post!

The prompt:
“If I could do anything as a Health Activist…” Think big today! Money/ time/ physical limitations are no longer an issue. What is your biggest goal that is now possible?
 If I could do anything as a Health Activist, I would create a set of commercials with diabetes bloggers in them, sharing misconceptions about diabetes and why they are wrong.

Examples:
Diabetics can't eat sugar.
Wrong.
We can eat sugar, we just have to eat it in moderation, like everyone should.

Eating too much sugar causes diabetes.
Wrong.
Diabetes can be caused by gene mutations and sometimes an overall unhealthy lifestyle. We didn't get diabetes from eating too much Halloween candy.

(ETC.)

I would have these commercials air on channels that almost everyone watches, and would eventually want them to be filmed in other languages for other countries, as well. That would be awesome.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

HWAMC Day Three: Wordless Thursday

So, obviously I missed yesterday's post. I was too busy playing pokemon and animal crossing and blogging about both  too busy doing important stuff...

Here's the prompt:
Post a picture that symbolizes your condition and your experiences. 

This pretty much sums up diabetes...

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

HAWMC Day Two: Introductions

Today's Prompt:
Introduce your condition(s) to other Health Activists. What are 5 things you want them to know about your condition/your activism? 
I live with the wonderful (sarcasm) condition known as type one diabetes or juvenile diabetes. You can also call it by its scientific name, diabetes mellitus. There are many other types of diabetes, like type two, LADA, gestational, and monogenic; I'm stuck with type one. Type one diabetes occurs when the beta cells in the Islet of Langerhans inside your pancreas attack themselves. These beta cells usually produce insulin, a hormone your body makes to convert the carbohydrates from food into the energy you use. Because my pancreas doesn't produce insulin anymore, (I'm not in the honeymoon stage.) I give myself insulin through my pump. An insulin pump is a cell phone sized device that gives me insulin with a few clicks of a button through a tiny tube (called a site) inserted into my arm, leg, or stomach.

Now that you know a little bit about my condition, here are the five things everyone should know about type one diabetes:
  1. Type one does not equal immediate kidney dialysis/ organ failure/ amputations. I've never talked to or actually seen a diabetic with any of these drastic consequences. The only way these things can happen is if you don't take care of your diabetes for YEARS. Not two days, not a few weeks, not 2 months, but many years.
  2. DIABETICS CAN EAT SUGAR. I don't care if you know one that doesn't eat it, we can it sugar if we want. (And on that note, if you ask someone if they want to eat something and they say no, please don't say something along the lines of, "Oh yeah, it's because of your diabetes." It might be because of that, but it might not be, as well. People ask me this all of the time and sometimes I just want to scream, "NO!")
  3. Type one shouldn't be compared to other illnesses/ conditions. You should NEVER say, "At least you don't have cancer." You may be trying to be optimistic/ lighten the mood, but that isn't okay and it just makes everyone feel awkward. You wouldn't say to a cancer patient, "At least you don't have *insert illness here*," would you?
  4. Type one comes with an interesting sense of humor. We have so many memes and can occasionally make borderline offensive jokes. See figure one.
  5. Figure One- A joke pertaining to Easter AND diabetes. This could be slightly offensive...
  6. Type one diabetes will definitely add new terminology to your vocabulary. See figure two.
Now you know the secrets (not really) of type one diabetes, spread them around so everyone can know!

Monday, April 1, 2013

HAWMC Day One: Getting Started

Today's Prompt:
Tell us a little bit about why you write about your health online and what got you started.
Apparently I saw the future, sub-consciously, so I've already written something that would fit into this category. I wrote it for my "About the Blog" section of this page, and I can't find a better way to word a response to the prompt, so here it is!

This blog was originally made when I was in sixth grade, in 2009. I was inspired to make a blog because my dad introduced me to Lee Ann's blog. In fact, I couldn't come up with a name, so I tried to call my blog "The Butter Compartment," as well. My dad then explained to me that using that name was stealing and that I needed to come up with my own blog name. After much thought, I came up with "Insulin Pens Don't Have Ink." I called my blog this because I had just made the decision to try insulin pens, rather than using my pump. Soon, I shut my blog down because I was only reading two blogs at the time, (Now I am reading tons of blogs, check them out here.) and I was discouraged because only a few people reading my blog. (Views were not why I started my blog; I just didn't have any inspiration for posts.) A few years later, I realized that I wanted to blog again, so I made this blog and used the same title, even though I am back on my pump. I've been blogging since my sister was diagnosed with diabetes, and I haven't turned back! Today, I write because I want to show other people that diabetes doesn't have to be just a burden, it can bring a little bit of good to their life, as well.

Well, that is it for today; stay tuned for tomorrow's post!