Vanessa' Blog

As a FreeStyle Libre ambassador, over the past few weeks I have had the privilege to trial out the FreeStyle Libre 2, so I thought I would share my (very positive) experiences with you all! For me, the first version of the FreeStyle Libre is in a nutshell… life changing. To have the ability to visually understand and analyse what is happening to my glucose levels, have a better understanding of the direction they are going in, as well as a better understanding of the impact of certain food choic...

 Diabetes burnout  Something that many of us living with Type 1 Diabetes have experienced at some point in our lives, linked in with the pressures of replicating the job of an organ (to put it bluntly). But what is Diabetes burnout? Based on my own experience…. I would define it as a point when we get to the end of our tether and think "What is the F***ING point" (excuse the language but I am sure you can all relate). Why? Well let's look at a handful of the things we have to do as som...

I don't care what anyone says, being a Type 1 Diabetic is HARD. Hard mentally, hard physically and hard emotionally. I'll admit, my control now is pretty good for a 27-year-old, as I suppose I am now an adult and have matured (I think?!) over 10-15 years. But back in my teenage years, I was far from a well-controlled Diabetic…. My blood glucose control was awful, as I basically did not give a s**t, which is quite common as a sassy teen! But why did I not care, even though I KNEW what could happe...

As a lot of you living with Diabetes know, our daily thoughts are consumed by our Diabetes. In fact, I would say I think about my Diabetes every minute of the day. To put this into a perspective, I thought I would document EVERYTHING that goes through my head on a day to day basis, to provide an insight to others not living with Diabetes, as to what goes through our heads each and every day: What is my blood sugar level?How much insulin do I need now?How many carbs in this?What is my insulin rat...

As I am in my mid-20's, one thing that I have experience with living with Diabetes (a lot of experience!) is socialising, clubbing and basically letting my hair down at the weekend. And most importantly, diabetes has never stopped me! I believe that being able to enjoy myself, whether this involves a couple of drinks or not, is incredibly important, regardless of a diabetes diagnosis. I am a big fas of clubbing, festivals (involving camping), concerts and holidays! I have been in contact with qu...

So, as well as administering insulin, checking BG levels, counting carbs, watching what we eat, along with the sheer mental stress that diabetes comes hand in hand with, we also have a high chance of experiencing a hypo, in other words a low blood sugar level. Now, I don't know about you, but I tend to categorise my hypos: Pre-hypo: My BG level is in range but I can feel it dropping. How do I explain the feeling….. well, my symptoms are having 0 energy and struggling to keep my eyes open.Mi...

My Journey  Type 1 Diabetes is a chronic, lifelong condition that effects the pancreas's ability (an important organ in our bodies) to produce the hormone insulin, a hormone responsible for consistent blood glucose control. Without insulin, our body basically cannot function as it should, as this would result in high levels of glucose in the blood stream, leading to life threatening consequences, both long and short term. A person with Type 1 Diabetes is therefore required to self-administe...