Driving Lisence forms and diabetes.

God this is a pain in the damn backside.

Okay, okay, so I'm diabetic and my request for a license maybe needs a bit more consideration because of it, but come on DVLA, I sent you my application over a month ago, you had all my details. I gave you all the details of my GP, you said it would take an extra 10 days for you to contact them, here I am 15 days after that letter, to find youve sent me yet another lot of forms.

It is taking the total piss. 

I am diabetic, to do this I just need to keep a close eye on sugars especially when driving, why is it taking you so long to send me my provisional? I arent blind, or I dont have one leg or anything that normally affects my ability to drive, DVLA you are taking the flipping mick.

I understand the need for more caution, truly I do, but this is just a few steps too far, my friends got their provisionals within a few weeks, im still damn waiting for mine!    

Keep smiling.

Love, Tutti-Frutti.
xxx  

Diabetes and Relationships.

When I was at my appointment the other day, my specialist nurse told me that to be in a relationship (as I am now), is often helpful for diabetics in control of blood sugars. I think I understand why now.


Yesterday, they taught my boyfriend all about diabetes, and how to make me better if I drop or go too high ect, and then I taught him later how to work out the carbohydrate counting thing. He's doing really really well with it, he knows a lot in the space of a day which I am impressed by and he said hes going to leave things in the car in preparation in case anything does happen (bless him).


But even more than that. My blood sugars have been better in the past week, because he makes sure I do my injections before I eat (I have a tendancy to do them after which apparently is not as effective as doing them before). He consistently asks about my blood sugar levels (and knows now what is too high and what is too low). When it is low, he opens my lucozade and stays with me until it is better again. He genuinely cares and I love him for it and can understand now why ones blood sugars will be better in a partnership, because I've been finding myself more attentive to them because I dont want to worry him because I know that he loves me and I love him :-)


I would say that it is important that your partner knows about your diabetes, just in case you do get into a sticky spot with it and then they can help you. My partner actually now knows more about it than my parents, but thats okay because I spend more time with him than I do my parents. 


I'm very very lucky, because mine takes me just as I am, with all my oddities and imperfections, and he sorts me out when I drop low, and deals with my moods if I get too high, he's just all round wonderful :-)


Keep smiling :)


Love, Tutti-Frutti.
xxx 

Something I Have Never Ever Forgotten.

A few years back there was an incident that I was at the center of, involving diabetes, that I have never ever forgotten, and I don't think ever will, and this, further to the post I made yesterday, is something which makes me think even more that people need educating about diabetes more.


When I was younger, this is a while back now, we were in ASDA and my mum was waiting to pay and I was behind her in the queue. I'd started to feel my blood sugars go low, and tried to tell her, and she asked if I could wait a second and then she was going to grab me something to eat on the way out. I said yes that was fine and tried to continue, but I noticed myself losing my grip of things.


This is the point where, for me, my memory is hazy. I remember my eyes not seeming to stay still in their sockets and the whole of ASDA being one huge blur, like your vision on the waltzers or something. I was shaking violently. I remember trying in panic to alert my mum, I dont remember what I said or if it was coherent, but she noticed something was wrong and tried giving me money to walk off a few steps and grab some lucozade. I still recognized her at this point. 


I remember taking about 2 steps, and then going almost blind and losing all feeling in my legs. I remember not knowing where I was, but I knew I was going to fall. This next bit, I remember pretty vividly, because it upset me a lot when I came round again:


TO TRY AND STOP MYSELF FALLING, I ATTEMPTED TO HOLD ON TO THE TROLLEY OF A LADY STANDING CLOSE TO ME, SHE YANKED THE TROLLEY AWAY, CALLED ME A FREAK, AND WALKED AWAY.


Apparently, after this I began screaming (I dont remember this) and also, when my mum came to me, I didn't recognize her. Luckily, the lady who was serving us knew someone else who was diabetic and she was in action fast. She grabbed the nearest thing to her, a mars bar, and they attempted to feed me that mars bar while she called someone to get a bottle of lucozade (we didnt end up paying for either item). I felt better after the mars bar, and totally fine after the lucozade, and I was quite giggly later on, but I think I scared my mother half to death. 


The point of this post though, was the woman, and what on earth was she thinking? I didn't expect her to know I was diabetic, but I would have expected her to have a tad more compassion. Freak was sort of tattooed onto me after that. I know it's ridiculous, those who know don't see me in that light, but when someone sees us going too high or too low, if the first thing they manage to think is "freak", then what sort of world are we living in? 


I would ask you this one question, and to avoid bias I am going to not relate it to diabetes, if someone was having a heart attack in the street, or you came across someone with dementia who was lost and didn't know where they were or where they were going to, what would you do? Would you be like her, and say that they are freaks and ignore them, because you want out, or would you do the compassionate and human thing, and do your best to help them in any way you can, even if it seems like they're drunk, or incomprehensible, wouldn't you even try to help them?


If ever I am in the position where I can't physically speak to tell someone that I have diabetes and need either sugar or an injection, I have my ice band with the fact that I am diabetic and my name. I can show someone this and make them understand, but the only way I can do that is if someone is compassionate enough to help me if I look like I'm confused, or delirious, or can't talk to you properly. If you cross the street when you see me, I can't show you the thing that is going to save me, if you come and try to help me, I can at least attempt to show you the band so you'd know what to do.


Like I say, we need far more education.


Keep smiling :-)
Love, Tutti-Frutti
xxx 

People Need Educating.

Right, here's the deal. I'll put this as plainly and simply as possible. People need educating on diabetes, the different types and how they differ, how diabetes affects people, the reasons why I might seem like I am drunk sometimes if you see me in the street, the medications/treatments. People need educating on it all.


In psychology today, and this should never happen by the way guys, I was annoyed at it a little, but luckily for him on the whole I was okay with it, my psychology teacher turned without warning and announced to the class that I am a diabetic. When, quite shocked as I was, my eyes shot up from what I was doing to glare at him, he asked me if I minded the class being told I was diabetic, I told him it was a little late now since he'd already said, he told me evidently there was issues in eithics, yes there were, issues which he didn't consider. Now luckily for him, I didn't mind the entire class knowing, because it isn't something I can change, its not something I'm bothered about people knowing, but if I were anyone different he'd have to be careful. 


The reason I mentioned this, is because there followed comments about weren't diabetics fat? Wasn't diabetes due to overeating? And though this was never said, it was almost as if they were thinking, was she overfed as a child? Is it her parents fault she ended up diabetic?


What annoyed me, was that no-one asked me. They all muttered to themselves, but no-one turned to me and asked me, not at least until my psychology teacher started again. I explained they thought it was due to an auto-immune deficiency, at which point I received a roomful of blank stares and had to explain that means that my immune system was trying to attack itself. My psychology teacher went on to explain that the difference in types means a different in treatment, my pancreas doesn't work, that is not the same as all type 2 diabetics, and if you gave me metformin, no matter how many doses you give me, it wasn't going to work because I need different things. 


He explained that sometimes I act like I am drunk and that usually this is when my blood sugar is too low. Acting like I am drunk is a rather simplistic view I have to say, but it works I guess as a way of understanding something. Obviously for me, there is so much more happening, my eye sight may be getting affected, I might not be able to walk right, I tend to lose the feeling in my legs and my hands feel funny, I get dizzy and it feels like the world is turning on its axis too fast. 


But it scares me to think, everyone knew type two, they knew very little about type one. More education is needed, and needed fast. With understanding comes acceptance.


Keep Smiling :)
Love, Tutti-Frutti
xxx

If you want to know about diabetes, isn't talking to us better than talking to the doctors?

Right now I am doing a presentation on schizophrenia. I have been asked to look at the classifications, and the diagnosis, and the symptoms ect ect, and as I have been doing it it occured to me that everything I am looking at is coming from a purely medical point of view, so I digressed a little from my research and tried to find out what schizophrenics say about being schizophrenic.


The reason I think this is so important is that I thought about when I go to the hospital, and they offer me all this advice and drugs and stuff, and they talk to you like they know everything (some of them do anyway, not all of them), and I just sit there and think it's alright for them, they can go home at the end of the shift and not have to think about diabetes, for them diabetes is a job, for me its life. And I know when people ask questions or want to find out about these things, they ask the professionals, which is fine, they know what they're talking about, but all they can give you is a text book definition, when you live it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you are qualified to talk about it I think and can do so so much better than people who work shifts with it and then leave it behind at the work place when they go home. 


I wanted to find out what it was like for people living with schizophrenia, because its all very well and good throwing me symptoms and diagnostic criteria, but how the hell am I supposed to understand it if I just have that to go on? I stand no chance! I think the only people who can tell me about schizophrenia, are schizophrenics. The only people who can tell you what it is like to live with diabetes, are diabetics and the only people who can tell you what if feels like to live with cancer are cancer patients. No-one can give you a better insight than someone who has been there and done it. If you work with us, you might have knowledge of it, but you cant possibly have knowledge of living with it, because the bets are , you dont.


I have gone against whay my psychology teacher actually wanted tonight, which is a risk, but the only way I am going to understand schizophrenia as a condition and be able to write about it is if I listen to people who actually know what it is like to have it and people who can tell me about it. Being told that a symptom of it is hallucinations is not going to help me, I need to know how it FEELS, what they think, I aren't going to get that from any diagnostic criteria. 


Keep Smiling :)
Love, Tutti-Frutti
xxx

Never Ever Let Someone Treat You Like This.....

The other day I was on the way to the bus stop and my blood sugar dropped really quickly. I had nothing on me (that in itself was a daft move) but the nearest place to me was a burger king which I was conveniently just walking past and was empty. I went in there and grabbed a coke and a burger and then saw the bus I needed pull up a little way away. 


I know that food is not allowed on buses, I am well aware of that fact, but it wasn't like I was going to throw it down on the floor, I was going to be eating it and sorting out my blood sugar.


I tried to step on the bus and the driver looked at me like I was some sort of bug that he quite fancied squashing. He very rudely said- "You aren't getting on here with that food".


I tried to ignore the rudeness and hostility in his voice and tried to be polite when I returned "I appreciate that but I am diabetic and my blood sugars have gone low, i'll be finished with it soon anyway can you not just let me on this once?"


He took back his hostile tone of voice and said- "You know the rules of the bus and you should have thought of that before, I aren't letting you on, you'll have to get on the next bus".


I was fuming, I didn't even know what to say. If he wanted proof, I had my iceband on my wrist, though how much more proof he needed when I was stood there shaking. The thing that added insult to injury was his total ignorance- "You should have though of that before" he had said, because usually I know exactly what time my blood sugars are going to drop! Idiot! He obviously had no knowledge of diabetes and what it can do if he thinks that we get like a days warning before out blood sugars drop, what a stupid, uneducated man.


Of course it got worse though, we rang up to complain (and eventually our complaint was put through) but the woman on the other end of the phone told my dad that I could have been lying. My dad didn't like that much, he said if someone had a heart attack on the bus would you assume they had been lying? And besides, would you not give someone the benefit of the doubt when they say something like that, just in case they dont lead such a sad life that they feel the need to lie about being a dibetic, and let them on the bus? Or is that just my naive side coming across? 


Anyway the point of this post is that I let this man treat me like crap. I never use my diabetes as a way to get me out of anything or get me on anything, I never lie about it, I don't need to. And what added insult to injury was that a few days later I was on a bus where someone got on with McDonalds, no questions asked, and proceeded to leave all their rubbish on the floor, yet they were allowed to do that, so why was it ok for them, but not for me when I actually needed the food? Never let someone treat you like this man treat me, it should never ever be done.


Keep smiling :)
Love, Tutti-Frutti
xxx