Diabetes Blog Week #1

I love this time of year! Another great D-blogging week. Here's my contribution for today!

Admiring our differences

Today let’s talk about how great it is to learn from the perspectives of those unlike us!

The blogs I really love reading, that are written by people without d, are the blogs written by parents of kids with t1. I am involved with the Children With Diabetes UK group, and have got to know so many of the parents very well. They teach me so much - and I love learning from them! They have such a big job to do - keeping their kids alive and safe, and they all do it so well. Sure, they make mistakes along the way - but who doesn't! I know I make mistakes with my own care, and I'm the one that can feel the highs and lows. 

I love hearing what it's like from what I consider 'the other side'. They make decisions and choices that will impact on their child's health in the short term and in the long term. They push for the best for their kids, and still maintain a sense of 'normality' (whatever that is) for their families. Their strength and confidence is something I admire greatly. I know at times I have drawn on that strength and confidence in situations I've been in.

I obviously hope that I will never be a d-parent, but I know that should I end up in that situation, I will have a fantastic group of supportive people around me.

I have recently started to help look after a couple of kids (not a regular thing at the moment) who have type 1, and I didn't realise how terrifying it is to have that responsibility. Even though I used the bolus wizard on their pumps, I was absolutely petrified at the thought of putting insulin into their bodies - what if I got it wrong?! It's not quite the same as the full time care given by their parents, but my god it was scary.

So: a big shout out to blogging parents. You guys are fascinating to read, please keep it up!

Gigging - again!

I am going to keep this as d free as possible, so I'll get my rant out now: I am NEVER having chinese food from Camden Market EVER AGAIN. I bolused like a bitch for that food, and still hit 21.6. Stupid stupid food! Oh well - I just corrected and tested and as expected, I fell right back down into safe numbers after a few hours.

My dad and I went to see Tim Booth again, this time in London. We VIP'd it again, meaning we got to see the soundcheck.

We arrived a little early, and had to wait over an hour after the published start time to go in for the soundcheck. The soundcheck was fab, as always, it was great to see the band.

After the soundcheck dad and I headed to the market to grab food. As we were walking through, I said to my dad "look at that guy in front, he has a VIP pass on too" then I looked at who he was walking with - it was Tim!!! My dad and I try to be pretty respectful of the band when they are not on stage, so we watched him hop into a taxi with his luggage.

When we got back to the venue after the food, I met up with a friend I met at the Birmingham gig, and we hung around the back entrance of the venue - where all of the band bar Tim were hanging out! It turned out that the keyboardist (Dan), who also plays the sax, was panicking (well, all of them were) as his sax had fallen off the stage and broken! We spent a little while chatting, and he was a genuinely lovely guy - very normal and down to earth.

Me and Dan

chatting!

Thankfully, they found a replacement sax literally minutes before they were due on stage. I also chatted to Neil  who plays bass:

Me and Neil

Gig was AWESOME. Seriously fab. We stuck around for ages afterwards to see if we could get our VIP passes signed, and they all very kindly obliged :) I also chatted to Dan again which was fab:

All in all - fantastic gig. I can't wait to see them again. I'm hoping to make it to Hop Farm Festival, but it all depends on £ and logistics!

(all photos credited to Lou Purplefairy :))