HbA1c time.

12 April 2010
27 Comments

Bleeeeurgh. Went for a blood test this morning. I’ve got a specialist appointment tomorrow, the first since I was discharged from the diabetes high risk maternity unit at National Women’s.

As part of this, I had to go and get some bloods done, notably the all-important HbA1c (or the molar measurement which is coming to take over the HbA1c).

I am absolutely dreading getting this HbA1c back. I liken it to getting exam results. Over the last 18 months I’ve actually looked forward to getting my HbA1c results back because I had a notion that they were going to be good (I was testing that much, and counting carbs like a mofo so you…

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By Nic on 12 April 2010 at 2.22 pm
Posted in Insulin Pumps, Monitoring, Pregnancy
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The mama diaries continued.

29 March 2010
11 Comments

My little boy Hugo is now 5.5 months old, and in the last week I’ve been treated to six nights with him sleeping right through the night. Hurrah! I think it’s not til you actually start to get some sleep back that you look back and wonder how you did all those night time feeds in the first place (there were definitely times when I felt totally exhausted and zombie-like, that’s for sure…. but you just keep on trucking).

My last update of motherhood with T1 was at the eight week post-birth mark. My sugars were largely under control and when people asked me how my diabetes had been post-birth, I’d smile and genuinely…

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By Nic on 29 March 2010 at 9.54 am
Posted in Hypos & Hypers, Pregnancy
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Return of the night spikes.

11 March 2010
13 Comments

The great thing about being pregnant most of last year was that the dreaded overnight BG spikes I was struggling with (which lead me to getting on the pump in the first place) disappeared. I’m not sure it was a complete win, because with all of the other pregnancy stuff all of the rest of your blood sugars go haywire… but I have to say – there is something doubly frustrating about going to bed with a perfect BG and waking up in the morning with a sky-high one. It just seems really unfair. During the day if you have a crazy spike you often blame it on food, exercise or stress (rightly or wrongly) – but I just get…

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By Nic on 11 March 2010 at 6.44 am
Posted in Hypos & Hypers, Insulin Pumps, Monitoring, Pregnancy, Slice of Life
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Are you TRYING to wind me up?!!

22 January 2010
24 Comments

Grrrr – and breathe.

I’ve just come back from a diabetes check up at my GP’s.

Aaaand breathe.

You see – when I took my son in for his six week vaccinations, they decided to corner me about not having seen the diabetes nurse at the clinic for over a year.

“Ahhhh”, I said. “That would be because I’ve been under the care of the diabetes department at National Women’s for the last 16 months”.

“Well”, they said. “We need you to come in and we’ll go through a checklist of all of your vital tests etc and check that your diabetes is under control”.

Me: “Oh, but you see I’ve been under the strictest care I’ve had in 15…

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By Nic on 22 January 2010 at 10.06 am
Posted in Medical Services, Pregnancy, Slice of Life
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Back on track.

8 January 2010
5 Comments

I dusted off my BG record-keeping sheets today, determined to write down some numbers for a whole week and stay on top of basal rates, carb ratios, correction factors etc. That’s the thing with pumping – if only you could put in the hard work at the very beginning then sit with those ratios for all time – not so! I always knew I’d probably slacken off a bit after about 16 months of hard yakka and conscientious monitoring and record-keeping over my pregnancy and beforehand. Heck, I reckon I deserved the break. But, it’s now 12 weeks after my baby was born and I’m determined to put some systems in place to make sure I keep up a good…

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By Nic on 8 January 2010 at 9.40 am
Posted in Insulin Pumps, Pregnancy, Slice of Life
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