It’s Charlotte again. 🙂 I know it’s been a really long time…sorry about that! I didn’t have a lot to write about and didn’t have a lot of time to write it. since I’ve been gone, I had an article by HealthBeat written about me, which is probably how most of you are here. That was back in October of 2018…it is now April of 2020!

It’s been quite the year already, with the coronavirus and all, so I (finally) decided to write on here about my experience with it. I ordered a new set of pumppeelz (picture below), which I love. The company is actually still shipping as normally, which is really crazy, considering things from most online companies are not arriving for a month! I really love my peelz, and have found, for anyone wondering, that the sticker over the sensor does not mess with the signal, which is good.I would recommend, for sure.

Also, along with a new peelz, I realized that all of those risky sites that I have been wanting to try, I now can! Since I’m not in school currently, I thought that now would be a good time to try out a forearm dexcom site (would not recommend for a pump site, that would be dumb). The first time I put it in, it burned a lot, and I couldn’t stretch out my arm all the way, which wasn’t the most wonderful event, but that was only the first day. I think it might’ve hurt more than usual because I put it in upside down (like the picture above. I keep doing that for some reason:/ ). After the second day, which still hurt a little when I fully stretched my arm or bumped it, it was totally fine. I thought it was a cute and interesting spot to try. A good summer site to show off my t1d a little :p (the red around my site is not blood, it’s a tattoo marker that I used so I was sure that I was getting the right spot when I injected…ahaha I was kinda nervous.) I would definitely recommend if you’re up for some excitement and a change of pace. I’m hoping to, in the summer or during the quarantine, to try out a calf site too, so I’ll let you know when that happens and how it is.

I know a lot of diabetics have been telling me (over my much, much more active diabetes instagram, @type1diabeticproblems) that their blood sugars have been crazy during this time, because they’re not out as much, eating trashier foods, not really paying attention to their numbers, etc., so I’ve been trying to watch mine. Since I got the Control IQ update on my tandem Tslim insulin pump, it’s been SO much easier to control. It automatically increases my insulin when I go high, and decreases when I go low, which is a HUGE help to me. I’ve been trying to eat healthier foods and workout daily to keep my blood sugars down, which does help a lot. I’ve also been doing online school, so I’m not totally a couch-potato ahaha.

Well, I hope you found this post interesting. Sorry for it being so boring, but I just thought that I’d catch y’all up on what’s been going on over the past year or so. Definitely go follow my instagram if you’re looking for more active and funny content (the @ is mentioned above)! Hope you enjoy your day, keep your sugars 100,

Charlotte ❤

12/22/18

Hi again! I am so very sorry for not posting in so long. I have been extremely busy with school and everything, and I figured now that I have some free time, I might as well post again! 🙂 In case you didn’t know, I used to be homeschooled (Yes, I could do school in my pajamas while eating breakfast) and I just recently switched to private school. “Real School” as many of you would say. I decided to post about my switch for all of you!

Adjusting to school with Type 1 has really been a roller-coaster of a ride. Maybe a week before school started, after we sent in all my supplies, we heard from the principal. He said one of my teachers had been inspecting my supply stash, and saw my glucagon and was freaking out about it. He didn’t want to stab me in the thigh with a needle, I guess. *cough, cough* …(Wimp.) Thank goodness I haven’t passed out at school, yet. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t want my teacher to stab me, either.

Taking tests with lows, having my alarm going off and giving insulin during class… They aren’t the most exciting events, lemme tell ya… Though, it isn’t all bad. I get to have my phone in class, I get to leave for the bathroom whenever I want, and I get to sneak candy into my pencil case!

I heard from another student that their science teacher was talking about diabetes (his daughter has T1) and how diabetics used to get insulin… “He was talking about how when diabetes was first a diagnosis, they would take pig pancreases and mush it up and eat it. Then one of the kids in class was like, ‘WAIT. She eats PIG PANCREAS?’ ” *Sigh* Some people just shouldn’t graduate. And for the record, I’ve never tried pig pancreas and I don’t intend to.

It’s been a crazy half-year of school, and I’m sure we’re all glad to get some sort of break. I finally can get back to blogging and rant about life. (:  I hope to publish this blog by tomorrow, so you guys can have a post before the break ends.

Another plus for being a diabetic and in school, is that endo appointments almost always are on week-days, so I can skip school. My last appointment was pretty cool. I got to have a little photo-shoot and got to talk someone’s ears off professionally. That might actually be why some of you readers are here, so, hey, what’s up? Leave a comment if that is why you’re here, because I’d love to talk to you.

Well, this post hasn’t been very long, but if I actually got into some stories I could tell you, I’d probably have you scrolling through this all year (Which is technically only like, 2 weeks). I think I’ll end this right here. Thank you so much for reading, and I hope to be more active these next few months. Thank you again, Merry Christ mas, and Happy New Year! 😀

-Charlotte 😉

 

I have had the Dexcom G6 for a while, now. (The G6 is the newest Dexcom on the market). I love it a lot. I think it is better and worse in a couple ways, and I want to share that with you this month. Here are the pluses and minuses of the Dexcom G6:

 

Pluses-

1.)    I can read it on my phone. This has been a huge help, because now I can control my levels easier. With the G5, sometimes I wouldn’t be able to get to my receiver or pump as easily as I can with my phone. I can see my blood sugars more because of that, and I now can keep them where I want to a little easier.

2.)    The shape of the transmitter and site. With the other models of the Dex, it was bulky. It could get caught even on my clothing. The G6’s new style is rounder and smoother. With the previous Dexcom styles, I could get it caught easily. The smoothness helps because it will not get caught on my clothing hardly ever. The roundness doesn’t really help me personally, but I like it a lot more than the other Dexcom styles, which were more square-like.

3.)    The inserter. Before I got the G6, the inserter hurt more than my pump inserter. You had to manually do it, and for some reason, it hurt more than the pump’s injection. Maybe not for some diabetics, but it hurt more for me. The new style is just amazing. I watched some insertion videos of people trying the G6 out for the first time, and I didn’t believe it. The people would insert and just drop their jaws in amazement. I thought they were making a big deal out of it. One girl was like, “Oh my goodness, I didn’t feel it. That was literally the fastest and easiest thing I have ever done in my life!” I kinda laughed. No WAY could it not hurt like that and be that fast. Welp, guess what I did when I inserted it for the first time… “WHAT THE HECK? THAT WAS LIKE…WHAT? WAIT, WHAT? NO WAY. WAIT…HOW WAS IT THAT…*Gasp* …WHAT??” Yeah, I was more dramatic than all the videos, I think. Even now I can’t get over it. It’s just amazing how simple and un-hurtful it is. (THAT’S A WORD IF I WANT IT TO BE.)

 

Okay, nothing can be perfect…

Minuses-

1.)    It does not connect to my pump. I honestly don’t know if it reads on the Tandem pump’s X2, but I don’t have the X2, so I only see it on my phone and receiver. I can’t really complain too much, because I don’t know if it would be reading on the X2.

2.)    I honestly can’t think of two things I don’t like about the G6. Yeah… I guess we stop here. I can’t think of anything else I don’t like… Um, this is awkward.

Bonus Story

So, last week, I was at a classical concert.  I was sitting next to an older lady, and my Dexcom kept going off every few minutes. I was a little annoyed, because the alarms can not be shut off if your blood sugar is off enough. So here I am, sitting next to some lady who looks like the grandma you don’t like, and once my Dexcom has gone off enough times, she turns to her husband and goes, “How rude!” Now I didn’t hear that, but my dad clearly did. He flipped around, leaned over me, and in the middle of a concert, he whispers, “It’s her Dexcom. She doesn’t make insulin. It’s her Dexcom, it keeps her alive. It keeps her alive, it’s her Dexcom.” I didn’t want to look at her right in the face, because I’m sure it was embarrassing enough for her, but I can imagine that her face was white as snow. “Do you understand??” I’m sure she did, but she mumbled something like, “It’s necessary.” After the concert, she came to me and apologized. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know it was medical, I’m so sorry.” I was like, “That’s okay..” and she’s like, “No, no it’s not.” I just kind of stared at her, not knowing what to say. It really wasn’t okay, but what else do you say in that situation? I just kind of awkwardly stared at her smiling. Then my dad came over like, “This is Charlotte, she has Type 1 Diabetes.” They clearly didn’t know what to say, and the husband was like, “We love the name Charlotte. Such a pretty name!” with his wife awkwardly nodding. At least it was my dad and not my mom who talked to her… 😉

So to wrap it up, GET THE G6, IT’S AMAZING, and don’t sit next to my mom, if you plan to say     something stupid, about a type 1 diabetic.

Thanks for reading all this. 😊

-Charlotte

Dexcom G6 Overview

And bonus funny story

 

I have had the Dexcom G6 for a while, now. (The G6 is the newest Dexcom on the market). I love it a lot. I think it is better and worse in a couple ways, and I want to share that with you this month. Here are the pluses and minuses of the Dexcom G6:

 

Pluses-

1.)    I can read it on my phone. This has been a huge help, because now I can control my levels easier. With the G5, sometimes I wouldn’t be able to get to my receiver or pump as easily as I can with my phone. I can see my blood sugars more because of that, and I now can keep them where I want to a little easier.

2.)    The shape of the transmitter and site. With the other models of the Dex, it was bulky. It could get caught even on my clothing. The G6’s new style is rounder and smoother. With the previous Dexcom styles, I could get it caught easily. The smoothness helps because it will not get caught on my clothing hardly ever. The roundness doesn’t really help me personally, but I like it a lot more than the other Dexcom styles, which were more square-like.

3.)    The inserter. Before I got the G6, the inserter hurt more than my pump inserter. You had to manually do it, and for some reason, it hurt more than the pump’s injection. Maybe not for some diabetics, but it hurt more for me. The new style is just amazing. I watched some insertion videos of people trying the G6 out for the first time, and I didn’t believe it. The people would insert and just drop their jaws in amazement. I thought they were making a big deal out of it. One girl was like, “Oh my goodness, I didn’t feel it. That was literally the fastest and easiest thing I have ever done in my life!” I kinda laughed. No WAY could it not hurt like that and be that fast. Welp, guess what I did when I inserted it for the first time… “WHAT THE HECK? THAT WAS LIKE…WHAT? WAIT, WHAT? NO WAY. WAIT…HOW WAS IT THAT…*Gasp* …WHAT??” Yeah, I was more dramatic than all the videos, I think. Even now I can’t get over it. It’s just amazing how simple and un-hurtful it is. (THAT’S A WORD IF I WANT IT TO BE.)

 

Okay, nothing can be perfect…

Minuses-

1.)    It does not connect to my pump. I honestly don’t know if it reads on the Tandem pump’s X2, but I don’t have the X2, so I only see it on my phone and receiver. I can’t really complain too much, because I don’t know if it would be reading on the X2.

2.)    I honestly can’t think of two things I don’t like about the G6. Yeah… I guess we stop here. I can’t think of anything else I don’t like… Um, this is awkward.

Bonus Story

So, last week, I was at a classical concert.  I was sitting next to an older lady, and my Dexcom kept going off every few minutes. I was a little annoyed, because the alarms can not be shut off if your blood sugar is off enough. So here I am, sitting next to some lady who looks like the grandma you don’t like, and once my Dexcom has gone off enough times, she turns to her husband and goes, “How rude!” Now I didn’t hear that, but my dad clearly did. He flipped around, leaned over me, and in the middle of a concert, he whispers, “It’s her Dexcom. She doesn’t make insulin. It’s her Dexcom, it keeps her alive. It keeps her alive, it’s her Dexcom.” I didn’t want to look at her right in the face, because I’m sure it was embarrassing enough for her, but I can imagine that her face was white as snow. “Do you understand??” I’m sure she did, but she mumbled something like, “It’s necessary.” After the concert, she came to me and apologized. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know it was medical, I’m so sorry.” I was like, “That’s okay..” and she’s like, “No, no it’s not.” I just kind of stared at her, not knowing what to say. It really wasn’t okay, but what else do you say in that situation? I just kind of awkwardly stared at her smiling. Then my dad came over like, “This is Charlotte, she has Type 1 Diabetes.” They clearly didn’t know what to say, and the husband was like, “We love the name Charlotte. Such a pretty name!” with his wife awkwardly nodding. At least it was my dad and not my mom who talked to her… 😉

So to wrap it up, GET THE G6, IT’S AMAZING, and don’t sit next to my mom, if you plan to say     something stupid, about a type 1 diabetic.

Thanks for reading all this. 😊

-Charlotte

So, you’re walking down the street and notice this kid, who has wires. Wires? What are they for? And what are they connected to?  You’re wondering if they are even human. You just have to ask, but what do you say?

So, for your convenience, for this month’s blog, I decided to write some pointers to help you with things you can say, and definitely should not say to a diabetic. I, as a diabetic, love talking about my diabetes story and pump. But some questions, I just hate to answer. Some questions can insult us or make us feel like slapping you so hard that your face falls off, your eyeballs bounce into a trash can, and the garbage guy puts them into a trash compactor, where they get crushed and burned into ashes 😊 . So, for your safety, here’s just some friendly reminders of topics we love and hate to answer.

1.)    “When were you diagnosed?”  Most of us don’t mind telling people when it all happened, it was a major event in our lives! Maybe the diabetic you talked to (or will talk to) was diagnosed at a very young age and can’t remember. I was diagnosed March 3^rd or 4^th of 2016. It was really March 3^rd, because it was like 11pm when we found out, but I was diagnosed after midnight.  So really, I was DIAGNOSED the 4^th.

2.)    Asking simple questions like, “So what’s a good blood sugar?” or “How many carbs is that?” Is an easy question to answer, and most of us don’t mind telling you. 

3.)    Asking “What do you use to take care of diabetes and how?”. I always enjoy saying that I have a Tandem pump and a G6 Dexcom. That’s no problem to me. Also, asking, “So how do you take care of yourself now that you don’t get insulin?” That’s just straight curiosity. We would much rather you know, than not.

4.)    Asking “How is it different from being like me?”. Like the difference between them and you. Telling you or any other non-diabetic why we’re different usually isn’t that big of a deal, for most diabetics. You might get a simple answer like, “I got sick and my organ died”, which isn’t a lie. We got sick because our organ died. If they (diabetics) give you a simple answer like that, they might just not like talking about it. It can be a very scary thing to handle, sometimes.

5.)    Last, but not least, asking if there is anything you can do to help.  Most of us just want you to be there, to listen.  Maybe grab our glucose tablets for us, or wait up for us if we have to treat a low, or be patient with us if we are cranky because our blood sugar is high. Friends are so very important!

 

Now that you have some conversation starters, here are some things that you just may want to avoid:

 

1.)    Try not to talk about it like you know everything about it. People say things like, “Oh, she needs to go to the doctor ALL THE TIME and she has to pump her blood and count calories and not eat sugar.”  If you don’t quite know how I take care of my diabetes, just don’t pretend you do. Thanks. C;

2.)    So, this isn’t really conversation topic we hate, but it is probably the most annoying thing anyone could say to a diabetic: Pronouncing it ‘Dia-beat-us’. So just a heads up, if that’s how you pronounce it, it’s wrong. Sorry. You actually say it ‘Die-a-beat-ease’. Or, if you forget, just say ‘Type one’. DIABETUS is highly annoying, sorry.

3.)    This next one is saying phrases like, “Are you punching in dinner?” while we are getting out our pump.  That is literally so annoying to me. I don’t know if any other diabetics have that annoyance that comes when people say things like that, but I for sure do. By ‘things like that’, I mean like, “Dialing up”, or “Watching your sugars” when I’m just calculating for food. I’m totally fine with people saying, “So are you calculating for dinner?” Don’t nickname things for us, let us do it ourselves. Thanks.

4.)    Saying that we are counting ‘Calories’ instead of ‘Carbs’. We as diabetics count carbs. That’s what we’ve always been counting.

5.)    The last, is when people treat diabetes like it’s us. That might not make much sense, so lemme explain: I’m pretty sure this is tough on all diabetics. If you’re a diabetic and it doesn’t annoy you, just let me know in the comments. When people look at me, I can almost see it in their eyes that they’re looking at me and seeing the word ‘DIABETES’ written in black across my forehead. They look at me immediately think, ‘Oh, she’s that girl with diabetes. She’s gotta watch her carbs, she’s gotta take shots, she has to wear a pump, she checks her blood sugar,’ and so on. When people don’t know me very well, diabetes is really the only thing they know about me. I get it. It’s just sad in a way. My close friends or family don’t see me like that. They see me like they see anyone else. But people I don’t know, they just see ‘DIABETES’. They walk towards me and ask, “So how’s your diabetes going?” Look, if you don’t know a diabetic that well and diabetes is all you know about them, get to know THEM! They are just like you. If you had cancer, were pregnant, or were missing a limb, should that be all people know you as? They take one look and just go, “So how did you lose your arm?” or “When’s the baby due?” or “when will your hair grow back?” It’s really annoying. That’s all they talk to you about. That’s all they know you as. Just get to know us. C

Thank you guys so much for reading this all, I hope it helps!  There are A LOT of us out there, with type 1 diabetes, and you just may need this list. 😊

 Some people see a Type 1 Diabetic and go, “Oh, she’s got that shot thing.” Or they’ll see me touch my pump and go, “Oh! Forgot you had that! Must be hard. Wow.” Then walk off or talk about how they had diabetes and cured it with cinnamon. There’s a lot more that goes into it than people realize. I don’t just glance at my pump a few times a day. For example; If I forget to give myself insulin for basically anything over 20 carbs, I could end up in the hospital with a blood sugar of 400. This is not just a thing I need to ‘watch’. Yes, I need to watch my blood sugar, but I need to know what my blood sugar is before eating, after eating, when I haven’t eaten anything. I need to know exactly how much insulin I need to take, and more. A lot of things go into this. I have decided to write about a day with diabetes. This is yesterday:

 

I wake up and see my moveable ‘diabetes table’ I need for the night. I have my Dexcom, (My CGM: Constant Glucose Meter) my glucose tablets, my BG kit, (Meter, Lancet, and test strips.) and a few other things I may need during the night. I grab my BG kit and open it. I take the lancet and prick my finger. Feeling like Sleeping Beauty in reverse. Wake up, THEN prick your finger. I squeeze my finger so enough blood can fit in the test strip. I wait for it to read, but it doesn’t. It says I didn’t squeeze my finger to death enough. So, I sigh and prick my finger again. (I sigh because each test strip is $1.00) I prick again and insert the blood. Not enough again. The third time works, but It’s only 9:30 and I spent $3.00 already. I calibrate my CGM (Dexcom) for the first time that day. I need to do it twice a day. I stand up and plop a Vitamin D gummy in my mouth (they found out that I don’t have enough Vitamin D in me, so I need to take a little gummy twice a day).

 I walk down stairs and have breakfast. Now I need to calculate for everything I eat. Unless it’s carb-free. Not many breakfast items are carb free, so I need to take insulin. Because I have a pump, I take it out and type in the number of carbs I am going to eat. I have to do it a while before I eat, because if I take the insulin while eating, the sugar in the food will get to me faster than the insulin will, so I need to take the insulin before the food. I also helped my sister eat an entire carton of strawberries.

 I hear we’re going on a bike ride. I go to my room and unclip my pump, replacing the site with a little closed-in clip so water doesn’t get in. I take a shower and get dressed. Now, think of getting dressed with a pump. ‘No biggie,’ your brain is telling you. No, I have tubing. So, I would have to awkwardly change, holding my pump half the time. We go to the place we bike. I hop on my bike and shove my pump as far down in my pocket as I can. I ride through the wind. I love biking, but when you’re ‘riding through the wind’, your pump may fall out of your pocket, smash on the ground, rip your site out in the process, causing around $500 dollars of damage. So I’m carefully riding through the wind, hoping I’m not gonna break my pump on the side-walk. (I also shoved my entire bag of diabetes supplies into my mom’s bike basket.  She gave me the death stare).

We park our bikes and walk down the street to a local tea store. My pump and Dexcom go off, usually causing everyone in a ten-mile radius to stare, wondering what the heck is wrong with me. It says I am low. I need sugar.  I went low because I don’t need as much insulin as I usually do when I’m exercising. I ordered a chocolate croissant. (Yes, I can eat that.) I ate it as quickly as the deer eat our apple trees.  They bring out our tea and I wait for it to cool.

 I’m gonna skip through to later. The rest of the day is just gonna bore you to death, so I’ll skip to bed time. When I get ready for bed, I change in the weirdest way possible. If you’re waiting for me to change, you’ll be waiting for a while. It takes me a while to change, because I have to awkwardly avoid my pump from falling off and scraping my Dexcom site. I calibrate my Dexcom and pump for the second time that day. (You calibrate every 12 hours). I pop another Vitamin D gummy in my mouth and brush my teeth. (I actually ate the gummy after brushing my teeth, but that doesn’t’ make any logical sense, so I switched it just for you.) I move my diabetes table to my bed and put half my room on it.

I lie in bed ready to sleep an- BEEP BEEP BEEP. Zzzt Zzzt Zzzt. I kinda lay there pursing my lips looking at the ceiling hoping I’ll just magically get rid of the low. The pump and Dexcom light up my ceiling. Like a full moon right outside my window. I sit there until I decide to do something about it. I walk down stairs like a dying cat and open the fridge door. I take out a juice box. It has 8 carbs in it, around how much I need for a low BG to go up for me. I drink and walk by my mother who is sitting in a chair, and I give her a thumbs-up while slurping the juice box. I walk to my room and toss it in my mini garbage. I lie in my bed and fall asleep. What happens during the night is a whole different story…

 

Okay, sorry for the boring parts, but I just wanted you guys to see a day of my life with diabetes. This is all pretty normal to me, and I can’t really remember a day without it. I’ll start posting fun stuff now…like…well, you will just have to find out. I hope you learned more about diabetes through this post. Can’t wait to hear from you!

-Charlotte ❤

Ever wondered how a Type 1 Diabetic is diagnosed? I bet if you didn’t before, you do now. I have recently published a blog about my diagnosis story. This is Part 2.

We are now in the hospital. I’m in a little room with a bathroom, a couch, a hospital bed, and a TV. I don’t really remember what I thought of it, when I got there. I lost a lot of my memory, being so close to a coma. I do remember searching through the TV movie options and seeing nothing good. That was really our (My mom and I’s) only activity there in the hospital. They had dogs that came in, they had a children’s room with toys and games, they had much to do…when it was open. Literally everything entertaining was closed. The dogs came a few days before we got there. The children’s room was closed the entire stay and there wasn’t much else to do. We would typically just stay in the room watching movies, checking ketones, and eating sugar-free foods, between meals.

 When it comes to eating sugar-free foods in a hospital, you get Sprite Zero and Tic Tacs. That. Is. It. Sprite Zero and Tic Tacs. I would be thirsty and ask the nurse for something. They would always act like they had so many options. They would perk up and go, “Oh! Would you like water…or Sprite Zero?? :D” I would kind of stare at them as if they spoke in Chinese for a few seconds. Now, if you ever mention Sprite Zero as a sugar-free option for me because I’m a diabetic…you will die. I got so sick of that.

I remember one of the days walking into my room and looking on my couch happily. I saw a 1½ foot, plush teddy bear plopped there, sitting next to a small bouquet of flowers in a pink vase. They were from my grandma. I named the bear Squishy and had him close to me almost the whole time. He still sits on my bed.

 So once my mom and I were so sick of the hospital, we decided to go outside. Don’t worry, we weren’t running away or anything. We walked out to the doors and stepped outside. It was like one of those moments in Pocahontas where the hair was flying and your eyes close as the wind dances around you…but, it was actually like a 10 year-old in a patient outfit, standing on the sidewalk with her IV’s still in, who looked like a sad animal. We stood here, looking weird for about 1.2 seconds before we decided it was better inside.

 I remember sleeping in the hospital bed, which I thought was a very comfortable bed situation because it was big enough for me to sit with mom in and it had fun buttons that lowered you down and raised you up. Very exciting for that age. (Not that I don’t like up and down beds now, but that’s besides the point.) I would be sleeping in that hospital bed all happy and sleepy…until I would hear my name or feel a tap. I would wake up and open my eyes to see…a nurse holding a needle. “Time for your Lantus shot!” (Lantus: A type of insulin that stables my blood sugars). You can probably imagine my face at this point. Not very happy. My mom remembers having to get up and hold my hand before anyone stabbed me with anything, even in the middle of the night.

When I was ready to leave, a lady came up to me. (WARNING: If you hate needles and cringe every time you hear a story like the one you’re about to hear, I would skip this next paragraph.) The lady came up to take out my IV’s. If you don’t know what those are, (quite frankly I don’t know what they do), but picture those tubes that go into your hand or arm. That’s an IV. So the lady comes up to me to take them out. I am SO ready to get them out of my hand and arm! I had two. So you would think that this being a children’s hospital, they would warn me. Nope. She grabs ahold of that tube, and with me looking, because I didn’t know she would take it out, she yanks on it and I see this extremely long tube get pulled out of my hand. It was the most disgusting thing I have seen come out of my arm. And that’s saying a lot, actually. It’s slimy and long… I’m trying to make you cringe right now, so just do it to make me feel better. They let me change and I went back to my dad and sister.

 We traveled back home, which I don’t remember any of that. My mom and dad tell me that I was hungry, all the time.  I had a little camo bag, that they gave me for my insulin and supplies. It was green, not even pink or something, green. It looked like a lunch box/bag you’d find at the Dollar Store, and I had to have it with me everywhere I went. I would be around a group of girls and they would all ask, “Why do you have a lunch box with you?” That got very old…very quickly.  

But, I discovered that I had become braver than most girls my age. I remember, a few months after diagnosis, I was sitting at a table with some 11 year olds who were all talking about how they had their 12 year old shots and how it hurt so bad and blah blah blah. I would sit there, my arms crossed on the table, smiling, waiting for the perfect time to say it… “Yeah, I get seven shots a day, so…” They looked at me like I just ate a moth. “SEVEN?” Yes. Seven.  Three meals a day, then snacks, which I had a lot of, (Fun fact: If you didn’t read part 1 of my diagnosis, you have to get a shot, insulin, whenever you eat.)

 I always love breaking it to people that I have diabetes… There was one girl, about 7, she asked why I carry a lunch box or something like that and I said, “I have diabetes.” She sang something stupid about a McDonalds customer having diabetes and shortly after she said, “Wait, what’s diabetes?”. This was the start of many opportunities for me to teach people the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes. A lot of people are surprised to hear the things I tell them, and I like to help them learn. I didn’t eat too much sugar. My parents didn’t do something wrong raising me. I’m fine. I’m perfectly healthy. I just lost an organ. And it wasn’t my fault. And I can eat what I want. Just had to say that. Oh, and…can I check your blood sugar?

So, this ends my diagnosis story.  I can’t wait to share more stories with you and what it’s like to be a type 1 diabetic. There are bad days and there are good days, but overall, I would have to say that I’m a stronger person and I know more about myself and how to take care of myself than most girls, my age. 

In honor of my diagnosis, March 4^th, 2016, I will be posting the 4^th of every month. If I don’t, I’ll post a few days after. I may not able to do this every 4^th, you know… Well, stay tuned! –

Well, March 3rd or 4th, 2016, we found out that my pancreas died. My body killed it. I no longer have the organ that eats the sugar in my body. Crazy, right? So let’s go back.

I don’t remember much about diagnosis because a lot of my memory was wiped. But I do remember this: March 3rd, technically the 4th, because it was past midnight, was the day I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. We were on a trip to see some family about 13 hours away. Did you know that, when you are diagnosed with T1D, (Type 1 Diabetes) you usually have ketones. So your body needs to flush them out. Let’s stop right there.

You get T1D because your pancreas no longer makes insulin. Insulin eats the sugar in your body. So if you eat literally anything, your pancreas, an organ, will release this ‘insulin’ to use the sugar. If your body uses sugar, you don’t get many ketones.

So you can’t have a lot of ketones in your body. That’s not good. Too many ketones can kill you. So now at this point of the story, I have many ketones in my body because my pancreas is now dead. My body is flushing them out. I know what you’re thinking, “Flushing, like flushing the toilet? Haha!” Yes, like flushing the toilet. I did that about every 5 minutes. Now remember, this is a 13ish hour trip. Every 5 minutes stopping to go flush my ketones. Yeah. Now it’s like a 38 hour trip. But, whenever you pee, you get thirsty.  I was really thirsty. Worst. Family. Vacation. EVER. This was just horrible. I had to pee all the time! That was the worst trip I have ever taken.

So we get to Tennessee because we’re still on the road driving home. My parents are in the front, literally hiding any and every liquid in the car from me. I am now moaning like a wounded cow trying to reach for any water. (Diabetes fun fact! Having high ketones makes you dehydrated.  So, that water was helpful, mom.) So I’m a moaning cow trying to reach half way across the van for some juice or whatever liquid I can find in the car. My dad is driving and literally hiding the water and juice from me because he thinks that must be what’s causing my bathroom breaks. Well it’s not. But no one knew that yet.

So my mom, knowing quite a lot in the medical field, turns around and looks at me like I was some ghost. During this trip, in about 7 days, I lost 10 pounds. Now being 10 years old and around 60 pounds to start with, I didn’t have that kinda weight to lose! I’m now like 50 pounds and you can see bone. Not outside of the skin, gross, but like the actual bone. If you’re reading this, stop and touch right under your eye. Feel that bone there? That’s the bone you could see through my skin. I was so skinny, you could actually see that. I looked like a sad skeleton. (You can stop touching your eye now.) So my mom turns around basically seeing a 10 year old skeleton. She’s shocked. she puts it together. Weight loss + Thirsty all the time +  peeing 24/7 = …T1D. My mom turns around quickly to face my dad, who is in the process of telling me to be quiet with the moaning cow routine while holding a bottle of water to hide from me. My mom looks at him with a deadly stare. “Give her the water”. My dad looked at her like she had a pumpkin stuck on her head. It was priceless, I actually don’t think I could ever forget that look. “What?!” My dad is so confused because my mom also thought the water was causing the bathroom breaks and they both decided ‘No more liquid for Charlotte’. My mom looks at him again. “Give me the water!” I can’t remember if dad handed the water over, or if she snatched it from his hands. Mom, in a panic, tosses me the water. Now I’m confused. Even though I’ve been asking, eh, moaning, for it for about an hour now, I’m shocked. Why would they give me the water? I pondered this for only a few seconds, before drinking it.

Before I know it, we’re pulling into an ER. I found out later that we got there so quickly because mom pushed down on dad’s right knee, to make him use the gas pedal more.  My legs weren’t exactly working and dad carried me. We go into a little room and the guy who is talking to my parents says “Charlotte has Type 1 Diabetes”. I’m really not that concerned, because my blood sugar is now like 750 and I’m a couple hours away from a coma, but I know I wasn’t thinking that this was forever. He or someone else sticks some IVs in me. “Good job! You’re so brave!” I was about ready to knock them out. Brave? Are ‘Brave!’ and ‘A few hours away from a coma and having ketones with a BG (Blood Glucose, which most diabetics call a Blood Sugar) of 750’ the same thing? I don’t think so. I’m not even willing to speak now. I’m so tired and thirsty…

So, even though I’ve been wanting to ride in an ambulance, who hasn’t? I mean, a big box looking car with sirens and lights zooming around… I’ve always wanted to be in an ambulance, you know, without the being hurt or dead part. So I’ve always wanted to be in an ambulance, and the first time I get into one, I’m so tired I can’t even stay awake. I can’t remember the ride at all other than one moment where I’m slowly falling asleep looking at my mom who looks like she just witnessed a baby panda’s death. Probably she was just motion sick from the bumpy ride, but I like the first option better.

So eventually we get to the hospital and stay for a week, getting insulin and everything. By the way, if you’re new to this whole ‘Diabetes not the you ate too much sugar kind’, you get insulin through an actual needle. Yes. A shot. How often do you need an insulin shot? Every time you eat. No joke. Candy? Shot. Pizza? Shot. Something healthy like green beans? Shot. Everything with sugar in it. Even natural sugar! Like an apple. Shot. So I’m getting insulin shots and Lantus shots. (Lantus is a form of insulin that steadies the BG, Blood sugar, you have.) So I’m having many shots here for a week with different people waking me up at the most random times so they can run stuff through the IV or give another shot when I just woke up.

There’s much more, but we’ll leave it at that. It’s been two years now and I’m doing much better. Diabetes has brought me new friends and new experiences, that I never would have had without it.  I now have an insulin pump, which is a little thing that looks like the first iPhone with wires that has insulin in it. So I type in the amount of carbs, (Sugar, basically.) and it gives me the insulin through the tubes/wires and then into my skin. I don’t have to get a shot! So I now have the pump and I have a good A1C, 6.6 currently. If you’re a non-diabetic, your A1C (Like an over all blood sugar or BG) would be like 5.0. When I was diagnosed, my A1C was 14.0. Yeah. So now I’m doing well and excited to share my future Diabetes stories with you on this page. Hope you stick with me through the journey.  Thanks for reading! -Charlotte

Hey guys! Welcome to my Diabetes blog! C:

 

 

This is me after my pump failed… Going to be posting some actual content soon. Stay tuned! :}