My Latest Diabetes Review

Last year I was diagnosed as Type 2 diabetic. It was a pretty crappy time. I still maintain that my pancreas is an arsehole. Three months ago my Hba1C was 57mmol/ml after a routine diabetes review which is not good and my medication was upped to the max (for Metformin). Today I got the results of my most recent review, and it’s good news.

I’ve had some real struggles managing by blood glucose, despite my health team recognising that I’ve been doing all that they asked, and more. After my last review and another crummy result, I decided to try blood glucose testing. As a type 2 diabetic I am not automatically eligible for this and so I decided to swallow the cost and fund it myself. What a difference it makes.

Over the past few months, I’ve learned a lot about what spikes my blood glucose levels, foods and otherwise. Already on a restrictive diet due to other issues  I eat no junk and prep everything by hand. I was really surprised by how one portion of some foods would be fine where one and a half would not be. Using a blood glucose monitor has helped me understand a lot about myself (because all diabetes are unique) and manage everything more effectively.

This morning I received the results of my most recent review. I have gone, in three months, of having a Hba1c result of 57mmol/ml to 46mmol/ml. This a fabulous result, fabulous!

Dear Mrs Cawood,

Your recent blood test results were all satisfactory, indicating that your Diabetes is currently well controlled…..

To say that I was thrilled when that popped through the letterbox is a great understatement, not least because it means that I don’t need to keep going back every three months as my diabetes review date has been pushed back to six months.

I’ll post another time more about Hba1c, what it means and so on but in simple terms it means my diabetes is very well managed for the first time and I feel like I have a handle on what I’m doing. A very large part of this has been down to self-testing my blood glucose levels.

I’m hoping to convince my diabetes nurse that I would be a worthy candidate for an NHS monitor as opposed to spending a fortune privately buying test strips, lancets and what not myself. We’ll see.

For now, I’m just grateful for a good result. Onwards and upwards (or downwards please, the numbers need to keep coming down)!

 

 

Things to Love About the Christmas Season 

xmas2

 

I am known online and off as being something of a Christmas fairy. When it comes to the Christmas season I really am like a big kid. There are so many things to love about the Christmas season and I am very vocal about been in love with the whole shebang!

The Smell

When autumn really takes hold you start to get the lovely wood-smoke smell which seems to remind me of cinder toffee; when Christmas comes knocking it’s pine cones, mulled spice, berries and cold (cold does have a smell!). We tend not to go overboard with home fragrance but I already have a spiced berry wax melt in the burner and it’s helping to build the festive feeling nicely.

The Food

We eat at home (Roy, the boys and I) on Christmas day and have a pork dinner (thrown in the slow cooker in the early hours) and of course there’s stuffing, cranberry sauce, proper meat gravy, Yorkshires, Shloer and all of the other lovely stuff that we look forward to enjoying at Christmas.

Sadly the bread oven doesn't work but it gets a good Christmas polish up (and is a very sneaky place to hide Xmas goodies).
Sadly the bread oven doesn’t work but it gets a good Christmas polish up (and is a very sneaky place to hide Xmas goodies).

The Family

We visit Roy’s family on Christmas Eve to say hello and exchange gifts and do the same on Christmas morning with my family (we all live nearby). It’s great that we all live close enough so that we each other regularly through the year and have managed to keep the tradition up of sharing Christmas together while still having our own time and building our own individual traditions at home. Of course at Christmas we get to spend so much more time with the kids as we are both off which is a huge bonus!

The Traditions

Our Christmas is jam-packed with traditions, from the purchase of my first (of many) Christmas magazine to the Christmas Eve boxes the boys open after tea. My youngest sister and I always go Christmas shopping and out for a Christmas dinner just the two of us, that’s our tradition and we all enjoy the Christmas light switch-on in town (we live in a rural market town with a strong community feel so this is always a lovely evening).

 

Decorating the house together as a family is always a great fun tradition. 
Decorating the house together as a family is always a great fun tradition.

The Gifts

Anyone who says Christmas is not about the gifts at all is a fibber or a scrooge! I love Christmas shopping, finding things I know will make people laugh, that they’ll appreciate or find really useful. I also enjoy the challenge of buying for the two large families (I’m one of six siblings, Roy is one of four, then there are partners and children….) without breaking the bank. I have a special notebook and tick people off as I go, using money saving coupon sites and cashback as I go. The more we save, the more we can buy while staying within budget!

The Music

I adore the music that comes at Christmas time, from the 80’s faves to the more classical tunes. One of my favourites is Oh Holy Night and never fails to put me in the mood! The boys both do a lot at school of course at Christmas and so Little Donkey and similar is played or sung throughout!

What is it that you love about Christmas? Do you have a special tradition? An outing you look forward to or are you like me, someone who thoroughly enjoys everything, from the arts and crafts with the boys to cooking, shopping, decorating and beyond?