Today was quite a busy one. I made a small brown loaf, a fruit loaf and 2 lemon drizzle cakes. The Sweet Success online cake mix is so lovely – it makes such a light fluffy sponge. I also bought a couple of their professional cake tins, which seemed to make a huge difference. I really enjoyed my day off, radio on, sunshine outside and it made me forget there was all of that mayhem going on out there. We need those moments don’t we? They seem so fleeting but it’s so lovely to just escape and do something methodical, relaxing, ordinary. The only downside was that I got really hot, discombobulated in the kitchen. This is mainly due to me being rather old now and prone to hot flushes. I did however get paranoid that I had a bit of a temperature. After checking it and it actually being below normal, I put it down to the thermometer rather than me being a bit under the weather.

As the day went on eating my dinner and tea I didn’t feel right, no real symptoms apart from feeling fatigued and weak. I put that down to just being tired and needing some rest and the pressure of the situation around us. It wasn’t until I started sweating profusely, clammy feeling faint, blurred vision late in the evening that I checked my blood sugar which was 3.8. For a diabetic this is not good news and means you are having a hypoglycemic attack which can mean you pass out and need urgent sugar and sometimes a paramedic! I was so surprised at this because I had not had one for over a year and so its just not on your radar at all times.

Its more or less two years ago that I became acutely unwell whilst on call for work over the Easter bank holidays. I felt a bit iffy on the Good Friday and by the Sunday I knew the signs were due to blood sugar which was confirmed by buying an emergency blood sugar monitor online and finding my count was 20 plus. Being a typical nurse as a patient, I decided to contact the GP on the Monday morning, rather than bother anyone that night. The one thing I hadn’t realised was the blurred vision during that week which got gradually worse, I had put it down due to new varifocal glasses from “should have gone to Specsavers” and dismissed as a symptom as they had told me they would take some adjusting to.

By the Monday afternoon I had been whisked off to a diabetic “hot” (urgent) clinic after the poor GP practice nurse had a shock on her first shift when my blood sugar and ketones (in the blood) were off the scale and frightened her half to death. The diabetic clinic was amazing at my local hospital and comprised of dietary, specialist nurses and Consultant team all supporting me to take insulin. I was a medical mystery as I presented as a type 1 (insulin dependant) but my blood levels eventually showed type 2 (medication) diabetes. They still don’t really know what type I am, think I maybe somewhere in the middle and decided to put me on trial injections called Victoza as well as tablets. They have told me that I have to be very aware of high blood sugar if I get poorly/infection as it could mean hospitalisation urgently and to have emergency ketone testing kit around. Until last night I have not had a hypo like that since when I was first diagnosed, the feeling is really awful and not something you would wish on anyone. It has taught me to be more aware of my dodgy pancreas, and keep coca cola and chocolate in the flat!