MM Wedding: Blue Circles and WDD

I am blessed.

This is what World Diabetes Day looked like for me this year.

What's Up? What Are You Doing? Where AreYou????

'What's Up?'
'What Are You Doing?'
'Where Are You?'
'Can you do this?' (Right now!) 

These are some of the sorts of questions that seem to be popping up (in a very nagging tone) in my life ALOT lately and its had me step back from life and start to wonder what am I doing and am I heading where I want to? So I've taken two weeks leave from my usual job to help me do just that! Now into week two, I've learnt some interesting things, some I already knew, but have just been reminded of too!

1. Diabetes alone cam take up as much time, if not more, than a full time job.
2. Unless you are outspoken about your goals, its is very hard to achieve them.
3. There is absolute truth in the power of positive thought.

WOW Days

What a day today is shaping up to be! (and it's only 7am here!) I can't sleep coz it feels like Christmas! Of course World Diabetes Day is here (and I've got my Type 1 tee ready to pop on thanks to Type 1 Diabetes Memes) BUT Bigger news than that is this is my first official day as a fiance!

Eeekkkk! Mike and I hiked around Cradle Mountain National Park yesterday when he got down on bended knee to pop the question! Of course I said yes! A total surprise and I'm still pinching myself as it doesn't feel real yet!

I'm so proud of our hiking efforts yesterday. I'm not nearly close to being in great shape at the moment but we wanted to achieve something on our two year anniversary - something we could accomplish.. conquer! It seemed fitting to travel to Tasmania to do this (despite missing the solar eclipse in my home town!!) as we'd first fell deeply, wholeheartedly in love in Tassie in January of 2011, when as part of our trip we'd hiked at Wineglass Bay (Amazing and highly recommended!). But as most diabetics have found out at some point, no matter how prepared you might be, there always seems to be some curve balls! The moment we got out of the car in the national park I went to check my blood sugar. My finger pricker wasn't working! Whaaa!?!? That has never happened to me before! It was so strange, the 'prick' just wouldn't go in...like the mechanism in the pen has somehow got damaged and slipped further down the barrel than it is supposed to be at... so weird, and quite alarming! We fiddled with it and got it working...sort of...I usually use it at 1-3, now I'm using it at 5-8. I also told myself that I had plenty of lancets so at worse I'd just have to do it manually (which isn't much fun but I've had to do before).

iBGStar: Now we're talking!

I've now been with the iBGStar Glucose Meter for just over three weeks and I'm a very happy customer. While there are still a few questions on my mind about the meter, it's the overall package that has me completely sold. I love that I can enter and access all my data in one area, all the time, anywhere I am - because really I am rarely ever without my phone! While there are other programs out there, some of which I have had a play with, nothing quite compares to the easy of the auto downloads combined with the ability to enter your own data all in the palm of your hand.

How many of you look to your phone to kill time while waiting for a meeting to start or a bus to arrive? Those moments have now become opportunities to improve my control by entering more data about my life into the app. I'll just spend the time writing in all my extra info such as shots, food, exercise and other activities!

It's also become the ultimate in conversation starters and therefore, also somewhat of a Diabetes publicist! There has been an incredible amount of people who have never spoken to me about diabetes before, but who have now noticed the iBGStar attached to my phone, and are interested to know more. I've held my phone up to numerous dinner tables over the last couple of weeks to 'ohhhh's and 'Ahhh's as the big finger blood prick and corresponding animation whirl around the screen while we wait for the result to come up. Then everyone wants to talk about the result. Is it good? Why is it that number? How will it change when you eat? What are you normally? What should I be? The iBGStar could practically go out on its own global tour!

Having the meter function seamlessly with the app has also brought about better control. While I wrote down a lot of information before and often entered it into different apps, it was still relatively time consuming and I needed to use more than one medium - which often meant there were huge gaps in my information (and consistency) during busy times. This meter helps me to be more conscious about my choices and diabetes as a whole by making it quick and easy to keep a wide array of data.

My main concern about the meter now, is its longevity if I always have it attached to my phone. Such as: Will the front get very scratched up with time? Will long term use of the vibrating function on my phone impact the iBGStar eventually? But at the same time, these are questions that I don't have to worry about today and which are completely off set by the ease of use and user satisfaction!

I can definitely recommend the iBGStar glucose meter for Type 1's on injections.