About me

 about me - my profile

Hi, I'm Emma. I've been type 1 diabetic since the age of 3, this year i turn 17, making it a total of 14 years this year.

I live in England with my parents and my younger sister, who is 12 this year and our big dog, A Great Dane called Belle, she's 3 years old and is very playful. I have a boyfriend who i have been with for two years and we see each other all the time.

This is Belle when she This is Belle with her

was a puppy                 teddy and blanket

I am currently studying for my A Levels. the subjects i am taking are IT, Maths, Health and Social Care and Travel and Tourism. I am the only person in my family with type 1 diabetes. Recently my grandad and my great aunt have developed type 2 diabetes but up untill i was diagnosed i was the first to have it. strange really, considering type 1 is hereditory, i guess someone else years ago must have had it.

When i was diagnosed i was on holiday with my parents and grandparents in Cornwall in England. I was not very well, i was very tired and i was drinking a lot therfore going to the toilet a lot more. My parents knew something was wrong and so took me to the local hospital where they did some tests and told my parents it was diabetes, we were then sent back to where we live to the local hospital there where i was further treated. when i was diagnosed my sugar levels were 40.0, but since then they have been the best my clinic have seen for a long time in a child. That is all down to how well my parents have coped with me and my diabetes.

Anyway, it doesn't bother me having diabetes as i am no different from other people, i have had it all my life and so know no different. I’m not treated different by my friends and family, in fact they usually forget that I’m diabetic as it is so well controlled and I just get on with it myself. Since I was diagnosed my family including my parents have been a big part in caring for my diabetes and without my mum and dad I would not have as good a control over my diabetes.

I must admit having diabetes isn’t all fun and games, every now and then I get a bit down from having to do 4 needles a day and constantly having to do blood tests, or I get a bit grumpy where I’ve had a few days of high sugar levels and everyone just forgets it’s the diabetes and just think I’m a stroppy teenager or that I’m annoyed at them. Sometimes it creates problems between me and my boyfriend but we’ve been together a year and a half and he is fine about my diabetes, he’s even done some of my needles for me! It even creates friction between me and my parents, that’s when I get the most down because I’m really close to my family and my friends and I hate the thought of being nasty to them but I don’t mean it and things get sorted out.

My health is currently very good and i am always getting good long term results at the hospital i attend. I don't think they have ever been over 10.0. I made this website to share my knowledge and experiences of diabetes with other children and even their parents in the hope that i may be helping other people to cope with diabetes.

Just because i have diabetes, it doesn't mean that i am any different from the other people i have grown up with. i can still do all the same activities, i can eat the same things, no one i know treats me any different from them. My good control of my diabetes is all down to the fact that i eat what i want and experiment with my insulin dosage. if i want to have a cake with my lunch, i have a cake, i just increase my insulin by 1 or 2 units. My doctor at the hospital is always telling me how good my levels are.