About me

 About me - my profile

Hi, I'm Emma. I've had type 1 diabetes since the age of 3, I am currently 19, making it a total of 17 years in September 2010.

I live in England with my parents and my younger sister, who will be 15 this year and our big dog, A Great Dane called Belle, she's almost 6 years old and is very playful. I also have a boyfriend who I have been with for five years.

This is Belle when she was younger

I left school in 2008 after studying for my A Levels. I got pretty good grades. I am now working as a marketing and design assistant.

I am the only person in my family with type 1 diabetes. My grandad and great Aunt developed type 2 diabetes a few years ago but up untill I was diagnosed no one else had it. Strange really considering type 1 is hereditory, I guess someone else had it years ago.

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 lived at the time (kent) 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 being stroppy or that I’m annoyed at them.  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 families 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 a couple of units. My doctor at the hospital is always telling me how good my levels are.