diabetes in the media Archives - Diabetes Counselling Online

After the #party’s over: #guilt #regret #acceptance

April 18, 2014 by helwild Leave a Comment

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So, the Moveable Feast of Eostre, the goddess of spring fertility, is upon us once again. It’s Easter. We have a full moon, rabbits & chickens, chocolate & sweet fruit buns with a cross baked into the top. For some religions, there are other, more sombre & deeply significant symbols associated with this part of our annual calendar. For most of us, there are 4 days off work, at a time of year when the moon is full, when the day & the night are almost of equal length, with the equinox falling just under 4 weeks before Eostre in 2014, on March 20th. The weather is generally pretty ‘liveable’, whatever hemisphere of this bounteous Earth we are living in.

The stage is set for a time of rest & relaxation, of time with family & friends, of contemplation, & of feasting. In our Northern hemisphere heritage & tradition, even though we are now living in the Southern hemisphere, the annual cycle away from the darkness & deprivation of winter means it’s time to make special purchases of foods that we normally reserve for special occasions: weddings, parties, birthdays, anniversaries. Some observe religious abstinence of some food for part of this time; but all spend at least part of this time feasting.

For about 38 years, our Easter has involved spending time with our extended family. In the early days, these Easter gatherings were held at our house in a small inland country town. We actually sent out invitations, & at first our brothers & sisters & our own parents came, bringing children, the occasional great grandparent, & the occasional dog. We needed caravans & tents for everyone to be able to sleep under cover, & occasionally the bathroom & septic tank struggled to cope. Luckily we were only a short walk from the Public utilities. The cousins bonded for life.

Later, once we acquired our scruffy little fibro beach shack, all the growing cousins brought friends; girlfriends, boyfriends. Meals were mostly eaten outside, huddled away from the sea breezes in a cold year, or gloriously somnolent in sunshine in a warm year. That’s the thing about Easter: it’s a Moveable Feast, so the weather can be like the end of summer; or it can be like the beginning of winter; or even both. We still needed a caravan or a tent some years, but bunks, sofa beds, mattresses on the floor, two showers & an outdoor hose, & two toilets helped a great deal. The septic tank needed regular emptying.

I remember a lot of laughter from those years. For most of those 38 years we were at the beach shack, & our time was taken up with sandcastles, swimming, searching rock pools for little crabs, midnight Jetty fishing excursions, sailing, rowing in a kayak or canoe. Food was abundant of course, as were leftovers. We played cards with gum nuts for stakes, Coon can, Pontoon, snap.

Nowadays our eldest daughter brings her family & we spend about 5 days at the shack. This year, because of the school holidays & other plans our family holiday ended on Good Friday. Traffic on the road to Adelaide was building up, & so they left before lunch today.

Our party this year included a full eclipse of the Moon, two red moons in a row, sunsets & dawns that were peacefully beautiful. Oh & the beginnings of a mouse plague. We swam in the sea, laughed, played games, built sandcastles & lego cities. We spotted our resident gecko, still skittering about inside the shack. We put down mouse bait, & threw out one little corpse. We enjoyed the fun of a 5 year old who wakes bursting with energy at 6.30 a.m. & wants to play baby pelicans (learning to fly & land) baby galahs, or baby seagulls. We enjoyed the seriousness of a tall 15 year old, who wants to share his thoughts & opinions about a myriad of topics. Both children are bursting with the joy of life.

Sure, we did enjoy some great, simple, homecooked meals. We didn’t buy takeaway. We didn’t eat chocolate. We didn’t have any chocolate with us. There are 3 people with diabetes in our party, & we aren’t that fussed about chocolate anymore. After the party’s over, what happens? There are the mechanics to be gone through: cleaning up, working out what to do with leftovers, perhaps extra sheets & towels to wash, if you’ve had house guests as we’ve had. But there is no time to waste on regret, guilt, or ‘shouldn’t haves’. The motto of ‘Acceptance‘, ‘going with the flow’, is the mantra that my daughter repeated many times over the past 5 days. ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff’ in life, whether it’s about food, children’s behaviour, TV programmes, the timing of how a day runs on holiday. It’s OK to change your mind, & also to accept that in many cases whatever decision you make is just fine. Managing diabetes is organised, stressful. Reducing stress can be as simple as letting go of the ‘need’ to be the one who manages, who seeks to ensure that everything is covered. It’s actually OK for things on holiday to not be tightly planned & organised.

Technically,our party is over for this year. Last night I was woken from sleep at 1 a.m. by the sound of young girls laughing out the front. Now I hear the sound of other people’s holiday long weekend just starting. People have arrived, having made a long drive from somewhere. My elderly neighbour on one side is from the Adelaide Hills, & he is having a Prawn feast with his extended family, including a new great grandchild. His elderly red dog is resting outside in the shade. On the other side, the young family of the second son is cooking up a Sausage sizzle. Their dog is a middleaged lab, all protective when he needs to be, & all tail waggingly friendly when he doesn’t. Everywhere I hear children playing, birds calling, wind, the sound of the sea on the shore. Out the front, two little boys aged about 9 are walking past, wearing shorts & fleecy jackets.

We have decided to stay on a little. I have been very unwell, & am still moving more slowly than usual.There is a lot to do. We have no need to rush back to the city, where our daily lives are. And it’s still so beautiful here. Our original plan was to head back today, but slowly our plan evolved into a different one. Acceptance includes being flexible, open to what life brings.

happiness comes from letting go of guilt

carpe diem

Helen

Helen Wilde is a Senior Counsellor with Diabetes Counselling Online. She has been the parent of a person with diabetes since 1979, and has lived with Type 2 diabetes herself since 2001.

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#Parenting a child with #diabetes #struggles & #rewards: owning your own #lifetime

March 20, 2014 by helwild 10 Comments

This is a blog I have wanted to write for some time. As the parent of a now grown up child with diabetes, I feel a ‘special’ bond with other parents. Because of this, I am one of the moderators of the Facebook Closed group Parents of kids with diabetes. Almost every day I read & respond to heroic, wonderful, ordinary, or desperate stories of parents, ordinary people, most of them with no prior knowledge or experience of life with diabetes. Some are the parents of newly diagnosed infants. Those of us diagnosed as adults, no matter what type of diabetes, we know the emotional rollercoaster that diagnosis brings. Imagine that diagnosis being pronounced on your baby or your child.

The journey of acceptance of the diagnosis of diabetes is often described as the journey of loss, a journey through the stages of mourning. Some people diagnosed, or some partners of people who are diagnosed, get ‘stuck’ in one of the very earliest of stages, Disbelief & or Denial. They may delay or refuse the suggested treatment or advice for management. They may hide their diagnosis from those around them. That stage is bypassed in a Blink for the parent whose child is diagnosed. From lasting perhaps years, this stage is reduced to a few moments, a few hours, a day, a couple of days. From then on, ‘Disbelief’ & ‘Denial’ do not exist. We leap straight to fear, panic, guilt; into anger, blame, shame. We also leap straight into fierce Warrior protector mode. For most of us, our fear has to be submerged into Action, Compliance, & Learning, all embedded in a fierce protective mode that overrides everything else. Our own sadness, mourning, self blame must be submerged under the need to be the responsible Parent, the one who will manage the journey of our precious child into adulthood with lifelong chronic disease. I imagine the journey is similar to that of any parent whose child is diagnosed with a chronic disease or condition.

One of the differences lies in the management. Daily, a parent must monitor & restrict or ‘manage’ the food intake of their child. When birthday parties or celebratory occasions come up, the decisions about how to manage party food become an obsession. We handle insulin, a powerful hormone with great responsibilities attached, several times a day. We check glucose levels, ketones. We must ensure that we never run out of any supplies. We make & keep appointments with a range of HCP’s. We keep records, or trust our children to. We learn jargon. We FB, we Tweet, we SoMe. We must budget to afford all this, & although thankfully in Australia parents do receive some government assistance with costs whilst their children are under 16, in some countries this is a crushing, unsustainable burden. Our sleep is interrupted, sometimes many times a night, for the duration of the time our child with diabetes lives under our roof; and in the case of our daughters, possibly again when (if) (joyfully; & scarily) pregnancy occurs. We become master mathematicians & pseudo nurses & endocrinologists, calculating complex equations several times a day, carbs, insulin, bgl ratios.

Another difference between being diagnosed yourself & having your child diagnosed is the type & level of Guilt & Self Blame that occurs. For ourselves, it becomes tied up in not talking about our diabetes, in hiding it so that we check our bgl’s or inject our insulin or take our oral medication very privately. We may even not do these things at all if a social occasion comes up. When it’s your child, ‘compliance’ is not an issue. We follow our instructions to the letter, to the minute. We advocate, we speak out, we question, we seek knowledge, advice, support. We talk to teachers, schools, principals, classrooms full of children. For many parents, their Guilt & Self Blame becomes lifelong, but is submerged into supporting a search for a cure. This is absolutely normal. It gives Hope, which is so wonderful. However, for some people supporting a cause such as this can become obsessive, preventing Acceptance, & interfering with normal life, & just getting on with managing the diabetes as best as possible.

It can seem impossible to set aside time for managing to care for ourselves. We can feel as though we are too tired, too busy, too responsible to take some time out just to be ourselves, just to breathe & enjoy our lives. We feel driven to Act, to do. The younger the child, & the more young siblings there are, the more difficult this becomes. Many parents are fortunate in having the practical support of a partner, grandparents, their own siblings. Others have friends in the ‘real’ world as well as in the virtual world. You may have access to good Child Care, where people are already trained or are open to be trained in managing your child’s health condition. It is hard to accept that it is not selfish to use such practical help to simply ‘take a sanity break’. However, doing so can actually be a wise management strategy. By allowing someone else to take care of our child with diabetes for a half a day, a day, a ‘sleepover’, a weekend; we are teaching everyone concerned that if for some reason we are unavailable, they can manage, & manage well. We’re teaching our child that there are safe people & places in the world, & as they get older, that they are clever, brave, strong; and normal. They can be away from us, & we can be away from them. We will come back, & we will all be OK. And we’re teaching ourselves that our lives exist outside our Parenting role, a role which changes over time for everyone, regardless of any health condition of their child.

What activities do you currently do that are solely for yourself? Do you walk, run, climb, meet a friend, visit a library, play a sport, go to the gym, sew, go to the cinema, study, paint, garden, play with animals, swim, do yoga, ski, ride a motorbike or bicycle, box, write a diary or blog? What have you stopped doing that you would like to go back to? What have you always wanted to do or try that you have not yet tried? Do you know how to practice relaxation, controlled breathing, or any stress relief practices?

Always remember, you are a Parent of a child, & you are a Person. These roles do not exclude or preclude each other. Your life is yours, you own it. We have a short time on this earth, & our time is Now.

Remain in Light. Talking Heads

carpe diem

Helen Wilde

Helen is a Senior Counsellor with Diabetes Counselling online, a Teacher, & the Parent of a person living with Type 1 diabetes since 1979. She has lived with Type 2 diabetes herself since 2001.

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advocacy: speaking up: staying strong

January 30, 2014 by helwild Leave a Comment

I’ve been thinking a lot about ‘Advocacy’ over the past few months. Part of this has been around some of the negative stereotyping & anger around the different ‘types’ of diabetes. Part of it has been around the health of my 91 year old mother, who is living with dementia, alongside a host of physical problems.

Advocacy starts with us, people living with diabetes. We need to speak up and say what we want. And health care providers need to understand that people with diabetes come to see them not to hear about diabetes, not to learn about diabetes, but to hear and learn about their own diabetes. In this way, it is easier to start with that person and work from them, not a text book. – See more at: http://www.diabetescounselling.com.au/living-with-diabetes/advocacy-starts-here-its-all-about-your-diabetes/#sthash.6J02qo60.dpuf

Most of us probably tend to think of an ‘Advocate’ as someone other than ourselves, maybe as someone who ‘speaks for others’, in the same mould as a Lawyer perhaps, or an Environmental activist. This is certainly one way that Advocacy occurs. Did you know that there is a strong Diabetes Community online which supports and advocates for people with diabetes? One of the links you may find interesting is here:

And yes, my mother is now unable to speak for herself. It’s up to her family, myself and my sisters, to speak for her, to listen when she does express a wish or an opinion, but to be guided by what we know of her beliefs & opinions from the past, as well as making judgement calls based on the best advice available to us now. We Advocate for her.

There is another meaning to the word advocacy, a subtle difference, and a hugely empowering one. We can speak for others, sure. Maybe we speak up already for others in the same situation we are in, maybe this involves bravery & courage. Importantly though, we can also speak up for ourselves.

“Advocacy starts with us, people living with diabetes. We need to speak up and say what we want.” Read more about what this means and how WE can be advocates here:

The following link provides advice which is Advocacy specifically around depression, and of course our organisation provides several services which can help you through periods of depression.

* Recognise. Recognition is one of the first steps in managing depression. The Mayo Clinic site has a list of symptoms broken down by age, but the signs of depression vary and not everyone might experience every symptom.

* Take action. If you feel depressed, make an appointment to see your doctor as soon as you can. Depression symptoms may not get better on their own — and depression may get worse if it isn’t treated. Untreated depression can lead to other mental and physical health problems or problems in other areas.

* Treat. Your care team will help you define the treatments that are best for you, based on your diabetes, and if they diagnose depression. Staying on your treatment plan is tough, particularly if you don’t know anyone else who shares the same struggles. Diabetes often makes people feel alone. But you are not alone.

Support is available! There’s an entire online community of people with diabetes that “get it,” (just do a simple Twitter search on #DOC, ‘diabetes online communities’) who understand the struggle of daily managing diabetes through honesty, laughter and friendship. You are welcome to join that community.

– See more at: http://www.diabetescounselling.com.au/uncategorized/diabetes-advocates-urge-more-awareness-about-depression/#sthash.dXWJk0T6.dpuf

I just received a link via Social media to a story in the Tasmanian press today, a story by a young girl who is transitioning from being a child with diabetes, reliant on her mother, to being a young woman with diabetes, reliant on herself. Of course she will need support. Of course she will receive it. But she is finding her own way, & finding her own voice. In time, she may well become an Advocate for people with diabetes. How fitting that the publication featuring this story is called the Advocate. You can read 14 year old Mollys’ story at the link.

Here at Diabetes Counselling Online we have a Team which is dedicated to Support & Advocacy. We speak up on your behalf in many situations, some of them personal, some of them on the World stage. We receive invitations to sit on various committees & panels which provide advice to Systems, pharmaceutical & device companies, & Government bodies, & to speak at a wide range of Forums, conferences, Expos, associations, & Education facilities. For many of us, though, Advocacy is very personal. We also speak up for ourselves. We live with diabetes, we are the parents of people with diabetes, we have diabetes ourselves, or we care for someone with diabetes. If you haven’t checked out our team, you can do so at this link to our team page.

Row your own canoe, it's your journey! Advocate for yourself — Row your own canoe, it’s your journey! Advocate for yourself

All it takes to be an advocate is for us to be active in saying what we want, in not accepting negative stereotyping, whether directed at us or at others, in not laying blame at the feet of someone with diabetes because that makes us feel slightly superior, as though they somehow ‘deserve’ their diabetes. No one deserves diabetes. We all deserve the best advice & health care that is available to us & for those we care for. We can advocate for ourselves wherever we go.

We can also be advocates for those who cannot speak up, or who have no power to change their circumstances. For some people with diabetes in some countries, just being able to access insulin is beyond their means. You can speak up for them, too. The 100 Campaign aims to provide access to Insulin for children around the world. It’s not yet 100 years since Insulin was first made available. Maybe by the time we get to that 100 years anniversary, there will be 100% of children with diabetes around the world who can access safe insulin.

Advocate! It's about sharing our strength — Advocate! It’s about sharing our strength

Helen Wilde

Helen is a long term Senior Counsellor with Diabetes Counselling Online.

Helen is also the parent of a person with Type 1 diabetes, since 1979; and has had Type 2 diabetes herself since 2001.

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It’s all in your p.o.v..changing perspectives

January 16, 2014 by helwild 5 Comments

Today is likely to be one of the hottest days on record in Adelaide. It is also going to be the hottest day of any city in the world today, according to the forecasters. How do people handle something like this?

The answer lies largely in how people are situated, and what their outlook on life is.

My neighbours, who are a group of single men living in a Share House with a couple of bedroom airconditioners, were out early this morning polishing the old Mercedes when I went for my ‘diabetes stroll’. We exchanged a few words re the weather, and one of them said, ‘We’re off to Africa, it’s cooler there! Want to come with us?” Here is my mental image of what my day would look like if I’d accepted..

The Adelaide City Council has opened the air conditioned city bus shelter 24 hours all week, & invited the homeless to sleep there. They are providing free cold water. The Charities are working hard too, free lunch & a movie every day. And some of the homeless are cheerfully heading to the free Libraries after the movie, so they can stay in the a/c there. The city is doing its best to look after the less fortunate. I saw a homeless man last night on the TV news being interviewed- he was remarkably cheerful, optimistic, & resilient in his outlook.

Throughout the State, Volunteers are donning fireproof clothing, or volunteering to provide drinks & food for firefighters. With a number of firefronts to manage, people are managing on minimal sleep & in appalling conditions to ‘serve & protect’ the lives & property of strangers. How do they keep it up?

In their personal lives, people are offering help to family, friends & strangers. They are providing shade & water for wild birds & animals, sharing taxis with strangers & space in their homes for neighbours without a/c. They are calling elderly relatives with reminders to ‘keep cool, keep drinking’. They are voluntarily using less electricity in their homes by cooling only necessary areas, in order to avoid the dreaded ‘load shedding’ that threatens.

I have been thinking about this today in the context of the Global online diabetes community. More and more I am seeing the support given to other ‘people with diabetes’: by strangers to each other, simply because we share a common bond: we have diabetes, or we are caring for someone with diabetes- or both. Because it’s one thing to be a caring Health professional, & very important too. And it’s another thing to be able to ‘speak with’ and be heard by ‘someone like me’- someone who is also living this Diabetic life, every single day. Some of this occurs on Twitter, with many Diabetes related online communities. Others are comfortable on ‘bookface’, & we have special interest groups which you may find helpful yourself. Some are Open groups, you can simply join. Others are ‘closed’: that is for the protection of its members, who feel comfortable sharing worries & advice with others who are similarly placed with respect to diabetes. With the ‘closed’ groups, you can request to join, and a group Admin wil review your public profile, & possibly send you a clarifying question by PM.

Here are some of them:

diabetes.counselling

MenWithDiabetes

pregnancyparentingdiabetes

diabetesandfood

parents

diabetesweightmatters ; ruraldiabetes/

You may be just the person who is needed in a Group: your perspective on your diabetes might be just what someone else needs to hear: we are all different, & we are all the same. No matter what type of diabetes you have, or how long you have had it, in this century, in the times we live in, we Diabetics have never been more connected with each other. We can give and find support like no one before us in the History of the World has been able to.

” All of us are human beings first. We are all sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends and lovers. We all laugh, cry, get angry, sad; worry and wonder what life is all about.

Then, we are people living with diabetes” Helen Edwards

All of us are human beings first. We are sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, bothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends and lovers. We all laugh, cry, get angry, sad, worry and wonder what life is all about. – See more at: http://www.diabetescounselling.com.au/uncategorized/people-politics-and-pancreases/#sthash.GANsISUe.dpuf(people politics and pancreases)

(people, politics, and pancreases)

Helen Wilde

Helen has been the mother of a Type 1 diabetic since 1979, and has had Type 2 diabetes herself since 2001. She has been a Senior Counsellor with www.diabetescounselling.com.au since 2002.

of us are human beings first. We are sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, bothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends and lovers. We all laugh, cry, get angry, sad, worry and wonder what life is all about. – See more at: http://www.diabetescounselling.com.au/uncategorized/people-politics-and-pancreases/#sthash.GANsISUe.dpuf

Then, we are people living with diabetes.

– See more at: http://www.diabetescounselling.com.au/uncategorized/people-politics-and-pancreases/#sthash.GANsISUe.dpuf

Then, we are people living with diabetes.

– See more at: http://www.diabetescounselling.com.au/uncategorized/people-politics-and-pancreases/#sthash.GANsISUe.dpuf

Then, we are people living with diabetes.

– See more at: http://www.diabetescounselling.com.au/uncategorized/people-politics-and-pancreases/#sthash.GANsISUe.dpuf

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Christmas is coming- FREE Gifts & an interview with the creator of ‘Diabeadies by Vivi’

December 12, 2013 by helwild Leave a Comment

Last week I was fortunate to spend the whole week in Melbourne at the Exhibition & Convention Centre on South Bank. When I got home, my husband asked me, ‘how big is the Centre? Is it as big as a railway Station?’ I told him, ‘it’s as big as TWO Spencer Street railway stations T-boned into each other.’ The two T-boned concourses are each incredibly long, and the Convention centre has 3 floors, with an equally long concourse on each level! Then there are the User Spaces themselves, the Exhibition Hall & several Associated display spaces which combine to cover more floor area than many small towns in Australia, and the two Plenary Halls and many meeting rooms of the Convention Centre. I have never been in a larger enclosed space. This space was filled with over 10,000 delegates, plus the Catering and Support staff, and the Exhibitors & Expert presenters from all over the World. Possibly 20,000 people using the Centre on any given day.

At this amazing event, Diabetes Counselling Online made its presence felt. We had 8 wonderful volunteers, one of them doubling as Ph. D. supervisor for our founder, Helen Edwards, and four doubling as staff members and delegates. You can see Helen Edwards’ blog on Words for diabetes here on the event together with a wonderful Video she has put together on Youtube

In the Exhibition Hall, DCO presented THE most popular stand of the week. At some points there were 30 or more people trying to get into our tiny stand. Sure, we had giveaways, our brochures, pens, flyers, satchel bags, & bananas. In addition, our large Screen showing our live website was continually in use, as people from other countries could not believe the service that we provide. We remain unique in the world. Many could not even grasp the concept until they were shown on the screen and talked with one of us. In addition, many Australian Diabetes Educators and other HCP’s who did know us stopped by to collect brochures & say ‘Hi!’.

So as well as providing information about the DCO Service, the Volunteers were also able to Display samples and show samples of the aquamarines, from the World Diabetes Day ‘Blue Circle’ range,to visitors of our wonderful fund raising Product, our ‘Diabeadies® by Vivi’. There was very keen interest, and visitors from countries as far apart as Africa, Indonesia, China, Czechoslovakia, Russia, Turkey, as well as Australia would very much liked to have been able to buy on the spot! Unfortunately we did not have the capacity to do that for them, but we are hoping that the admirers of Diabeadies from last week will find their way to our estore. During the week of the Congress, Vivi launched a ‘Christmas Promotion’, and I thought it might be a good idea to showcase her work here, while that promotion is still running. Here is the promotion:

Photo: Matt H, will be receiving two sets of sterling silver amethyst and sapphire earrings with our compliments this week. They are to go with the amethyst and sapphire bracelets he purchased today - well done Matt! If you haven't ordered yours yet for Christmas, get in quickly, the offer ends on December 20. These special orders come in a pretty gift box and bag so you don't even have to gift wrap them! Just go to http://www.diabetescounselling.com.au/shop/category/e-store/http://www.diabetescounselling.com.au/shop/category/e-store/ to place your order

Matt H will be receiving two sets of sterling silver amethyst and sapphire earrings with our compliments this week. They are to go with the amethyst and sapphire bracelets he purchased today- Well done Matt! If you haven’t ordered yours yet for Christmas, get in quickly, this offer ends on December 2oth. These special orders come in a pretty gift box and bag so you don’t even need to gift wrap them! Just Go to the shop to purchase your item and receive your FREE gift! shop here

Just HURRY to place your order

Isn’t it a great offer?

On my return from the World Diabetes Congress in Melbourne to Adelaide, I interviewed Vivi about her process of design.

Here is our discussion!

Q1. Hi Vivi. I love the beautiful jewellery you make. Where do your Beads come from?

A1. All of our Beads are precious Gemstones. They are not glass or plastic. They come from various countries. For example, my aquamarines, from the World Diabetes Day ‘Blue Circle’ range, come from Brazil, the beautiful Moonstones from Sri Lanka, the lovely dark red Garnets come from Africa, and the Amethysts from Russia.

Q2.Why do you choose specific stones, and do they have any therapeutic benefits?

A2. All of our stones feel wonderful on the skin. They are also visually beautiful, and both of these properties help me to feel calm & relaxed. I choose the stones I love, and that I think will fit in with the principles of mental health for those living with chronic disease. I choose colours & stones & sizes of gems that I think will work well together, and as every item is individually designed and hand made I put them next to each other so I can decide what goes with what. Sometimes the stones surprise me by working well together when I was not sure they would! I love working with them, and find my stress levels and pain levels are reduced when working. There are many claims by others for the benefits of specific stones, and we have collected some of these beliefs, and can provide them on request. However, they are just that, beliefs. We do not claim any medicinal, curative, or therapeutic benefits other than those of aesthetics, beauty and pleasure. For example, one of the first stones we have used is Amethyst, one of the DCO trademark colours. Here are some of the claims for amethyst by others that we have published on the website :

“Amethyst is the most precious stone within the quartz group. Since purple is considered a royal color, amethyst, the transparent purple quartz, enjoyed an historical importance as an insignia of power. Fine amethysts are featured in the British Crown Jewels and were also a favourite of Catherine the Great and Egyptian royalty.

Amethyst is also a stone for meditation. It is said to be excellent for moving the mind into the alpha brain wave cycle smoothly and rapidly, thus making for a great meditation crystal. Probably that is the reason why amethyst has always been known as a sleeping aid down through the centuries.

It apparently exerts a calming effect behind the scenes; helps one to make judgments and carry out responsibilities. Its calming properties are said to help to moderate high strung temperaments and encourage the binding of the physical to the intellectual and beyond, into the spiritual realms; to stimulate the intellect, but temper it with a universal sense of compassion and connection.

– See more at: diabeadies

Q3.I know that you use both Tibetan silver and Sterling silver in the jewellery that you make. When do you decide to use Sterling Silver or Tibetan Silver?

A3. I use Tibetan silver because it is inert, ie does not react on the skin, beautiful and easy to work with, and a little more affordable than Sterling Silver, so it helps to keep the price down for the hand made beads and charms. However, I use the Sterling Silver for anything which pierces the body, as Sterling Silver is guaranteed to be of the highest possible purity and therefore the best possible product for this purpose. It does make the jewellery a little more expensive to make, and so a little more expensive for the customer.

Q4.I have noticed the special beads and charms that you use. Can customers request particular designs for these? Or ask for more than one per item?

A 4. Yes, all (or most! LOL) requests are possible. Because ALL items are hand made and custom made, and all charms & silver & gemstone beads are hand made, I can make to order. The price will be adjusted according to a customer’s order. Everything with regard to design is negotiable! I can even make a matching necklace if requested.

Q5. Why do you do this?

A5. Well, I love doing it. It’s a pleasurable and interesting occupation, and I have the time to be able to do it. I have always been interested in designing and making things, and have mastered many arts and crafts over the years. In addition, several members of my family live with diabetes, and I like to think that my work making Diabeadies makes a difference in the lives of people living with diabetes.

Q6. Do any of the profits go to Charity?

A6. Yes, all profits go to the National Australian Charity Diabetes Counselling Online. The purchase of just two items will provide introductory email counselling for an Australian living with diabetes, or the purchase of just one item will provide advice from a Dietitian, Diabetes Educator, or Mental Health Counsellor for a Social Media group of people living with diabetes from across the world.

Final question,Q 7. Do you mail order to anywhere in the world?

A7. Yes of course. Prices are quoted in Australian dollars, but we can work out a local costing for a customer. And mailing charges are pretty reasonable to anywhere in the World, as the items are light and easily packed.

Me: Thanks for your time, Vivi! Any Final Thoughts?

Vivi: Just perhaps share one of my favourite quotes: “If you can’t do great things,” Mother Teresa used to say,”do little things with great love…” that kind of sums it up for me- I truly love that I can make this little something that other people see value in and can derive pleasure from.

Helen Wilde

Helen is a long term Senior Counsellor with Diabetes Counselling Online, Teacher, mother of a type 1 diabetic for 34 years and a type 2 diabetic herself for 12 years.

Vivienne McKenna

Vivi is a long term Volunteer and Employee with Diabetes Counselling Online. She lives with Type 2 Diabetes herself, and has several family members with all types of diabetes.

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