Diagosed when I was 18, I am now 44. I never married and never had children. I have worked all my life until the last 8 months where I went from working fulltime to not working at all. I found the pressure of working fulltime and having 4 to 5 insulin injections & checking my BSL at work and endeavouring to maintain my career way too hard. Waking each day at 6am and walking before work, then getting to work and trying to juggle accounts, appointments and others tasks,& an employer who has no idea about my Type 1 Diabetes that much harder to balance.
Don’t get me wrong all employers aren’t the same because before this job, I was in the public service & my boss there was so understanding & kind, unfortunately my role was only temporary & as they saying goes,”All good things must come to end”. I find each day has it’s own plan for me, and the worse are the nights because I don’t understand why my BSL always goes high during the night. Although with the introduction of Lantus I had some relief in this area. I am preparing to return to work two days a week at 6 hrs a day & I am scared, nervous and thinking can I do this.
I know I can & my new boss knows about my Type 1 Diabetes & seems very understanding. But everytime I put that bloody needle into me I am reminded of my fear and that ongoing pressure that it seems too much for me. I won’t quit and it won’t beat me, this I know. As the hypos and the severity of how sick you feel when you come round from them which includes that intense pain in your head, that travels down to your stomach & contracts within & then you have no alternative but to begin vomiting, whilst the Ambos try to put in a cannula & ask you questions about your last meal and injection, & family members watch & wait anxiously for you to awake from this ongoing ordeal, which ultimately reflects your daily life. Scary but very very true. Remember this is my life which is seen through the eyes of the needle.
