It's been a while...

I suppose it was a milestone of sorts; not exactly a cause for celebration but a date worth marking all the same. Last October saw the first anniversary of my T1 diagnosis. At the risk of sounding a touch self indulgent I may as well fess up to having had a sense of occasion about the whole thing. Emotionally it was a bit of a trip to the pick 'n mix counter. There was certainly a sense of achievement; a degree of pride in the fact that, broadly speaking, I'd handled it all reasonably well. I hadn't let diabetes drag me down. There can be no dressing up T1 diabetes as something good but with the right attitude it can bring positive aspects to ones life. For me it was a disciplined approach to diet and exercise and a greater awareness of my body and personal health. So while T1 diabetes brings its obvious risks and complications, good management can bring improvements to one's overall better health and well being.
There was also a sense of pride my diabetes was not the sole thing that overrode and characterised the entire year. For any newly diagnosed folk the important thing to remember is that a condition and a part of life but it's not your entire life. For me it was a sojourn in hospital followed by a couple of days off work to get into the swing of things, then back to work and I haven't looked back since. I started carb counting from day one, cut the crap out of my diet, began to get fit and started researching and blogging about the exclusive club of which I'd become a fully paid up member. Otherwise life and work went on as normal. Indeed the biggest event of that's year has possibly not been my T1 diagnosis but my appointment as Deputy Principal in a new school. Or maybe it's seeing my beautiful daughter begin her first year at school.
Of course, as the song goes, I'm no Superman and there have been plenty of downers. Despite having began carb counting from day one and completed a DAFNE course in February '14 my BG levels still need a bit of work and tend to fluctuate sometimes. Am I bovvered? Not a whole lot. I'm a pragmatic sort at heart and I certainly know that Rome wasn't built in a day. Yes it can be a little frustrating to wake up of a morning with a 12.3 reading but it takes time to refine one's control of diabetes and even then there's an array of influencing factors that can put the cat amongst the pigeons. Personally speaking I'm happy having been broadly in control over the past eighteen months in the knowledge that my knowledge and management of the condition is improving all the time.