We are just back from a week in Majorca. The day before we were due to leave, I woke at 5.30 am with terrible stomach pains, mostly on my right hand side. I couldn’t get back to sleep, and began to panic…about my appendix.

I rang the doctor first thing and managed to get an emergency appointment for 10am that morning. I went along to the doctor, hoping he would tell me that I was fine, to go home, and to enjoy my holiday! Instead, he told me he couldn’t tell me it wasn’t appendicitis, and I was to go to A & E to get checked out.

So there I was…off to hospital (luckily I had my mum with me!!) where I ended up on a trolley, in the casualty department, with a tap in my arm waiting for a drip…I was not amused. Especially as, by this stage, I felt fine!

After several hours of waiting about, blood tests, constant checks on my sugar, as I wasn’t allowed to eat…I was told I was ok! That it was probably an infection of some kind. So I was given some antibiotics, and sent on my way…thankfully! So we didn’t have to cancel our holiday, as I was beginning to think we might not get away!

So that was a bit too much excitement, but at least nothing came of it, and my appendix is still intact!

I had a hospital appointment this week to have my hba1c drawn. Normally, my appointments fall in June and December. This one was a ‘post Dafne’ extra.

Dafne is meant to reduce your hba1c, but my starting point back in June was somewhere in the region of 6 (I had 2 drawn within a week – one came back at 5.9, one at 6.3) so I wasn’t convinced I could go down. (Not that I’m complaining…I’m very very happy with those numbers)

So, this time it came back at 6.4 – slightly up. But, to be fair, still fantastic! The nurse and I even joked that I wasn’t really diabetic at all. I suggested I stopped taking insulin…she didn’t think that was a very good idea…at all!

So there’s me feeling all smug and well controlled, and at lunch time, i tested, to be greeted with a score of 12.3. I guess that is just my diabetes checking that I don’t forget about it?! As if I could. Ever.

Yesterday, we were eating rice for tea. Jonny was in the process of weighing it for me, and I was having a conversation with myself, working out how much insulin I needed to take. My calculations led me to a conclusion of 13 units. I checked with Jonny, he agreed. I injected 13 units.

And then realised that I was wrong. It should have been 10 units. Whoops! Realising the gravity of this, while not catastrophic, but certainly sizeable error…Jonny’s suggestion was…’eat more rice’.

“I think not” I said, looking at my already full plate.

As we ate, I was working out what to do to cover my mistake.

Luckily, we happened to have chocolate bars in the house…so, after tea, I made myself a cup of tea, and forced myself (yes, forced!) to eat a Crunchie.

And it was wonderful!!

(To be fair, I still spent most of the evening with a low snapping at my heels…but we also happened to have caramel digestives in the house!)

On Monday, we went to see Coldplay, in Phoenix Park, in Dublin. This concert was much anticipated and looked forward to, as we have seen Coldplay before, and they are brilliant in concert.

We had a lovely day in the centre of Dublin – having a wander around the shops, eating, drinking hot chocolate in St. Stephen’s Green (not me!). We even went on the walking tour of Trinity and saw the book of Kells!

In the evening, we headed back to where we had parked the car, to start our walk to the park. According to an email we had got with  details about the concert – this was a 20 minute walk. We ended up walking for a good 45 minutes…and quickly! So it was a bit of a trek, but we finally arrived, and got in line to be searched.

Now, you’ll remember my worries over my bottle of lucozade at the U2 concert? Where I thought I would have the lid of my bottle taken away and destroyed? And no one ever checked?

Well, apparently things work a bit differently in Phoenix Park. I had my bag checked, the bottle of lucozade (lemon flavoured this time) rising to the surface. Next thing I knew my ’searcher’ was holding it, and attempting to remove the lid…I panicked. Reaching for my bottle back, I started to ramble incoherently about diabetes, sugar, needing it, can’t take it off me…etc. He looked at me blankly, obviously with no idea as to what I was talking about. Luckily the man checking the bags in the next line figured it out immediately and took over the situation…calmly asking me for id. I was able to show one of my 3 id cards, proving that I am, in fact, diabetic…and as a result, am authorised to be in possession of the lid of a bottle at all times.

So we headed on to the concert…lucozade in hand, lid intact.

The concert was absolutely fantastic. It really was. So many highlights. Hundreds of yellow balloons released into the crowd for ‘Yellow’… Confetti butterflies everywhere (Lovers in Japan)…Fireworks… Chris Martin talking to a pre-recorded Simon Cowell on the big screen, judging the performance of the audience…the opening notes of ‘Viva La Vida’, when the crowd went wild. An encore featuring ‘The Scientist’ (one of my favourites) and the full version of ‘Life in Technicolour’. And, I think my favourite…the instrumental in the middle of ‘Fix You’.

Immense!

After all that, we were buzzing, and ready for our 45 minute walk back to the car.

Best concert…ever!!

So, Saturday saw our attempted climb up Slieve Donard…the highest peak in Northern Ireland, at 853m…which is quite high enough! ‘We’ consisted of me, Jonny, and our friend Roger (whose real name is actually Richard…but that’s a whole other story!)

Friday night, in preparation, I reduced my background insulin by half. Saturday morning, I only took half my quick acting insulin with my breakfast, and we set off on our journey.

My sugar at the start was a fairly high 13, but I figured that would quickly come down. And it did. Half an hour later, I tested again, and it was somewhere in the region of 7. Half an hour on again, it was down to 5. At this point, I decided to eat a Mars Bar. The assumption was that I would continue to drop.

Half an hour or so later, I was starting to fade fast. We were getting close to where we intended to stop for lunch, and I thought I was just tired. I was walking along (or, to be fair, struggling along by this stage!) thinking that I should test. You know the internal argument…

‘I need to test, I feel low.’

‘I can’t be low, I have just eaten.’

‘But I feel low…’

‘You’re just tired.’

And on and on. Eventually I tested. Not surprisingly…low! So that sent me into a bit of a panic…what if I keep dropping and the food isn’t working?!

Anyway, it all worked out ok. We made it to our lunch stop. I ate. Didn’t take any insulin at all. And my sugar continued to climb, before dropping again later in the day. I’ll know better what to do next time!

What made this all the more exciting was that I only had 1 bottle of lucozade with me (and glucose tablets, a bag of sweets and lots of chocolate, but that’s neither here nor there!) Jonny decided he wanted some…I guard my lucozade very closely and no one is supposed to even look at it, in case I need it. But before I knew it, he had opened it, and all the walking made it explode everywhere! Not good!

But I didn’t need that much. And a few lows aside, my diabetes behaved itself fairly well, considering all the exercise (approx. 5 hours walking!)

And it was so worth it! We had a fantastic day (which will improve the more we look back on it and forget how hideously hard and tiring it actually was!)

Maybe not every mountain. Just one. That’s the plan anyway. We’re planning a trip to the Mournes this Saturday, to do a bit of a hike/climb/gentle stroll (!)

So I have to plan ahead to make sure my diabetes doesn’t get in the way.

My last few attempts at a big hike didn’t work too well. We were in the Grand Canyon last year, and I started a 2 hour walk with a blood sugar of 4.6. Not recommended. Then, we were hiking on Franz Josef glacier in New Zealand (we do get about, don’t we?!) where the same happened again.

I think the solution is lots of slow acting, rather than fast acting carbs. But we’ll try it and see!

DAFNE has lots of complicated rules like reducing background insulin, eating every 2 hours, all sorts of stuff. I think I’ll reduce my background insulin tomorrow night in preparation for Saturday, and then just wing it! And if in doubt, just keep eating!