No Added Sugar: growing up with type 1 diabetes

By Fibi Ward

self-help guide to coping with diabetes as a teenager

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hammersmith Health Books
• Release date: Sep 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781781610039

Book preview

Copyright

First published as a print book in 2009 by Hammersmith Press Limited

First published as a digital book in 2012 by Hammersmith Health Books, an imprint of Hammersmith Books Limited

www.hammersmithbooks.co.uk

© 2009, 2012 Fibi Ward

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers and copyright holder.

Whilst the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of going to press, neither the author nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made. In particular (but without limiting the generality of the preceding disclaimer) every effort has been made to check drug dosages; however, it is possible that errors may have been missed. Furthermore, dosage schedules are particular to the individual and are constantly being revised and new side effects recognized. For these reasons readers are strongly urged to consult a health professional with regard to their personal treatment regime.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data: a CIP record of this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978–1–78161–003–9

Commissioning editor: Georgina Bentliff

Designed and typeset by Julie Bennett

Production by Helen Whitehorn, Pathmedia

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

A Huge Thank You …

Introduction

1. In shock

2. Early worries

3. Before we knew

4. Back to school

5. Cat’s out of the bag

6. Misunderstanding

7. Realisation

8. Facing the facts

9. First injections

10. Hypos

11. P.E.

12. Sweets, treats and choco-mania

13. First impressions

14. Eating out

15. Parties and sleepovers

16. Daytrips

17. The Honeymoon phase

18. Blood tests

19. Illness

20. Holidays

21. The diabetes clinic

22. Lumps (lipodistrophy)

23. The last word

Glossary

Useful resources

Index

A Huge Thank You …

…to Mom and Dad, for everything but mostly for all your help and understanding in the last year – for not freaking out once even in the early days when I totally lost it – and for believing in me and my writing. You are the best parents ever. To Robert, my brother, for all your encouragement, especially at the beginning, and to everyone else in my family for all your support. You are all fab.

Also a massive thank you to my friends Poppy Bridgens, Hayley Butterworth, Abbie Clarke, Alice Crossley, Emma Harvell, Amber-Jean Morris, Charlotte Orbell and Samantha Wood – for all your support and understanding when I was first diagnosed and all your encouragement for my book too.

Thank you to Diane Cluley, my diabetes nurse – you have been an enormous help, both with checking my book and with all your help and advice since last year.

And finally, thank you to Georgina Bentliff, my publisher, for making it all possible.

Introduction

Before you start reading No Added Sugar, I think I should tell you a bit about why I decided to write it. I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in January 2008, when I was 13 years old. My diagnosis came completely out of the blue. I was shocked, scared, upset and confused all at the same time. I couldn’t get my head around the fact that, from then on, I would have diabetes for the rest of my life, and I was dependent on having insulin injections every day.

Obviously, after I had been diagnosed, my parents and I had to get to grips with the treatment I was having; the more fully we understood my diabetes, the better we would be able to control it. We started looking for books that could help us find out about my condition. My parents wanted to read information books that would tell us all we needed to know about dealing with my diabetes – both the medical and practical aspects of it. They also wanted reassurance that however hard a time we were all going through at that moment, there was light at the end of the tunnel, and that, one day, I would be living a normal life again.

What I really wanted, however, was to read something by someone my own age, who knew and understood what I was going through. I didn’t know anyone else who had type 1 diabetes, so there was no one I could talk to who had been through it themselves. Although some people will want to go to support groups and find them very helpful, I personally didn’t want to go to one as I thought it would single me out even more as being ‘different’. I felt I would rather find a book that I could relate to; knowing that there was someone else out there who was in the same boat as me would be really reassuring. I thought that I would get a lot of comfort from knowing I wasn’t alone.

Although there are plenty of information books about diabetes, we couldn’t see anything that we could relate to which focused on the psychological side of it – and we certainly didn’t find anything by anyone my own age. I was going to have to come to terms with my diabetes without that help; that was what I tried to do.

At this point, I should perhaps add that, ever since I was very young, I’ve loved writing stories. From the age of about nine, my ambition has been to be a writer. I write stories (mostly teen fiction) in my spare time and first started sending them to publishers in 2007. In the March after my diagnosis, I had just finished writing my second ‘book’, and needed a new writing project to work on. Up until then, I’d forgotten about the seeming lack of books for diabetic teenagers like myself, and was getting on with my life the best I could. Then, almost out of nowhere, the idea came into my head that I could write about my diabetes. Why not? I thought. I could at least have a go at it. So, that evening, I began writing what has now become this book.

No Added Sugar is not a medical book. It doesn’t focus on the clinical side of type 1 diabetes, but on the emotional, social and practical aspects of living your life with it. Any medical information I have included has been checked by my diabetes nurse; however, the medical side of diabetes is not the main point. My book is about my experiences of coming to terms with diabetes, the feelings I have been through after being diagnosed and the practical advice that I can offer from my own experience.

Writing No Added Sugar has been extremely rewarding, occasionally emotional and, in some ways, quite therapeutic. I’ve come a long way since I first started it; reading my book back a year on, I’ve realised that there were lots of things that I’d completely forgotten I’d been so worried about. If I’d started writing now rather than last year, this would be a completely different book – which just shows that it is possible to get back to normal after being diagnosed with diabetes.

You may be going through situations like the ones I have been through – or your experiences may be completely different. But the feelings that you have will be in some way similar to those I had. Accepting your diabetes is a difficult readjustment, but in time you will be able to get used to it. I hope that this book will help you to make that transition.

Basically, this is the book that I wanted to read when I was first diagnosed. I hope you find it useful. If you are scared, shocked, sad, angry, confused, frustrated, embarrassed or worried about your diabetes then this book is for you, and I hope that by reading No Added Sugar, you can gain some comfort and reassurance – you are not alone.

Fibi Ward

2009

1

In shock

10th January 2008

"Dear diary,

"I’m writing this in a bed in ward 1 at the Alexandra Hospital because I have been diagnosed. I have to stay overnight. The injections hurt. Blood tests aren’t that bad. The thumb prick