diabetes week day 3 - add it up

I've had diabetes for 1year, 9months and 5days....

it doesn't seem too long but that's:

• 643 days
• 15432 hours
• 925920 minutes

i know i haven't had it the longest but that is still a long amount of time to be dealing with a chronic illness 24/7

in this time:

6430 - the number of times I've stabbed my fingers to test sugar levels

730 - the amount of tablets i took within my first year of diabetes

1112 - how many times I've injected since Sept 2011 (when i was put on insulin)

10 - the amount of times I've sat shaking with nerves waiting to see my consultant

15 - how many times they have taken bottles of blood from my arm

300 - that's how many glucose tablets I've eaten and

20 - the bottles of lucozade drunk to make my sugar come back up to normal range

32.4 - the highest my sugar level has ever been, that's 6x what it should be

1.2 - the lowest my levels have dropped, this almost caused me to go unconscious (that's a fifth of what it should be)

diabetes is a full time job, it demands attention 24/7 every single day. it doesn't give you a break, it doesn't leave you alone when you go to college or work, it doesn't give you a day off for Christmas or birthdays, it doesn't just let you have one decent nights sleep. it is here for life, people don't realise how serious diabetes can be and how much you have to do to keep it under control. 

diabetes isn't just testing and injecting or taking tablets, its counting carbohydrates, its balancing insulin and exercise, its figuring out why you are feeling sick or dizzy, its countless doctors appointments and prescriptions, its taking things one day at a time because things that work one day wont work the next.