Turn of the Year

I snapped this photo as I was walking on the evening of New Year’s Day.

It was a quiet evening. The carpark a little further ahead at my local IGA was desolate. A cool and rather grey change had just swept through after a warm day.

It just summed up the general vibe of January perfectly.

After the craziness of December and the festive season, things have finally wound down. The world is back to normal once again, seemingly somewhat quieter. For me, this turn of the year seems to trigger a great deal of reflection on the year gone by, as well as ideas for the year ahead.

I’ve been mulling over the fact that I’ve been a part of the diabetes community for four years now. My life, my outlook on diabetes and my level of knowledge has changed for the better thanks to the sense of community I’ve found online since I began writing this blog.

I’ve been mulling over how much better I feel, physically, over the course of this past year. A combination of eating more substantially to meet my energy expenditure, and improving the quality of my sleep have left me feeling the best I have in a long time.

I’ve been mulling over how I need to shift gears and give more focus to my blood sugars this year. I feel that BG management has become a little too stagnant, and that I’m spending more time than I’d like coasting toward the upper end of my target range.

I’ve been mulling over how lightning fast some of the developments in diabetes technology are moving of late. I fully expect that we’ll see more exciting diabetes tech hit Aussie shores this year. More competition and more choice for people with diabetes is always a good thing, but at the same time I wonder how many will actually have access to these new tools.

I’ve been mulling over how relatively affordable insulin and other medications are here in Australia. No matter how much I whinge about missing out on government funding, or how many concerns circle my mind over money, it really pales in comparison to people in other parts of the world.

I’ve also been mulling over trying to focus more on the now. Not letting those little nagging doubts or what-ifs take over. Reminding myself that while self improvement is not necessarily a bad thing, I also need to acknowledge all of the little things I’m doing today and the achievements I already have behind me. (Thanks for this timely reminder, Rachel…)

So while I’m at it, Happy New Year.

I hope that 2019 is everything that you want it to be.

6 Comments

  1. tony sangster

    There is a big following of low carb high fat diet in the UK. And NHS has just announced it is endorsing the low carb high fat diet for T2Ds as a way to save millions of UK pounds for the NHS. As a T1D, emboldened by counterparts in the UK, I have been trialling a 40-45 g/day low carb diet for 4 weeks so far. results: felt lousy for 2 weeks, called the keto-flu as the body adjusts. Lost 1/2 kg in weight – no big need to lose much weight but still – BSL’s all in range except one high and several lows – all on a Tandem Slim pump and fingerprick BSLs accurate to +/- 5%. and 6 BSLs readings per day. CGM still too expensive and why cannot they make transmitters last > 3 months by having replaceable batteries?
    Not saying low carb is necessarily suitable for all T1Ds but so far so good.

  2. Jan C.

    ….and I’ve been mulling over Frank what an inspiration your blog is….keep it up! All the best to you and all the other T1s out there. You are all doing an amazing job. From a mother of a T1, who knows all about the challenges you all rise to every single day of the year. Take care and all the best to you all for 2019.

  3. Rick Phillips

    I am hopeful each year that I will be more myself. But in the mean time, I try to just be. Doing that takes most of my effort. On to 2019.

  4. It’s so funny Frank. I saw the reference to IGA and your picture and temporarily had a brain fart thinking .. wait .. where in Canada does he live with sunshine and no snow? It then dawned on me .. that you live in Australia LOL IGA is here in Canada too .. where currently we are awaiting a major snow fall with temperatures dipping (hold your jewels tight to you) … -40C (sorry if things shrunk abit).

    Happy New Year to you and as a fellow blogger and member of the DOC .. I’m trying to do take more control of my blood sugars too for this year. The demise of Animas has caused me to pursue other pumps .. and so far Omnipod .. it’s good & evil .. by 3rd day somehow it’s a whanker and horrible BG’s. Thank goodness for Fiasp .. but still trend is not pretty.

    So here’s to us having better control and still enjoying life. Was close to you in December, in Singapore and met up with alot of Australians / New Zealand folks (none were T1D but many T2D’s) so lots of new friends to visit there and help them learn to take care of their health as diabetics.

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