About me;
Hey, I'm Sammie, I'm 28 years old and I currently live in northern Ireland.
I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes back in 2013, when I was 20 years old. I wasn’t in a great place mentally & I tried to take my own life, which led to me being admitted to hospital where I was diagnosed with Type 1.
I use Fiasp & Tresiba 💉
I also use the Freestyle Libre 2
I first started my Instagram page back in July 2018, I wanted a safe place to share the highs and lows of my life with Type 1 Diabetes, whilst battling anxiety and depression & find others that experience similar situations on a daily basis.
The DOC (Diabetes online community) has taught me a lot over the years and the support is outstanding. I’ve met some incredible people thanks to Instagram & I will always grateful for the connections & friendships I’ve made.
My Diagnosis;
Lets rewind back to 2013. I was 20 and I wasn’t in a very good place. I’d been battling depression for several years growing up, but I never recognised it & never took any action to get help as I was embarrassed, ashamed & unsure how to approach it.
I tried to take my own life; it’s a situation I never wish to revisit. I was admitted to hospital & after having several tests carried out I was told that there was a possibility I could be Type 1 Diabetic. However I needed to have more tests done to be certain. I was discharged from hospital the next day having been told that someone would be in touch regarding my results. The next day I went to the diabetic clinic to be told I wasn’t diabetic. This was all so confusing for me. One minute I no longer wanted to be in this world & now I’m being told I may or may not have a chronic illness.
A few days later I received a call and was asked to attend the diabetic clinic again. My results had shown that I did in fact have Type 1 Diabetes. I was given a blood glucose machine, a finger pricker, a pack of lancets, test strips & a book to track my results. The Doctor showed me how to test my blood and how to inject myself with insulin. We had so much information thrown at us, we didn’t know what was going on. But we knew that it was serious & life would never be the same.
I continued my day to day life. I was trying to block out the reality of this disease I had been challenged with. I didn’t care, I was wreck less & unfortunately I thought I was invincible. Reality check; I wasn’t!
I rarely checked my blood glucose levels, . I just felt overwhelmed with it all but I knew it would cause my body serious damage if I continued to ignore it. Nobody in my family had diabetes, so our knowledge on this auto immune disease was nonexistent.
It’s taken blood, sweat and tears to get where I am today & I’m so proud of everything I have achieved. I still have days where I wish I didn’t have this condition which requires my attention 24/7 but in reality, I’ve grown so much since being diagnosed and in a sense I feel like my diagnosis gave me a new lease of life.
♥️