Day 78 ~ 17th January, 2008

James has been experiencing dry, itchy and sore eyes for a few months now. He has an antihistamine tablet as part of his daily tablets and also uses Visine eyedrops when needed. This is just another medicine we need to keep nearby. For some strange reason – when James’s level is higher than it should be his eyes don’t bother him as much.
Diabetes is full of strange surprises. There is no cure.
Day 79 ~ 18th January, 2008

Today’s photo is of our medicine box. At least half of the items in the box are related to diabetes. Diabetes takes up space! There is no cure for diabetes.
Day 80 ~ 19th January, 2008

Today’s photo is of James’s spare infusion sets on the shelf in our laundry. Each of these boxes hold 10 sets and costs $13.20. Thankfully we live in Australia because insulin pump consumables are subsidised by the government through the National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS).
Diabetes is expensive – but could me much more expensive if we lived in another country! There is no cure.
Day 81 ~ 20th January, 2008

People with diabetes often have reduced circulation and therefore injuries to extremities such as feet can take a long time to heal. The worst thing I have ever had to do as an assistant nurse is change the dressing on the foot of an elderly man with diabetes. Almost half his foot was black, ulcerated and really, really stunk. Eventually he had to have his foot amputated.
Today’s photo is of James’s boots. These are his ‘trucks’ – they have steel caps in the toes to keep his feet safe. Diabetes does not just involve taking insulin – it effects every part of your body and life. There is no cure.
Day 82 ~ 21st January, 2008

Today’s photo is of our bathroom window ledge. Along with the normal toilet cleaner we have a bottle of ketone strips, which are used to measure the amount of ketones in James’s urine. Ketones are substances that are made when the body breaks down fat for energy, and in a diabetic this occurs when there is not enough insulin in the blood stream.
Diabetes involves checking more than just your blood. There is no cure.
Day 83 ~ 22nd January, 2008

I can’t tell you how many times a day I ask James to check his level, and I especially can’t imagine how many times I have said it since we met in 2004. James has trouble remembering to check his level. I issue countless reminders for James to complete tests and even have a reminder written on the desktop of my computer.
I have said it before but diabetes is repetitive! There is no cure.
Day 84 ~ 23rd January, 2008

I found these airline stickers while cleaning today. James was asleep when I found them and felt like going in and sticking the ‘Please wake me for meal’ sticker on his head! I didn’t - but I thought that it was a very appropriate sticker for a person with diabetes – especially since I often have to wake James up to eat.
Diabetes disturbs your sleep. There is no cure.
Day 85 ~ 24th January, 2008

This morning James woke up, checked his level and discovered a high reading. He bolused and rechecked a while later – still high. We pulled out his infusion site and discovered the cannula was bent resulting in James not getting enough insulin.
Diabetes is all about getting the correct amount of insulin. There is no cure.
Day 86 ~ 25th January, 2008

James and I are moving and that involves putting our house on the market. Yesterday we rang up and organised for all the local Real Estate agents to come and give us appraisals of our house. This morning James and I woke up and then James promptly threw up. I gave him his solu-cortef injection, he got back into bed, and I checked his level – it was 19.1mmol/L. I used the blood ketone test strips and discovered that he had ketones in his blood – which explained the vomiting. After making sure that James was settled, had a new infusion site, an injection of insulin and had water nearby to drink, I sat down with the phone and cancelled all the appointments we had made.
Diabetes disrupts every plan you have made. There is no cure.
Day 87 ~ 26th January, 2008

James and I went for a drive today. We ended up down a country road in the middle of nowhere. The closest shop was about 20mins drive away and was only a small general store. James was discussing how nice it would be to live in such a peaceful place. I could think about was the distance from medical help, and how horrible the midnight drives to the hospital would be.
Diabetes can dictate where you live. There is no cure.
Day 88 ~ 27th January, 2008

James has been experiencing postural hypotension lately. Today we brought an automatic blood pressure machine to help us know when James’s blood pressure is low – which occurs as part of Addison’s Disease.
Diabetes – especially unstable diabetes – makes other conditions unstable as well. There is no cure.
Day 89 ~ 28th January, 2008

Along with the postural hypotension that I mentioned yesterday James has been experiencing other things – like an inability to regulate his temperature. Today I noticed that his skin is a different colour… but I can’t work out what the difference is. It could be due to James’s liver or Addison’s disease. The temperature could be due to any other condition. It is hard to know what to do to stop these symptoms as we do not know the cause. At least with a hypo or a hyper we know what to do – whether the solution works appropriately or not.
APECED is confusing – diabetes adds to this. There is no cure.
Day 90 ~ 29th January, 2008

Today’s photo is of the side of the road taken from the car window.
Just like the horizon in this picture, the journey of life with diabetes is never straight. There is no cure.
Day 91 ~ 30th January, 2008

Today’s photo is of a 24 hour urine collection bottle in our toilet. When we visited the endocrinologist at the beginning of January she wrote a request for a 24 hour urine test to determine the amount of calcium passed out of the body. A 24 hour urine test is hard to fit into the schedule of a shift worker. At the moment however, James is off work due to a back injury he sustained at work a few weeks ago, which at least makes this easier. James’s back injury may take longer to heal than it would on anyone else due to all his conditions
Diabetes can prolong the healing process. There is no cure.
Day 92 ~ 31st January, 2008

Today’s photo is of all the bottles and boxes of James’s tablets. Once a week I sort James’s tablets into pill containers to make it easier to manage. James has 20 tablets a day, 280 tablets a fortnight, 7300 tablets a year. Including insulin this amounts to a cost of $5.34 a day, $74.81 a fortnight, $1950.40 a year. This cost doesn’t include glucagon, solu-cortef, vitamin B12 injections, syringes and needles, blood testing strips, ketone test strips, pump supplies, or eyedrops. It also doesn’t take into account the cost of times when James has to increase his hydrocortisone when sick, or when extra insulin has to be used when an infusion site fails.
Diabetes and APECED is very expensive! There is no cure.