On the back-burner

There are few things which could drag me away from my beloved blog mainly due to the fact I love talking all things diabetes. I started this blog because I quite literally ran out of places to leave my diabetic thoughts and this felt like a good place to come, somewhere I could pour out those thoughts and it didn't matter what I said or who was listening. That said, you may have noticed a drop-off recently in the amount of time I've been spending on here and the number of posts I've left.

There is no denying that there was one clear reason which can be summed up in one word; wedding.

Yes that's right last weekend my fiance and I tied the knot, got hitched, took the plunge, exchanged shackles or any of the other old cliched sayings you may prefer. Now, while I know that writing a blog invites people into your world and often others like to join in with both the high (and often low) points in your life because frankly that's why we do things like write/read blogs - to share, I was desperate to avoid the blog about diabetes being hi-jacked by its own author and turned into a blog about weddings/diets/flowers/song choice or so on as I have all too often seen others do. Equally I have had very little time on my hands thanks to any of the aforementioned tasks.

The day was wonderful and everything went off without any hitches other than the intended. But it struck me that even on my wedding day when I should have a million distractions from the blog, I still found diabetic related thoughts, topics and sentences creeping into in my mind.

When I first discovered blogs and one in particular, I remember finding a post all about how to adapt your wedding dress to cater for your pump. The ingenuity with which us diabetics incorporate insulin pumps into their wardrobes never fails to impress me; stitched into wedding dress skirts, attached in little pouches to waistbands or in garters, pockets made in the skirt, tucked into corsets. If the word 'adapt' came with an 'example of' section in the dictionary, these would be in there.

Having been engaged for two years, I had plenty of time to think long and hard about what to do with my pump on my wedding day and considered a number of options, many of which are listed above. But in the end I reached a decision on how I wanted to wear my own pump which I was perfectly happy with. That way was not at all. I know it may seem controversial or ungrateful, but for me I wanted the freedom on my wedding day of not having to carry a remote with me. I didn't want it tucked into my giant Bridget Jones pants or stuffed down my bra. A pocket would have been a good option, but knowing how tipsy I was planning to be (and successfully got to, thank you very much), I simply wanted to be 'free' of it for just one day.

There are many times when I have had to prioritise my diabetes over my wants; when the cakes get passed around at work and I really want a second (and yes, I did have a first!), when I want to just chill on the sofa but know that exercise is a better option, when I really want an alcopop to drink but know that something with diet coke is better on the body.

So on our wedding day I whacked in some long acting insulin in the morning, unhooked my pump as the ceremony approached and simply forgot about it. During the day my blood sugars did rise and having to nip off for injections was a bit of a pain and reminded me how much I don't miss the little buggers. In the end I was glad to put my little robot friend back on again but for me, being able to just take it off and prioritise our wedding and not the diabetes, was the right decision. This post would probably gain more recognition if I talked about what inventive system for through-the-dress-bolusing I had come up with, but this blog was always about honesty.

So honestly, for just one day, I relaxed, went a bit old-school, put diabetes on the back-burner and got on with something else, for a lovely change.

So here it is, the one wedding blog I will subject you to. It's diabetes from here all out.

Off the pump for 6 hours and blissfully fine with it.