Hi everyone,

My name is Niamh and I am 9 years old. I was born in Birmingham but now live in Northumberland and attend Prudhoe West First School. I am a diabetic and would like to tell you more about it.

When I was first diagnosed with diabetes it was 2 weeks before my 1st birthday. I was very ill and had to be rushed to hospital. When I got there I had to have lots of tests done and I was put on a drip as my blood sugar level was 44 mmols which meant I could of gone into a coma. Once the test results came back we found out I had diabetes and I had a very bad infection too.

My mummy and daddy were very scared and they let my nannies, grandads, aunties and uncles know straight away. I have lots of photo's of all my family at my bed in the hospital celebrating my 1st birthday as I was in hospital for a long time. My family were very sad as their special little girl had diabetes.

My mum and dad had lots of training before they really understood all about it properly. After that they felt more confident and knew lots about diabetes, well almost everything! They got better and better as I got older.

I used to have injections of insulin twice a day and had to take my blood test at least four times a day to make sure I was OK throughout each day. I really had to be careful and make sure my injections were done at the correct time and I ate well I didn't like having the injections as it made bruises on my legs and bottom and it really hurt. A really disadvantage I was unable to eat sweets, chocolate, ice-cream and nice things, well anything that had sugar in I wasn't allowed. This made me really upset as I grew older as these were things all my friends and cousins could have whenever.

If my blood Sugar levels are low it's really scary and I feel really weird as I get dizzy, shakey and not know what's wrong with me. I have also had three episodes of seizures which I have had to spend time in hospital,which i don't remember anything about but my mum says is the scarest thing to see and not nice at all.When I go low I need to quickly have a hypo-stop or dextrose tablets.

When my blood sugar levels were too high I became ill and was rushed into hospital again as my body was telling me something was wrong. My mum and dad were great as they knew exactly what to doand told me the doctors would make me better.Being in hospital is really frightening as there are lots of strange people around i'm just glad my mum and dad stayed with me.

While on the two injections my sugar levels were going up and down and they were not controlled, which my mum said would be bad when I get older. we have had lots of things happen and my mum and dad were frustrated with how my diabetes was going (me too!) so my mum and dad spoke to the hospital about it, and asked about having the new insulin pump, and they agreed to give us a chance but they cost a lot of money and they would need to ask the pct.

I got to wear the pump for a week to see what it felt like, me,mum and dad thought it would be good to have one so we all had our fingers crossed!

Having a pump means that I wouldn't need to have to wake up early to have an injection and have another one at tea time, I could eat what I want, when I want and have better control of my blood sugars.

In April this year I got the insulin pump. For those who don't know what a insulin pump is I will tell you that now! Well, it's like having a injection put in your tummy but only done every two/three days and it pumps insulin through your body 24 hours a day, and when you eat you have to count the carbohydrates and put this into the pump ,this then gives you extra insulin, So you can get better control of your blood levels. It is hard work but I do now have better blood levels and if anyone asks how it is going my mum says I've turned into a different girl, I think I've changed too. I really really love my pump and I think that everyone who has diabetes should be able to have one too if it's right for them.

Well that's all about me and my diabetes. I hope you enjoyed reading it. Bye, bye!!