The Books
LIFE FOOD
INVISIBLE IMPACTS
INVISIBLE IMPACTS
Managing food well is central to being in control as a diabetic. With all the usual challenges presented by busy lives, and modern food options, this isn’t easy.
Having grappled with getting food choices right, not just personally but for feeding her family, and living life, this book describes how Sarah has adapted and managed.
It’s prac
Managing food well is central to being in control as a diabetic. With all the usual challenges presented by busy lives, and modern food options, this isn’t easy.
Having grappled with getting food choices right, not just personally but for feeding her family, and living life, this book describes how Sarah has adapted and managed.
It’s practical, based on real life experience, and has lots of easy tips for choosing and making better food for diabetics.
INVISIBLE IMPACTS
INVISIBLE IMPACTS
INVISIBLE IMPACTS
Managing type 1 diabetes means balancing insulin, what you eat, what exercise you do, and many other factors. It touches every part of life. As a young woman, coming to terms with diabetes wasn’t easy.
This book is Sarah’s personal story of dealing with the diagnosis of her type 1 diabetes and learning to handle all of life’s situations w
Managing type 1 diabetes means balancing insulin, what you eat, what exercise you do, and many other factors. It touches every part of life. As a young woman, coming to terms with diabetes wasn’t easy.
This book is Sarah’s personal story of dealing with the diagnosis of her type 1 diabetes and learning to handle all of life’s situations with it in the mix.
Her experience of making the adjustments required is practical, positive, and encouraging – a must read for new diabetics and their family and friends.
JUGGLING LIFE
INVISIBLE IMPACTS
JUGGLING LIFE
Juggling a full life with type 1 diabetes is a challenge.
This book continues Sarah’s personal story of living with diabetes through navigating pregnancy, having young children, an absorbing career, travelling, and pursuing wide-ranging interests. Sometimes she falls short of her goals, but overall things hold together.
Sarah’s view on a
Juggling a full life with type 1 diabetes is a challenge.
This book continues Sarah’s personal story of living with diabetes through navigating pregnancy, having young children, an absorbing career, travelling, and pursuing wide-ranging interests. Sometimes she falls short of her goals, but overall things hold together.
Sarah’s view on a life of managing diabetes, staying healthy, and enjoying big and small moments is uplifting and real.
Writing the Books
Sarah’s purpose in writing her books is to help others understand the experience of living with type 1 diabetes. She has found that although medical and practical advice is widely available, there is a gap in finding sources of truly insightful information about what living with diabetes really involves. Her type 1 diabetes books focus on the lived experience. Type 1 diabetes is a serious disease with frightening consequences that the sufferer manages almost entirely themselves, every day.
Originally seeking to constrain her own diabetes into a small corner of life, over the many years that have passed, Sarah has found that the condition affects every part of life and is woven through all of life’s fabric. Type 1 diabetes is an invisible condition and so despite it being ever-present, people do not see the internal efforts involved in handling it. The dual challenges of it being a permanent fixture and yet something peripheral to ‘real life’ are explored in many different situations.
In Sarah’s case, the daily trial of managing the condition has not stopped her from living a full life, and in her books, she shares her many experiences, through three decades and different life stages. Not only does she cover the relevant medical details, but also details of her personal and emotional relationship with the disease and the challenges it brings. The hope is that because of this perspective, her books will become some of the best resources for type 1 diabetes management.
Excerpt from Life Food: Mains
excerpt From LIFE FOOD: MAINS
These days, dhal is one of my favourite meals, and we eat it frequently at home. I do think that just dhal or dhal + rice can be a bit lacking in terms of texture and variety. Also, it’s pretty carb heavy. So, the plus plus is because I like to add other things into the mix and there are several things that I go for. I suggest adding two side orders, maybe three, depending on your time, stamina and ambition levels. Some of our favourites are:
- Easy pakoras – recipe follows
- Roast jeera cauliflower and/or carrots – recipe follows
- Kachumber salad – a mix of raw cucumber, tomato & onion chopped salad
- Raita – yogurt with cucumber and mint mixed through it
- Aubergines, roasted with oil, lots of chopped garlic and chilli
- Spinach, stir fried with garlic
All of these things are low carb, but bring zing, and extra dimensions to your plate.
Being diagnosed
excerpt From THE EARLY YEARS: The beginning - being diagnosed
The first thing I had to learn as a brand new type 1 diabetic was how to deal with injecting. I wasn't afraid of injections but I didn’t much fancy having to give myself one. It was an alien concept. My diabetic nurse visited on my first in-patient morning, pre-lunch and drew up a syringe. I remember her clearly pointing out that the needle was tiny, and wouldn’t hurt 'hardly at all'. She was right. It is the case that insulin needles are only a little over a centimetre long, and extremely fine. That said, the actual act of putting the needle against my thigh and sticking it into myself wasn’t something I was able to do that first time. I had it in my hand, and was trying to summon up enough mental fortitude when, bang, she just grabbed it from me, stuck it in and injected. Just as quickly out it came. All in an instant. See? Nothing to it.
Travelling
excerpt from JUGGLING LIFE: travelling, a life passion
The first thing I had to learn was how to deal with injecting insulin. I wasn’t afraid of injections, but I didn’t much fancy having to give myself one. It was such an alien concept. My diabetic nurse visited on my first in-patient morning, pre-lunch and drew up a syringe. I remember her clearly pointing out that the needle was tiny and wouldn’t hurt hardly at all. She was right. Insulin needles are not even a centimetre long, and are extremely fine. That said, the actual act of putting the needle against my thigh and sticking it into myself wasn’t something I was able to do that first time. I had it in my hand and was trying to summon up enough mental fortitude when bang, she just grabbed it from me, stuck it in and injected. Out it came. All in an instant. See? Nothing to it.
Independence Square, Kyiv
Working life
excerpt from JUGGLING LIFE: the demands of a working life
You spend a lot of time with colleagues, and they play a very significant role in life. The pattern of work means these are the people our lives are often lived with. I have a generally open policy when it comes to talking about my diabetes, but that’s not the same as putting it out there, clearly. On reflection, I realise I haven’t been as clear about it as I could have been. I am quite late to this understanding. I wonder how many colleagues that I’ve assumed have known, maybe didn’t, or were once told, but then the information slipped away. I am sure a lot of people don’t think of me as ‘Sarah, the diabetic’, especially at work.
It’s interesting to ponder on the reactions colleagues have held of my diabetic status in the workplace. I’ve found a kind of correlation between seniority at work and the extent to which people are inclined to ask questions. Often, the PAs respond in a very warm, interested and questioning way; to generalise, they ask the questions about how long I’ve had it, whether I am a ‘high’ or a ‘low’ type, and have little reticence about getting a bit of a handle on it. They are also, and I’m sure this is an extension of their professional roles too, most likely to say, “well if you ever need anything, do shout”.
At the other end of the spectrum, and again, somewhat generalised, very senior colleagues adopt a circumspect, polite, accepting but distant take, indicating that they appreciate a little latitude may be needed from time to time, but with a subtle indication that talking about personal matters such as this would be somehow inappropriate. Like everything in the workplace, there is a culture, and this topic is influenced by it. Senior colleagues are also the ones with the single-minded focus on the business, and although culture is moving towards bringing the authentic you to the workplace, it has not always been so.
Close colleagues inevitably see a bit more. The times have happened when a meeting was ongoing, and I have needed to reach for sweets. Circumstances dictated how I handled this. If it was a one to one, I usually do apologise and say I need 5 minutes, because a meeting like that has an intensity of focus that scoffing sweets will affect. If it’s a larger group, and if I’m not leading or very active, then the eating of sugar can be done while everything else is going on, although that is still mildly embarrassing. I’ve learnt that there is no point at all in trying to hide what you’re doing; it is impossible to eat the best part of a tube of fruit pastilles fast but surreptitiously and not be noticed.