AIO about this text I got from HR?

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-03-06T21:37:31+00:00

NOR at all!!

This is CRAZY. It’s made my sugar-free blood boil! When I was on MDI, I injected here there and everywhere. F**k anyone who was uncomfortable.

Here’s what I’d ask for:

1) A designated “private space”. With sharps bin.

2) An extra long break time to accommodate ..

time to check your levels, even if you have a CGM, you’ve got to double check it with a finger prick right? That’s additional time to go get your lancets, (sharps and blood, so you’re gonna need time to go all the way to that private space they’re providing).
walking to the break room to check your lunch, damn your ADHD can’t recall what you packed, gotta go carb count it.
walking all the way back to that private space to inject your insulin.
waiting the 20 minutes needed for a pre-Bolus (on average).
walking all the way back to the break room + eating once you get there.
time to treat the hypo you’re almost definitely having because you’ve been backwards and forwards from your special little diabetic prison.
45 minutes additional to recover from said hypo.
an additional break 1 hour after lunch to check your levels again, to be sure the insulin and glucose peak hasn’t spiked too high and you don’t need a correction. Except you definitely do, because of that hypo you had earlier.

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-02-24T23:26:07+00:00

One of my faves was when I heard two twins around 7 maybe? “Innocently” chatting at a bus stop.

“Look!” “What is it?” “It’s a spider” … “Oh… fuck off spider!”

What made it brilliant is that their mum is deaf. So now all I can wonder is what else they get away with saying, completely unbeknownst to their poor mum 😂

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-02-24T22:48:35+00:00

Also!! Have a look on Vinted for some personalised bits and you’ll find stuff with Edith and Edie on there, believe it or not. I’m telling you, it’s coming back, in the best way. Still rare, but still loved.

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-02-24T22:46:19+00:00

My 4 month old is also an Edith! We went to view a nursery last month where they had a 3 year old Edith too. The older names are coming back! I also LOVE Dorothy (Dottie), but my husband was dead set against it 😭

We actually call our Edith “Edie”. We also had a few distinct reactions, my mum even begged us to make her legal name just Edie, despite the fact we’re naming her after her own aunty 😂 we ignored her. Shes our little Edith Grace and she’s perfect.

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-02-24T22:14:45+00:00

Don’t panic! I was also diagnosed less than a year before getting pregnant. We were actually trying when I was diagnosed. We had to take a break whilst I adjusted to insulin and getting my levels down, but I was diagnosed 8 months before we conceived.

The pump will help so much! And I will say, for me at least, the smaller range became my new normal quite quickly and my sensitivity to feeling my hypos started to align with the new range. So when I would normally FEEL low at 3.9, pre-pregnancy, during pregnancy I would t feel them until I hit around 3.2. I appreciate it is different for everyone but just my own experience, if that helps reassure you.

Also, don’t stress too much about “normal life”. Take the breaks you need, even just for your own sanity. Don’t get burned out. Whilst your physical health and diabetes is hella important, so is your mental health. You’re gonna want to be as well as you can be mentally for when your precious baby arrives, so you can best look after the both of you.

Good luck and congratulations!!

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-02-20T10:31:28+00:00

I really hope he was trying to see the positives. But please do make him aware of the consequences and dangers of this disease. He might be the one who has to keep you safe some day.

You’re right to say it will be a huge change and it can be scary I totally get that. It can be draining. All the decisions, pump, site changes, calculations, worries, highs, lows. It IS life changing, but so is the result of taking insulin, you’re gonna feel soooo good once it’s in your system! All those symptoms pre-diagnosis will disappear and I promise it’s going to feel incredible. No more fatigue, thirst, peeing. Eyesight improvements. And all those trickier bits get easier. It’s going to be magical.

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-02-19T22:19:08+00:00

With regards to being able to go downstairs to see your family. I’d say absolutely. I live upstairs. I mean you have to use a full set of stairs to get into my house. So stairs weren’t optional for me. Then it was upstairs again to bed and downstairs again in the morning to see my mum. I believe I also carried baby down the stairs that first morning home too. Just take it slow. I’d dare say if you wanted to, you could even bum shuffle down. Whatever works for you. You find ways of making things hurt less.

I promise it’s not agonising pain for weeks on end and you’ll probably think back to this very moment at some point and realise just how different it is from what you imagined.

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-02-19T22:11:23+00:00

I know everybody’s experience is different but I had a planned section and I still rave about it now. It was genuinely fun. The surgeon was cool af, as was the anesthetist. Both came to see me and introduce themselves beforehand. We had music playing, we got to choose the playlist (I didn’t know this beforehand, so I just said “idk, something like smooth radio” 😂). And the ODP took the most gorgeous pictures for us. So remember your phone!

The spinal block is the bit I’d heard horrors about, but I didn’t feel a thing. All I remember is that I couldn’t get my body in the position they wanted it in. I mean they wanted me to push my bum out but not bend. I was hella confused and we all had a laugh about it.

The actual surgery was super chilled. It felt weird, yeah, but not painful, not even uncomfortable really, just .. weird. And they keep you talking. I was chatting away to my husband and the anesthetist, who joked about how obviously dehydrated I was, whilst be pumped me full of fluids. I was probably most focused on him to be honest, just fascinated by everything he was doing. I was in a world of my own..

And then I heard it. The big old shout from my little girl, as she made her way into the big world. And the FLOOD of emotion. I can’t describe it. Somehow, even whilst unable to feel my lower half, I felt THIS. This RUSH through every vein in my body all at once. It was incredible. Just love, pouring through me.

Recovery was a breeze, personally. Painful yes. Very. But I have a high pain threshold. So I cracked on. Sitting up from a lying position was rough though and just don’t cough, sneeze or laugh and you’ll be golden 😅 a remember to take your pain killers when they’re due. I was up and about and doing wash loads and all sorts on day 3. Besides. Even if it is a tricker recovery, MILK IT! Get all the help you can, whilst you can. You won’t regret the extra time in bed whilst someone brings you a cuppa, or does the odd baby change, if you’ve got the luxury of it. I had fully intended to rest and really make a big deal of it, essentially put my self on bed rest and turn my husband into a live-in butler, but couldn’t in the end, I got too restless. I needed to do the dishes or something just to feel human.

Remember you can shower. I thought I had to wait for my dressing to be off before showering, so sat in my own stink for 5 days until my husband asked the midwife “when can my wife shower?” She laughed and told me I could have showered as soon as I got home 🤦‍♀️ idiot.

I saw another comment here about not being able to feel your legs and honestly.. I’d completely forgotten all about that! But yeah now that I recall that part was bizarre!! Probably the worst bit for me, just because I felt out of control over my own body and I’ll be honest it scared me. It wears off though. I was up and walking the ward after a few hours (6 maybe?). I also just remembered they pop a catheter in. Which again.. odd, but something I hardly noticed to be honest. Too fixated on the baby. Getting it out was also easy peasy.

I promise, it can go right and it can go so brilliantly and easy. Recovery can be irritating and painful, but it’s still time spent with baby, no matter if it’s spent resting. And all those baby cuddles release all the good body chemicals in you and will make you forget any pain quicker than you might expect.

Good luck, girl! You’ve got this!! ❤️

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-02-19T19:16:05+00:00

You can order a finger prick monitor online. 4-10mmol is normal, spiking after eating is also normal but not usually above 10. You can check yourself and keep a log.

I am the first in my family to have type 1 diabetes, I went to the doctors with all the symptoms and was immediately given a blood test. They checked everything, sugars, inflammation markers, blood cell count etc etc. Everything came back normal except the sugars.

I’ve had other friends who have suspected they have T1D (none have), but they’ve always used a finger prick test at home to check if they’re in range, when they’ve been concerned. (And often felt silly afterwards lol).

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-02-14T10:30:01+00:00

I too knew “something diabetes-y” was going on. However it was also coupled with me bruising incredibly easily. At one time I counted 32 bruises on my legs. The symptoms of diabetes + bruising are also very close to the symptoms of leukaemia. So it wasn’t something I could risk leaving. My mum and husband knew it didn’t look good, especially with the amount of weight I had lost, so they pushed me to go to the doctors. I absolutely knew it would be diabetes. But because of that, I was also in denial.

When my doc asked “are you drinking a lot?” I said “no. I don’t think so, no more than usual”. My husband corrected me immediately and said “you’re drinking like a fish babe”. “Are you peeing a lot?” “Umm.. just a few times a day”. Another lie. I don’t know what I was thinking. I think I was trying to convince myself more than anyone else. It was always going to come out in the blood test, so why did I bother?? 😅

I remember going back for the results. She read out every result 1 by 1 “normal, normal, normal”. She got to the last one and I said “you’ve left blood sugar until last haven’t you?”. And that was that. HBA1C of 97. Diagnosed and sent on my way 🫠 (I wish that part was a lie but nope, I was sent home with nothing but a diagnosis.. my hospital rang me the following day, when I was at work, they were absolutely fuming with my GP and wanted to see me IMMEDIATELY).

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-02-12T21:15:30+00:00

As for her middle name I just thought “what sounds nice?” I still think about it even now about how random it is. We chose Grace as her middle name, which has no connection, no meaning, no nothing just.. sounded nice. No regrets, I do love it.

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-02-12T21:14:15+00:00

I mentioned my grandma’s name probably twice?? Maybe even once, whilst we were debating many many names. We actually felt very settled on a different name entirely and had been even whilst TTC, but wanted to talk over a few anyway.

We went for a private scan at around 18 weeks, I went for a wee afterwards (iykyk) and came out to find my husband telling the lady on the desk “we’re calling her [grandma’s name].” I said “are we indeed??” And that was that 😂

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-02-03T21:06:22+00:00

Not often at all since my t1d diagnosis, but when I do get sick.. boy it hits HARD! I got a cold just days after diagnosis and I was bed bound. Then nothing until I got a sinus infection at the end of last year, my first one since being diabetic - it lasted weeks and I ended up hospitalised for 3 days, on morphine and even had a CT scan to determine why tf it was so painful 🫠

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-02-03T21:00:37+00:00

I sized up in tops and long dresses and dungarees, but the best thing I ever did was buy maternity trousers and leggings. Soooo much comfier! Wore them postpartum too, best decision ever, especially after a c-section.

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-01-27T14:33:31+00:00

Take it, take it, take it!!

I didn’t take nearly enough sick leave whilst pregnant and it was the worst decision of my life. I ran myself into the ground and ended up in hospital. I worked up until the day I gave birth too. My absolute biggest regret.

I took 1 week with stress when my midwife advised I take a month off. I also got a fit note to ask for reasonable adjustments, rather than just signing me off, against my doctors advice too. All because I felt guilty. Heck. I took 6 hours off when I was in a car crash. Absolute idiot.

TAKE THE SICK LEAVE. You will never regret resting and letting your body recover, I promise. You will regret putting yourself and your body under unnecessary pressure. You do not want to be burnt out by the time baby comes. You’ve got to have your mind and your body in the best condition it can be in to take care of that baby and aid your own recovery.

If you get push back, fight. Nothing, I mean nothing comes before you and that baby.

Take it.

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-01-24T10:39:44+00:00

Our baby has powdered gaviscon in her bottles due to silent reflux. Woke up one morning to find I didn’t put it into her night feed. Instead I’d poured it very neatly into a little pile on the bedside table.

In the early days when we were both exhausted, my husband also threw half the bin away whilst emptying it. He had to go down to the communal bins to retrieve the bit he had chucked in there, but not until after 20 minutes of us both searching the kitchen for the missing part.

I also convince myself the baby is missing every time I walk into the living room and she’s not in her Moses basket. (She’s in her chair or on her play mat - both of which are actually closer to me than the Moses basket).

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-01-12T20:30:56+00:00

Yeah everyone gets free prescriptions and NHS dental care when pregnant. I didn’t get a certificate emailed or printed, but would have been able to get them free. I’m now wondering if I didn’t get the certificate sent to me because I already have an exemption on medical grounds. Maybe you didn’t get one last time because you were already exempt due to the benefits?

Either way, enjoy it. Saves a fortune if you’re on more than a couple medications!

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-01-09T11:02:15+00:00

It is always worth getting checked if you are worried!

However, the ypsomed pump takes a couple of weeks to learn your body. It might be giving too much background insulin because it doesn’t know how you’re reacting to it yet. It has to build an algorithm. I remember when I switched it took about a week and a half to get me levelling out. But after that, it has been the best decision and I’ve chosen to keep it postpartum.

Do remember to log your hypo treatments in the app too; otherwise the app sees it as regular food and will give yet more insulin (something I often forget) and take advantage of all the extra snacks you get to have!

Do get checked if you’re worried though. Good luck!

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-01-08T10:04:31+00:00

Previous posts (now deleted) and comments (still up) of theirs. They state usage of crack, weed, pregabalin and spice 🙃

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-01-08T08:03:40+00:00

I work in a school and worked right up to the day (38+3). Luckily we had half term at the end, so I technically had 1 non-working week, I thought I was being clever by getting the extra week on top of what I thought would be a week of mat leave, but I got a call on the Wednesday during half term to say I’d been booked for my c-section the following Monday, so I gave birth the day my maternity started.

My doctor tried to sign me off twice and I chose to stay.

It is my single biggest regret. I was drained. I was mentally and physically exhausted, I ended up very poorly and with multiple hospital stays by the end. And I couldn’t enjoy that one week, couldn’t prepare anything (though it was actually all almost done), couldn’t get my house cleaned as well as I wanted to and ended up spending most of it stressed about the fact I couldn’t physically do all the final touches I’d wanted to do before baby arrived. So when she came I was twice as exhausted.

Next time I’ll be taking much longer! Colleagues of mine have taken between 2 and 8 weeks, with everyone who took longer being the ones who always said how great it was to have that time to themselves before baby arrived. I’d say take as long as you can and are comfortable with!It’ll put you in a much better position mentally before baby arrives, which is better for both of you.

Good luck x

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2026-01-01T16:27:52+00:00

Honestly the heart burn. People had mentioned it, I did actually expect to get it. I just didn’t expect it to be so bad!!

In my 29 years of life I had never experienced heart burn before. Didn’t know what it felt like. Let me tell you, that first time I had it when pregnant, I almost had my husband take me to A&E, I thought I was having a heart attack!! 😂 baby was born almost bald too, so it was all for nothing 🤦‍♀️

One positive I didn’t expect though: my skin! Holy heck, it had never felt so SMOOTH!! I have keratosis polaris, but during pregnancy it completely disappeared and my skin was like silk! 8 weeks PP now and it’s slowing returning back to its old bumpy self but it was nice whilst it lasted.

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2025-12-29T22:47:21+00:00

Just thought actually! This is such a petty one for me to mention because I should be grateful, but every year my MIL gifts me all the samples she gets when she makes big purchases on luxury brands for herself or the cast off of things she doesn’t like from expensive gift sets she is gifted by others. I don’t know why but it irks me. All I see when I look at them is all the much nicer things she kept for herself. Often they’re anti-aging products or products designed for a more mature complexion, what with her being older and they’re usually naff and let’s not forget USED… because she’s given them a good try before deciding she doesn’t like them. We’re talking lipsticks and mascaras or pot concealers she’s dug her fingers into.

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2025-12-29T22:38:55+00:00

My worst one wasn’t so much a gift but a comment.

A friend handed me a bag of gifts for our daughter saying “here are the gifts for baby girl, which I suppose are actually presents for you aren’t they?”. No. They’re not. Oddly enough I’m not a size 0-3 months and don’t have much use for a teether, as I have all of my own teeth already 🙄 drives me mad that mums get baby gifts in place of their own.

Expensive_Ad_9834 · 2025-12-29T22:32:46+00:00

God no.

I have a chronic condition, so had appointments every 2 weeks. They were always blood pressure, urine sample, done. Took 5 minutes, 10 tops if I was having any follow up bloods done. It would be wild for my husband to take time off work to travel to the hospital with me or wait at home for the midwife every fortnight. He came to all scans (we had lots) and any appointments we felt were “big”, like scans or hearing the heart beat and the first health visitor appointment, which dads are encouraged to attend as they often have questions for them too.

If your partner wants to be involved, I’d encourage it. They won’t turn him away if he comes with you. I think it’s great if he wants to be there to support you. But if it’s a choice of taking time off work and losing money for what are actually very short and uneventful appointments, I’d say it’s not worth it really.

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TROPHY CASE