On December 2nd 2015 I shuffled into an NHS emergency clinic in London, gave a urine test and shortly after an ambulance arrived and blue-lighted me to A&E.

I didn’t always look this healthy.  When I was 24 weeks pregnant I had the worst pregnancy symptoms: (shortness of breath, peeing a lot and drinking a lot), which I later found out were your typical diabetes symptoms and not so much pregnancy related after all! They were signs from my pancreas shouting at me to go get some help!

The weeks leading up to this ambulance ride were rich in stress and struggle and eventually my husband told me that I looked like death (his exact words!) and to go and see a doctor! Gotta love his tact and sensitivity! So, I stumbled into the doctors surgery and gave them my urine test and she started running in and out of the room I was in, making me lye down on the examination bed and then the ambulance guys arrived and wheeled me out of the clinic with their blue lights screeching through the traffic to get me as fast as possible. They kept mentioning diabetes and asking ‘how long I had it’ I was super dazed and a little bit annoyed they kept confusing me with someone else so I just kept deflecting these ridiculous questions.

I got to the A&E and my husband came rushing though the door. I had drips put in and a midwife came to visit to check my baby, all was okay thankfully. Baby was active and performing somersaults for everyone around. It was just me in a poor state, baby was doing fine.

I stayed in hospital for 1 week and left there with a devastating diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes. This was the end of my life as I once knew it. I started a new life of insulin injections, hypos, hypers, fear of dying, fear of DKA, fear of sickness, fear of pretty much everything.

I was 24 weeks pregnant with my first baby and that slowly unfolded into a very demanding pregnancy where I was fighting with myself not to eat everything in the fridge and having to see endocrinologists, midwives and dieticians almost every week from then on.

My first baby was born at 28 weeks, with huge amounts of hospital intervention and a very broken mummy afterwards. At that point I was sure my diabetes would just disappear into thin air. But no, it has stayed ever since and I also enjoyed another pregnancy with my 2^nd baby two years after.

Welcome to my world of Type 1 Diabetes and the fun rollercoaster ride of blood sugar readings I’m on.