LYD1A KERR

It’s been a while! And, instead of preparing for a presentation or working on an experimental protocol, I have spent my Sunday morning diving back in to the world of blogging. I have just about managed to convince myself I don’t need a total website upheaval, I just need to start writing again.

So, what’s been happening?!

After an incredible working holiday visa in Australia, we returned home to the UK. This was made a lot easier by the fact I had an offer to study a PhD starting in September (yay!).

The summer was spent in Northern Ireland, waiting for my PhD to start. With plenty of visits to my baby niece in Belfast, along with flying over to my boyfriend and sister in England, I somehow managed to stay sane. I did tell myself that I would totally start blogging again and share all the amazing places we got to visit in the form of travel blogs, but we all know that didn’t happen. I just couldn’t find the time! …

To be fair, I went all in creating posts for Instagram, TikTok, and even Youtube all about diabetes. This was quite a productive use of my time despite the fact I didn’t see a single penny from it though. We love a hobby around here! Sarah Jessica Parker did repost a video I made with my mum about her hand-knitted jumpers from the 80’s, I’ll take that as a pretty good measure of success.

Due to unemployment and not wanting to pay for the Dexcom again, I spent 6 months using the Freestyle Libre 2 plus. Coming off the closed loop was a shock to the system, and to my detriment, as my Hba1c went up by 11 points! I’ve been incredibly grateful to have since been sent out free dexcoms by some incredibly kind fellow diabetics from Instagram, and have actually just gotten the news that my new hospital is funding my dexcom now! But that’s a story for another time.

I started my PhD in September and felt myself fully submerged back into a University setting. Within weeks, though, I quickly realised that the situation I was in was not going to work for 4 years, and so I was 99% set on leaving the programme altogether. After a lot of interesting discussions, I was transferred to a new project and lab group, and things have been much better. I’ve still not quite processed everything that happened, but I have at least reminded myself that everything is a choice!

I’ve now been doing the PhD for 4-ish months, and honestly I’m loving it now. I’m incredibly busy, with lots to do, but I’m incredibly grateful for every chance I’ve been given. I often remind myself I am literally living in a situation my past-self used to dream about all of the time!

Type 1 Diabetes continues to cause chaos in the background, and as much as I try, I really don’t have the bandwidth to deal with it as intensely as I used to. I really notice how much attention I give my diabetes depends on how much “free” time I have. Working on a PhD naturally takes up a LOT of my brain space, so as long as I have my insulin pump and blood sugar sensor working in the background, I’m fine, I think.

It’s kind of scary to think that I have to bear so much responsibility just to stay healthy, and having a busy lifestyle means that I can’t always lift the full burden of that responsibility. Diabetes is ALWAYS there, even when I don’t have time to think about it. And the fact that my quality of life depends on the amount of time I can “control” my blood sugar is scary. But, the reality is, I have a life to live! I think this paragraph has descended into some sort of existential crisis, so I will leave it at that for now.

I’m pretty proud of the fact that I have managed to write this all from my brain. I do love writing, so I need to get over myself, and just write more often. Even if it’s not very good, and I could definitely run this through AI and make it sound amazing, but don’t worry – I’m not going to! (The dash was a purposeful joke)

If you are reading this, honestly thank you. I never actually imagine anyone even comes across my blog because I rarely share it, but if this has been of literally any interest to you, please let me know. And stay tuned for hopefully lots more blog posts in the relative future! I have a big list of ideas, that’s for sure.

Lots of love,

Lydia x

P.S. I’ve been going ham on my travel tiktok as I find it a very welcome break from my PhD/diabetic reality. Of course, if you are interested in that side of my life, I still try to make the occasional diabetic tiktok or instagram.