An old photograph.

It's been a while but here is a photograph of James in his old house. Without the Mac in the background this could easily be mistaken for a squat. Mould on the walls, the hunched over addict, too lazy to cut or even wash his hair, the ripped jeans... but if you thought this you'd be WRONG!

As the Lucozade bottle suggests, James has got low blood sugar. The fact he's hunched over means it was probably pretty bad. Why is this funny again?

(If you're wondering what we were watching on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CKjNcSUNt8 )

James Quote of the Day:

"You came and possumed me up, can't you just do the normal I desire?"

Defeat.

James begins to see the funny side.

This Weekend.

This is a photograph of James telling me off. We had a food fight the other night, I'm trying to remember why...I think because we were eating really late and I wanted to just sit and eat and watch Alan Partridge but he kept talking over it. I wish I'd got a photo of when James put toothpaste in my rice, and when I squeezed the tube a load of rice came out. James said he was low but I didn't believe him.

Bleurgh.

The snack I'm not allowed to bring up...

Having an illness that lets you eat sweet foods as what is essentially "medicine" does seem like a bit of a piss-take, but not when you haven't got anything tasty left in the house and you go low. Pictured here is a bowl of coco pops and jam, because James ran out of milk. He says it's one of the worst things he's ever eaten.

James Quote of the Day:

Do you not think that? That a seal is a beautiful dog squish? And a sea lion is just a big, slug Jabba?

James crawled back up the stairs and collapsed into the bag. I'm guessing because it felt soft?

And here's a close up.

I'd never actually seen anyone crawl down stairs before this.

A Grey Day...

Sometimes diabetes makes James take a very long time to do things, and feel like he has no energy. However frustrating this is for me (I have lost count of the amount of times I've had to physically drag him off the bed!) it is a great opportunity for some laughs.

This was a day spent in Twickenham. We were going out to feed the ducks. It took us about two hours to finally leave the house.

My Top Five Favourite Things About James' Diabetes:

1. What we call "diabetes legs", basically where James is starting to go low and a little stressed, maybe I don't let him get to his sugary snacks, and if he's lying down he will start to alternate pushing his legs backward and forward down on the bed. Normally when this happens he is laughing, due to a mix of trying to deal with the issue and realising what he is doing is weird.

2. The paranoia. Questions such as 'do I have anything to be worried about?' 'are we ok?' and 'is there an atmosphere?' normally means it's low time.

3. The fact his eyes look black as a vampires when he's low. Pretty creepy if you look at them for too long, but a great way to tell he needs a mars bar or two.

4. Queue jumping at Thorpe Park! Pretty self explanatory. However, you do have to stand with other people classed as disabled in the "special queue". Top marks to the guy who worked there that made sure James was "having a nice day" in a patronising tone! Just because his pancreas doesn't work, don't feel sorry him!

5. The idea that one day James might go so hypoglycaemic that I have to rub jam on his gums, and carrying around sachets of sugar in my pockets. It's a motherly thing I think.

A box of alpen on the face. I'm not the first person to do this to James' face.

And this is possibly the photograph that spawned the idea for this blog! This was when the room was shit. No bed, a bed sheet for curtains, the remainder of some lovely Brighton-damp on the wall..how many diabetes-related items can you spot? 1. The bedside cereal 2. That looks like an insulin pen in the bottom left. And of course the "beached" diabetic laying widthways across the bed. James is 6'4" so wherever he lies he's going to look stupid.

And this is me.

This is James.

A brief explanation.

My name is Julia. My boyfriend is called James. He has type 1 diabetes. He is the first diabetic I've known and therefore have no reference point as to how "normal" he is in terms of the disease! I should probably state now I don't mean to offend any diabetics in this blog, and that James is fully aware of how funny his diabetes can be. We've been in a relationship for a year now, lived together for about six months and over time I have been taking photographs of him (mostly when he has low blood sugar i.e. at his funniest) that we always joked we should put in a blog. So now it's finally happening!