The happy couple and not a spot of blood in sight
I’ve heard a rumour that there’s a royal wedding happening this week. I really think they should do some more publicity around this, I’ve no idea what colour knickers the bride will be wearing or what the groom will be eating for breakfast which is quite frankly driving me to distraction.
The husband and I tied the knot ten years ago (yes, I was a child bride) with a little less pomp and fanfare than is currently going on. I now realise I should be grateful that we had so little to worry about. Security issues, press intrusion and vetting our friends to be sure they were all suitable to be in the same room as the Queen weren’t even on our agenda. Even the pac-a-mac covered well-wishers from my grandma’s bingo club were able to find a spot right outside the church on the big day and thankfully didn’t need to camp out overnight to ensure they had a good view.
There is one thing the royal couple won’t be worrying about that we did have to consider though – how do you cope with a broken pancreas in a wedding dress? There’s enough junk and faffing involved in playing at being a pancreas at the best of times, so surely it’d be a nightmare at a wedding?
I don’t remember diabetes being an issue on our wedding day, but there were a few things we had to do that others wouldn’t. Because I drew the line at sewing fruit pastilles into my wedding dress, the groom and my parents all had some kind of sugar on them. For the first time I can remember, I didn’t wear any form of diabetes ID. We took a gamble that if the bride was found unconscious somewhere, at least one of the gathered crowd would guess she was hypo. I was on MDI at the time, so hiding a pump in my dress wasn’t an issue, but where to put my pen was a bit of a conundrum. I think it ended up in my mum’s handbag, along with blood testing kit and sugar. Have you ever seen a mother of the bride carrying a rucksack 😉
I’d decided to run a bit high for the big day, rather than risk a hypo halfway through my vows. With all the stress and excitement that really wasn’t hard to achieve. There was however, an overarching sense of fear that permeated the whole day. Would the pancreatically challenged and often quite messy bride make it through her wedding without getting blood on her white dress? As most of my wardrobe that isn’t black has some form of blood spot on it somewhere, blood on the dress was a pretty realistic possibility. It appears miracles do happen and by the end of the day, my white dress was slightly grubby from being dragged around but there wasn’t a spot of blood in sight.
I’ve always injected in public but I did for a moment ponder absconding to the toilets to do my wedding meal injection. But then I decided I wasn’t going to hide in the toilets at my own wedding, so I discretely (ish) lifted my dress and injected in my thigh whilst seated at the top table. The only fuss was my mother with tissues on standby in case of blood but luck was with me and there was nothing to see.
And so it seems, while diabetes can be a minor inconvenience on a wedding day, it apparently involves significantly less palaver than being heir to the throne. I therefore conclude I’d rather be diabetic than the Queen. Who’d have thought it?
A well managed day by the sounds of it. Although I’m concerned the photographer didn’t notice you were standing in a hole when he took that photo.
Damn, you mean my hair up/high heels, let’s try and hide the enormous height difference strategy didn’t work?
I think that yellow spot on the grass is the real giveaway that you’re standing on a tree trunk…must be all that short-acting you’ve injected all your life 😉
Ah, the yellow spot is a paving stone, what you’re missing is that I’m actually standing on a layer of Tesco’s carrier bags to stop my dress soaking up all the rain on the ground!
Tesco bags or not I think you look lovely Alison! And that ain’t no height difference. I’m 5’4 and my hubby is 6’5, I look like I’m stood in a well in most of our wedding pics!
We got hitched 18 months ago and like you, I was pre pump so on MDI too but had been discussing the idea of the pump with my DSN. Our wedding date did coincided with the exact week my nurse wanted me to have CGM though… I politey declined and asked if we could reschedule as I didn’t think that particular accessory would coordinate well with my dress! (and besides, it was never going to be a ‘typical week’ to monitor my BGs now was it!)
I hitched up my dress and jabbed my thigh at the top table too and thankfully managed to avoid a ‘squirter’ on the dress. However, if I may take a moment to evangelise about the pump – again! – I generally wear it, with a long cannula, in a neoprene mp3 strap case thingie around my ankle (under my jeans/trousers) so it would actually have been really easy to access, and hide, under my dress. So for any pumping bride-to-be’s (keep it clean @Teloz!) you needn’t fret about your pump not coordinating on the day as they really can be hidden in any outfit.
While we’re on the subject and seeing as the wonderful Shoot Up has been known for some shameles plugging before….! If you are a bride-to-be, you might like to take a look at my very own collection of handmade bridal tiaras and jewellery!
My website is http://www.bellebe.com/
🙂
@bellebe Your plug was so blatant I suspect even a certain ShootUp author married to a talented bag designer would be proud of it! I love your jewellery.
And what makes you think its appropriate to evangalise about pumps on here, the rest of us are generally quite apathetic about them 😉 You’re right though, unless you’re getting married in a skintight latex catsuit, I can’t imagine it would be that difficult to hide a pump under a wedding dress.
While we’re doing wedding pictures, here’s one of me and Katie on our wedding day – posing on a posh car in front of a very posh house! http://www.splorp.co.uk/wp-content/gallery/2007-wotc/dsc_3853.jpg
@bellebe – I like your stuff! Very elegant. We should have a page to advertise diabetic-friendly online shops for you and stripykat.com!
Moi, blatent? Yes I am, and proud of it too! 😉 No beating about the bush here.
Thanks for the compliments both. 🙂
@Tim, that is of course your house and your car, right? I mean, from what we’ve seen in the video blogs that’s exactly how I’d imagined your house to look on the outside.
What annoys me is that the damned photographers never got a shot of all the lovely ladies flashing their thighs! White stockings, suspenders, and tender flesh; it’s a pervert’s paradise! 😆
@Alison – Joking aside, I find your wedding much more interesting than that other one, you looked lovely, and there are no height restrictions on love. 😉
@bellebe – I agree, that’s exactly how I imagined @Tim‘s house to look. Sad to say though, there’s absolutely no possibility of me buying any wedding jewellery! 😆
@alison: Being tall isn’t all what it’s put up to be – for example, I’m pretty sure your husband banged his head against that little wooden archway in the background (if he’s like me, who regularly collides with washing lines, road signs etc :))
By the way, who’s best at detecting hypos: CGM or husband ? After 10 years, is he getting better than your mum?
After looking very closely, for a long time, at Pippa Middleton’s dress I can confirm there is no way she is a pump using diabetic.
@ckoei As the CGM is with me 24/7 and I do occasionally allow the husband to go out on his own I’d have to say overall the CGM is more reliable when it comes to hypo spotting. Plus, it has fewer and less irritating false alarms than the husband – “Are you hypo, you seem very agitated?”, “No, I’m just annoyed with you”. You don’t get any of that rubbish from the CGM! Beyond that, he does have his moments though 🙂
@seasiderdave Your commitment to the cause is most admirable
Plus, it has fewer and less irritating false alarms than the husband – “Are you hypo, you seem very agitated?”, “No, I’m just annoyed with you”.
Or wake you up at 5 am because “You’re sweating, you must be having a hypo!”
“No, you ~~~~ of a husband, its because we’re having a heatwave”
Or try and get you to eat “Because I’m hungry so you must be too”
“No, my sugar is at 16, I think food would be a bad idea”
@ladyupnorth Are you having an affair with my husband, this sounds very familiar?!