Today marks my fifteenth lap around the sun with type 1 diabetes. 

When I look back on my journey, I realise that there was a time where diabetes management was a real ‘focus’ of my life. Trying to adjust to my new ‘normal’ that nobody around me truly understood. Meticulously trying so hard to get things right. Experimenting with food, activity, new tools and technologies. And experiencing a lot of feelings of frustration and loneliness when I couldn’t get the perfection that I was so badly chasing. 

It’s probably more the other way around these days. If I don’t have the site change reminder on my pump switched on, there’s a good chance 5 or 6 days will go by before I remember to change it. There’ll be Fridays where I leave the house only to realise I have to ration the 20 units of insulin left in my cartridge because I ignored the warning to replace it last night. It can feel hard to try and accommodate diabetes as I get older, as my career progresses and as I take on more responsibilities in life. 

I constantly wonder whether I’m doing enough to look after myself. No more evident than the lead up to my annual eye exam on Tuesday, which has turned into more of a one-year-and-four month exam. Or during a long afternoon or evening working, where I’ve completely forgotten that I have diabetes for several hours only to see that I’ve been cruising above 15. 

Undoubtedly, living with diabetes today is easier than it was fifteen years ago. No more evident than yesterday’s software update to my insulin pump, which now gives me the ability to administer insulin from my iPhone without having to pull my pump out from underneath my clothes. The insulin, tools and technologies that I have at my disposal definitely help me to manage my diabetes in a bit more ‘cruise control.’

This afternoon, I went for a long walk along the Coast. It was the most glorious late autumn day, where the sea and surrounds were bathed in the golden light of the late afternoon sun. Yesterday it was a run, but today I just felt like a walk. Getting outside every day is one of my non-negotiables. It’s one of the best things to do for a time out from the throes of life, and to keep my mental health in check.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that those burdens are still there. Diabetes is still a burden. I guess after fifteen years, I’m kind of grateful that the tools and technologies that I have at my disposal give me a bit more room to think about the bigger picture. 

To think more often about those broader things that I can do to continue to best support and challenge myself to endure, as I commence another lap around the sun.

Isn’t that how the saying goes?

Diabetes has definitely been on the back burner since I last wrote here on my blog and embarked on a new career 18 months ago.

I used to have a lot of structure in my day as a shift worker. I’d wake up and start work at the same time each day. I’d have my breaks at set times, and I’d always clock out at 4 o’clock on the dot. I’d come home and do some variation of coffee, snack, walk, exercise, dinner, study, write, read and bed. Can you tell I’m a creature of habit?

My day to day is a lot more spontaneous now. I don’t have to be at work by a set time each morning. I definitely go out a lot more, whether that be for coffees, lunches or Friday drinks. For those times where I just need a day or two at home? No problem. Then there are also times where I’ll have to work past 5pm. I have to try a lot harder to set those work/life boundaries that just used to be there.

The last 18 months or so have been challenging, but also incredibly rewarding in terms of personal growth. Like being outside of my comfort zone. Learning new things. Meeting new people. Doing stuff I’ve never done before.

Between full time work, Accounting busy seasons and progress toward a Graduate Diploma in Chartered Accounting, the reality is that I want to spend my spare time offline. Walking along the coast or going for a run, spending time with my family, grabbing a coffee with friends, making a nice lunch on Sunday or just looking after myself.

I have a friend at work who I always tease for having the Group teams chat on ‘mute’ and never participating, to the extent that I forget she’s even in the chat. Until I see her in person and she’s up to speed on everything about everyone.

I’ve been around in the DOC and peer support spaces for long enough to know that people’s needs evolve over time, just like my own. One of the best things about the diabetes community is that it’s big and wide and broad enough that it’s always going to be there in whatever shape or form I need it.

Like my friend at work, I’ve been more lurking quietly in the background these days. I’ve also been reading more and getting my peer support in person.

I’ve had a few conversations about this blog over the past year or so, and one friend in the diabetes community recently put all of this into perspective for me. She thought it was fantastic that I didn’t feel the need to update my blog so often. It meant that diabetes was in the background, and not at the forefront of my mind. Second to life.

I think that’s a pretty good note to start the New Year on.

Happy New Year. Wishing you the very best for 2023.

Admittedly, I don’t particularly like having to wear any adhesive over my CGM sensor. I’ll usually hold off on applying an external adhesive for as long as I can, although I have been caught out once or twice in recent weeks. I only just managed to rescue last week’s sensor by the skin of its teeth (it was dangerously dislodged from my arm).

However, adhesives have become a necessity in order to get my sensors to the 14 day mark. Occasionally I’m able to get my sensors to 21 days, but I don’t find the readings too consistent or reliable.

I’ve been trying out the ‘Not Just a Patch’ adhesives in-between sensors over the past few months, which were gifted to me by the Not Just a Patch team.

Back in January, I had a brief Zoom chat with founder Pete, a fellow type 1 from Sydney. Pete went to uni in Perth and could instantly recognise the Fremantle Doctor blowing away as I sat on the steps outside the loading dock during my lunch break.

I guess what makes Not Just a Patch a little bit different from its competitors is that the patch covers the entire sensor. Pete explained that the biggest point of difference with these patches, unknown to me at the time, is that they are designed to be easily removed and replaced. Check out how easily they pull off in my video below!

Pete did warn me that G5 was a little more challenging compared to slimmer sensors such as FreeStyle Libre or Dexcom G6, and I did find these a little bulky to wear. On the plus side, they were much easier to apply and I liked not having to stress about getting the perfect application around the edges of my sensor.

You can find Not Just a Patch here. Pete’s also got a podcast called ‘The Dialogues’ featuring some familiar diabetes advocates, which you can also find in your podcast app.

It’s definitely been Easter week in my corner of the world. Hot cross buns and Easter eggs have been getting me through work and uni this week, counting down the days to a much needed four day long weekend. My personal picks are the yellow bags of Cadbury mini eggs and hollow hunting eggs. Bonus points if you picked them up on sale at Woolies last week.

This past week has been disgustingly humid. It’s the second spell we’ve had here in Perth this month that doesn’t seem to want to go away. You know, the kind of weather that sucks the life out of you, amplifies the irritating chirps of the crickets at night and also throws you some unexpected and nasty lows.

Like this morning, while I was in the midst of resetting my transmitter clock and replacing my sensor. I didn’t have access to reliable readings. I’d switched off my phone’s Bluetooth connection and Dexcom notifications earlier after persistent alerts to unreliable patches of readings that came and went. I’ve already been running reduced basal rates of around 10% for much of this month.

All of a sudden, I found myself struggling to go through the motions of my task at hand. My hands were clammy. I was sweating, but perhaps it had simply been mistaken for the weather. I reached for my meter, whose reading gave me a reaction of ‘yikes.’

I reached for a jukebox from the drawer, and guzzled it down. I had to sit down. I slowly began to feel warmth return to my body, but I was still craving something comforting and more pleasant than juice. I nibbled on a jellybean from the drawer, and eventually followed up with a cup of tea and biscuit.

If there’s one skill I’ve learned about living with diabetes, it would have to be learning to adapt to my surroundings and just going with the flow.

It’s Easter this weekend. There will be chocolate, there will be food, there will be drinks and there will be good company. I could choose to impart rules and strategies for how I will navigate Sunday lunch and the Easter egg hunt.

But quite honestly, just like every other day of living with diabetes, I think I’ll just go with the flow.