Month: March 2018

Drawing Parallels to ‘The Good Doctor.’

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Inbetween heat packs, Nurofen capsules, bed rest, a visit to my doctor and checking my blood sugar levels, I’ve spent the better part of a few sick days at home binging on The Good Doctor this week.

The series revolves around Dr Shaun Murphy, a surgical resident at San Jose St. Bonaventure hospital. Shaun isn’t any ordinary doctor. Shaun has autism, coupled with savant syndrome which allows him to see and connect the finer details that others don’t.

Shaun is different to those around him. He is often misunderstood by others. Those around him are often doubting his intelligence and his capabilities. In a way, Shaun’s struggles are not that different to someone who has diabetes.

There are definitely days where I feel misunderstood by those around me. I have my moments where I feel as though I’m answering the same questions that the same people have asked me before. I often wonder whether employers see diabetes work on my resume and doubt my ability to fulfil the advertised role (yes I can). I often wonder whether those around me see diabetes as a weakness (hint: it’s not).

I have superior intelligence when it comes to health, physical activity, nutrition and diabetes management, simply because I deal with these on a daily basis. I’d even go as far as to say that my intelligence is superior to some of the diabetes organisations and healthcare professionals that I deal with because of my own very valuable lived experience.

Shaun often can’t help but speak his mind in the series, without any regard for those around him or their feelings. This is the one distinction that I can draw against him and autism. I don’t have to be brutally honest when I am dealing with diabetes around others. I have a filter, and I can use it to spare other people’s feelings, even when they upset or frustrate me. If I don’t feel like explaining diabetes in order to explain myself, I don’t have to.

Dr Shaun Murphy is such a damn relatable character. It’s kind of refreshing to see someone so different on television. Someone who shares in some of the struggles many people with disabilities and chronic conditions do. Watching Shaun overcome some of those hurdles, often without even realising, is so uplifting to see.

After spending the last couple of weeks ripping the authenticity of Married at First Sight to pieces, The Good Doctor is by far one of the most genuine pieces of television I’ve seen in a long time. A perfect binge for the upcoming Easter break.

Diabetes at 3.14am

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I stirred in my sleep, registering the blaring red 3.14 on the clock radio beside my bed. Pulling my left arm out from under the covers, I fumbled around for the switch at the base of my bedside lamp. When my desk was finally illuminated in cosy warm white light, I heaved the remainder of my body up from the bed, reaching for my meter and test strips.

This certainly wasn’t the number that I was expecting to see, considering the full 2 unit correction that I had given prior to bedtime for a 10.7. (And in case you’re wondering, I’m only using the OneTouch Verio to deplete my final box of strips…)

I immediately ripped my pump away from it’s resting place inside my inner left pocket, and gave another full correction of 3.3 units for that very uncomfortable number. My frustration was only further fuelling my actions, as I set a 50% basal rate increase for the next two hours on my pump to ensure that this correction insulin did its job.

As I flicked off the lamp and rested my body back onto my bed, I couldn’t get back to sleep. I could feel the heat emulating from my pillow, and flipped it over to the cool side. My whole body felt stuffy, presumably a consequence of the higher blood sugar.

As I lay there, tossing and turning, my mind was quickly consumed with guilt.

I wasn’t happy that it had taken me this long into the night to finally stir in my sleep and check my damn blood sugar. I felt terrible for the fact that I had been sitting there, at that very uncomfortable level, for the better part of five hours. I felt frustration, because a mere two weeks ago I was super insulin sensitive and today I feel like I’m not getting enough.

Second guessing my prior decision in the darkness, I reached for my pump and lowered that 50% temporary basal rate to 30% before clipping it back inside my pants pocket.

Trying to purge those thoughts from my mind, I began thinking about all of the positive things that I am doing in managing my diabetes, reminding myself that numbers like those are isolated occurences nowadays.

If this had happened in the middle of the day, I’d have corrected the high without giving it a second thought. But laying there in the middle of the night with nothing else on my mind to worry about, was a completely different story.

By the time I woke up on a grey Sunday morning, last night’s occurrences felt like nothing more than a dream.

Feeling Tired With Type 1 Diabetes

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The final stretch of last year was a pretty challenging time for me, physically.

I felt tired. All. The. Damn. Time.

I would often find myself crawling into bed at the end of the day, feeling utterly exhausted. I was no longer waking up to my 1am alarms, and my blood sugars definitely suffered for it. I would wake up after a solid eight hours of sleep feeling bleary eyed, wanting nothing more than to close my eyes and go back to sleep again.

I honestly could not find an explanation for the way that I was feeling. Although the management of my blood sugar levels had slipped a little since achieving a personal best hba1c in July, my ability to manage them was still far better than they had ever been in my pre-pumping era. My bloodwork from July was also really good, and I had seen my endo in August.

I probably should have made an appointment with my GP, but I honestly didn’t feel that he would have been very helpful to me.

I felt more burdened than I had felt in a long time. in fact, I’d go as far as to say I felt equally or more burdened than I did during my start on insulin pump therapy. These feelings affected my work, my attitude around others and my overall quality of life. Part of me was ready to accept that these symptoms were simply a tradeoff of living with a demanding chronic condition like diabetes.

Living with type 1 diabetes creates somewhat of a complex relationship with food. We need food to fuel our bodies, but at the same time food spikes our blood sugar levels – and we want to avoid out of range glucose levels at all costs.

What’s the best nutrition advice for a person with diabetes? From my experience, It depends on what you’re reading and who you’re talking to. While I absolutely love my diabetes community, the overwhelming messages that seep into my brain is to avoid this food group or cut back on that one that and stop the spikes from happening.

I don’t want to single out any particular way of eating, but diabetes has distorted my relationship with food without me even realising.

The average male needs to consume about 8,000 kilojoules of energy per day to fuel his body so that it can function properly and match energy expended through activity. I don’t think I was even coming close to that. Not to mention having an active job where I’m on my feet all day expending even more energy by the minute.

I honestly cannot ever recall being taught to eat to fuel my body and meet my daily energy needs – from healthcare professionals and diabetes websites alike. Or perhaps I wasn’t listening carefully enough.

The past month or so has been a bit of a learning curve for me. Let me just say that it is pretty challenging to eat 8,000 kilojoules of quality food every day, and I have slacked a little at keeping tabs on this at times.

Of course, as with anything you make a major change to in life, diabetes management also demands attention and there have been a few tweaks to basal rates. I’ll share more specifics in time. 

But I’m sitting here in the sunshine typing this today, feeling far better than I have in quite some time.

In Conversation with Leonie and Elly of Diabetes Meals Online

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Today I’m thrilled to introduce Leonie and Elly, a mother and daughter team from Melbourne who created Diabetes Meals Online. I’ve known of them for quite some time thanks to social media, and today they’ve taken some time out to chat with me about their connection to diabetes and the business that came from it.

Frank: So, you’re a mother and daughter team. Can you tell us a little about your connection to diabetes?

Leonie: Elly, my daughter, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2013 – a complete shock and we both struggled with the diagnosis for the first 6 months. I thought I must have done something wrong during pregnancy and she was in shock – we knew nothing about diabetes back then. She had 4 hospitalisations in ICU in the first 18 months and she is now managing really well and hasn’t been to hospital in a couple of years. I bought her a Dario about a year ago which she loves. She is too old for the funded CGM and pump but we intend to get her one as soon as we can.

Frank: You’ve since established Diabetes Meals Online together. Where did the inspiration for that come from?

Leonie: We both hate cooking and found trying to read the nutrition information panel of every ingredient really tiring. Elly and I, and my dad, who loved cooking, decided to try and make meals with clearly colour coded carbs and sugars to make meal times simpler for people managing diabetes. We bought a dietitian on board to design a strict nutritional criteria and a couple of years later bought an Educator on board just to check that our message was ethical and not offending anyone.

It has been quite a journey but late last year we finally found the right manufacturer for our meals – and can now deliver all over Australia (we had heaps of customers and health professionals begging us to deliver Aust wide from the beginning but we were only doing fresh meals around Melbourne – now I’m excited to be able to go Aust wide!)

Frank: Diet can be a pretty controversial topic in the diabetes community. What sort of dietary inspiration or guidelines have you drawn upon in creating your own product?

Leonie: Yes it sure can and we want to remain ethical and trustworthy thus our dietitian and diabetes educator advise us on all things medical. I follow lots of diabetes groups and am pretty active on social media watching what authorities are posting and staying up to date. We never, ever give medical advice – we always point people back to their own health professional for individual advice. We don’t (and would never) claim our meals help manage diabetes – but simply make meal time choice easier.

Frank: I’ve seen that your meals are pressure cooked, sealed and can be stored in the pantry for up to two years. Could you tell us a bit more about the process involved in producing the meals?

Leonie: Yes, it’s called Retort and is very popular worldwide. We are a bit behind here in Aus but Heinz use the same process for their soups and baby foods. All the fresh ingredients are put into the special pouch which is then sealed. They are then pressure cooked in a huge pressure cooker. This locks in nutrition, flavour and aroma and makes them commercially sterile meaning they have the long shelf life and don’t need refrigeration (until opened).

Frank: What has been the most valuable thing for you both in terms of living with diabetes?

Leonie: Hmm – tough one. I think for Elly, over the past couple of years, she has realised that it is not going to stop her living her life the way she wants – she just has to deal with things that people without diabetes would never even think about. For me it has been offering a meal option for others to help make that meal time easier – there is enough to deal with in diabetes and when I read all the customers ‘thanks for providing such a valuable service’ I’m really touched – and proud!

***

Leonie also sent me some meal samples to try, and I wasn’t really sure what to expect as I have never used a meal service before.

The meals arrive pressure cooked and sealed, and can simply be kept on hand in the pantry until needed. Heating up is as simple as making a small perforation in one of the top corners of the packet to allow for steam to escape, and then placing in the microwave on high for 2-3 minutes.

Carbohydrates, sugar content and calories are at the forefront of the packaging, along with the usual nutrition information panel. The ingredient list was also very easy to read!

The meals are clearly designed to meet the body’s energy needs and nutrition criteria, and include a balance of carbohydrate, fat and protein in each serve. The carbohydrate content ranged from 19 to 30g per meal, which probably won’t be an option for those following low carb diets. The meals are gluten free, however, which is a great option for type 1s with intolerances or coeliac disease.

Chunky Italian Meatballs in Herbed Tomato Sauce.

Chilli Con Carne with Brown Rice

After cautiously inspecting, preparing and smelling this strange new product, I was pleasantly surprised. The flavours were there and it tasted like a freshly prepared meal. The seasonings were a little strong for my liking when I tried the meatballs, however my second meal of Chilli Con Carne was much more enjoyable. I’ve still got the Mild Butter Chicken to try.

You can find Leonie and Elly’s range of meals available at diabetesmealsonline.com.au. They deliver Australia wide.

Disclosure: Leonie sent me three meal samples to try. There was no expectation that I would blog about Diabetes Meals Online, and all thoughts expressed here are my own! 

‘Instant Diabetes’ Jokes

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Am I supposed to get angry and explode with rage every time I hear an incorrect comment about diabetes?

Am I supposed to bring to a hault an incorrect comment about diabetes, and politely correct that comment with fact?

Or should I just stand there and listen to the umpteenth diabetes joke, having done both of the aforementioned more times than I can keep track of, and accept that I’m never going to be able to change other people’s pre-conceived perceptions of diabetes?

The latter is sounding like the more tempting of these options lately.

I’m not really a fan of seeing rage ensue over an inaccurate comment about type 1 diabetes. I don’t think anyone should be crucified for a mistake, unless of course they fail to see any sign of wrongdoing.

I knew absolutely nothing about diabetes in the first seventeen years of my life without it. I get it. When I first heard the words ‘diabetes’ in the Emergency Room, my whole body flooded with guilt as I thought about every bag of chips, plate of ice cream and can of soft drink that I enjoyed as a kid. 

I later learned that I had type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune condition whereby an unknown trigger caused the insulin producing cells in my body to begin attacking themselves. Type 2 diabetes, on the other hand, is a condition whereby the body becomes resistant to insulin over time and often has more definitive causes. These can include age, genetics, ethnicity and sometimes lifestyle choices.

I’ve lost track of how many times I have explained the concept of type 1 diabetes to some of the people around me. And hey, I don’t mind being asked about it. I sure as hell don’t mind explaining it.

But you would think that being around someone who manages type 1 diabetes all the time might help you to at least not make those jokes about ‘instant diabetes.’

Yet, these comments still ensue right in front of me during conversations about that mouth watering, sugar laden dessert that was served at the dinner table last night.

Or, on the other end of the spectrum, this.

This is where I throw my hands up in the air, and accept that life’s too short to let the ‘instant diabetes’ jokes bother me.

The triple chocolate Flake birthday cake I made a few weeks ago that is most definitely not a cause of diabetes!