The Right Fit

I see an endo. I arrange for my annual checkups to my eyes and feet. I see my GP when I feel unwell, and I also have regular bloodwork done.

But when it comes to the day to day management of my diabetes, I don’t really need a great deal of support.

My first diabetes educator retired shortly after I began pumping, and I hadn’t really found a replacement who was the right fit (there were a few). I do remember feeling pretty disheartened after one session where I was told that it was perfectly okay for my BGLs to be spiking to 15mmol after breakfast. When this person tried to change my basal rates because they didn’t fit the typical 50/50 split, I didn’t make contact again.

That was back in 2016. Since then, I’ve been more actively monitoring my blood sugars and forever learning new things about my diabetes. My confidence is ever growing in being able to pick up on trends and make changes to keep my BGLs where I want them to be. I’ve gradually implemented changes that have brought me to where I am with my diabetes today.

Fast forward to today, and I find myself 18 months into a new healthcare professional relationship. I wasn’t really looking for a diabetes educator 18 months ago, but I needed one if I wanted to get my hands on a t:slim. At the suggestion of my local rep, I unexpectedly met a diabetes educator who was the perfect fit.

I think what I love so much about this relationship is that it’s exactly what I need. Which isn’t a lot. My educator knows that I don’t need a lot of support in the day to day management of my diabetes. She knows that I’m pretty switched on. And most importantly, she can tease me about whether I need to grab a biscuit to treat my borderline blood sugar, and I can tease her about some of the things that I’ve come to know of before she has.

Although I was beaten last week with this insulin pump from the 1980s.

Admittedly, I don’t know this person too well, but I just had a feeling that she was someone who I could be really honest with in terms of what I’m doing with my diabetes. Diabatteried Dexcom transmitter, for instance.

I would never expect a healthcare professional to hold my hand as I do something that’s not textbook or ‘off label’ with my diabetes. But during our session last week, she was completely supportive of exactly where my head was at.

“I need to know, because I need to be able to support you.”

Hearing those parting words as we finished our session last week, I was convinced that she’d been listening to every single comment I’d ever made around why language matters so much when we’re talking about and to people with diabetes.