Author: Frank

Gratitude.

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Today marks nine years of living with type 1 diabetes.

I might only be a dia-baby in the eyes of many of you, but to me nine years is pretty significant. It represents the majority of my adult life. As it becomes harder and harder to find things around me that pre-date my diabetes, it becomes harder for me to believe that a life once existed without it.

I don’t really know what to say today except that I am grateful. I’m grateful to be here. I’m grateful to be able to wake up, savour that first sip of coffee, watch the sky light up from my kitchen window, get dressed and go to work with ease.

I’m grateful to be living in an era of modern insulins, tools and technologies that give me a really good chance to be able to manage my diabetes well.

I’m grateful to live in a country where basic healthcare and diabetes supplies are relatively accessible and affordable. Thank you, Medicare and NDSS. I’m grateful to have a job and a roof over my head that allows me to pay for those things.

I’m grateful for the time and effort that diabetes has forced me to invest in myself. From curling up in front of blogs and books to spending nights scrutinising over blood sugar patterns, and just taking the time to listen to what my body is trying to tell me. I am a better person for it.

I’m grateful to have found the Diabetes Online Community a couple of years ago, which has today evolved into an amazing tribe of peer support around me. I’m grateful for the source of friendship, support and constant reminders that I am not alone in what I am dealing with.

I’m grateful for my family. Who tagged along to those initial clinic appointments, who have helped me out massively in the diabetes finance department, and who don’t ask me what my levels have been like.

More than anything, I am just so damn grateful to feel as ‘comfy’ as I do with my diabetes. That’s not to say that diabetes isn’t hard, or frustrating or filled with its moments. But yeah, I feel comfortable checking my blood sugar. Or wearing an insulin pump. Or talking about diabetes if it helps to explain something.

So this afternoon I’ll be grabbing a coffee and something nice to go with it, sitting in the sun and reflecting on the past nine years and just how far I’ve come.

Filling a T:slim Cartridge: The Idiot’s Guide

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I must say that one of my ongoing issues with the t:slim has been filling those little pesky black insulin cartridges.

The empty cartridges still have some residual air trapped in them, which needs to be drawn out with your syringe prior to filling with insulin. I know from experience that when I haven’t properly drawn air out of the cartridge, my blood sugars run high and insulin delivery from my pump has been compromised.

I’ve had several moments over the past few months where correction after correction hasn’t been able to tame my blood sugars. There have even been some moments where I wake up high at 3am and in a ‘lightbulb’ moment realise that my cartridge needs to be replaced. Of course, I know I that I won’t be able to lay still until the problem has been fixed.

To my understanding, the empty black cartridges have two components: the chamber at the top of the cartridge which you can see, and an invisible plastic bag inside the cartridge where insulin is stored. When I caught up with the friendly team at AMSL Diabetes in March, I was shown a demo cartridge where I could see that the plastic bag inside was vacuum sealed. So no air in there. Which meant that the air that needed to be released was actually trapped inside the chamber at the top of the cartridge.

With credit to the T:slim Users Australia and New Zealand Facebook group, I’ve learned to fill my syringe with 50-100 units of insulin, draw the air out of the cartridge and then top up the syringe with additional insulin as desired. It’s far easier to withdraw air with an emptier syringe than a full one. I’ve also tried drawing air using a completely empty syringe, but I’m a bit paranoid and prefer to actually see the air bubbles come out.

Which brings me to my next dilemma. Last week I must have wasted at least half an hour drawing seemingly endless air bubbles from my syringe, leaving me feeling downright paranoid and wondering what I was doing wrong.

After a chat with the team at AMSL Diabetes, I’ve been told that it’s not possible to draw all of the air out of the cartridge, and that one pull of the syringe and a few big air bubbles is sufficient. I’d also add, with credit again to the t:slim Facebook group, to make sure that the needle on your syringe is screwed on tightly enough.

If you look closely at the cartridge on the right, you’ll see a fair few air bubbles in the chamber at the top. I replaced that cartridge at around 3am a couple of weeks ago after it was causing untame-able high blood sugars. Perhaps this is also a result of me over-drawing air from the cartridge. Sometimes I like to settle my paranoia by simply popping off a loaded cartridge just to confirm that there’s no signs of air.

I don’t like having to babysit my diabetes devices, when I already have my blood sugars to babysit all day every day. So I’m crossing my fingers and toes that this is the last of my issues with filling these cartridges. Because I really do love this pump.

Updated 7/10/19: One pull has been working perfectly. Overdrawing air from the cartridge only compromises insulin delivery from the pump. Same goes for refilling cartridges with insulin more than once or twice. As I’m filling my tubing, I also like to keep an eye on the nobbly bit for any air bubbles that sometimes get trapped there. Holding the knobbly bit upright while I’m filling my tubing, I sometimes give it a few little taps so that any air bubbles rise to the top and pass through the knobbly bit and out through my pump line.

“Can You Have Any of That Stuff?”

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“What would you like to drink, Frank? Zero?”

“Yeah, zero. Thank you.”

“You’re diabetic, aren’t you? You can’t really have that, can you?” My friend’s daughter asked me as I pulled the tab on the can and took my first sip, referring of course to the full sugar coke.

“I could have it if I wanted to. But this makes it easier, I replied while wildly gesturing to the can in my hand.”

“That spikes you really quickly, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“So can you have any of that stuff at all?”

“My body doesn’t produce any insulin. So if I drank that, I would have to give insulin to cover it. But I’d prefer not to. I’d rather have my sugar in solid foods anyway,” I added, weirdly gesturing at the plate of mandarines on the coffee table but really thinking about chocolate or biscotti or a good milky coffee. Or cannoli.

I feel like I’m walking a very thin tightrope whenever I’m trying to explain diabetes to, well, people who don’t clearly don’t have diabetes. I get this burning desire to dispel the myth that I’m sentenced to a miserable life without any sugar just because I have diabetes. Then I always feel this great sense of responsibility not to stigmatise my fellow PWD by linking other types of diabetes to a poor diet or lack of physical activity.

I feel like I’ve done this far too many times already. I’m sure it won’t be long before I’m explaining diabetes to someone else, once again. I only wish that conversations like these would ‘stick’ more easily, and translate into a better understanding of diabetes.

Studying with a Broken Pancreas

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One of my biggest concerns about going back to uni this year was that my diabetes management would suffer. In some ways it feels like it has, and in some ways it feels like it hasn’t.

One of the things that made my decision to go back to uni a lot easier was the fact that I could study online. Thanks to something called the internet, I don’t have to commute to uni. After a long day at work I can literally put on my pyjamas and catch up on pre-recorded classes from the comfort of my lounge room if that’s what I feel like doing. I’m also lucky that I work consistent hours, which allows my study time to be somewhat more routine (in addition to being able to pay the bills…)

My self care has definitely taken a massive hit since late February. I haven’t been going to bed at the same time every night, and I’m sure if I were using Sleep Cycle my sleep trace would be poor. Preparing breakfast and lunches ahead of time for busy work days are a thing of the past. I’ve just spent the majority of my weekend revising for mid semester exams, and intensive moments like these leave me feeling like there’s little else to my existence. (If you haven’t already noticed, I don’t take kindly to the idea of slowing down and completing things in a steady fashion…)

One thing that hasn’t suffered, however, is my blood sugar levels. Ironically, they’re actually looking better than when I wasn’t at uni. Four years of connecting with other people with diabetes and constantly learning more about my own blood sugar levels has paid off massively at a time where I need to be thinking about my diabetes the least.

I’m taking this degree far more seriously than my first one. I’m blaming that on old age. I have newfound discipline that I never knew I had in me when it comes to my studies.

So I guess in the coming weeks I’m hoping to leverage some of that textbook-induced discipline and apply it towards my self care efforts now that I’m settled in. Because I know that I function far better when I’m looking after myself and listening to what my body needs.

Finishing my degree still feels like a long time and a lot of hard work away, and I have no idea what the end will look like for me. But I’m really glad I stopped thinking about all of the what-ifs and buts and took this giant leap of faith.

Hot Cross Buns (and Insulin)

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For the better part of the last two weeks, my morning tea each day has been hot cross buns. I am absolutely addicted to the Cadbury Choc Chip hot cross buns from Woolworths, and have already made my way through the packet I stashed in my freezer. I’ve since moved onto a second pack of regular fruit buns, which I have enjoyed lightly toasted and slathered in butter.

Let’s be honest, hot cross buns aren’t exactly the most blood sugar friendly food to conquer. They have a pretty rapid effect on my blood sugar levels. I’ll need to give my rapid acting insulin dose at least 20 minutes before tucking in if I want to avoid a massive spike in my blood sugar levels. If my starting blood sugar level isn’t in range, than I know that I don’t stand a chance against the carbs. Even with that prebolus, I can probably expect my blood sugar to peak at 9 or 10mmol.

With Easter fast approaching, I’ve already seen a fair bit of commentary on social media about what people with diabetes should and shouldn’t be eating this weekend.

I feel the need to write this because I am not ashamed of what I am choosing to eat. I refuse to believe that I am a ‘reckless,’ ‘careless’ or ‘non compliant’ person who will live to see the consequences because I am not following a ‘diabetic friendly’ diet.

My game plan for the next couple of days includes coffee, chocolate, hot cross buns and a few nice family dinners. I am more than comfortable covering my carbs with insulin, and pre bolusing where needed. That’s all that really matters to me.


To be completely honest, I really couldn’t care less what a diabetes organisation, or anyone else for that matter, thinks that I should be eating over Easter.

You do you.

Have a happy and safe Easter long weekend.