Diabetes

Type One: Breaking Misconceptions With Humour

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I don’t do Wordless Wednesdays, because I feel like I’m ripping you off of a blog post.

However, I feel that today’s entrant is a very worthy contender.

Landis got in touch with me last week and shared her web series, Type One with me. I enjoyed it so much that I felt compelled to share it here today.

Type One is about a young man, Matt, who has type 1 diabetes and is looking for love. Landis and her co-creator, Mike, both have personal connections to type 1 diabetes in their lives. Their web series uses comedy to break the common diabetes misconceptions and stereotypes, and if the first episode is anything to go by, they’ve done a smashing job.

It’s only an eight minute episode, and it’s well worth a watch. Look out for the part where Matt so casually pulls out his meter and insulin pen on a first date – I was hysterical.

Landis and Mike are hoping to raise enough money to film seven more episodes. You can check out their fundraising page here, which also features a Q and A with Landis and Mike.

To Pump, Or Not To Pump?

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A few weeks ago, I went to an insulin pump information evening. And I must say that I was quite keen on the idea after that night despite the politics of it all, which you can read about here. The promise of better control, long term health, insulin dose calculator, ease of insulin delivery and the statement that “very few people give these back to me and say that they don’t like it.”

But I’m not naive. I know that a pump is a big decision. I know that a pump is a big commitment. I don’t want to get a pump just for the sake of getting one, and then end up in no better of a situation with my diabetes management. I don’t want to get a pump with the mindset of being able to slack off and get lazy with diabetes. And it might not necessarily solve all of my problems. I’ve been talking about it at home, talking with friends in the Diabetes Online Community, and deliberating over the matter in my head for weeks.

My biggest struggle is achieving stable numbers consistently. There will be weeks where I seem to do it at ease. And then there are weeks where the numbers suffer, due to changes in my level of activity and the level of food that I eat. I seem to be adjusting my insulin doses every second day to get the balance right in the background. Lantus Adjustment Struggles are real. And they drive me crazy. There are times where my Lantus dose is more than enough, and other times where it’s just not enough. My hba1c level has been hovering around the borderline of “acceptable” for quite some time, but I’d really like to get it down further for the sake of my long term health.

In some ways, I feel that a pump could potentially offer that to me. I’ve heard nothing but good things about pumps from friends in the #DOC. But I also expect that the pump will be a big learning curve. It will be a lot of work. And I’m expecting a lot of frustrations in the beginning, at least. I’m concerned that a pump might make things more complicated. Potentially having control over more variables, such as basal insulin could do my head in. And, will a pump actually make my job as the operator of a broken pancreas easier? Or is it essentially a different way of doing the same thing?

At the moment, I do feel quite “free” with my Multiple Daily Injections. I take my insulin injections whenever I eat, and in the meantime my Lantus dose keeps me (relatively) stable for a whole 24 hours. I like the fact that if something were to happen and I couldn’t access my insulin, my blood glucose levels would be fine for a whole day.

I am a bit scared of being reliant on technology to keep me going. Relying on one, continuous source of insulin to keep me stable is scary. If that one source of insulin was suddenly cut off, or if my pump suddenly stopped working during the night, I could go into a state of diabetic ketoacidosis within hours. And I absolutely hate carrying junk in my pockets. An insulin pump would only add to that problem, as lame an excuse as it sounds!

A pump would certainly be more convenient, though. These 13 Truths About Insulin Injections would be no more. I would be able to administer my insulin at the touch of a button, rather than often waiting until the dinner table conversation has ended. The carb calculating function on the pumps look awesome. And, I wouldn’t necessarily be stuck with the pump. I could get it, learn how to use it, and then I would always have it as an option.

So, to bring this jumble of thoughts from my head to a close, I haven’t made up my mind about an insulin pump yet. I’m still thinking, I’m still researching, and I’m still talking about it.

Affected by diabetes? Join the Oz Diabetes Online Community for our weekly chat Tonight from 8.30pm AEDT (GMT+11) by following the #OzDOC hashtag on Twitter.

Tomorrow, Diabetes Will Still Be Here

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Today marks the 30th of November. Today marks the final day of Diabetes Awareness Month. Today, I feel like I should be writing something grand to wrap it all up. Today I feel like I, along with the rest of the Diabetes Online Community, should be applauded for all of the energy put into November.

Tomorrow, as I turn over another page of the calendar, my focus will likely shift.

Tomorrow will mark the first day of Summer. Tomorrow, I will need to seriously get thinking about a birthday gift for my brother. Tomorrow, I will need to begin that dreaded task of Christmas shopping. Tomorrow, I will need to start my long overdue ritual of decking out our patio in Christmas lights. And tomorrow, I will begin dreaming of the beach, the tennis and winding down for the year.

However tomorrow, I will still have diabetes. Tomorrow, you will still have, or will still be affected by diabetes. And tomorrow, many more people will be diagnosed with, and will be newly affected by diabetes.

Tomorrow, I will still need to check my blood sugar level ten times. Tomorrow, I will still need to give more than just the four insulin shots my doctors prescribe. Tomorrow, I will still need to count the carbs in the foods I choose to eat. Tomorrow, I will still need to correct a blood sugar high. Tomorrow, I will still need to treat a blood sugar low. Tomorrow, I will still be frustrated. Tomorrow, I will still be plagued with long term fear. Tomorrow, I will still have to continue to perservere.

Tomorrow, we will still have people all over the world affected by diabetes. Tomorrow, we will still have people who cannot afford insulin and other basic supplies. Tomorrow, we will still have people who cannot access diabetes education and basic healthcare. Tomorrow, we will still have people who are unable to access technology that would make their diabetes management simpler. Tomorrow, we will still have innovations in diabetes care that are out of reach for many.

Tomorrow, I would love for nothing more than to shove diabetes into a drawer and forget about it until next November.

But while all of these issues are still here, Diabetes Awareness Month will never be over at the 30th of November.

Wednesday Hypo

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We were standing around the table in the warehouse, slicing open boxes as we do every morning at work. I was left in stitches after a hilarous moment that you had to be there to find funny. I laughed for several minutes, my sides in stitches and my eyes watering with tears of laughter. I haven’t had such a good laugh in a long time, and it felt so good.

As the laughter subsided, I focussed my attention back towards slicing open those boxes. I yawned loudly, several times, as I tried to get on with the task at hand. “Early night for you!” One of my colleagues exclaimed. I was all of a sudden devoid of energy, and couldn’t be bothered in the slightest to get on with the task at hand. I stopped and leant on the table. I so badly wanted to sit down and rest. And maybe not get up again. I told the guys around me that I was exhausted from laughing so hard, but I knew that couldn’t be further from the truth.

I had no doubt in my mind that I was hypo. I’ve had hundreds of typical hypos in my lifetime, but none are as unique as the ones that happen while I’m at work. And as I stood there, yawning, I pondered three possible options in my mind.

Option one: I was only half an hour away from my mid morning coffee and banana. My hypo can hold out for another half an hour, easily, I told myself. I bet I’m not even that low.

Option two: I could stop and have my morning tea break now, albeit earlier than usual. But then the rest of the morning will drag, I reminded myself. By then, I’ll really be yawning. 

Option three: I could duck out and grab a muesli bar from my locker. I hate eating in front of others, I thought to myself. Plus, I’ll probably spoil my appetite and won’t be able to enjoy the coffee break that I crave each morning.

I stubbornly settled on option one. I continued slicing open those boxes, lazily. I continued to yawn, over and over. My legs felt like jelly, ready to give up on me at any minute now. Every passing minute felt like an ordeal, and I could not believe that I still had the better part of half an hour to go.

I finally gave up, with my urge to satisfy that hypo overpowering my will to stay put. I ducked out of my work area, and quickly crammed a muesli bar into my mouth. Opting for that muesli bar was like having that piece of cake I’d been craving all day. All of a sudden, I was back to my normal self. I had the energy to stand up straight, rip open boxes, and get on with the job.

Shortly after, I was called upon to pull down some heavy items from up above. As I was standing there on the ladder, balancing an akwardly heavy box in my arms, I didn’t want to imagine what would have happened had I not treated that hypo.

Remember the ‘Humans of Diabetes’ blog post that I wrote for a company called AkibaH? Well, these guys are launching Glucase, a Smartphone case that is a complete Glucose Meter. There’s a nice visual of the product here, as well as an option to fund their campaign if you are interested.

The Reason I Can’t Advocate For The Cure

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I was already in the midst of a transitional period of my life when I was diagnosed with diabetes. It was my first year out of school. I was driving on my own. I was working my first proper job. I had uni assignments that I had spent way too much time procrastinating on in the weeks before I was diagnosed. I can remember sitting in the hospital cafeteria with my accounting book and pencil one afternoon, desperately trying to catch up. I had exams just a few weeks away. I was about to turn 18. And on top of that, I had a shiny new autoimmune disease to manage and hospital appointments to attend.

Needless to say, there wasn’t really any time for me to stop and take it all in. I didn’t really have time to cry about the fact that I would need to have injections for the rest of my life. I didn’t have time to beat myself up over what I had done wrong to deserve diabetes. There was so much going on outside of diabetes at the time, that I really just had to get on with it.

Since then, managing diabetes has quickly become a part of me. Despite the fact that diabetes is still only a relatively small portion of my life, it feels like I’ve been doing it forever. And most of the time, I hardly even think twice about why I’m doing what I’m doing. The insulin injections, the finger pricks, the terrifying night time hypos, the infuriating morning hypers, the carb counting, glycemic index monitoring, the binge eating, the blood, the sweat and the tears that goes into it all. Doing diabetes is like driving a car with the radio turned up. I can sing along to my favourite song, and chat with the person sitting next to me without thinking too much about the actual driving part.

I have never really stopped and told myself, “I’m doing this because I have diabetes. I’m going to have to do this every day for the rest of my life.” And for that reason, I can’t really say that I live my life hoping for, or expecting a cure for my diabetes.

Dad has been reassuring me since the day I left hospital that there will definitely be a cure. Ten, fifteen years away tops. Definitely in my lifetime. Mum is always cutting out stories from the newspaper about the latest breakthroughs in the diabetes world. We always rush to the television whenever we hear a story coming up on the news at dinner time. People who I chat with in the Diabetes Online Community are so damn enthusiastic about a cure, or finding one. Folks who have lived with diabetes for a lot longer than I have.

Boy, I bloody admire their enthusiasm. I really do. I wish I could get excited about it, but I just can’t. I didn’t even realise people dreamed up cure parties in their minds, because I have never once thought of that day ever coming. In some ways, diabetes seems like too much of a “business” now, to be simply cured and over with tomorrow.

Right now, getting my numbers more consistent during the night seems real. Getting back to a happy place with my diabetes management seems real. Getting a little more fit this summer seems real. Cutting back on chocolate seems real (okay, maybe just possible).

I can write. I can speak. I can advocate. I can raise awareness. I can exercise (hardly). I can eat (always). I can live my life, to the best of my ability and be as happy as possible.

But I can’t advocate for a cure.

But I don’t think I need to, either.

All of you seem to do the job a hell of a lot better than I could. You make the impossible seem just a little bit possible.