Diabetes

Glucose Testing Behind The Wheel

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One of the topics that really spoke to me while completing the yourSAY survey was the issue of glucose monitoring before getting behind the wheel of a vehicle.

To be honest, having to go to a doctor every two years to have my “assessment to drive” completed is a bit demoralising. I don’t like having my “medical condition” branded on my drivers license. I don’t often ask for special considerations because of my diabetes, and I hate that I have to ask my doctor for it every two years in order to operate a vehicle.

I get that operating a vehicle, or machinery is a pretty serious responsibility. For anybody. With or without diabetes. I get that I have a condition that could potentially put others at risk on the road if not managed properly. But I also know that I am a responsible driver. A responsible driver of my own vehicle, and of my own diabetes management. Both of which I take very seriously.

I do not test every time that I am about to get behind the wheel of a vehicle. Not because it’s inconvenient, not because I don’t like to and not because I don’t carry my testing supplies on hand. I don’t test every time that I get behind the wheel simply because I don’t feel that it is necessary to do so.

I am the designated driver in the vehicle of my diabetes management. And it’s my right to make that decision of whether or not it will be necessary for me to test before getting behind the wheel today. It’s my ability to judge a hypo, or hyper coming on. They’re my blood sugar levels that I place the confidence in to remain stable while on the road. Not yours. Not the government’s. Not my doctor’s. And not anybody else’s.

Every day in the news we hear of drunk drivers, traffic offenders and criminals endangering our roads, and the individuals on them. I am not suggesting it is, but I would hate to think that mandatory glucose testing in a vehicle would somehow be legally enforced here in Australia ahead of these other more serious issues.

I realise that this is probably easier for me to say compared to someone who is not as confident with their diabetes management. But at the end of the day we must empower, and give this responsibility to the individual.

I will be guest moderating tonight’s Oz Diabetes Online Community chat. Join me by following the #OzDOC hashtag on Twitter from 8.30pm AEDT/5.30pm AWST.

In Conversation With a Type 1 Mum

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Mum and I had a rather interesting conversation with a type 1 Mum at the insulin pump information evening that we attended last week.

I’m always drawn to stories of type 1 parents and younger children. I was diagnosed at the age of 17, where I was able to manage my diabetes independently most of the time. My parents didn’t have such a “hands on” role as they may have if I was diagnosed at a younger age. I guess, overall, we would both have completely different experiences in diabetes management.

Type 1 Mum was at the insulin pump evening for her 9 year old daughter, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 4. She was also interested in a Continuous Glucose Monitor, as her young daughter would often neglect to test her blood glucose levels at school or fib about the numbers. Obviously at such a young age, her daughter does not fully realise the importance of why she has to test her blood glucose.

At school, her daughter had a close group of friends who all knew about her diabetes. This year, however, has proven more challenging with class groups being swapped around. The children will often share food at lunchtime, without fully understanding the implications of her daughter eating something like a lollipop. The school also has an aid in the classroom to help with blood glucose tests and insulin injections. However since turning 9, she is expected to be able to manage diabetes on her own at school. She is lucky, however, that the aids there for other children will also check on her at lunchtime.

Out of my own curiosity, I asked Type 1 Mum whether she regularly checks her daughter’s blood glucose levels during the night. She told me that she would normally test once during the night, at around 1am. Her daughter would normally sleep through the nightly blood glucose tests. If the result showed up low, they would “sleep-feed” her glucose tabs and juice boxes.

She also asked me about if I test through the night, being an older person. I told her that, obviously, for myself, I am very motivated to check my blood glucose levels. The decision to test during the night would come down to how confident I am that my BGL will remain stable. If I eat junk food in the late afternoon, I know that the fat will send my BGLs up after I go to bed. But there are other days where I have eaten well, and I am confident I will remain stable.

It was great chatting with you, Type 1 Mum. Best of luck with the decision you choose to make.

A cracking walk on a cracking #DOCtober Friday.

https://instagram.com/p/85DCeFg_Sb/

My Brush With Diabetes and Cold Feet

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Summer has come extremely early this year. There’s been no one-day-its-hot-the-next-day-its-cold sort of weather here like usual in the Spring. I swear that one week I was in my trackies and the next I was in my shorts. The only part of my body that didn’t want to agree with me, however, was my feet.

It was 30 degrees outside. I was wearing my shorts. But my feet were ice cold. I knew that something was wrong. I was sitting there on the couch, and my cold feet were irritating me. I couldn’t sit still as I was sitting on the couch watching The Walking Dead. I was sub consciously finding a corner of the couch to tuck my feet into, just to warm them up. I tried resting my foot against the warmer flesh on my upper thigh to heat it up. I was sticking my fingers underneath my socks as I anxiously waited for them to heat up. One night I even got out of bed to grab a second pair. I was stressing myself out, bigtime.

Straight away, I began to think about possible circulation problems and nerve damage to my feet. I scraped my finger nails against the underside of my feet, and against each toe, just to make sure I had feeling there. I googled the words diabetes and cold feet, only to find information to support the theories that I had been stressing out about. And I began to criticise myself for all of the imperfect decisions that I had made with my diabetes management lately.

I knew that there was a podiatrist at my doctor’s surgery, so I decided to make an appointment there. I was well overdue for a diabetic foot checkup nonetheless. The last time I had a proper foot checkup with a podiatrist was back in 2011 when I was receiving treatment for a stubborn plantar wart at my hospital outpatient centre. 

As he applied pressure to check the pulses in my feet, my nerves were instantly replaced with reassurance. I could feel the pressure of the blood pulsing through my feet. I could hear my pulses amplified as he placed an ultrasound-like machine up against my feet. And as he poked around to test my sensation, I could feel everything.

I was pretty relieved to hear that everything was fine. He suggested some accupuncture to help deal with the cold feet, which was successful in 8 out of 10 patients with the same problem. I told him I’d leave the treatment for the time being and see how it goes.

So, nothing may have been wrong that day. But I certainly don’t regret going in. It was certainly well worth having that issue relieved, and a huge weight off my shoulders. And I was pleased to hear my podiatrist commend me for coming in, rather than accuse me of being a worry-wort.

Who knows – maybe my feet don’t want to come out of winter hibernation mode just yet!

Reading up on insulin pumps in my latest #DOCtober photo, after attending an information session on Wednesday evening.

https://instagram.com/p/82kMjtA_ea/

 

No Responsibility From Insulin Pump Companies

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Last night, I attended an information session on insulin pumps at Diabetes WA. And this morning, I’ve got about a million things that I want to write about.

I’ve been on Multiple Daily Injections since I was diagnosed five years ago. I’ve never seriously considered an insulin pump, and I can’t say that I know too much about them. I’ve thought about going to one of these information sessions over the years, but it was just one of those things that I never got around to. Okay, truth be told I procratinated on RSVPing to those events until it was too late. Over and over.

I guess what motivated me this year was the fact that I am now a part of the Diabetes Online Community. I think, talk and write about diabetes every day. I feel more motivated towards my diabetes managment, just from interacting with you. I see so many of you blogging, tweeting, screenshotting and instagramming pump stuff each day. I want to understand it. And I want to seriously consider it as an option going forward.

Representatives from a few of the insulin pump companies were there to chat to before and after the session. And to be honest, they were absolute vultures. I’ve never seen such eager salespeople out there in full force, desperately wanting our business. When our fantastic host Margie asked for some sample tubing to show us, it literally seemed like a race to see which rep could get to Margie first. As I asked one of the reps if a meal bolus was as simple as inputting the number of carbs into the device, she began hurriedly cramming in as much information as she could before the talk resumed. I’ve never seen anything like it.

The topic of Continuous Glucose Monitors came up briefly. As I have written in recent days, Continuous Glucose Monitors aren’t subsidised by the government here in Australia. The cost of purchasing a CGM device and its operating consumables is excessive. While having a CGM may not matter to myself, I know that it could make a world of difference to young children and parents out there.

I thought it was rather interesting to hear the representatives in the room quickly removing themselves of any responsibility for those excessive costs. They urged us to write to our Members of Parliament. They urged us to lobby the government for subsidies towards CGMs and diabetes devices. As though it’s out of their hands.

These companies are responsible for the excessive costs of these devices. These companies are making a profit off of our disease. There are so many companies and product lines out there for that very reason. That vulture like behaviour occurs for that very reason. And I hardly got the feeling that these people genuinely wanted to help me make my diabetes management easier. I so badly wanted to know if they even had diabetes themselves!

I hope I haven’t taken anything away from the Diabetes WA session. It was fantastic and I have so much more to write about. Stay tuned – I’ll have more in the days to come.

At 10.41pm, I was cutting it close with yesterday’s #DOCtober photo. An exclusive look behind the scenes of the jacket I wore last night.

https://instagram.com/p/80lsx1A_bu/?taken-by=franksita

 

The Invisibility of Type 1 Diabetes

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Yesterday I shared Catherine’s story. One of the many type 1 diabetes parents dealing with, well, everything that you would expect (and more) from a young child with type 1 diabetes. A Continuous Glucose Monitor would be a massive relief for Catherine and her daughter, and would change their lives.

Seeing Catherine’s story on television, and the discussions that followed at home simply reminded me of just how invisible diabetes is. Not enough people are aware of what people with type 1 diabetes go through in order to manage their condition. People simply don’t see a lot of the aspects that we deal with in order to manage this disease. And our media certainly don’t give it a lot of attention, either.

Our media here in Australia spend a lot of time focussing on those “lifestyle” factors that may cause type 2 diabetes, in some cases. Which is fine. These are all serious issues, which can be prevented. I’m all for that. However, it just seems that I always hear about how we need to lose weight, how we need to eat less sugar, how we need to eat more fruit and veg, and how we need to exercise more. How this is an epidemic that will destroy the world by the year 2030. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating there. But Mum could even recall being asked if I was overweight after telling an aquaintance about my diabetes a few years ago. It just goes to show how little awareness there is of type 1 diabetes out there.

I’m not blaming anyone for this. I’m simply stating a fact. There’s little awareness of type 1 diabetes out there because it’s simply an invisible disease. It’s easy to spot things like excess weight, unhealthy food choices and lifestyles that are lacking physical activity in the world. It’s not easy, however, to spot things like glucose monitoring, carb counting and insulin injections. It’s not easy to spot sleep deprivation, frustration and stress from dealing with, and worrying about type 1 diabetes. It’s not easy to spot parents who have had to take time away from work in order to properly deal with a type 1 diabetes diagnosis. It’s not easy to spot parents concerned about how their child, and school, will cope with type 1 diabetes.

I say that we do a pretty good job of keeping it together when we’re out there among the rest of the world. We’re pretty strong people, you know.

And that’s where Catherine’s story comes in. She did a fantastic job of advocating for all of us type 1s, and helping to shed some light on the issues that we have to deal with behind closed doors.

I can only hope that this media attention will help deliver technology that will change the lives of many young families in Australia dealing with type 1 diabetes, and help make this disease a little less invisible.

I almost forgot my #DOCtober photo yesterday, so my last minute photo idea at 9pm was to change my Lancet!

https://instagram.com/p/8xzm_Mg_en/