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2023 – The Year of Antibiotics

By HealthNo Comments

For most of 2023, I’ve been unwell with bacterial infections. I’ve had an infected knee, an abscess on my arm, pneumonia, a dental abscess, tonsilitis and sinusitis. As my mum would say: I’m surprised you don’t look like an antibiotic, with the amount you’ve taken.

Here is a list of antibiotics I’ve taken in 2023:

It is known that people living with Type 1 Diabetes, like me, have a weakened immune system. But to spend the majority of the year fighting bacterial infections and taking antibiotics is exhausting.

I’ve been trying really hard with the self-care including: regularly washing my hands, getting plenty of rest and sleep, drinking plenty of fluids, eating well, getting vaccinated for COVID-19 (plus boosters). I’ve even tried taking Vitamin C supplements. But nothing has seemed to make any difference. It’s like my white blood cells see bacteria coming and decide to go for a nap instead of fighting. Either that, or my immune system is made up of passivists, rather than warriors.

Every time I get an infection, it spikes my blood sugars. They go high and as much as I try to manage this by eating less and injecting more insulin, managing diabetes feels like having a full time job, on top of having a full time job and out of work commitments.

These regular periods of illness have affected my work and home life. I’m so lucky that Type 1 diabetes is classed as an unseen disability under The Equality Act (2010), otherwise I’d probably be out of a job.

I’ll be really honest, 2023 for me has been about managing illness after illness, whilst trying to maintain my employment. These two tasks haven’t left room for doing the things that I like to do, such as reading, writing, seeing friends and family, etc. That’s why the blog has been pretty quiet as of late.

Being on these different antibiotics has also got me worried. I’ve noticed that some of them haven’t been as effective for me as they previously have been at dealing with bacterial infections. Antibiotic resistance is something I’m noticing and with no new antibiotics on the horizon, what’s going to happen when antibiotics stop working altogether?

Blog soon,

Antony

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Sunday 10 December 2023

Pneumonia Recovery

By Health, ThinkingNo Comments

I tried. I really did. After being admitted in hospital for three days with pneumonia (a chest infection), urine infection and in diabetic ketoacidosis, I had a week off work to recover. I managed the week, then went back off sick.

I’m constantly beyond exhausted, needing to sleep all day and night on a bad day. My blood sugars are all over the place, which isn’t helping matters. I just don’t feel right. I’m being really honest – I don’t know exactly what’s wrong. I can’t pinpoint specific symptoms any more than I have explained.

I went to see my GP today and he said:

Just what made you think you could return to work after 1 week? – My GP

He had a point. I’m not twenty any more. At thirty-seven years old, I now have to accept that infections have a bigger impact on my body. Having diabetes also means my body takes longer to heal. The bigger the impact, the longer the recovery time. This has been my main lesson from my GP today.

I’ve never really have to taken more than a week off work to recover from infections in the past. So this is new territory for me. But I have to listen to my body. It’s crying out for recovery and time to heal. And it is always wise to listen to your doctor – especially if you’re lucky to have an amazing one like I do.

My GP has requested some more urgent bloods. Given me a sick note for two weeks and strict instructions to rest, recuperate and not to return to work before being reviewed by him again.

Despite knowing that I can’t help getting sick and that it isn’t something I have any control over, I do feel guilty for taking time off work. I feel like I’m letting everyone at work down. My manager, my colleagues and my patients. But I hope they understand.

I really have no choice. I’ve been very poorly and I’m not fit enough to get through a day without a nap (or several) due to exhaustion. The littlest things, like for example taking a shower wear me out.

My GP was very tactful, but he basically explained that if I don’t take weeks off from work to recover now, in the long term it might take me months to recover. My GP explained that I will have good and bad days during this period of recovery. He warned me about good days and the assumption I could make that one good day means I’m fully recovered.

So here I am. Sat here writing this post. Accepting that I need a period of recovery to allow my body time to heal. Not knowing how long it will take. Not being able to do much to help it apart from self-care: eating well, resting when required, keeping a good sleep routine, you know, the basics but essentials.

I would like to thank all the people in my life that have and continue to support me. Thank you. Without you, this would be so much more difficult.

Write soon,

Antony

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Thursday 8 June 2023

Speaking Up, Being Heard and Insulin Resistance

By HealthNo Comments

I’ve been living with type 1 diabetes for over 14 years. I’m also a Nurse. Yet sometimes I struggle to speak up and be heard when it comes to talking to health professionals about my health.

Sometimes I find myself repeating the same things only to leave with the impression that it’s my fault for not managing the diabetes well enough. This is extremely demotivating, especially when you’re trying your hardest.

But today I wanted to write about a refreshing change. For a while now I’ve been injecting enough insulin after meals to fell an elephant, yet still having high blood sugars. I’ve worked closely with a dietician to work out my carb to insulin ratios. But after injecting over 90 units of Novorapid insulin for an average carb meal, I decided I needed to get some advice from a Diabetes Specialist Nurse. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised.

The Nurse I spoke with listened. That was the key. She heard what I said and diagnosed me with insulin resistance. Insulin Resistance, it sounds like a super power doesn’t it? Unfortunately it isn’t. More a complication of being on insulin for a long time and your body getting resistant to it.

Diabetes.co.uk explain it better:

What is insulin resistance?
The role of insulin is to allow cells of the body to take in glucose to be used as fuel or stored as body fat. [282]. It also means that glucose is more likely to build up in the blood and this can lead to too high blood sugar levels. When the body becomes resistant to insulin, it tries to cope by producing more insulin. People with insulin resistance are often producing too more insulin than healthy people.

(From: https://www.diabetes.co.uk/insulin-resistance.html, Last accessed: 21/03/21.)

The symptoms of insulin resistance are:

Tick Box Bullet Point Tiredness
Tick Box Bullet Point Hunger
Unticked Box Difficulty Concentrating
Tick Box Bullet Point Weight Gain – particularly around the belly
Tick Box Bullet Point High Blood Sugars and HBA1C
Tick Box Bullet Point High Blood Pressure
Tick Box Bullet Point High Cholesterol

I’ve had every symptoms except for difficulty in concentration levels.

The Treatment
The treatment is to start Metformin. Metformin is a drug that will lower my blood sugar levels and hopefully make me less insulin resistant. I will keep you updated on how I go on.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Sunday 21 March 2021

The Coronavirus Pandemic

By HealthNo Comments

Here is the current Coronavirus Guidance from HM Government (UK):

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/


I’ve watched, listened and read a lot of information about the Coronavirus.

As an essential worker, I’ve seen firsthand the preparations being made in our NHS. It has made me proud to be part of such a wonderful organisation.

As a person I’ve thought about how I best protect my loved ones, particularly those in at risk groups. We all know at least one person who is elderly, has an underlying medical condition or is a child. (Although thankfully so far there have been no documented deaths in children).

As a Type 1 diabetic I’ve worried what will happen if I get infected. My immune system is weakened by diabetes, so it is likely to hit me harder than those without an underlying medical condition. I’ve even worried about the impact that the virus might have on my mental health.

As a consumer I’ve been shocked, but not entirely surprised by the panic buying.

But being British, I know we will do what we’ve always done in adversity: come together and help one another. We’ve done it many times before in the past, this time will be no different.

If you do have symptoms described in the video above, it is essential that you follow this guidance:

Coronavirus-poster-self-isolation
Coronavirus Poster about Self-isolation.

Take care and stay safe. Write soon,

Antony

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Thursday 19 March 2020
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