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World Diabetes Day 2019: The Lowdown on Type 1 Diabetes

By HealthNo Comments

Today is World Diabetes Day. People often struggle to understand diabetes and particularly type 1 diabetes which isn’t linked to diet, weight, a lack of exercise or age. So here’s a video from Diabetes UK that explains type 1 diabetes simply:

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Here are some facts and statistics:

Quick facts about type 1 diabetes

  • Approximately 400,000 people are currently living with type 1 diabetes in the UK, with over 29,000 of them children.
  • Incidence is increasing by about four per cent each year, particularly in children under five, with a five percent increase each year in this age group over the last 20 years.
  • Type 1 diabetes affects 96 per cent of all children with diabetes in England and Wales.
  • Around 85 per cent of people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes have no family history of the condition.
  • Although it used to be referred to as ‘juvenile diabetes’, around half of newly diagnosed cases are in people over the age of 18.
  • The UK has one of the highest rates of type 1 diabetes in the world, for reasons that are currently unknown.
  • A person with type 1 diabetes will have around 65,000 injections and measure their blood glucose over 80,000 times in their lifetime.

From: JDRF UK, last accessed: 11th November 2019.

Diabetes is a chronic long term health condition that requires a lot of management. For example I:

  • Inject insulin 4 or 5 times everyday.
  • Check and record my blood sugars before meals and two hours after meals.
  • Check and record my blood sugars before and after driving.
  • Finger pricking to read my blood sugars 8-15 times per day, prior to my Freestyle Libre (more on this below).
  • Count the carbs in each meal.
  • Have retinopathy screening, podiatry checks, annual reviews (with both my GP & Endocrine Consultant), see Diabetes Specialist Nurses and see Dietitians. You can only begin to imagine the number of health appointments I have in a year.

Having diabetes can be frustrating at times, as any little thing can affect the amount of glucose in my blood. Things that affect my blood sugar include: physical or mental illness, diet, exercise, the weather, even the amount and quality of sleep I’ve had.

Management and treatments have mostly stayed the same since I was diagnosed with diabetes. It often feels like I am trying to minimise the damage that diabetes causes to my body until better treatments are developed or until a cure is researched and widely available.

The biggest change to diabetes treatment in the last few years is the Freestyle Libre sensor for blood glucose readings. This my Consultant has described as revolutionary and I have to agree with her to a point. This means no finger pricking (unless unwell), but it is only half a job. Next diabetics need a pump that works with the Freestyle sensor to administer the right amounts of insulin automatically.

What’s your experience of type 1 diabetes? Leave a comment below.

Blog soon,

Antony



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Thursday 14 November 2019

My New Insulin Regime

By Health, LifeNo Comments

I had an an appointment with my Diabetic Specialist Nurse at the start of this week. She looked over my blood sugars and insulin since January. The upshot is that I’ve not been taking enough long acting insulin (Lantus) and been taking too much rapid acting insulin (Novorapid).

I have huge morning peaks that look like mountains on my Freestyle Libre Reader (read more about the Freestyle Libre here). Possibly the dawn phenomenon?

I’m counting my carbs using the Carbs & Cals App. But I’m awaiting an appointment with a Dietitian to get some advice, help and support around my Insulin to Carbs Ratios. In the meantime my Diabetic Specialist Nurse started me on a new insulin regime.

It’s been tweaked a few times by Diabetic Specialist Nurses based on BM readings before meals and two hours after meals. At one point my BM reached 26.6 mmol/L, I had been told that I’m not allowed to bolus any rapid acting insulin, so I went on a two hour walk to bring it down.

This week I’ve been cranky, not slept well and even had some significant cognitive fatigue all caused by high blood sugars.

Here is my new/current insulin regime:

my-new-insulin-regime-1-August-2018

My New Insulin Regime.

Let’s hope this latest tweak leads to lower blood sugars and eliminates the morning peaks.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Friday 17 August 2018

1 Life Lesson I’ve Learned for Every Year of My Adult Life

By ThinkingNo Comments

Life is about growth through learning and experience. So here’s 1 lesson life has taught me for every year of my adult live:

Age 18 – The importance of good and lifelong friendships. What makes a good friend including care, kindness, a sense of humour and loyalty.

Age 19 – The importance of having joy in my life. Creating opportunities for joy, seeking it out and chasing it are all essential activities for me.

Madame Tussaunds Blackpool on a thrown

Me on a thrown
Antony-Simpson-Writer

Me

Age 20 – That I’m never going to please everyone. Not everyone will like me or get me. That doesn’t mean I should stop trying. If I can make somebody laugh with a funny story or a joke, I’m going to do it. The smile or laughter is always worth it for me.

I just accept that not everyone is going to be pleased with what I do or don’t do. As long as I am happy with my intentions, actions and omissions, that’s good enough for me.

Age 21 – A diagnosis of a chronic illness (in my case type 1 diabetes) starts with grief. I mourned the loss of my working pancreas and cursed my faulty immune system.

Age 22 – Independence is extremely important to me. Getting my driving licence and being smothered in a relationship both helped me to realise this.

Age 23 – In the outside world many people are far to happy to psychologically tear strips off you. So inside your home should feel safe, full of compassion and be filled with a feeling of care. How I felt at home when I was younger and buying my own apartment helped me to realise this.

Age 24 – Sometimes I just have to do certain things, otherwise I’d always wonder What if?

Heartbreak sometimes heals with the passage of time. A lot of time. More than days, weeks or months. Years. Sometimes even longer than that.

Sometimes the heart doesn’t heal at all, it just scabs over like a scraped knee. Ready for you to pick at it or for something to come along and reopen the wound.

Age 25 – Not everyone gets to live a full and long life. This feels unfair. Life is precious.

The shock of an unexpected death is a thousand times worse than the grief of the loss. It is spiritually, mentally and emotionally exhausting. The disbelief that comes from the shock can last years and make it impossible to grief.

Age 26 – There’s something magic about new babies and they smell totally awesome.

Age 27 – The past is a nice place to visit, the future is a nice place to imagine, but you shouldn’t live in either of them. Live in the present.

Age 28 – The extreme highs and lows of mood I’ve had since my teenage years are not normal. Most people have a pretty stable mood.

Mood stabiliser and antidepressant medications saved more than just my mind, they saved my life.

Age 29 – Travel broadens my mind, fills my heart with goodness and strengthens my soul. If you have the opportunity to travel do. I learned this through visiting India, which has a special place in my heart.

IndiaJuly2015-TajMahal-8

Me with the Taj Mahal in the background (2).

Age 30 – Creativity enriches every aspect of myself. Stories (written, films, etc.) ignite my imagination and develop my empathy. Art and sculptures help me appreciate the beauty that the creators saw in the world around them or in their mind. Music helps me to feel and gives me the opportunity to dance.

To create something, whatever it is, is a learning process. Sometimes creative projects go well, other times not. But I always learn things from them. The process of creating something makes me feel alive and all lit up – even if it’s just a blog post like this one.

To share something I’ve created with the world makes me super-anxious. But when somebody tells me that my creative project has had some sort emotional resonance with them it becomes a privilege.

soulmates-cover-page

Soulmates (Short Story)
The Finished Product: My homemade candles look great (1).

The Finished Product: Just 1 of the 22 completed (unlit).

The Good Teen (Short Story)

Age 31 – When you do something you love for a job, it doesn’t feel like work. It feels like a vocation and a passion.

Write soon,

Antony

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Thursday 22 February 2018

Health Tech Review: TEE2 Glucose Meter by Spirit Healthcare

By Health, Reviews2 Comments
TEE2-glucose-meter-by-spirit-healthcare

Image of the TEE2 Glucose Meter by Spirit Healthcare. Image From & Copyright © Spirit Healthcare.

 I’ve been a Type 1 diabetic for a decade. You can read my story of how I was diagnosed with diabetes here.

I’ve used various glucose meters, but they’ve all essentially done the same job. Around 6 months ago I was switched TEE2 Glucose Meter by Spirit Healthcare by my GP. Here are the Pros and Cons of the TEE2 Glucose Meter:

Pros

  • It’s easy to use.
  • It meets the latest coding standards.
  • No coding is required.
  • The customer support is brilliant and really responsive. You can telephone a freephone number: 0800 881 5423 or email info@spirit-healthcare.co.uk
  • The meter shows trends data.
  • Apparently the testing strips are cheaper for the NHS to buy.

Cons

  • The meter and its accessories look and feel cheap. For example the zip off the pouch came off in my hand during my first week of use.
  • It’s around the average size of other meters on the market. But my previous meter was much smaller, making it feel big to me.
  • The screen isn’t colour like my previous meter.
  • The date is set in the American-style format: Month-Date, with no option to switch to UK formatting.
  • No automatic changing of time. You have to manually change time on the meter when clocks go forwards and backwards.
  • The meter has no connectivity to smartphones. It would have been great to have Bluetooth connectivity that put meter readings into a smartphone App.
  • The desktop software just wouldn’t work on my iMac. This meant that I would have to go back to recording results using pen and paper in a logbook. No logbook was provided. This again felt like going backwards, as my previous meter did connect to my computer and download test results and trends data to my iMac.

Although the pros and cons for this meter are equal in number, overall this meter has felt like going backwards for me. The TEE2 Glucose Meter feels really limited when compared to my previous meter and other meters on the market right now.

I really wanted to like the TEE2 Glucose Meter and for it to improve my diabetic self-care. But it hasn’t done this. Instead it’s given me more to remember to do (writing results in logbook).

If you have a choice on which Glucose Meter you use, my advice would be to do your research and choose one that is more sophisticated than the TEE2 Glucose Meter. If you don’t have a choice and have been put on the TEE2 Glucose Meter by your GP or Diabetic Specialist Consultant/Nurse my advice would be not to have too high hopes or expectations for it.

Blog soon,

Antony



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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