You may have heard from De La Soul that 3 is the magic number. Not in Type 1 Diabetes circles if you're hoping for NHS support for pump therapy.
A lot has happened since the last The Path To Pumping blog. I think it's important to recognise the great things first and, as usual, the great comes from the community of GBDoc, NIDoc and IREDoc on Twitter. I've reached the stage of forgetting who has sent what, helped in which way or just been there to support my words. It is truly remarkable to me, to have such generosity sent to my door or handed to me in person. I try to be gracious to each person and convey my profound thanks for their help and each person has simply seen their actions as nothing, not a problem, some citing that I do a lot to help others when I really just do what I think is the right thing - and I really enjoy it! I've written many tweets and blogs containing "Thank yous" now and I'm running short of words. Thank you! to everyone who has helped me to this point. I have enough pump consumables to keep me going until December, perhaps longer if I reuse some cartridges.
Peers, as you may have realised, are happy to support what I'm doing. They live the condition 24/7 and they relate and feel my words. They recognise the importance of reduced burden, better sleep, no dawn phenomenon, lower anxiety, more head space... and on the list of things goes. What's not on that list? Numbers.
Trigger warning: Self harm
Ah, yes. The magic numbers on which we as Type 1 Diabetics are judged. Still, albeit with less of a judgemental tone (we can put that to the test in due course). Because page 1 of the "Type 1 Diabetes for Doctors" book is all about HbA1c.
For Abbott, the Flash Mob, the Libre Lovers, during a Webinar the very well qualified have noted that an A1c of 6.5% is optimal regardless of MDI or pump therapy.
The nice folk at NICE believe that an A1c of 8.5% or higher should mean a mandatory offering of pump therapy through the NHS.
Boffins at a Swedish university believe the "Goldilocks zone" for A1c is 6.5 - 6.9% regardless of MDI or pump therapy.
Then there are us; the 7% - 8.4% gang. The cool kids, perhaps? walking the tightrope over a drop into the chasm of complications, hoping to stay on the line and not drop into the abyss. And we're told "you're doing great" if we ask about switching to a pump (remember positive rejection?) and to "keep at it". Yet, there they are - The Abbott Webinar professor, the Swedish boffins, talking about A1cs beginning with 6 and the mind wonders just how great are we doing in the mid 7s? What help can we get? You're not switching to pump therapy, not in my area, that's for sure! You'll be working with the tools that MDI can give to you, assuming you have any capacity left to do that work. Or, fingers crossed! and you carry on as usual with the "doing great".
Complication risks grow exponentially over 8% HbA1c, with each increase in 1% HbA1c. I'm sorry if you're nursing an 8%+ right now. You're not guaranteed anything! So, keeping things under 8% is a great idea, right?
Right! Deep breath. So:
- We need to keep it under 8% to reduce those complication risks
- Under 7% but not under 6.5% if you subscribe to the Swedish data.
- 6.5% if you're digging Libre Webinars
There seems to be murky water, here. For such a heavy clinical reliance on HbA1c, the 7% - 8.4% folk don't seem to be brought into the conversation a great deal. Is the risk of complications so dramatically lower at 8.4% vs 8.5% (NICE for pumping) or 7.9% vs 8%? My own blood glucose data tells me that things rarely travel in a straight line. I'm sure there is a nice, curvy, A1c vs Complications graph, somewhere.
It's difficult to escape the numbers if you're hoping to start pumping through the NHS. I get that. I really do get that individuals who are struggling to get their A1c under 8.5% need more urgent care than somebody like me, who floats around the 6% and 7% areas.
Somebody like me. Somebody who used to have higher A1c numbers, somebody who has suffered eye complications, somebody who has engaged and got to grip with his Diabetes, somebody who (in recent times) has noticed his A1c creeping up, his TIR dropping, his burden increasing, his near-avoidance of injecting because he's just so damn tired of the endless process seven, eight, nine, ten times a day. Somebody who knows his own body and own mind and recognises the dangers of where things are heading.
Somebody like me, who isn't in need of urgent care but is in need of care because somebody like me really doesn't want to go through eye complications hell again. A hell which I've only partly spoken about because my peers have enough to worry about. I promise, you don't need all those details.
Could the risk be worth it? I have enough tools and data to stop pumping, today and begin what would in effect be self harming myself by purposefully running high enough to achieve an A1c of 8.5%. Then I'll get the care that I know that I need. That care is NHS supported pump therapy. Of course, there is another criteria for pump therapy from NICE; hypos. The same thing could be achieved by having a couple of severe hypos, perhaps resulting in hospitalisation. The risks of trying a controlled hypo are far more immediate but probably equally as silly as trying to run high for 90 days. Don't do it.
Where next? There are options, none of which involve manipulating my Diabetes in the two very silly ways above. I could press harder and talk to people in more senior roles but is that the Joe Bloggs Diabetic route? Probably not. Joe would likely seek the advocacy of charities. How much weight their influence carries is debatable but without trying who knows? Another option could be to seek care from a different area. I live close to the border of different counties and different CCGs. Perhaps an area many miles away would be more sympathetic to my needs. I'm chewing over those options as I type this blog. There is no immediate hurry to decide what to do but, as always, your thoughts are greatly appreciated. Leave them below or tweet me!
Thank you so much for reading this blog. I do appreciate your visit and your support. As you might know, I LOVE COFFEE! So I've teamed up with a thing called Buy Me A Coffee. If you enjoy my content and appreciate the time it takes to create such things then you can buy me a coffee! If you leave your Twitter @ name when you buy me a coffee, I will personally thank you. If you'd rather be anonymous then that's totally cool. Thanks for the caffeine!
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