I don't HAVE to wear shades but doesn't everybody look cooler while wearing sunglasses? That's me, in the photo, outside the Bellagio in Las Vegas, almost 8 years ago. This blog isn't really about sunglasses, I promise.
Firstly, huge thanks to everybody who supported my December charity blogs. They raised £90 for Diabetes charities - all the money has already been sent, take a look at my Twitter timeline for a detailed breakdown. Perhaps I'll do something like that each year because it's good to give.
I'm doin alright, gettin good grades, the future is so bright, I gotta wear shades. Do you remember that song? It still gets thrown around from time to time when things are looking promising. In the world of Type 1 Diabetes, in the UK at least, things do seem to be looking up. On a personal level, things are pretty good as well.
I'm doin alright
The numbers suggest as much. My eA1c is floating around 6.6% and my Time In Range is in the low 80% area. Numbers are just data so, that aside, I'm happy to confirm that I actually feel pretty good, too. Better levels of sleep because of fewer Diabetes related interruptions is certainly a life changer. That and no feelings of being overwhelmed by injections have certainly put a shine back into life. Those things are down to me using an insulin pump, of course and you know that because you've already read of my gushings for the last 4 months. If you want to switch to pumping then I encourage you to start the conversation with your Diabetes team. At this point, I am still refused NHS funding for pump therapy and I've taken my foot off the throat of decision makers in that regard - I'll explain why at the end of this blog, keep reading.
Gettin good grades
TIR, eA1c, Hours slept... there are probably others, too but the numbers are looking good and if T1D is judged on such things then the grades are looking pretty nice.
Future is so bright
Possibly. A bright future involves access to all available technology to all who can benefit from it. My data shows the benefits to me but that's not enough to satisfy the current NICE criteria for pump funding. I've written about why the criteria isn't fit for purpose and is causing individuals to self harm to achieve an A1c which would make them eligible for pump therapy. That's not a route which I'm going to explore but I will keep talking about it because it's obviously very wrong and potentially very damaging to the health of people living with T1D.
A bright future involves the scrapping of the current NICE criteria for pump funding. Good try, folks but delete that and start again. You can do better. Aaaaaaand it seems that might be happening. I await the news of NICE criteria changes, later this year. March, perhaps. Of course, if it still pushes individuals to self harm then my noise will increase and I will submit to the requests to talk about it through more public sources than my little corner of the Internet. The coming months will be very interesting indeed and I do hope the future is incredibly bright for everyone living with T1D and not just for some, for some things.
I gotta wear shades
Because, as established already, shades are cool. It's important to remain cool and calm in most situations. If you're fighting off a hypo or struggling to reduce a hyper then I've always found things seem to move more smoothly if I just take a breath and stay calm. Perhaps stress and anxiety can affect BG? Of course it does! as it can affect other areas of your life. So, rather than press harder for pump funding I am going to do nothing apart from wait. I'm going to put my faith in the decision makers to level the playing field, faith in HCPs to facilitate access to technology and look for reasons to make it happen rather than reasons to refuse and faith that the current use of a donated pump will hold out long enough for me to not be worried about the day it dies - because I'll be granted NHS pump funding and a warranty for the tech I'm using. The shades are on despite it being January, freezing cold and dark at 4pm. The shades are on because I'm cool and calm and patiently waiting for the right things to happen.
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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