Puppy Low

 ...oh, I guess they'll never know! Donny Osmond, I think. Apologies if you read the last blog or even heard about it on the grapevine. I decided it would be better to not publish that particular post in the interests of the personal safety and causing any distress to the victims of that particular group of people. Instead, a complete change of tone with a photo of Billy. Cute, hey?

True, he is cute and a burning ball of nuclear grade energy. As we know, using our own energy burns up that glucose pretty efficiently in most of us and so "Puppy Low" rather than "Puppy Love" seemed like a good title for this post. Sorry, Donny.

Billy arrived during the final week of my Steptember Challenge. I was already exercising a lot more than usual and chalking up a good number of hypos during the first few weeks of the month, at least. This new, very cute, energy sapper really threw a spanner into the works. Very short but high intensity bursts of exercise were sending my BG tumbling. Alongside a different waking and sleeping pattern, it's made for a difficult week with Type 1 Diabetes. I'm adjusting... kind of.

The experience made me wonder about how others cope with different variables thrown into the mix on a frequent basis. Shift workers certainly sprung to mind but I'm sure there are others with equally or more challenging lives. The solution to many of the challenges and life changes which we experience is, of course, technology. I know, a tweak of the Banting Juice might keep things in order, a couple more finger pricks per day might do the trick too. However, for those wild times, the big life changes, the why does my puppy keep on pooping moments, it seems like tech is the answer.

Some of you may have read about a lady who had waited a year for a pump clinic appointment, only to be refused funding at that appointment because of her sleeping issues. Yeah, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry either. Other stories were shared, including a particularly bizarre refusal tale which the lovely Lesley Jordan (from JDRF UK) shared. Take a look, you'll see that on my time line among all the puppy photos. Technology within diabetes should always be burden reducing for us alongside improving or maintaining our long term outlooks. My switch to a pump has vastly improved my T1D burden and, so far, the numbers all suggest that my long term outlook is in a good place. Where would I be without the pump? Struggling, for sure. I certainly wouldn't be trying to walk 250,000 steps while puppying. It could be easier, too! I could be looping and many more highs and lows would be reduced. I'll be a looper, soon enough, I'm in no real hurry.

So, while my hypos have been on the increase, I'm still in a very good place and a place which I can adjust to with the new arrival in the household. Others aren't so fortunate when it comes to accessing the technology which they need. Here is a link to a Twitter poll about hypos. The results are interesting! However, I know of at least two people who are in the replies with huge hypo numbers. Both are fighting for access to a pump and I have one question; Why?

Why are people with (sorry, my friends, no reflection on you) large numbers of hypos having to fight for access to a pump that will almost certainly reduce those dangerous and debilitating events? Are those numbers not raising large red flags and causing fast-tracks to Pumpville? I'm really at a loss. One hypo is a hypo too many and could lead to horrible things happening, including pre-mature death. To minimise those events should surely be a high priority and if many avenues have been explored without success then it's really time to sign off the pump paperwork.

We've seen these types of tech refusals before, of course, in the last 5 or 6 years since Libre hit the radar. It stinks of purse strings and worry about spending rather than offering the best possible care to diabetics - care which will ultimately reduce NHS spending on diabetes related complications. But what about NICE guidelines? What about them?! I don't know about you guys but, NICE don't live my life or manage my diabetes. I know what I need for my best care and to live my best life. Push for the technology which you KNOW will improve your life now and in the future. 

Billy agrees.

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!

BUY DIABETIC DAD A COFFEE HERE

Prefer PayPal?

BUY DIABETIC DAD A COFFEE THROUGH PAYPAL

Gotta Wear Shades

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.

Happy New Year.

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!

BUY DIABETIC DAD A COFFEE HERE

Prefer PayPal?

BUY DIABETIC DAD A COFFEE THROUGH PAYPAL

 

It's Good To Talk

 

I have a new-found admiration and I'll get to that in a moment. Firstly, some context;  I've hosted podcasts, created several vlogs, spoken on the radio, quite a few people appear to follow me on social media, too. In a different life, I played poker on TV and once upon-a-time I played in the World Series of Poker, the biggest card game in the world. You might say I've been around in various guises when it comes to being in the public eye in the last 15 years. I must be brimming with confidence, right? You might read my tweets and my online persona comes across to you as a confident, sometimes outspoken, funny, charming and rather good looking, humble, young man. Some of those things are true! The real truth is that I'm a quiet person. I suffer from social anxiety. I use the word "suffer" deliberately because, unlike Diabetes - which I have, there have been times when it has been on a different level of troublesome.

There are reasons for my social anxiety which go way back. That is for another blog, perhaps! It'll likely be too long to be interesting. I'm not going to offer advice or suggestions on how to "get over it" either. That's for you to work out, if you're relating, sorry. What I can offer is my own experience.

Life has a way of moulding us, directing us, forcing us into situations. Sometimes it takes trauma, grief in it's many forms, exquisite joy or an event to really open our eyes to important things and exciting opportunities. Perhaps the Covid-19 pandemic, the lockdowns and well documented horror have given you a new perspective. Perhaps you're doing new things already and appreciating the people and things around you more than before. Maybe you promised yourself to be that way but it hasn't worked out. That's alright. Lots of us promise to live a new, healthy life on Jan 1st each year. I'm not sure how many of us live up to those quietly spoken words which we weren't truly believing in anyway.

You might have read about my Diabetes complications, before. Sight loss and the dark (no pun intended) places that it lead me to, followed by recovery and a new-found "Wow!" for the world. Then, I told myself that I would do new things. I did. I built a business and probably over-enjoyed myself in many other ways (again, stories for another time). My 40th birthday had a similar but "purer" affect on my views. I decided to open up about my Type 1 Diabetes, expecting nothing more than some minimal engagement on my very early and terrible vlogs. 4 years later, it was one of the best decisions of my life. It's good to talk!

The new-found admiration? It's for those taking a leap of faith by speaking in public for the first time. I've spoken at business meetings and haven't really felt uneasy. Those meetings are often boring and a matter of fact, information sharing, exercise. Speaking publicly about something personal such as your health is pretty terrifying! but... fun! Terrifunning? Like a rollercoaster! but a rollercoaster which you control. That's because you're the one who truly knows everything about that subject. I did that a few days ago at a grand old hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon. A private engagement with some lovely people who were extraordinarily kind to applaud me and ask many really great questions. Although that subject was about the CGM which I use, rather than me, I still felt comfortable after a few seconds. After I left that rollercoaster, I wanted to get back on. The fear had gone and the excitement of the occasion came through. Also, I felt I'd lived up to my own promise of doing a new thing which I once would never have even considered. It's good to talk!

I realise that I'm lucky to be given opportunities within Diabetes. I am after all a "Joe Bloggs" (blogs?) Diabetic. I won't be running any marathons or climbing any mountains, you won't catch me trout-pouting in a bikini on Instagram, I'm unlikely to star in any Super Bowl ads or have my hilarious jokes recognised by TV bosses. I don't create drama for content, either. I'm no false advocate who has unsavoury motives. I'm just a person who talks about Diabetes with his peers. Perhaps you are too? I imagine we get along famously already. It's good to talk! 

Social anxiety feels real. That demon is frightening but I'm beginning to realise that he's not real. He is an imaginary monster under the bed, who goes away when you're brave and you look under there. That bravery takes a lot, it can take a long time or it can be triggered by an event. If the opportunity presents itself then I strongly encourage you to go for it and look under the bed and never look back. Do the scary things.

If you'd like me to do something scary then get in touch - daddiabetic@gmail.com Bungee jumpers and sky divers need not apply!

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!

BUY DIABETIC DAD A COFFEE HERE

 

Hobnobs in Hiding pt.2

 

Did you ever have a bad experience with alcohol? Or perhaps you ate at a particular restaurant and got sick. Did you then spend a while, avoiding that drink or that meal? Maybe you've never eaten or drunk something since the time you were left with no option but to bark into the toilet bowl, soon after. I don't blame you. That's exactly how I feel about Hobnobs but only the original ones. Cover them in chocolate (as seen above) and I'm more than happy to ruin my blood glucose for them. There is nothing wrong with the biscuits, per se, it all stems back to my childhood memories of them.

Hopefully you've read part one of this blog already. If not, just click/tap that link and catch up.

After feeding David hundreds of biscuits and probably tens of thousands of extra calories, hiding Hobnobs in school desks, school bins and my heavily policed home bin, you might think that enough was enough when it was time to start Secondary School. Wrong! A new term, a new school, new classmates, new biscuit hiding challenges! We go again! Raaaaaar!

Initially, I tried my old route of palming off my silver foiled packets of snacks to David. Things had changed. David was less keen to be given food. Perhaps he thought I considered him some kind of charity case, starving for my daily crumby offerings. In addition, the "big school" was exactly that and David wasn't always in my class and had made new friends. Dammit! It was time for a new plan.

The school bins were an option for me on some days. On others, I was a long way from any form of bin and had to take my Hobnobs home but not to deposit in the home bin. I'd already learned my lesson about dumping things there! In my wisdom I decided to hide these little packets under my bed. How very child-like! but, then I was only 11. If you're wondering how many Hobnobs will fit under a child's single bed then the answer is several hundred.

That worked well for a while until the day came for my mum to vacuum my room. Let's call this "H-Day".

I'd like to describe an almighty telling off, here. Something to big-up the drama of that moment. All bloggers use some artistic licence, right? That didn't happen. I was asked "Why?" and my response, blurted out without any real thought: "I don't like them any more".

I mean, it wasn't a lie! but it wasn't the whole truth, either. I didn't want to be the focus of attention, I didn't want to be different, I didn't want to be more different, I was already different. Even at 11, I thought that conversation wasn't something I and my parents were ready for. I didn't want to worry or upset them as much as I didn't want to confess my "weakness".

Finally, things changed. That was the last time I would handle Hobnobs, unwillingly ever again. I was sent to school with a juice box instead. That was perfect. The other kids would drink juice, cola, anything with lots of sugar during the morning, between the first and second lesson. I was fitting in!

The impacts of this time only became apparent as I got older. I lost countless hours in class and in education because of feeling hypo. For around 4 years (before things stopped) I was having a pretty bad hypo, two or three days per week in the hour before lunch at school. At one stage, I collapsed in school, during a PE lesson of Badminton. I had a huge seizure, bit my tongue and had to spend a week at home to recover. Even that incident didn't make me eat my snacks! By now, my friends were old enough and "safe" enough to know that I have diabetes. I still refused to tell them. The badminton incident was chalked down to me falling over and hitting my head, again, not a total lie! I certainly hit my head and fell over.

I decided to blog about this little period in my life because of Eating Disorders Awareness Week. I like to discuss my blog ideas with friends, in advance and we agreed that this might be more accurately described as Disordered Eating or even Disordered Diabetes! Let's go with the former, the latter might light some fires.

The stress, of varying intensities, at that time was frequent. Handling a new chronic illness diagnosis as a child is bad enough. How about a side-order of social anxiety and feeling terrible from hypoglycemia? 

I feel lucky. That period in my life could've easily escalated into something much worse. I did carry some of this behaviour into my teens and early adulthood but to a far less dangerous extent.

As an adult, I wonder how this might have been avoided. My conclusion is psychological support. Each person, regardless of age, should be offered support following news of a life changing diagnosis. If I could've normalised and processed the news of diabetes, I'm certain that this behaviour would not have happened. That may have resulted in an easier childhood and a different path as an adult. 

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!

BUY DIABETIC DAD A COFFEE HERE

Prefer PayPal?

BUY DIABETIC DAD A COFFEE THROUGH PAYPAL