Was It The Cinnamon?!

 I've recently fallen into a YouTube "rabbit hole". Having watched someone survive on £1 for an entire day, the same chap then went on to describe his favourite "cheap" meals. One of those meals was a fried banana sandwich - made from bread which he baked himself. It looked pretty good and, because I'm not surviving on £1 per day, I added some sugar and cinnamon to my own fried banana sandwich. It was really good! The cinnamon really brought it to life and I've made the same sandwich several times, since.

Cinnamon! Ah, yes the frequently touted and often mocked cure for diabetes! Of course, it won't cure your diabetes and that's why it's often mocked but it does taste pretty good on various things. Strange, though, that after recently eating a lot more cinnamon (I really like a fried banana sandwich) I've finally been able to stop taking medication which I've been on for around 10 years.

I've had to take eye drops since developing retinopathy and various other eye nasties in 2010. The drops have changed, based on my changing condition, a couple of times. The latest batch began in 2014 and they were prescribed to control pressure and irritation. Very successful they were, too! After my 2014 surgery, I have been stable in the peepers. I thought that was down to a combination of better T1D management and my 2 x 2 eye drops per day. I might be right in regards to the T1D management but it seems that things have changed in the eyes dept.

Earlier this year, my eye surgeon suggested that I should stop taking the drops to "see if anything changes". I did that for around a week in the summer only to find my appointment had been rescheduled. Frustrating! But, during that week, I never noticed any real discomfort in my eye. Encouraged, I tried again before the latest appointment in the world's hottest clinic. 

If you've ever had ocular hypertension then you'll probably know the pain. Just like blood glucose levels, eyes have pressure levels that are given values. A normal value is in the teens, give or take a point or two. In 2014, my eye pressure was 44. I was immediately put on a drip to drop the pressure. I've suffered many pains in my life but eye pressure pain is by far the worst thing that I've ever felt. It lasted for 24 hours before I was able to get the drip into my hand and find relief. 24 hours of agony feels like a very long time, i wouldn't wish that pain on anybody. So, to be asked to stop the eye drops which help to control pressure was certainly a worry.

It's been over two weeks since I stopped the drops, 10 days since leaving the sauna ward, and all is stable in that eye. I don't know if I'll ever need to go back to the drops or if that's the end but I'm delighted. To just wake each day and do the T1D thing without reaching for two bottles and a tissue as well, to go to bed without fumbling around, late at night, for the same... it's less work! and it's less burden. This felt like life in 2009! only with better T1D management and no midlife crisis. 

Was it the cinnamon, though?!  

No. Let's not be silly. I've likely needed to stop the drops for a while. I have stability in both eyes and despite my visual impairment I consider myself to be very lucky and happy with my lot. Blessings counted.

To end this little blog post, I'd like to encourage you to always attend your eye screening appointments and any follow up appointments and to go for any treatments that you might need. I don't want any of you to go through the pain and darkness (physically and mentally) that I went through. If you do attend your appointments then you can reduce the chances of anything nasty happening to your eyes. Some of you will already be living with visual impairments and going through your own personal battles. Please don't ever give up on medical science, new treatments and new technologies. Ask about them, ask FOR them! and share your story without fear. There is no shame in having diabetes related eye complications.

Try the fried banana sandwich, too! :

- 2 slices of white bread, remove crusts

- 1 small sliced banana

- Some sugar (brown works best) and some ground cinnamon

Heat a tablespoon of butter in a pan, place the bread in the pan, add the banana to one slice while the bread browns and sprinkle your cinnamon and sugar on the banana. Flip the banana-less slice of bread on the top and flatten with a spatula. Turn a few times to brown evenly and sprinkle a little more sugar on each side.

You'll need insulin.  

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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The Cure

 

I should publish this blog post on a Friday because, you know?! Friday I'm In Love and all that. Fortunately, this post isn't about 80's bringers of cheer, The Cure. No, we're talking T1D cures because, like all good Diabetes bloggers, I'm a topical content whore.

You've probably noticed some of the chatter following the £50 million donation by The Steve Morgan Foundation jointly to DUK and JDRF (UK). If you missed it then it looked something like this:

Steve & family spoke about the donation on BBC Breakfast alongside charity reps and social media got giddy. Rightly so and, do you know what?! it was lovely to see some positive words and hope from the online community. Not that we're a moody bunch but, in general, we do usually have more to complain about than celebrate.

So, it's £50 mill over 5 years. "5 years" ? Sounds familiar but this time there is a firm sense of hope. I truly hope this is the tipping point, the seed, which sprouts a cure in the years to come. It is a hugely generous gesture and as a Diabetic who is nearing middle-age, I will be delighted for those with less miles on the clock than I, as well as the lifting of burden for myself, should the news break.

£50 million, eh?! You could nearly buy a footballer for that! It does beg the question, has a lump of filthy lucre been the issue since Day 1 of research beginning? I know that charities are always asking for funds but has one big hit been holding everything back? That would seem like a terrible shame for those who have lived with T1 for many years, those who are no longer with us because of the condition and those, like me, who have been touched by complication's frosty grip. Perhaps that's something for a later date. Until then, boffins get boffining! Bring us good news and if it takes 5 years then I'll get Steve Morgan's face tattooed on my back.

Speaking of tattoos! I'm screwed. You've seen the one on my arm, right? I show it off at every opportunity because I think it looks cool and I'm proud of overcoming my hiding of the condition and letting it dictate my life to me. Now it belongs to me, that's what the tattoo shows. And it's kinda useful if I'm unconscious and the medics spot it. What do I do with that? I'd probably add "Former" above it and "See back for details" whereupon you'd find Steve's face. Yes! I think that's a plan.

Back to curing. A cure is a subject which I've avoided for a long time. The trash in newspapers and on the Internet has left a sour taste in my mouth when it comes to that discussion, yet it's a valid subject. You might argue that it should be the primary subject until it's found as it would eliminate everything else we deal with in relation to T1D, complications from living with it aside. As I sit and smash my fingers into the keyboard for this blog, I find myself drifting off for a moment to imagine not having Type 1 Diabetes... it's weird! How do you freaky non-diabetics do it? Eating without bolusing? I mean... WTAF! I don't know if I could do that, man ;-)

I guess that now we wait. I'm closing in on 4 decades of waiting. Some of you far more, some of you very recently began marking time for a cure. I encourage all of you, no matter where you are on your T1 journey, to never give up hope on a cure. Until then, push for what you need! CGMs, pumps, insulin, appointments in the flesh, etc. Keep those HCPs busy because if a cure comes they're going to miss us.

As you might have seen, a conflict has broken out in Ukraine as Russia has invaded that country. The scenes on TV and on social media are horrifying. What can we do? Well, I don't think there is a wrong way to help if you donate to charities who are active in helping the people of Ukraine. I support many charities but one which has always had my heart is MSF. Medecins Sans Frontieres translates as Doctors Without Borders. When it comes to the health of others in disaster areas, war zones and the like then I think we all have a duty to do what we can to help and help those who directly help! such as MSF. With that in mind, all donations to me via Buy Me a Coffee and all the pennies generated through the ads dotted around my pages will be donated to MSF. I will make up the difference for the fees taken by PayPal and Buy Me a Coffee. That will run until further notice, no time frames and possibly until Ukraine is a free country again. Thank you for reading my blog. 

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