LIVINGLIVING
MY DIABETES KIT
THE GRUMPY PUMPER
We can't tell you
his real name
as that would
be breaking
protocol, and
we'd hate to blow his cover. This is the
Grumpy Pumper, who has had Type
I diabetes since 1994 when he was
diagnosed at age 25.
Looking back he says, "I'm lucky I had
25 years without it, but I do remember
my diagnosis really well as it happened
on an August bank holiday in 1995. As
early as May of that year my brother-inlaw had said, 'have you lost weight?' I
didn't think much about it at the time. I've
always drunk a lot of tea, water and so
on, so that was not unusual. But I kept
losing weight. I was eating more in order
to try and put it back on. I felt tired all the
time and was eating things like Mars bars
drinking Lucozade for extra energy. I felt
terrible though. Back then there was no
internet, no Dr Google to refer to. The only
thing I had to look at was my mum's home
medical reference book, so I looked up
diabetes and thought, 'yup'."
Did he dash off to the doctors? "Being
a typical bloke, and being busy, I put off
going to the GP. But I'm 6'2" and was
losing a few pounds a day; by the time
I hit 10.5st I really was pretty skinny. One
day I scared myself by nearly nodding off
at the wheel. Realising I could really hurt
someone I took myself off to the doctors.
He did tests and told me to come back
in a week. I went home and then he rang
continued over
and said to come in tomorrow, which
was a Saturday. He told me, 'you have
diabetes'. There was no mention of what
type of diabetes, he phoned the hospital
and got me a bed. I picked up a bag from
home and went in. I thought I was never
going to be allowed chocolate again, so I
stopped off and bought a bar before I got
there. I came out the following Thursday
after they had stabilised me. I only realised
how ill I had been once I started to feel
better."
Grumpy left the hospital with basic kit
and information. He says, "I was given
disposable syringes and a needle clipping
device called Safe Clip. I had an old BD
meter, I can even remember that it was
optical -- you had to clean the lens. I think
it was called Refloflux; it took 15 seconds
to countdown. I was also given some
food information based on carbohydrate
exchanges, such as one digestive biscuit
was one carbohydrate exchange. I was
told to eat three times a day and to have
a snack in between meals."
Analyse this
Grumpy started a bit of basic analysis of
his blood test results. "At that point I was
only really logging my blood test results,
not really managing the control. I got by
eating as normal and testing. I used a
diary, at least I filled it in, but other than
that I didn't look at it much. I remember
my first hypo though. It took a while
before I had one, it was months after I'd
left the hospital. I was underneath the
kitchen worktop -- I was fitting it into the
house we'd just bought. I felt strange,
did a blood test, and I think I took some
dextrose tablets. I was prepared -- I had
some to hand even though I'd not had a
hypo yet. Again, I was rather glad once
I'd had it; now I knew what I was dealing
with."
How does he treat his hypos today?
"These days I use about half a bottle of
Lucozade. There's always a bottle in my
car or in my bag although when I'm at
home I'll eat whatever's to hand. I travel
a lot and I always test before I drive. I'm
often driving with my kids or with other
people in the car, so I want to take proper
care. Also, I can't work if I can't drive and
I don't want to lose my license, so I just
test before I set off then do another test
two hours later if it's a long journey."
Although he might go by the name
The Grumpy Pumper, in fact he's quite
sanguine about his diabetes "I'm still not
frightened by my diabetes nor am I angry
about it. It happened. I was 25, had a
job, and was about to get married; it was
survivable."
Today, Grumpy has a reputation
for being a bit of a curmudgeon when
blogging about diabetes. Put simply, he
just thinks things could be better and he
thinks that a lot of technology isn't as
good as it should be. For example, he's
tried CGM but does not think he needs to