LIVINGLIVING
MY DIABETES KIT
DEBBIE GREEN
continued over
D
ebbie Green has
had Type 1 Diabetes
since she was a
little girl. Now in her
30s, she has a busy
time managing work, home and all
the normal things in life, which for her
includes trail running and fundraising for
diabetes awareness. Oh, and training to
be a GP.
Debbie Green was diagnosed with
Type 1 diabetes in 1993 when she was
the age of eight. No one in her family had
been diagnosed with diabetes before
or since. "I probably had six months of
symptoms," she says, looking back,
"Things like excessive drinking, and I mean
everything from Coke to orange juice, as
well as water, which I would drink straight
from the tap. At school I needed the toilet
all the time. I was nearly nine years old
but only weighed about three stone. Now
I know I had classic symptoms."
Green's GP finally diagnosed her. She
says, "Over those months I think I did
have a bit of a honeymoon period, where
there was some insulin being produced,
which is why it took a while to get the right
diagnosis."
She spent a week in hospital in
Stockport, near her home, being brought
under control and shown how to do blood
tests and injections. "I used an insulin
pen from the start, just two injections a
day," she recalls, "I remember having bad
night-time hypos from the beginning. At
one point we changed my type of insulin
and that did help. I did have hypos but
they were not as frequent. That carried on
for about a five-year period until I was 14.
Then I tried a new mix of insulin, which
improved matters a bit more. I was on that
combination from the ages of 14 to 18."
Then at the age of 18 Green went off
to university in Nottingham, but it was a
difficult year. "I went through a sudden
bout of teenage rebellion. I did take my
insulin religiously and ate appropriately,
but didn't do many blood tests. Then I
developed quite a severe kidney infection
coupled with DKA* and was admitted
to hospital. Looking back she says, "I'd
been away on holiday with friends and
became ill. When I got home I ended up
in hospital in Stockport near my home,
where I had initially been diagnosed. It
was 2003 and I was 19 years old. I know
now that I'd been living life on the edge a
little, not realising how dangerous it was.
My consultant suggested I should go on
an insulin pump. I had a pump trial but I
didn't like it; I didn't want to wear a pump
24/7, I don't suppose I was really ready to
engage at that level. However I did make
some serious changes to my behaviour.
I was introduced to using a basal/bolus
regime, started doing proper tests and
did a DAFNE course. That was excellent,
it helped me to understand how to adjust
my basal and bolus doses."
London calling
After going back and finishing her studies
in Nottingham, Green took up a job in
London in 2006 where she became a
patient at King's College Hospital. A few
years later in 2009 she progressed onto
an insulin pump at the age of 24.
At this point Green had left London
to study medicine at Bristol. She says, "I
knew I had to get even better control and
had to get over my ideas about wearing a
pump. "I was attending diabetes clinic at
the Bristol Royal infirmary. Initially I went
on a Roche's Accu-Chek Spirit Combo
pump. It has excellent remote control,
which meant you could hide the pump
in your clothing and control it with the
remote. It was very discreet. I used that
for five years. However, two years ago at
my last pump change, I decided to go on
to a Medtronic 640g pump because it has
fully integrated CGM. It really suits me. I
love being able to use its different features
as much or as little as I need. It is quick
and easy to use. I use the temporary basal
rates a lot. The fact that I can 'save' my
favourites with this pump is great. It feels
much more like a gadget than a medical
device to me."
As well as being easy to use, the
Medtronic pump with CGM is helping
to address Green's night-time hypos. "I
have always had night time hypos," she
says, "Even when I went on an insulin
pump. They did wake me up and I dealt
with them, then I would invariably wake
up high in the morning, tired and feeling
horrible. I used to describe it as spending
the day with jetlag. This pump is actually
preventing me from having hypos as it
has SmartGuard technology inside it.