LIVINGLIVING
D
avid Andrews took
retired from teaching
10 years ago, then
rather unexpectedly
ended up with a
second career that still keeps him busy,
restoring violins. His website can be
found at www.violinman.com, a cottage
industry that he operates from his home
in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
Andrews has Type 2 diabetes treated
with insulin, but his journey to reaching
this point in his diabetes care has taken
several decades. Part of that journey has
included treatment for prostate cancer
two years ago.
It was while he was at the University
of Reading when he was in his late teens
and early 20s that Andrews needed to
take antihistamines for his hayfever. He
looks back and says, "I had some blood
test done at the time which picked up on
my having slightly raised blood glucose
levels, but just under the threshold for
a diagnosis of diabetes. There was no
diabetes in the family so it was a little bit
unexpected."
For the next 10 years he ended up
teaching music at a local school then,
when he was in his early 30s, he moved
up to Harrogate with his wife, whom he'd
married when they were both just 20. "I
moved up to Harrogate to teach in a post
that I intended to do for around 10 years,
but we ended up staying 30 years, until
we both retired. We have a son and two
daughters who live here, along with a host
of grandchildren, which keep us here."
To the max
Several years ago I went for a checkup
with my GP, who discovered that I had
high blood pressure. At that point I also
had another routine blood test and again
it was noted that my blood glucose levels
were slightly raised. I was told to eat
sensibly and given advice on what they
called a 'diabetic diet'. That worked for a
while, then it was decided that I needed
to start taking medication and went on
to Metformin and Gliclizide then, a few
years later, I was moved on to twicedaily insulin injections. I have been taking
those for the last three years but now my
HbA1c seems to be creeping up again.
One factor has been a course of hormone
injections I had to take to combat the
prostate cancer, which in turn raised
my blood glucose levels. It meant I had
to increase the insulin doses until I was
taking a daily total of 100 units of Novamix
3 using a prefilled Flexpen. That was a
problem both because insulin leads you
to lay down fat, but also the hormone
treatment made me tired, so it was hard
to get motivated to do exercise. I did have
fabulous support from the local Macmillan
nurses, who were a great help."
Andrews has always been treated by
the diabetes lead at his local GP, apart
from when he first went on medication
at the age of 55 when he was under the
continued over
MY DIABETES KIT
DAVID ANDREWS