24KIT my diabetes kit
ANNE AUBIN
Anne Aubin was in her
early 40s and feeling
increasingly tired. She
says, "I thought this was
possibly down to stress, as I had a
very busy job as a child psychologist,
but I also kept getting repeat urinary
tract infections (UTIs). At the time,
I was investigating a job in Australia
and while I was out there I felt really
unwell. I also had a strange taste of
metal in my mouth.
When I got home I'd gone to
the GP and asked the nurse to do a
urine 'dip stick' test. It showed that
I had ketones. I then had to make
an appointment to see the GP, who
thought I might have Type 2 diabetes.
Coincidentally, I had a separate
appointment with a urologist about
the repeat UTI's, but also it didn't
click what the problem was, that
these two things were linked.
I was initiated onto some tablets
to deal with the high glucose and
I had my first hypo when on these
tablets. Soon after, I was put on
insulin and then things actually got
worse. It was decided that I did have
Type 1 diabetes after all, but I was
having all sorts of symptoms but
not necessarily the classic ones for
Type 1.
First ,I became quite obsessive
about checking my blood glucose
all the time, as I just didn't feel safe.
I also had a sort of 'brain fog', but it
was so bad that I actually stopped
recognising people and also couldn't
read numbers. In addition, I had
absolutely no appetite, no taste for
food at all, which was not like me. I
spent 18 months on one particular
insulin and tried five different
regimes, in terms of dosing testing
and eating, but I was so ill I honestly
thought I was dying."
Not right
It wasn't only Aubin herself who
thought there was something
really not right. She had worked
closely with an occupational health
team as part of her work. She says,
"I'd worked with them quite a lot
over a period of time, they were
really helpful. They knew me from
before my diagnosis and initiation
onto insulin. They cared, were
professionals and could see that
something was wrong, how different
I was.
"Bear in mind this was shortly
after the newer human insulins
were introduced, replacing the older
animal insulins. A friend read an
article in the magazine Pulse, which
is specifically for GPs, which she
passed on to me. The writer alerted
doctors that not everyone tolerated
the new insulins, to watch out for
bad reactions. Then I contacted my
DSN and asked if I could change my
insulin to try one of the animal ones.
She said fine and asked, did I fancy
bovine or porcine? Then she said, 'my
surname is Hogg, so let's do pork!'.
"I moved on to the porcine
insulin. After a few days I started to
feel better. Interestingly, the first
thing I got back was my appetite. In
total, I'd say it took the best part of
a year for me to fully recover and
feel that I was back to myself again.
However, by this stage I'd lost my