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KIT
job. I'd been unable to work properly,
feeling so ill all the time, so confused
and frightened. It really was quite an
unbelievable experience, I refer to it
as a Gothic Horror Story. I felt I was
losing myself twice over, losing not
only my health but my actual self too."
Juiced!
So, after having a dreadful time of it,
Aubin was able to take charge of her
life again. She was able to go back
to work again. "Once I was on the
right medication I could handle the
diabetes, in fact that whole horrible
experience taught me to not let it
rule me. The porcine insulin helped,
but I also had to take three longacting
insulin jabs during the day
- one of which had to be taken at
4am. At this point I thought, why did
I just see what going on an insulin
pump would be like. Surely it must be
easier that this. I'd ended up having
to take quite a good look around to
see where I could get one from. In the
end, I didn't get it from my existing
diabetes team. I was referred to a
neighbouring trust with a shorter
waiting list, where they were doing
groups of people doing pump starts,
not initiating them on a one-toone basis.
"This was back in 2009. Initially
I was on Roche's Accu-Chek Spirit
Combo and absolutely loved it. it's
not available anymore. I also tried
Abbott's FreeStyle Libre but now I'm
now on the Medtronic 780G with G4
sensor. I went on this system because
it is a pump plus CGM therefore
can be used as a hybrid closed loop
(HCL) system. Again, I was primarily
concerned to keep myself safe and
I'm pretty happy on this set up. If I
ever go a little low, I keep a 200ml
carton of apple juice with me at all
times. If I start to feel a bit of a hypo
buzz I'll have half a carton of juice and
maybe finish it if I think it's needed.
Sharing support
As part of that recovery from her
awful experience she wrote a book
on how to be an 'insulin champion',
as yet unpublished. It was a way to
deal with it and as a result, she says,
"I realised that good diabetes control
is partly about choosing the right
insulin and also the technology that's
right for you."
Having become part of the many
folk with Type 1 diabetes, and as a
result of her career as a qualified
psychologist, she now spends a fair
amount of time supporting other
people with diabetes as a trustee of
the charity IDDT, which has a website
with resources, a dedicated helpline
and an annual conference. Although
based in the Midlands, it's available to
anyone who needs support across the
UK and Ireland.
Aubin reflects, "I want to help
others struggling with their diabetes
but I also want to share good
information about how to cope.
Plus, I enjoy meeting others with
the condition to hear their tales and
share our experiences."
(website 1 TBC)
Old-fangled still works
We're forever writing about new
technologies in this magazine. Some of
them remove the need for you to input
any blood monitoring data by doing the
tracking themselves and feeding the
results into readers, apps, the cloud or
other software. Yet, for the less techie
types, nothing beats an old-fashioned
blood test diary.
Desang's diaries are £9 for a pack of
six. Each lasts one month (so a cost of
£1.50 per month). Use it to track foods
eaten, medicine, doses as well as results,
which can be traced on a graph. You can
flip the diary to see 'waves' of results on
the pages and spot trends of highs or
lows. The signal will never drop, and there's
no need to charge it!
Excusively available from Diabetes
UK's online shop.
THE DESANG DIABETES DIARY: sometimes only paper and pen will do.
www.diabetes.org.uk/shop/desangdiary