LIVINGLIVING
week I visited a midwife who specialised in
diabetes. Every week I tried harder. In the
end I had an emergency C-section as the
babies were five weeks early."
Funky, funky, funky
Diabetes and pregnancy can be a
challenge, but so can the amount of time
one spends living with diabetes and doing
all the blood tests and injections that are
required to help gain good control. Dring
had developed bad lipos* on her tummy
due to injecting too frequently in the same
areas (sometimes called injection lumps).
So she took another look at diabetes
technology. "In October 2018 I took
the step of self-funding Dexcom CGM
sensors," she says, "It felt like I went from
being fully manual, doing blood tests all
the time, to being like a robot. Dexcom's
sensors just do all that for me with a lot
less fuss, while giving me even more
information to use. It has been absolutely
life changing, I wish I'd had those sooner
too. My partner, Greg, can track me on
his phone. He sometimes knows he has
to text me to say 'eat something' as I tend
to get busy with things and not notice if
I'm trending downwards, even though I
can see what my glucose levels are on
my smartwatch."
Dring had initially not wanted to go
onto an insulin pump but having taken
that first step into on-body diabetes
technology with CGM sensors, there was
no stopping her. In November 2018 she
started on a pump, having begun her job
at Funky Pumpers in February of that same
year. "I was finally persuaded because I
heard about the Omnipod, which has
no tubing," she states, "I haven't looked
back since - no more injections! I wish I'd
done that sooner too. I have been able to
address the dawn phenomenon that used
to make my sugars rise in the morning.
Overall my diabetes control is much more
stable now."
www.funkypumpers.com
You can buy the Desang
range of diabetes kitbags
from Funky Pumpers,
among many other
products, like best-selling
DiaWipes, plus Skin Tac (to help stick things on), Tac Away
(to get them off), as well as insulin pump bands, footcare
products and injection aids. There's a wide choice of
products to help keep your kit stuck on, from RockTape and
Rockadex stickers to Spiderman armbands.
*Lipohypertrophy is a lump under the skin caused by accumulation of extra fat at the site of
many subcutaneous injections of insulin. It may be unsightly, mildly painful, and may change
the timing or completeness of insulin action.
L-R: Mike O'Brien, Kevin Jones, Debbie Jones and Gill O'Brien.