24KIT
You have to
acknowledge the
relentlessness of
living with Type 1,
but then you
can't overthink
it, as that doesn't
help either. CGM
does help….
my diabetes kit
James Clarke
James Clarke was diagnosed
in 1991 when he was 25,
living in a flat with friends in
Tunbridge Wells. At the time,
he had two jobs, by day he was a van
driver delivering lost luggage from
Heathrow and at night he was a hotel
porter. "I was not sleeping a lot," he
says, "and I wonder now if it could
have been a trigger."
He had the main signs of Type 1
diabetes, but he did not know what
they indicated. He remembers, "I
was thirsty all the time, I was losing
weight then my eyesight started
to go downhill, and I was having to
stop all the time to go to the toilet.
A friend at the time was a trainee
doctor and said I needed to get to
see a GP - and soon. As it happens,
it did take me a few days, a week or
so, until I got there. They did my first
blood test - and the results were
through the roof. I think now that he
really should have sent me directly
to hospital. I stayed at my mother's
that night, feeling very unwell until
I literally could not move and could
not get out of bed. I shouted to my
mum and she called an ambulance.
By the time I got to hospital I was
only semi-conscious. I honestly
thought I was dying. In the end I
was hospitalised for a total of nine
days. I had known something was
wrong, but I ignored it and tried to
push through.
"When in hospital I vividly
remember being given an orange
to practise injecting on, but I don't
remember anyone actually properly
explaining Type 1 diabetes to me.
When I left hospital, they just said,
'see you in six months' which seemed
a long time to wait for a follow
up. I think the only way I survived
the diagnosis at the time was by
just getting on with life. I did my
injections but generally lived in denial
of my condition"
Changing Times
Many years since his diagnosis Clarke
has shared that he has had some
counselling where he was advised
that he needed to deal with the loss
of his 'healthy self' back then, even
to grieve its loss. Although he had
been given a blood test meter when
in hospital, he didn't use it that
much. From 2003 to 2009 he worked
for The Times based in an office in
London initially as a photo editor,
later a professional photographer. He
recalls that he let himself 'run a bit
high' because he did not want to have
a hypo in front of his colleagues. He
says, "I'd do injections in the toilets
as I didn't want to have to explain it
all the time."
Clarke did a DAFNE (Dose
Adjusting for Normal Eating) course
in 2010, more than 20 years after
being diagnosed. It was only then
that he finally started to understand
the difference between Type 1
and Type 2 diabetes. He recalls, "It
changed my life. Previously, I used
to just inject then eat the same
time and amounts each day - I just
survived and I was also quite angry
about the diagnosis. I chanced to
meet a diabetes specialist when I
was on holiday - he was astonished
that I did not carb count and
highly recommended it. On the
one hand, doing DAFNE felt like