Been thinking a bit about some things over the last couple of days. Three years ago this week I wound up being flown to an intensive care unit in Paisley. You can read about that here should you want to and haven't before but it rambles on. Since then I spent time not working as unfit to, time looking for work with a recent medical history you can't really hide and then a year working night shifts. Job was good, hours were awful and sleep was an issue.
Now back on days and meeting and talking to people again. Which is interesting but trying to explain in a short period of time while working how I am these days doesn't always make things clear. So an update 3 years on. I'll keep it short(ish).
I wrote the last post here in 2015. That was when I was still working out Diabetes and my health. Injecting wasn't fun but it kept me alive. The aim with insulin therapy as I see it is to keep your blood sugar from getting too high, but not letting it fall too low. During 2016 I collapsed twice while out walking due to episodes of Hypoglycemia which is basically it falling too low. So that went well. This was caused by a mismatch between how much insulin I took and what my body needed, as far as I can tell at least and from what medical professionals said. But the speed it seemed to drop was worrying as it shouldn't do that. What this meant was the Doctors advised me to stop driving until this didn't happen. I got my License back after just over a year last September. No severe hypo in that time meant it was approved. I didn't actually miss it much as I was able to walk to and from work usually. I still try to walk more than I drive now, as after a while off the roads you forget how stupid some people with licenses are. I'm not perfect but I know where my indicators and mirrors are.
The second hypo they kept me in hospital for tests overnight. Thankfully this was my last night in hospital to date. Sometimes hospital wards can be relaxing, but this was the Thursday of HebCelt 2016 as I remember so there were a few others coming in the assessment unit I was held in. Nothing too much and no details but less relaxing. Also I had scans, ECG tests and a contrast CT scan to check my brain. None of which are that pleasant. CT scan was very uncomfortable, not painful but you go through, then get injected with dye and stay absolutely still while you go through again so they can check any damage. They found a brain but no damage so a relief there.
But there was still the problems of the blackouts. As a note I felt them coming on. Tried to stop and take some sugar/other carbs to boost my blood glucose, managed this but then my foot went from under me and then you're waking up in an ambulance, having met a pavement or path face first in my case. Someone who saw me go down the second time said it appeared to be a seizure, hence brain scan but apparently it was just a hypo.
After this and some other heart checks (wearing a cardiac monitor for a weekend, they say you forget it's there. I didn't) it was suggested I went onto Pump therapy. What this means is instead of using insulin pens and injections you're connected to a pump running short acting Insulin constantly. I won't go into a lot of details of how either therapy works and the reasons why this is helpful are a bit complicated for me to explain, but it does make management of diabetes easier.
There is another option for getting Continual Glucose Monitors linked to the pump as well, for the full artificial pancreas effect. But that costs (as does the pump) and getting the pump itself from the NHS is one thing, but the costs of the equipment to use with it is an ongoing one. The NHS saved my life 3 years ago and now helps me to manage my illness in a simpler way without having to worry about the costs. Which are not insignificant for a pump, even just for cannula etc.
The other thing about a pump is you have to be accurate about your carb counting. Anything more than 5g carbs you have to account for. A teaspoon of sugar is about 4 g of carbs. If you go wrong you can hypo or your blood sugar can go through the roof and you can get quite dozy with it, and then ketones are a risk. That makes you focus on what you eat a lot more. And also makes for some mental arithmetic every mealtime, which probably helps keep the brain active.
There are other issue with how the pump works but I won't go into that much detail. Between the pump and the walking everywhere I lost more weight. Now well under 12 stone and actually around correct for my height. Upper end of that but still, better than any time since I was at school.
And that's where I am at the moment with my health. I hope to never have to speak of it in much detail again. It's there, but it's getting easier to manage with the pump. Diabetes can always bite back though, so I intend to never underestimate it.
