60 Years with Type 1 and still happy

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adamrit said:
I’ve had Type 1 for 66 years now, and the situation is different. Now I’m 82 and age is affecting me much more. My wife now does all the digging on the allotments . I get too dizzy and am not as strong.

I had a stroke a year ago which meant a year of frequent bouts of total fatigue. My speech is getting much better and my handwriting is not good but very readable. I joined the choir again (next concert, Bach’s St Johns Passion!), only occasional Irish Set Dancing, I’m making furniture to commission again. I haven’t had Covid.

I had a bit of a breakdown over Christmas, when my BG wouldn’t come down for about four hours in spite of over-dosing on insulin. We were watching “Some Like It Hot” for the tenth time, when the eight units of soluble insulin finally hit and my blood sugar went to about 2.5 Just as we were about to eat a very light dinner of salad and leftover veg. I felt paralysed and ate as fast as I could but I couldn’t stop and refuse the food on the table and demand glucose and sweet things. Diabetes sometimes stops you doing what you know you ought to do, though nothing like this for the last thirty years.

I’ve been taking care of my diabetes for 66 years and I suddenly couldn’t cope. Very slowly my BG went back to 5.0 but I was still filled with appalling despair at not being able to cope, and gradually less likely to be able to cope. As I said, it is what happens when you get old.

I am not due to get a Medtronic G780 replacement for my G640 for another year. That would have automatically evened out my insulin/BG response. It was frightenin, mainly because all diabetics have to keep this bloody blue balloon off the floor all the time, all of our lives And for a while I lost the resilience. It was the first total bout of despair in my life, which means I am unbelievably lucky not to feel it more often.

The experience will prepare me better and next time I will be more able and ready to cope. My wife and I love each other to bits, we grow lots of veg, fruit and flowers on our allotments, we sing every week and we dance as often as we can. Diabetes has got nothing to defeat that combination.

If you’ve got diabetes, just build as many defences against despair as you can. Love is sometimes difficult to find, but keep growing things, join a choir and go dancing. Things will be better
Adam
Type 1 since 1956 on GMedtronic 640 with CGM (thank God for NHS) Hba1C about 7.8. Height 6’ 12stone (183cms 78 kg). Quite irregular carb/insulin response, different every day. No hypoglycaemia awareness. Very varying high and low blood pressures (70/43 to 165/85.
Sorry for such a long piece
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Sorry to read that you have had such a wobble over the festive period Adam.

I think a lot of us can relate to those pesky stubborn hypos, and your behaviour when so low sounds like a perfectly normal response when you have ‘hypo brain’.

You clearly do live with your diabetes and keep the balloon in the air most of the time (nice analogy), so well done. You clearly have such a positive approach to things most of the time and we are all allowed a melt down Now and then. You have done so well to get this far without one before. It is great to read of your getting back to choir, and looking forward to the St John’s Passion.

You are an inspiration. Thank you for sharing your experience.
 
An inspirational post Adam, congratulations on getting your well deserved medal!!
 
Thank you so much for this uplifting post Adam As a newly diagnosed T1 this is very inspiring to hear. congrats on your medal!!
 
You get less active as you get older. That’s life. Allotting, singing, loving and living are a great help. I’ve been panic stricken for a month because my Medtronic 640G pump with Type 3 CGM sensor are out of warranty at the end of October. I have hated the 3 sensor because of inconsistency and inaccuracy. I decided to switch to Dexcom G6 and T-Slim, but think the T-Slim too fiddly and requiring too much button pushing so in the end went back to choosing Medtronic 780G and 4 sensor, which is supposed to be more accurate. Weeks and weeks still to wait for NHS funding approval. I was prescribed Dapagliflozin, good for the kidneys, which made me drink more water, and improved all my BG results substantially, but it made me dizzy and faint so I had to stop. Not faint and dizzy any more but BG much more irregular. My 30 day average BG is 8 and time in range (3.9-10.00) 96%, so still alive, because I take correction boluses or lower basal as needed. If the 780G pump and 4 CGM sensor work along with 7 day infusion set, I’ll be even happier.
Many thanks to the forum community for warmth and friendly encouragement.
Adam
 
Thanks for the update @adamrit and welcome back!

We have a few who find the MM780G works really really well for them, including @SB2015

I hope you find that too.

Let us know how the switch goes 🙂
 
trophywench said:
Gives me hope - a comparative baby at 44 years clocked up LOL - currently hoping to be upright enough to clock up and pass the 50 yrs milestone!
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rebrascora said:
Really sorry to hear that you had a nasty hypo experience over the Festive Season which knocked your confidence, but the above quote from your post is so true with diabetes. You learn from these bad experiences and next time you are better prepared, so don't lose faith in your ability to handle this. It was one occasion out of 66 years which is really remarkable and you are an absolute inspiration. Thank you so much for posting both your opening post in this thread which I hadn't seen until today and then this update which really just shows that we all have bad days/spells, even after 66yrs of experience. What is important is that you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep singing and dancing and loving life. Good on you! I feel really uplifted by your posts, so thank you for sharing them with us and good luck working your way back to a full recovery from your stroke.
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adamrit said:
You get less active as you get older. That’s life. Allotting, singing, loving and living are a great help. I’ve been panic stricken for a month because my Medtronic 640G pump with Type 3 CGM sensor are out of warranty at the end of October. I have hated the 3 sensor because of inconsistency and inaccuracy. I decided to switch to Dexcom G6 and T-Slim, but think the T-Slim too fiddly and requiring too much button pushing so in the end went back to choosing Medtronic 780G and 4 sensor, which is supposed to be more accurate. Weeks and weeks still to wait for NHS funding approval. I was prescribed Dapagliflozin, good for the kidneys, which made me drink more water, and improved all my BG results substantially, but it made me dizzy and faint so I had to stop. Not faint and dizzy any more but BG much more irregular. My 30 day average BG is 8 and time in range (3.9-10.00) 96%, so still alive, because I take correction boluses or lower basal as needed. If the 780G pump and 4 CGM sensor work along with 7 day infusion set, I’ll be even happier.
Many thanks to the forum community for warmth and friendly encouragement.
Adam
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I hope that you find the 780 works well for you. the Guardian 4 sensors seem to be pretty good and really do require just one callibration a week!!!
Any questions fire away.
 
Trophywench,
Thank you for all the help and info and encouragement you give to all of us. It really makes a difference. I spent an hour on the phone yesterday with Medtronic help going mad with being transferred incorrectly four times to different people about replacements for three faulty Quicksets which never arrived. Being asked for Name, Address, Date of Birth, Dispensing Hospital, Email and Phone number each time. And no result in the end! Made me wonder whether I wanted to stay with Medtronic. I decided to in the end because rather the beast you know than the beast you don't know. I hope it's true.
Adam
 
Forced to start Medtronic 780 with type4 sensors suddenly before full training because my type 3 sensors ran out at Christmas after several malfunctioned and I have no hypo awareness at all. The 780 user guide is written by either a very defensive lawyer or a computer nerd, but the 780 and sensor work beautifully. All those years of having to BG test every time I checked the type 3 sensor reading and mostly finding the sensor reading wrong.
So badger your hospital or clinic to get you one of the hybrid closed systems, and the constant twenty four anxiety floats away. I really doubted that the 780 and Type 4 CGM would make such a difference but it has.67 years of Type 1 diabetes and life suddenly seems easier and calmer.
Adam
 
I've been using the 780g and 4 for a couple of weeks and it has been completely life-changing for the better. The essential thing is to let it get on with it and stop interfering. Extraordinary to have made tens of thousands of corrections with extra insulin or mars bars to counteract hypers and hypos and suddenly it all stops and the 780 either gives its own corrections every few minutes or stops delivery. Unbelievable difference. I'm 87% in range and not having to eat mars bars or make corrections. It is life changing.
I'm a brittle diabetic, meaning carbs and exercise have a different effect every single day and you are given no way to know whether you will go hypo or hyper. The 780g takes care of it perfectly. If you are 5.5 and go for a walk, it may stop delivery to avoid hypo, but it can't stop the hypo when you are burning carbs. I just had 10-15gms of carb and everything calmed down.
The main thing is to unlearn all your old survival techniques and let the 780g get on with it. I cannot advocate it enough. I've had 67 years of coping with diabetes day and night and all that anxiety and constant careful calculation has gone. If you have a chance of getting one, get demanding/pleading, whatever you need to do, go for it. I didn't know how much pressure I've been under all these years, and it's gone.
Adam
 
adamrit said:
I got my Lawrence Medal from Diabetes UK today for surviving Type 1 for 60 years. I've still got all my bits and minimal retinopathy. I've used a Medtronic pump and sensors for the last few years, which have made life simpler if not simple. Just remember if you are a new Type 1, diabetes is different for every person, we each have a slightly different variation of the disease, so you need to learn the characteristics of your own variation. To keep your sight, limbs, kidneys and a full life, you have to take fairly continuous care of your diabetes. When I started in 1956, I injected with a glass syringe which had to be boiled before every injection and with a fat painful needle. There was no blood glucose testing, just urine sugar testing with a test tube and a tablet dropped in it. This told you your urine sugar levels from maybe two or three hours ago.
Whatever else, don't ignore it. Keep busy and active, eat good food and do positive things that occupy your mind and body.

For many years I used to deal with all my daily hypos by eating Mars bars, before we were told that this wasn't best practice, so now I've got quite severely blocked arteries, but now my wife and I grow most of our own vegetables and fruit on our allotment. We are in two choirs and go Irish Set Dancing every week. It is a recipe for long life and happiness. You have to concentrate, but it's worth it.
Nothing like as much money is spent on Type 1 research as on Type2 research because there are so many more Type 2s than Type 1s, but the pumps are slowly getting better, the meters are getting better and the likely new research on getting your own stem cells to manufacture insulin producing cells, so you can produce your own insulin without taking immuno-suppressing drugs, is looking increasingly possible. With luck and funding, Diabetes UK can soon stop giving out 60 year medals because we'll be cured of diabetes and no longer have to have diabetes for so long. Good luck to everyone
Adam
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Thanks for your post. I was only diagnosed last week so it means a lot
 
So pleased you are getting on really well with the Medtronic 780 and G4 sensors in a closed loop. Sounds like a really positive step forward for you. I hope it continues to work well.
 
Hi again Adam, now 52 years and still 'only' 73 until April. Still have a while to go yet with my ruddy old technology (these days) Roche Combo pump but I have already formally registered my desire for HCL, asap, please, with my hospital diabetes clinic. I could have had Medtronic - a 640 whilst the 780 was already available elsewhere - whenever I had my current pump but at that time No Way Jose were they going to let me have any sort of CGM, though I did subsequently get a Libre1 - but only because I deliberately requested that - and it was notoriously unreliable - the Libre 2 is lately more often nearer to BG though it wasn't at first - but this pump only 'talks to' its 'matching' Roche Accu-Chek meter so if I want it to calculate either bolus or correction doses - I always have to do a fingerprick test anyway, however accurate the Libre happens to decide to be. So - the Libre is a bit of a sodding nuisance really other than for 'trends' or a quick check to see if 'it's still going up/down' as I want it to, or 'lovely flat line smack in the middle '5-ish' region for ages', so that's good.

I'd just love to give my brain a bit of a rest!
 
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