New to forum

[Claire Godfrey]

Hello everyone, I hope everyone is well. I have joined so I talk to other T1D about how they are feeling about covid 19 threat to us because of T1D. Mostly I am a positive person, working mum and compete in many endurance events and triathlon. But when I read the latest research from NHS England this week I just cried and cried

 

[Bruce Stephens]

But when I read the latest research from NHS England this week I just cried and cried

Please don't be too frightened. We'll all still much more likely to die of something else. The average age of death from COVID-19 of people with Type 1 diabetes is apparently 72 [EDIT: that's in this study, so in hospital], so age is still a really big factor (as is sex and you win there too).

(There are various threads talking about this elsewhere which have different breakdowns of the figures. The underlying (as yet not peer-reviewed) publications are also available.)

 

[Jeff H]

Hello everyone, I hope everyone is well. I have joined so I talk to other T1D about how they are feeling about covid 19 threat to us because of T1D. Mostly I am a positive person, working mum and compete in many endurance events and triathlon. But when I read the latest research from NHS England this week I just cried and cried

Hi Claire Strange this I have just joined this forum and my circumstances mirror yours.I am T1 well controlled with no apparent complications.I am a long distance runner and have changed all my runs to avoid contact with people.As you say the NHS research is frightening but some good points have been raised on this forum and there is an obvious need to drill down into the stats.Lets pray for a vaccine.

 

[brisr949]

Hi claire and welcome to the forum.
Although the stats can be a little worrying i think someone of your age and you seem in excellent shape and very fit so i think as long as your using your common sense and still social distancing along with good hand hygiene then you should be ok.
Please try not to over worry, you've made it this far so just keep on doing what you have been.

Adam.

 

[Claire Godfrey]

Hi Claire Strange this I have just joined this forum and my circumstances mirror yours.I am T1 well controlled with no apparent complications.I am a long distance runner and have changed all my runs to avoid contact with people.As you say the NHS research is frightening but some good points have been raised on this forum and there is an obvious need to drill down into the stats.Lets pray for a vaccine.

I wish I was religious! I have kids that are 15 and 19 and when the time comes i want them to go out and go on with their lives but I am terrified that if I catch covid 19 i will die. So morbid and this isn't me at all.

 

[Claire Godfrey]

Hi claire and welcome to the forum.
Although the stats can be a little worrying i think someone of your age and you seem in excellent shape and very fit so i think as long as your using your common sense and still social distancing along with good hand hygiene then you should be ok.
Please try not to over worry, you've made it this far so just keep on doing what you have been.

Adam.

I am terrified! I do go out but no where near people. I am just interested in what others think how many people are like me and how many are just carrying on

 

[Docb]

Hi Clair. Have you actually read the research or just read about it?

I have had a look at the research papers and made some comments in the "In the News" section. Being T1 does increase the risk of a poor outcome from catching COVID, but and it is a very big but, the increased risk only gets significant if you are older, male, obese and have poor glucose control. As a lady athlete, and I assume neither obese or have poorly controlled blood glucose, my reading of the information says that your T1 status is not relevent to the chances of your dealing with the virus if you get it.

I am not a pro in these matters but I can read research papers and prefer to go to the horses mouth rather than take notice of journalists looking for a headline or politicians trying to show every thing is sombody elses fault.

Hope that helps.

 

[Robin]

I am terrified! I do go out but no where near people. I am just interested in what others think how many people are like me and how many are just carrying on

My feeling is, it might cause me extra problems if I caught it, like high BGs etc, but I’ve got to catch it first. So, I’m social distancing, washing my hands if I’ve been out, hand gelling when I come out of a shop, and hopefully won’t get it. I’m lucky in that I'm retired, so avoiding crowds of people is easy, but I've just gone back to horse riding now the stables are open again (private lessons, which is all that’s offered at the moment). Now, back in January I fell off a horse and broke some ribs, so I’m probably more at risk of injury than coronavirus.

 

[SB2015]

Welcome to the forum @Claire Godfrey . Glad that you have found us.

I too had a wobble with the published figures around the death of people with T1, but found the analysis from our ‘forum statisticians’ reassuring.

As others have said it is important to be sensible and apply the social distancing stringently. I just avoid busy places when choosing where to walk, and follow the same ideas as @Robin. We are washing hands on coming into the house, and choosing sensible times to shop. Like Robin I am retired so I realise that things are a lot easier for me than those at work.

It is still a lot more likely that we would experience more mild symptoms, but would need to be aware of the impact on our BG levels, and keep those in check following our sick day rules.

Take care

 

[Claire Godfrey]

My feeling is, it might cause me extra problems if I caught it, like high BGs etc, but I’ve got to catch it first. So, I’m social distancing, washing my hands if I’ve been out, hand gelling when I come out of a shop, and hopefully won’t get it. I’m lucky in that I'm retired, so avoiding crowds of people is easy, but I've just gone back to horse riding now the stables are open again (private lessons, which is all that’s offered at the moment). Now, back in January I fell off a horse and broke some ribs, so I’m probably more at risk of injury than coronavirus.

you made me chuckle not that falling off a horse is funny... But reminded me that I don,t think twice about cycling 40 miles an hour downhill on roads only wearing lycra, so actually far more likely to die that way than with covid 19 , I have to get a grip

 

[Claire Godfrey]

Hi Clair. Have you actually read the research or just read about it?

I have had a look at the research papers and made some comments in the "In the News" section. Being T1 does increase the risk of a poor outcome from catching COVID, but and it is a very big but, the increased risk only gets significant if you are older, male, obese and have poor glucose control. As a lady athlete, and I assume neither obese or have poorly controlled blood glucose, my reading of the information says that your T1 status is not relevent to the chances of your dealing with the virus if you get it.

I am not a pro in these matters but I can read research papers and prefer to go to the horses mouth rather than take notice of journalists looking for a headline or politicians trying to show every thing is sombody elses fault.

Hope that helps.

Hi yes I have read now and yes feeling better already. thank you

 

[stephknits]

I found listening to Partha Kar's latest podcast on his 'sweet talking' series very useful and reassuring.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Ah I’m so sorry to hear you‘ve been hit so hard by those reports @Claire Godfrey - I think the way the story was published and reported was very unfortunate.

Certainly the fact that the risk to T1s below the age of 40 is very low was not reported clearly enough in my opinion, and the headline risk of 3.5x was given far too much emphasis as if it applied universally

 

[Amity Island]

Hello everyone, I hope everyone is well. I have joined so I talk to other T1D about how they are feeling about covid 19 threat to us because of T1D. Mostly I am a positive person, working mum and compete in many endurance events and triathlon. But when I read the latest research from NHS England this week I just cried and cried

My feeling is, it might cause me extra problems if I caught it, like high BGs etc, but I’ve got to catch it first. So, I’m social distancing, washing my hands if I’ve been out, hand gelling when I come out of a shop, and hopefully won’t get it. I’m lucky in that I'm retired, so avoiding crowds of people is easy, but I've just gone back to horse riding now the stables are open again (private lessons, which is all that’s offered at the moment). Now, back in January I fell off a horse and broke some ribs, so I’m probably more at risk of injury than coronavirus.

Hi Robin,

How would anyone know if they have already had it? or if they currently have it?

Chris Witty (chief medical officer) said "a significant proportion have no symptoms at all, that 80% have only mild to moderate symptoms".

It seems the media have done such an amazing job of scaring the life out of people in the first couple months of lockdown, that now the government want people to go back to work and to school, nobody wants to go back!

 

[Claire Godfrey]

I found listening to Partha Kar's latest podcast on his 'sweet talking' series very useful and reassuring.

Thank you I will give that a listen

 

[SB2015]

I have just listened to a few of Parthia Kar’s podcasts.
Thanks for flagging these up @stephknits

 

[stephknits]

I have just listened to a few of Parthia Kar’s podcasts.
Thanks for flagging these up @stephknits

It was Amanda @AJLang who first recommended him, so thanks Amanda