T1, battle-scarred but breathing!

[CatTails]

I’ve been on this forum before, just can’t figure out what my login details were! Anyway, Helloo!
Like a number of others on this forum, I’ve had T1 for a few decades, have the scarred injection sites to show for it but am grateful for the MASSES of new kit, devices and insights that have evolved over time. I was a kid at boarding school injecting myself with a glass and metal syringe in the 1980s and now I’m all grown-up and have a sensor in my arm, an insulin pump attached to my belly and a blue-tooth-connected phone app displaying a graph as my blood glucose zig-zags up and down! Although my HBA1C is the best it’s ever been, all this kit does make it feel like my diabetes is a 25-hours a day job!

 

[Inka]

Welcome back @CatTails Maybe @everydayupsanddowns or @Josh DUK can find your old details for you?

 

[SB2015]

Welcome back @CatTails

As you say the kit available now is so very different from what you were using at school!!! I remember my shock when someone brought in their stuff to the DAFNE course I was on. I am only 14 years in to this so started straight in the reusable pens.

Having all the tech with sensors and pumps doe make it possible for us to monitor things more closely and often improves people’s HbA1c, but with that comes the increased amount of time thinking about it all, with the attached pump and sensors reminding us of that. I drove myself potty with unrealistic expectation of myself and the tech, and it took me some time (and a lot of help) to put it back in a better perspective.

For 18 months I have been using a closed loop system, where my pump and (self-funded) sensor check in every 5 minutes and make any necessary adjustments to my basal rate with micro boluses (0.025 unit increments) or switches it off for a while. It took me a good while to trust it to do its job, but most of the time it gets on with it and I think far less about my diabetes, ignoring the pump until it gets sulky and wants some attention. My HbA1c hasn’t improved, but my life definitely has. I don’t have to think about my diabetes except at meal times, and unusual circumstances, when some temporary changes help the loop to do its job. The pump is still there but I notice it a lot less. This might be worth investigating, especially as it looks like the associated sensors could become funded.

 

[Josh DUK]

I’ve been on this forum before, just can’t figure out what my login details were! Anyway, Helloo!
Like a number of others on this forum, I’ve had T1 for a few decades, have the scarred injection sites to show for it but am grateful for the MASSES of new kit, devices and insights that have evolved over time. I was a kid at boarding school injecting myself with a glass and metal syringe in the 1980s and now I’m all grown-up and have a sensor in my arm, an insulin pump attached to my belly and a blue-tooth-connected phone app displaying a graph as my blood glucose zig-zags up and down! Although my HBA1C is the best it’s ever been, all this kit does make it feel like my diabetes is a 25-hours a day job!

Hello @CatTails ,

Do you remember your old account name? Also if you email support.forum@diabetes.org.uk we can search for by your email address.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome back @CatTails

Glad to hear you are finding the gadgets and gizmos effective!

But yes it can feel like a full time job some times can’t it.

 

[MikeyBikey]

I’ve been on this forum before, just can’t figure out what my login details were! Anyway, Helloo!
Like a number of others on this forum, I’ve had T1 for a few decades, have the scarred injection sites to show for it but am grateful for the MASSES of new kit, devices and insights that have evolved over time. I was a kid at boarding school injecting myself with a glass and metal syringe in the 1980s and now I’m all grown-up and have a sensor in my arm, an insulin pump attached to my belly and a blue-tooth-connected phone app displaying a graph as my blood glucose zig-zags up and down! Although my HBA1C is the best it’s ever been, all this kit does make it feel like my diabetes is a 25-hours a day job!

Hello and welcome back!

I used glass and metal syringes two decades earlier with my poor father (RIP) trying to get the needles super sharp. By the mid-seventies I was working and was buying disposable needles (they were a lot thicker and longer then). Then in the early eighties I was buying disposable syringes until they became available on prescription. I also brought a Glucochek BG meter for £200 and load of strips as the consultant thought 25 adequate fir six months. Prior to that or was urine tests that H&S would not allow these days!

My tech is limited to my Accu-Chek meter with a three year plus campaign to get a Libre. Recent changes hopefully mean it will not be to long now. Covid and television appointments haven't helped! I just plod on with Excel spreadsheets. The main problem is I have to use an old PC as there is an issue running Office 2016 on my Windows 11 laptop and Libre Calc does not hack it!