A night out with a lot of Pricks

pricks playNo I’m not referring to the wonderful set of friends within our local Hampshire/Dorset Sugarbuddies support group, but to the performance of Jade Byrne’s show Pricks. The Play.

“I’ve had over 70,000 pricks… of the medical kind. This is my chance to set the record straight about type 1 diabetics like me. Despite what people say, I’m not bankrupting the NHS. And I can eat a cake – a whole bloody cake – if I want to.”

I’d seen it before, at TAD2019, along with my daughter Amy. We both enjoyed it and thought we’d go and see it again when it toured nearby. That was last night in Bournemouth, but typically the rest of my family were away, so I jumped at the chance to go with the Sugarbuddies support group I helped set up many years ago. I’ve been neglectful of Sugarbuddies for the last year, related to the lack of involvement I have in general Type 1 care for Amy, she does it all herself.

Even before the show it was a good night out, with a long chatty car journey with people I knew and people I didn’t, and more to follow in the bar before the show.

Wearing my ‘Deliberately Non-Compliant / WeAreNotWaiting’ t-shirt – which only comes out for diabetes events – I was spotted by a lady who saw me present at the JDRF Discovery Day in Southampton in March, and it was nice to hear how positive she found that event.

On to the show, which even watching for the second time, I thoroughly enjoyed. There were laughs a lot of the time, some gasps and an awful lot of nodding in agreement. The partially renovated Shelley Theatre must have been slightly dusty – ahem, not really – because at some points my throat felt tight and I could see others’ eyes were affected, coinciding with some of the sadder parts of the play and its tales of either Jade’s or others’ experiences.

Most of the audience had a connection to diabetes in some form, such as the guy sat next to me. “Do you know much about Type 1 Diabetes?” I asked. “I’ve had it twenty years” came the reply, before we had a nice chat about Sugarbuddies and what we’re trying to do with it.

insulinjunkieFor those who had no connection to Type 1, and for those who do, Jade held a Q&A session (luckily in the bar) after the event. What a great idea I thought, and it showed as people asked her questions and looked at some of the merchandise she had for sale. I stupidly sent Amy a picture of the Insulin Junkie sweatshirt to see if she’d like one, she did, I bought it – I should really keep away from Messenger, it would save me some money.

Although, this year’s tour dates are almost at a close I’d thoroughly recommend keeping an eye out for future performances.

#DUKPCInsider conference: hopefully the first of many

Yesterday I attended the first ever Diabetes UK Professional Conference (DUKPC) Insider conference, a spin off from this year’s annual 3 day professional conference which is open to only healthcare professionals (HCPs). The Insider was specifically for people with diabetes (PWDs) to attend.

TL;DR
Diabetes UK held an event for people with diabetes (PWDs) to hear some of the presentations held at their 3-day professional conference.
It was great.
I hope it’s the first of many

A bit of backstory

A few years ago no PWDs really attended the DUKPC, then Diabetes UK had the foresight to invite some lucky PWDs/carers who tweeted and blogged lots of information from the conference. This was great, there was such an appetite for the information.
For the following few years 5 PWDs/carers attended the DUKPC as winners of a bloggers competition and they all did a brilliant job of getting information out to us PWDs and carers.
This year, typically the year I was going to enter the bloggers competition for the first time, Diabetes UK decided to hold the Insider event, with the aim of effectively allowing 250 – not 5 – people to attend.
It was a good decision Diabetes UK, bravo.

Even the weather couldn’t stop us

180317, Kev explaining OpenAPS on the trainWith forecasts of a mini-blizzard hitting London I did wonder whether that one snowflake would mean all roads would be closed towards London, but I set off at an eye-blearing-6am, picking up my friend Anna on the way.
Once in London it wasn’t long before the inevitable PWDs-on-the-same-train happened, with Steph capturing me explaining Amy’s #OpenAPS to Anna.

Even the weather didn’t make us Grumpy…well maybe one

I couldn’t miss out the fact the DUKPCInsider gave me the chance to meet Chris, aka GrumpyPumper, for the fist time. I’ve known Chris for around 6 years now and somehow we’ve never found ourselves at the same event, which is remarkable as between us we’ve probably got them all covered.
It was a pleasure to finally meet the man who cheers up twitter when it’s down.

Wow, what a programme

The programme for the event was great and I was particularly pleased to see the calibre of presenters. Us Insiders heard from some of the most brilliant Doctors and Professors, the people at the top of their field.
The opening plenary from Professor Hattersley was outstanding, telling us all about the many types of Diabetes, told to us in a way that could be understood by the likes of me with my one O-level grade C in Art.
I’m not going to go through all the speakers sessions but each and every one was excellent and I felt privileged to be able to listen to them.

I can’t not talk about the tech though

180317, Pratik shout out to WeAreNotWaitingIt’s always a pleasure to listen to Dr Pratik Choudary speak, I love that he understands that achieving 100% time-in-range is an impossible dream for most, that 80% would be fantastic and that even his working pancreas doesn’t stay in range. I love that Pratik let’s his patients know about tricks he reads from PWDs tweets on Twitter.
I found myself nodding along in agreement with all his slides but couldn’t contain my happiness to see the slide on the right.
Later it went one stage further when in Dr Helen Murphy’s session about artificial pancreases she spoke about what the patients are doing and spoke about #WeAreNotWaiting and #OpenAPS again.
It so lovely to hear how much respect clinicians have for patient-led things. Bravo.
After Helen’s talk I went over to thank her and I was bowled over by everything she had to say about #OpenAPS’s closed-loop AP.
In the panel at the end #OpenAPS got another nod, this time from everyone’s favourite doctor on Twitter, Dr Partha Kar, when asked about the future for diabetes.
Three times in one event, I was honestly so surprised, and pleased.

A plea to Diabetes UK

Please, please run this event again.
With the conference being in Liverpool it will give the opportunity for many different people to be able to attend.

A final thank you

To Robin, for your talk about stigma and language, and inevitably one about Park Run which I thoroughly enjoyed. But thank you mainly for your tireless efforts to help bring events like this to fruition.

And finally

Having spoken with Chris Askew, Diabetes UK’s CEO, at the event I know Diabetes UK have ideas on how to further expand knowledge sharing. I’m really pleased to hear they’re looking at this.
I do think there’s scope for having a bloggers competition and the Insider event together and I hope they consider this for next year.

Standing on her own two feet (at DPC2017)

Amy DPC1
As a parent you sometimes get a wake-up call that your job is done, that your child no longer needs your assistance in one area of their life. Be it walking to school, going to the cinema or shopping, catching the bus or train, or managing their Type 1 diabetes.

I’ve never been a fan of the they-need-to-deal-with-this-themselves-now-they’re-XX-years-old school of diabetes management, after all Amy’s got enough years of having to deal with Type 1 by herself ahead. We’ve always been a team, starting from when us parents did most of her care post diagnosis, to now where we do very little with her day to day management. There’s days when we never ask if she’s done a BG check, or how her levels have been, because we know she will have done them as she sees fit, and we know she will have changed her insulin pump set when needed. Now that she’s riding a moped the importance of BG management has been raised higher, and knowing the rules of checking/driving/hypos she manages this well too.

Disclaimer

Before reading on can I just apologise if this appears to be a bragging post, it is, I can’t help it. Sorry…not sorry.

DPC2017 – the Diabetes Professional Conference

Thursday 16th November marked another moment of realisation. Amy, aged 16, stood in front of a room full of health care professionals (HCPs) at Olympia as part of the Diabetes Professional Conference 2017 (DPC2017). She told them why she loved her insulin pump, how it had changed her life, how it had given her more time in the day, and most importantly how it helped her cope with life with Type 1 and a fear of needles. She stood there proudly showing her pump.

Amy DPC2She’d done similar stuff before, she’d spoken in front of 200 HCPs twice before but then the answers she gave were very short. She’d presented Nightscout and WeAreNotWaiting alongside me to Directors at JDRF and Diabetes UK, and to the team at Oxford. DPC2017 was different, as she stood there – alongside my friend Philippa and Dr Hussain – she answered Dr Hussain’s questions, elaborating on them with anecdotes and telling stories about school life, German exchange trips and the difference between two holidays in India, one on MDI, the next one using an insulin pump.

During ‘Any Questions?’ one HCP asked Amy about CGM and Nightscout – as that information was on the slide being shown – asking her how it helped. For me this was the epiphany, it was unscripted but Amy answered well, going into detail about how we used Nightscout to help with her GCSEs and how she felt it was a safety blanket to support her own management.

Thinking back to diagnosis I can’t imagine we’d ever have thought she’d be where she is now.

DISCLOSURE
No payment other than travel expenses was received.
Amy did receive a mahoosive feeling of satisfaction though.

Global Diabetes Day 2017 and Blogaversary 5

Okay, I know, it’s really World Diabetes Day but for reasons which will become clear later I’m calling it Global Diabetes Day this year.

It’s been in some ways a busy year, in some ways a quiet year, since 2016’s World Diabetes Day blog.

bannersIt started with Amy and me presenting Nightscout, WeAreNotWaiting and DIY artificial pancreases to the team at Oxford in January and ends (almost) with Amy presenting with Dr Sufyan Hussain at the Diabetes Professional Conference 17 at Olympia this coming Thursday and me lecturing at South Bank university a few days later. I’ve been really pleased to meet so many teams and HCPs who want to know more about what patients are doing and one day, who knows, I might actually feel comfortable presenting. Nightscout UK had a great weekend at the Children With Diabetes Friends for Life conference in October where we used for the first time the roller banners I created. October saw Amy and I attend the QiC Diabetes Awards which I helped judge this year, walking away with a Winners trophy for T1 Resources and collecting the People’s Award trophy for my friend Sarah Davies who works tirelessly supporting families and adults who are using Nightscout.

Enough about us, and back to Global Diabetes Day.

On Saturday I went to the premiere of the #T1DGlobal17 video, a day for people with diabetes and carers, organised by Gavin Griffiths, who had been sponsored by Sanofi Diabetes to visit lots of different places around the world, chatting to T1 groups and doing some exercise classes and events with them. Saturday saw the premiere showing of the film of that trip but Gavin made the day much more than that, including multiple panels of people discussing different topics. I was astounded at the work being done by all (Chris, Bri, Sara, Shelley, Rebecca) but the standout for me was Jacq for the amazing work she has done with DWED (Diabetics with Eating Disorders) for people with Diabulimia, a condition some few have heard about but a condition that as a parent of a teenage daughter with Type 1 I have previously worried about.

diathletes

The best part of the day for me came later when Gav’s League of DiAthletes took the stage, each one telling us what life was like for a person with Type 1 in their countries of Ghana, Kuwait, Pakistan, Brazil, Costa Rica, Australia, Ghana and the Republic of California as Gav liked to call it. The stories range from good to bad but they had one thing in common: the work being done by the people for the people was amazing. Communities pulled together to help others live their lives. The world is a much better place because of the likes of Fred, Mohammad, Sana, Naty, Dani, Paula, Lucas, Nikki and of course Gav.

It made me think a lot, it was very humbling.

Here we are looking at which insulin pump Amy is going to get next, arguing for the pump we want rather than what the clinic have offered, having the options to try the latest insulins, deciding whether Amy prefers this cannula or that, this meter or that, this insulin or that. We moan about not having funded CGM, or currently the lack of CCGs funding Libre. At no point ever have we faced the issues that any of the League of DiAthletes face every day. We don’t need to fight for anything that Amy actually needs – not wants – to live. We are very privileged to be in this position. We are very privileged to have the NHS.

And that leads me on to one of my favourite speakers from Saturday, Elizabeth Rowley who runs T1International. Elizabeth, wearing her t-shirt emblazoned with ‘Access to Insulin is a Human Right’ spoke about the fantastic work T1International is doing, about their work with the #InsulinForAll movement which has always been brilliant but even more so now with the crisis our friends in USA are facing with the cost of their insulin, a so-called rich country where people can’t afford insulin. It’s mad.

Us Type 1 Cyclists* Need Your Support

Imagine…
Your day started as early as 4am as you made your way to Olympic Park for the start of the Prudential Ride London 100.
Your nerves and adrenalin were sky high as you set off from Olympic Park amongst 25000 riders.
You’ve been riding for hours, mostly without a break.
You’ve conquered the biggest hills in Surrey – Leith particularly is a killer
You’ve already ridden 85 miles.
Your legs feel like they’re made of something-marginally-lighter-than-Lead.
You really need a boost to get you through the last 15 miles to the finish line on The Mall.

RL100JDRFAnd then it happens.

You turn the corner and there they are, the supporters from Diabetes UK and JDRF, they’re there just for you**
Twice I’ve done RideLondon and both times I’ve received such a boost from the supporters. And isn’t it nice that Diabetes UK and JDRF all stand together, united in cheering their riders on, united in finding a cure.

Of course Kingston isn’t the only place. I really got a great boost from being cheered on by one of JDRF’s Directors whilst nearing the top of Newlands Corner. Kingston though has one great advantage as you can see the riders on the way out to Surrey in the morning and on the way back.
In 2015 JDRF’s Beki encouraged me to carry on cycling.

And here’s the time I tried to high-five Phillipa in 2015 – that probably wasn’t my best move, I was lucky not to hit the railings.

So, I wonder if I could ask a favour: if you’re near London on the 30th July could you go and support all those cyclists doing the Prudential Ride London 100 for either JDRF, Diabetes UK or DRWF (Diabetes Research & Wellness Foundation).
The supporter point is here (near TK Maxx) and riders will be going through from 7:00 through 16:00 I guess – I got there by 10am.

I’m sure if you do go you’ll have a great day out too.

Here’s my video from my 2015 ride…if you’re really bored.

*I’m not a cyclist who has Type 1 themself, but I ride to get sponsorship to be put towards helping people with Type 1 Diabetes. And I’m not actually riding RideLondon this year either 😀
** Okay, maybe they’re there for others too but at that time it feels like they’re only here for you.

Type 1 and the NCS residential

ncsNCS is the National Citizen Service, a four week programme for school leavers which provides a great opportunity for helping people, self improvement, making new friends and most importantly having great fun. In some ways it’s replaced the Duke of Edinburgh scheme as a must-do for teenagers who want to challenge themselves and improve their CV, and it’s easy to see why as it’s normally done in the summer they leave school, bringing a welcome relief to the stress of sitting GCSEs.

Want to skim this post?

My take home message from this post is that NCS is great, Amy loves it.
Yes we had quite an issue with Amy’s glucose levels whilst away but NCS managed it brilliantly, we couldn’t have asked for a better response and resolution.
Most importantly, Amy is having one of the best times of her life – yes, even better than when I took her to see MY favourite band at a gig – I know, right!.
Diabetes didn’t stop her going, it was a bit of a pain in the arse to be fair but she’s done every single activity with 100% determination and effort.
If you want to read about the incident and how NCS dealt with it skip to the ‘Worst night ever…’ section below.

Never a doubt

Amy doing NCS was never a doubt, from the moment she heard about it she wanted to do it and we’ve supported that choice all the way. There were no real worries about Type 1 Diabetes causing her an issue and on reflection we as parents have been incredibly relaxed about it. In all the application process and meetings we’ve only asked one question of the team: “do you have a fridge for spare insulin”. They did, but it wouldn’t have mattered what the answer was, we were just interested.

A whirlwind few months for Amy

Amy Prom (44 of 44)Amy’s spring and summer is a whirlwind.
First came the GCSEs (and the buckets of revision beforehand), then finishing school, then Prom, then three days later her NCS programme and its first week residential.
After NCS finishes she’s got a weekend to pack for our month in India, then two weeks after returning she’s off to college.
Because that’s not fulfilling enough she’s planning to do a tandem skydive in those “relaxing” two weeks. She’s saved her own money, she’s doing it by herself.
Maybe I need to rethink my “make your summer count” suggestion last year.

A little preparation for the residential

With our mind focussed on our summer trip to India we didn’t pay NCS preparation much time. Everything we were gathering for India was reduced and put into Amy’s suitcase, including pens+needles (which haven’t seen the light of day for years) and all the spare batteries and spare meters. We even put in a spare insulin pump just in case.
Normally when we go away as a family we forget certain things but it doesn’t matter because armed with a prescription, a credit card, internet on our phones, time and a car we can resolve most issues. Amy didn’t have the luxury of the last three so we had to make sure she had everything she might possibly need.
We’d informed NCS about Type 1, something they were well versed in already, and that was pretty much it. As far as the residential was concerned Type 1 wasn’t a thing, to us, to them, to Amy.

The insulin pump warranty situation

My slight worry about Amy’s residential was that she’s had her insulin pump for just over four years which means the warranty has run out. Whilst we can easily get her a new one we’ve chosen not to, until she decides which one to commit to for the next four years.
So that’s an out-of-warranty-will-not-be-replaced-if-it-dies insulin pump and activities like surfing, Total Wipeout and perhaps the most worrying for the pump, coasteering.
Gulp.

Week one excitement

NCS’s four week programme starts with a residential week away doing lots of activities on a daily basis. The first adrenalin-rush activity happens when the kids are dropped at the departure point and they get to meet everyone else for the first time, a brand new group of people and a week away from home, it’s a first for many as it was for Amy.
 

Worst night ever, NCS and Nightscout save the day

I don’t want to dwell about the situation on Tuesday night which at one point felt like the worst night anyone could have, but I know some parents of kids with Type 1 might be worried about how NCS themselves might deal with an issue…so…
Amy is currently wearing Dexcom CGM and using Nightscout, which means her glucose levels can be remotely monitored. I don’t monitor them but I wear a smartwatch which wakes me up if her levels become worrying.
I was woken at 00:30 on Wednesday, I looked at the CGM graph on my phone and waited. The numbers dropped further, and further and further still, way below the minimum number of 4mmol.
Eventually I texted Amy who was asleep and never woke.
smsI watched numbers in their 2’s appear, then 1’s.
I tried calling Amy, she didn’t wake.
I was confident this was a CGM calibration issue but I couldn’t just bat it off and do nothing.
Feeling sick and with tears in my eyes I eventually and reluctantly called the NCS support line and woke up Danny who calmly listened to my clear message of what I needed him to do (contact the leaders, wake Amy, check glucose level, give glucose probably).
Danny took control, contacted the leaders who were with Amy and did everything as instructed.
At 01:52 I got the best text message in the world, it was Amy who had just been woken up by the leaders. She was okay, after a glucose check she was 3.8, the whole thing was a calibration issue.
Throughout this time Danny had stayed awake, he hadn’t just passed on the info and gone back to sleep. He texted me to let me know Amy was okay and checked we’d been in contact.
Three leaders were awake with Amy throughout.
Amy had treated the hypo and was keen that the leaders’ night shouldn’t be disturbed and at 02:15 everyone went back to sleep, everyone except me as I couldn’t shake the sickness in my stomach. I just sat and stared at the Nightscout screen for 5 hours.
BG NCS

 

Remote monitoring, friend or foe?

On hearing the story one friend suggested it might be better not to know about the glucose levels.
My response is simple: By the time she was woken Amy was hypo and after (over)treating that hypo she dropped another 5mmol before over 4 hours. If I had not been woken up this real situation would have happened as early as 30 minutes later.
Everyone would have still been asleep, she wouldn’t have woken up, maybe ever.
Remote monitoring saved the day, without a doubt.

Diabetes Dads do Nightrider (again)

CaptureOnce again some of my Diabetes Dad friends and I rode in the London Nightrider, as we did last year when we had a huge group. Whilst the group wasn’t so large this year a good few thousand pounds was raised by the other Dads. I didn’t raise any money this year as I had a free place after coming to agreement with the event organisers who in turn used lots of my previous year’s video as promotional footage.

Yet again we had a great meet up and curry at Lahore Kebab House long before the ride and we’re really pleased that not only did JDRF challenge event organiser Bronagh come along but JDRF’s CX Karen too. It felt great to be supported and their support spurred us on for the ride.

What interested me this year was that two-thirds of us were using Nightscout and we had a bit of fun reporting on our kids’ glucose readings throughout our ride.

We had lots of fun.
Take a look.

(Here’s last year’s video)

JDRFDadsLogo

#TADTalk2017, Nightscout and that blooming Diathlete

tadlogoEither you wish the world would swallow you up or you laugh it off, as you should.
Yep, that moment had happened again where Gav (@Diathlete) talks about running from John O’Groats to Land’s End, shows the photo of the support group including me, and then tells everyone he can run faster than I can cycle. It’s true.
Of course I don’t mind at all, cos Gav saved me: if he had not run 900 miles and needed a little support which I then gave for 4 days, then I would never have cycled 100 miles in 2013. Which led to finding something I love to do, cycling 2000 miles each year since, completing 100 miles/day rides, cycling to Paris twice. Thanks Gav, that’s down to you.

Yawn, yawn, yep, yep, rabbit, rabbit

The day had started early when at 6-something-or-other a.m. I picked up Kelly (@diabeticqueen1) who was my travel companion for the day. Like Chas & Dave’s famous song – Rabbit – she didn’t shut up the whole way, she was clearly as excited as half of my Twitter timeline was to be attending #TADTalk2017.
I didn’t mind at all, we had a lot to talk about what with various presentation collaborations, our Sugarbuddies peer support and our cycle together to Paris. I was keen to introduce her to lots of people I already knew and it made me smile when all I heard all day was ‘I love her/him’ as each speaker took their turn. Positivity is certainly the way forward.

A set of family speeches

Although we’d not met in real life before when Jen took to the stage it felt like I was watching a friend or member of my family up there on that stage, someone whose story I knew a fair bit but whose full story was unknown to me, a story which made me feel a little sad, a story which showed grit and a great outlook on life. The same happened when Gav floored us with his achievments, Roddy amazed us with his expeditions, Mel’s sporting achievements and finally Adrian with his story of never really speaking about Diabetes – he’s really turned that corner now.
Everyone so humble, so grounded, so unaware of just how bloody brilliant they are.
And they really are.
Loads of others have blogged about the speeches so take a look at their blogs: here, here, here, here, here.)

Three things which I thought were awesome

Let’s face it, the whole event was freaking awesome – hopefully Catherine, Peter and Partha know how grateful to them I am – and we are – for the event – but they were some stand-outs for me.

Three things which I thought were awesome – approachable people

Some of the people who attended not only went but made themselves approachable to the masses, and I’ll highlight Karen Addington, Chief Executive of JDRF UK. Let’s not forget that Karen herself lives with Type 1 Diabetes but it was great to see her there, and get the chance to have a good chat. I’ve noticed this before at Diabetes events, that CEOs and Directors of the charities attend and make themselves approachable. I’ll always remember being cheered on cycling up Newlands Corner hill on RideLondon 2015, only to find out later it was one of JDRF’s Directors.
At TAD we could freely have a chat with not only Partha and Catherine, but Bruce Keogh, Jane Cummings and Stephen Dixon too.

Three things which I thought were awesome – free beer

Diabetes UK’s drinks event after TAD had finished was absolutely brilliant and I want to thank them for doing that, they didn’t need to, but it really extended a great thing of the day…being able to talk to each other.
It gave us all another four hours or so or chat with our friends, some old, some new.
Thanks to Michaela and Sally for organising this and for the D:UK leads for allowing it to happen.

Three things which I thought were awesome – helping people with Nightscout/WeAreNotWaiting

I’d asked Partha and Catherine if Nightscout could have a stand at TAD, as we did the year before when we were supporting Wes, Nightscout USA’s busiest advocate.
Without hesitation they agreed.
Normally HCPs would say no, well let’s face it they can’t officially support something which doesn’t have the backing of clinical trials, and by some is seen as hacking.
I understand and expect the ‘no’s’ but it was lovely to have a ‘yes’ and I’m pretty confident I know why they agreed: ultimately they know Nightscout/OpenAPS/LOOP make a lot of difference to their patients and they want the best for their patients.
Us Nightscouters had travelled far and wide primarily just to be at the stand, yes we wanted to hear the talks but above all us we went to help people.
Rather than just Nightscout we opted for a #WeAreNotWaiting table and were delighted for Alasdair to join us with his OpenAPS and LOOP kit.
We had 5 Nightscouters and 2 Loopers present and each of us ended up speaking to a good few people, some learned about Nightscout for the first time, some had their nerves about setting it up quashed, many decided to set it all up soon.
For more info about Nightscout, either visit nightscout.info or join the Facebook groups: Nightscout UK; CGM in the Cloud; Nightscout for Medtronic.
For more info about creating a DIY artificial pancreas either visit openaps.org or join the Facebook group Looped.
For more info on getting your Dexcom G4 data available on a watch or website take a look at this page.

From Night-crawler to Day-walker, a Diabetes Mum’s story, by Lucy Veal-Johnson – Part 1

I met Lucy and her family about a year ago, at an event organised by the local (South Hampshire area) families support group, Seahawks. We’ve spoken quite a bit, through highs, through lows and one day I offered her the chance to tell her story.
Here’s part one of a three part story.

sienna-for-blogLet me set a scene.
The date was 22nd April 2015, sat outside in the garden with some friends and my mum having a nice sunny chat over a few cups of coffee. Sienna was our youngest of four children at 2 years old she was tottering about tripping over her own two feet like a drunk 2 year old whilst playing with her toys. She had been under the weather for a couple of weeks and had noticed a change in her but couldn’t yet put our fingers on what was laying beneath. In my gut I knew she wasn’t right but was waiting for something more poinient to come through so I could say “yep, that’s it, that’s what it is” But nothing as frustrating as it was I was a mum of four, so yes experienced in the art of motherhood. The tripping over stood out as well as going off her food only wanting biscuits and drink, coupled with a bad bout of thrush. She had suffered with this on and off since birth but this one was taking an age to go. The next day day she went with her child-minder whilst her father and I went to work. I had mentioned to her that our little one wasn’t right but couldn’t put my finger on anything but if she needed me to get her I would. We didn’t hear anything all day until I picked her up on the school run. She went on to say that Sienna only had a couple biscuits and drank like a horse but most definitely wasn’t right and agreed with me that she could also not put a finger on it. She also had experience in the art of motherhood as well as achieving the minding of children certificate. With that I made the decision to ring the doctors and get her booked in for an emergency appointment that eve, explaining that she wasn’t right at all but really needed to be seen.

Trusting my instincts

My instincts were right.
As I exited the school gates she started going blue, I had already phoned a friend to help look after our other three whilst I took her to the doctors appointment. After I had told our doctor what was going on he went to ask for advice from the nurse but had first asked me if he could get her to perform a blood glucose test. Desperate for anything to help our little girl I replied with a yes of course.
Test 1 = HI on the testing meter but I had no clue what that meant so the nurse asked if she could do it again just to make sure but this time explained what it was for and why she was testing again. It slowly sank in. She was testing Sienna for Type 1 diabetes.
Test 2 = HI but this time the nurse turned around and talked to the doctor first before turning to me and said that our little Sienna was type 1 diabetic and the testing meter only goes to 32 before it cannot read sugars higher than that. The nurse exclaimed that Sienna needed to go to hospital to find out how ill she was and that she would be on injections but also that within 12 hours she would be feeling slightly better. The doctor in the mean time had called an ambulance and had come back to tell me that I should let her dad know what was going on. The next half hour was a bit of a blur with me texting close family to tell them in short hand text that Sienna was being rushed to A&E because of T1D. I felt like I was in a whirlwind, as the ride to hospital neared everything all jumbled into one.

Hospital arrival

Upon arriving at the hospital she had two drips in each of her hands and numerous blood vials were being taken. I had to literally pin our struggling, kicking and fighting 2 year to me with all my might. Dad arrived along with a close friend of the family,I was relieved but very shaken. Pinning her down really got to me. The consultant came in once Sienna was more settled and fully explained what T1 was and how it would affect her, how the hospital would help and who was going to get involved in helping her recover. For me, the next three days were a blur, all I knew and understood was that our other children were with our friend and that my little girl was hurting inside and I couldn’t make it better for her. Any mum would feel the same, no-one likes seeing their children in pain and just sitting there doing nothing, I felt hopeless.
Part of being Hyperglycaemic is that she loses all sense of normality, she becomes angry which is understandable, they say it’s like having a hangover with the headaches, feeling and being sick, wobbly like she was almost stagger like. And for a 2 year old to feel like that hit both her dad and I like a ton of bricks. She didn’t want me, no cuddles, no hugs, no soothing, NOTHING. The more I tried the angrier she was. This was totally a shock to us as she was always a sweet caring little dink (her nickname being the smallest and the baby of our family). Paediatricians, Diabetic nurses and dietitians, psychologists and consultants all came to give us individual talks on how they would each be helping Sienna and us come to terms with this life-changing condition.

sienna-for-blog-2
Even blood glucose strips need some love

Filling up with information

The injection training started on the third day when Sienna was well enough and coherent enough to tolerate being injected.
Both her father and I had to perform finger pricks every 2 hours, give 5 injections to Sienna and be confident in carb counting before being allowed to take her home. The team were fantastic in working with us for us to be able to take care of her at home. Our minds were stacked full of information, Yes with diabetes there is a lot to take in and a lot that can affect her levels.
Friends asked me later on how do I hold all that info? I said that I feel like we have completed a five year degree course in type 1 diabetes in 5 days and it just comes, there’s a little life at the end of it so you cant forget.

Feeling overwhelmed

Being told to give injections that could potentially be life threatening either way if you get it wrong was an over whelming feeling too. Too much insulin and you overdose and her levels will drop too low taking her into Hypoglycaemia. As she developed T1 at a young age she has no Hypo awareness, this is also a worry. The feeling of this is likened to an emotional female at the worst time of the month with the crying and the hunger. Her little brain is being starved of the glucose it so desperately needs making the brain function inept. Too little insulin and her sugars swing the other way, they would rise way up to the sky (sky/ HI). I took two weeks off work where I was a full-time lifeguard pool manager working shifts and my partner was working as a technician I ended up working for another eight weeks before the 2 hourly night & day testing took it’s toll. I constantly saw numbers on everything and soon became a genius in knowing the carbs in a slice of bread or a fudge bar to a small banana. You see, diabetes doesn’t sleep or take a break which meant we couldn’t either. We couldn’t just say we don’t want you today please come again tomorrow, it’s here to stay. However much I wanted to say just DO one.

Nighttime Ninja

I soon became the master of the night, The illusive one, Yes I became “THE NIGHTTIME NINJA”. Testing blood sugar levels in near complete darkness, I have the eyes of a hawk and the stealthiness of; well some kinds of demented ballerina Have you ever tried dodging Lego in the dark, delicately tripping over dolls and teddies with only the light of the blood meter to light the way. Then to use the meter light to light up the finger pricker to prick your precious ones finger for the umpteenth time, to then use it to light up the smallest drop of blood ever like some kind of spy. Mission impossible was only complete if her sugars were in range. If not we gave our little one a Jelly baby, yes a sweet in the middle of the night, kind of goes against any normal thinking but this one little jelly baby can and has saved her life on many occasions, all hail the jelly baby. Our little one safe and definitely soundo when I left to go back to bed and rest until the next alarm goes off in 2 hours. This was a mean feat. I can be sleep deprived longer than I thought I could and still get up and do a normal day. I think they call it a mombie, but after six months I was very, um exceedingly, no wait extremely tired, exhausted, worried and scared.
I cried more tears than I have drunk hot water. I tried to buck up my ideas and tried to be brave but no matter how hard or how brave I felt I was so scared that our little one won’t wake up in the morning. Mornings for me are special when I see her stir or take a breath, (that’s also normal to feel like that, but it does get better, a lot better. Over time I got used to walking the floorboards at night. I was now a master in the art of Night Crawling, I had passed the Lego and doll tests, I knew which floorboards to miss, I new how to give a hypo treatment and correction injection without fully waking our little tot. Not once did I ever test the wrong child due to tiredness and survived to do it all again the next day or that day depending on which side of the clock you’re on I suppose.

I am not alone

I very quickly joined a Diabetes discussion forum on Facebook.
I was not alone.
The parents all gave their welcome speeches in their own way and I quickly realised how many little tots there were all over England, Scotland, Wales. I quickly learned that advice can be gained at any minute of the day, every hour of the day and night. I read other parents T1 Journeys with their little ones just like your reading mine now.
“I couldn’t inject” one friend said to me, another said “it could be worse”, “so she can’t have sweets now” every one of those questions really grated but one thing was for sure I had my FB T1 group to vent to. A HUGE group of parents of children with Type 1 diabetes, they ALL got it, they knew what I was thinking, what we were going through as a family, they knew the right words to say anytime of day or night. We like to share every little bit of happiness and excitement and achievements as well as go through the journey of Lows, the hospitalisations for some little ones. But the journey’s we’ve had we take together. I’ve never met any of them/you but because we all talk so much it’s like I have known them for an age.
For them/you this is my own personal thank you.
Thank you for being there through the good times and the bad.
Thank you for giving that extra little bit of advice at stupid o’clock in the morning as well as sharing our HIs and LOs 😉

At least night time testing provided some comedy moments
sienna-for-blog-3
 

QiC Diabetes Awards 2016: being a Judge

QiC Diabetes logo“No thanks, it’s not really my sort of thing” I said on the phone a few times to Emma, “but if no-one steps forward I’ll do it”.
Emma was organising the Judges for 2016’s Quality in Care (QiC) Diabetes Awards and was seeking to get a non health care professional (HCP) person on each of the three award judging teams.
No-one else stepped forward.
“Damn it” I thought, never wanting to backtrack on a promise.

QiC Diabetes Awards: a bit of background

The QiC Diabetes Awards is a programme designed to award some of the very best projects, initiatives, people and groups within the UK Diabetes arena. 2016 sees it celebrate its sixth year.
This year they were 11 categories, 8 of which were for projects and 3 were for people. See the list here.
Many of the winners and finalists from previous years are featured on the QiC Case Studies page for others to view and learn from, maybe taking on the initiative/project or adapting it to suit their organisation.

What the judges do

This year the judges were responsible for just 7 of the project categories and these are split across three judging teams.
Bob Swindell, Andy Broomhead and I were the non-HCP people and we each took our place on the teams which were chaired by Simon O’Neill (Diabetes UK), Dr Paru King (Derby Hospitals) and Dr Sheridan Waldron (Children and Young People’s National Diabetes Network) respectively.
Each team had to decide on the winners, finalists and commendations for each category.
My team had two categories to review – of course I’m not going to let on which ones.
After all the applications are finalised they are sent by email to each judge who then reads (and re-reads in my case) each application scoring each section against a defined set of criteria. We received them on 14th June 2016.
You have about a month to do this before the results grids are sent back to the organiser, who collates everything ahead of Judging Day. We had to send ours back by 11th July 2016.
After Judging Day you sit back, relax, and look forward to attending the QiC Diabetes Awards evening which you automatically get an invite to.

Paperwork, paperwork

I was sent an email with all the applications for my team’s two categories, 25 applications.
“Well, this won’t take long” I thought, incorrectly.
25 applications, most of which had 10 sides of A4. I don’t think I was prepared for the amount of paperwork I had to read through, and as someone who doesn’t really read it was all a bit of a shock to the system.

It’s 2016, why did I agree to be a judge this year?

If I’d really thought this through I never would have agreed to be a judge this year, another year maybe, but not this year.
June 2016 saw a month long feast of football in the EUFA Euro 2016 finals.
Early July saw the Tour de France start.
It turns out for me these were both far more compelling than judging applications for an awards programme.

Don’t judge my judging process

I guess everyone’s judging process is different, I’ve never done it before but my process worked for me and I’d improve it if I were ever to judge anything again.
On average I took at least one hour per application and judging it on its merits against the framework proved not much of a problem, but after doing that I needed to make sure it was fairly judged against the others. On the two days where I locked myself away for 6 or 7 hours this was much easier, but with football and cycling to watch this wasn’t so easy.
I made notes about every mark I gave for every section for every application as I was worried about being questionned on Judging Day. Turns out I needn’t have worried so much but making notes helped me through the process.
Finally I’d done them all and emailed Emma my completed results grid, merely seconds before the deadline time. Which was pretty much like my whole life at school.

Judging Day beckons

I was very nervously excited to go to Judging Day, at Chandos House in central London.
As a non-HCP and clearly the least educated person in the room I felt nervous about stating my views, holding my ground, challenging others and being a valuable member of the team.
But this would be the first time I’d ever met Becky or Anne in person, after years of chatting on Social Media, and I was really excited about that. Plus I was looking forward to saying hi to a few people I’d met before: Simon, Andy, Kate, Phil, Mayank and Bob.
The judging day itself was good, fairly low key with great open discussions.
The wine, cider and meal out afterwards with Anne and Bob was even better, even if I did later that evening fall victim to Bob’s mission of upping his step count for his One Million Steps Challenge for Diabetes UK.

Making a difference

My worries about making a difference as a non-HCP were unfounded. My views were encouraged, listened to and respected and I left feeling I’d made a real difference, raising awareness about some things, highlighting inconsistencies the HCPs hadn’t noticed.
I was initially worried about being seen as a representive of others in the community – I’ve seen some pretty negative comments to this effect about others – but I soon realised that I’d been invited myself, not as a ‘patient rep’. Otherwise I’d have refused to join in.

Would I do it again?

Yes, I would, without a doubt.
Along with the caveat of not doing it in a year which features a major football tournament.

DISCLOSURE
No-one had any input into the writing of this article other than me.
I received compensation for my time spent being a QiC Judge, for the hours spent doing the reading, taking the day off for the Judging Day, and travel was also paid for. On the plus side I’ll be using this exclusively for Amy and her diabetes stuff.
I also got a free lunch and Lord knows I love a free lunch, it was a damn fine meal and the company I had was pretty good too.
I also got a no-expenses-paid invite to the QiC awards on 13th October where there’ll be cake and I intend to up my ‘wages’ by consuming vast quantities of it.

JDRF’s #Type1Catalyst at Parliament

JDRF Westminster Palace reception. Theresa May, Mims Davies, Amy and Kevin Winchcombe. Copyright John Nguyen/JNVisuals 25/04//2016

JDRF Westminster Palace reception.
Theresa May, Mims Davies, Amy and Kevin Winchcombe.
Copyright John Nguyen/JNVisuals
25/04/2016

It was a surprise when I opened the email inviting Amy and me to attend a Parliamentary reception, hosted by Jamie Reed MP and JDRF. What an opportunity not to be turned down, a chance to educate some MPs in the ways of Type 1 life.

Amy and I decided to make a day of it as going to London isn’t a regular occurrence for us. Arriving at Kew we headed straight for the one and only place on both of our minds, Camden. We both love it there, Amy especially and I made sure I kept my credit card firmly in my pocket, nowhere near Amy’s eyes and all those clothes, boots and all things funky. On the downside Suggs was nowhere to be seen.

Off to Parliament and nervously I waited in the security line wondering how they would react to Amy’s xDrip device, surely they wouldn’t be bothered about a collection of electronic components, with dodgy soldering, wires everywhere? Surely not…hmmm…well maybe. Turns out they weren’t bothered at all and didn’t even ask Amy to explain what it was.

Parliament started with a set change for Amy, then a hypo which took ages to clear and with the thought of standing up for two hours I kind of regretted the 3 or so hours spent wandering around Camden’s maze.

Our MP, Mims Davies, was keen to attend the event, accepting my invite immediately, and it was great to see her again and chat about Amy’s life with Type 1 and some of the research being done. Mims picked up a copy of JDRF’s Type 1 Research Today report published that day, something I’d not had a chance to read yet. Mims is always keen to learn more about Type 1 and Type 2 and that’s something we’re grateful for. Afterwards Mims published a campaign article More Research Needed for Type 1 Diabetes.

We went to get a professional photo done with Mims and the Home Secretary Theresa May was there so we got the chance to meet her. She was lovely with Amy, discussing favourite hypo treatments and how she prefers Jelly Babies to Dextro, which is Amy’s preference.

JDRF Westminster Palace reception. Theresa May, Mims Davies, Amy and Kevin Winchcombe. Copyright John Nguyen/JNVisuals 25/04/2016

JDRF Westminster Palace reception.
Theresa May, Mims Davies, Amy and Kevin Winchcombe.
Copyright John Nguyen/JNVisuals
25/04/2016

CaptureJamie Reed opened the talks with a great line saying we are the people we have been waiting for and how we can make the difference. Nodding in agreement I felt like shouting WeAreNotWaiting but the introvert on my shoulder got the better of me, thank God. Further talks about research which ended with Karen Addington, JDRF’s Chief Executive, who was a pleasure to listen to and brought a lump to my throat when she proudly held a ViaCyte’s stem cell ‘sack’ which is a very exciting development.

I was very honoured to be introduced by INPUT’s Lesley to Professor Jonathan Valabhji (ational Clinical Director for Obesity and Diabetes at NHS England) and as you can imagine I wasted no time in discussing Nightscout, xDrip and the whole DIY movement. He was very interested so I offered him the chance to learn more with a proper demo which I hope he’ll take me up on. I may not like public speaking but there’s something about Nightscout which overrules all that.

The day itself was made so much better given the number of people I knew there, Ellie, Lydia, Helen, Jeff, Lesley and so many more. Meeting Carl for the first time was great and I can’t wait until our team of dozens of Diabetes Dads cycle around London overnight in the Nightrider, it little over 4 weeks. It was lovely to meet JDRF’s Karen, Sarah and Kris again and Sarah did a brilliant job of organising it. I felt we needed several hours just to chat, but isn’t that the way in these Diabetes community meet ups.

The technology is great but the people are just fab.
“We are the people we have been waiting for”
Yes. We are.

TADTalk2016 – Talking About Diabetes

tad1Once again the Stupid o’Clock alarm rang again and a quick check of Twitter told me that I wasn’t the only one awake and excited that today was the first ever UK day of TED style talks from people who live with Diabetes.

I was going for three reasons.
First and foremost was to meet everyone, some I’d met before, others I’ve spoken to for years and would meet for the first time. I was excited to meet Sarah (the UK’s hardest working Nightscout support person), Rob who’d travelled from darkest beyond and Anne who was one of the speakers. On top of them there were probably another 3 dozen I was looking forward to chatting with. But first it was off to meet (for the first time) Amber who we were giving a lift to – I’d worked with Amber’s Mum for 20 years and never knew she lived with T1 until Amy was diagnosed. 17 year old Amber’s relatively new to the community, go and say hello on Twitter.
Second was to listen to some great talks, four of which were from people I knew quite well from SocialMedia or indeed Real Life.
Last but definitely not least was because I was part of the Nightscout faculty, present there to be on the special stand we’d been allowed to have, to allow us to help attendees understand more about Nightscout.

The talks

Strangely, for a blog about a Talking About Diabetes event, I’m not going to talk about the talks themselves. Others have already done this through their blogs. Here’s Amber’s, here’s James’s, here’s Matt’s and here’s Anne’s.
Saving the last word for one of the organisers of this event, Here’s Dr Partha Kar’s blog.
Instead I’ll focus on Wes’s talk as it’s very dear to my heart.

Listening with a lump in my throat – The Nightscout Story

tad_westalkWes’s Nightscout story started in an unfamiliar way for me, he was taking us way, way back to Picadilly Circus in 1966, the start of events leading to the birth of Lane Desborough who is dubbed The Grandfather of Nightscout – great video of Lane talking about Nightscout here if you’re interested. Lane went on to develop monitoring software which led to the backbone of the Nightscout web sites people like us use.
I already had a lump in my throat, especially because I knew at some point soon in Wes’s talk his story would get the better of him and the rawness of emotion would come through. You could feel it in the audience who at this stage hadn’t quite worked out what Nightscout really was.
willTADWes progressed to the Nightscout story quite familiar to me – due to the presentations I’ve been giving to JDRF, Diabetes and the CYP NW Network – from the beginnings from the “7 guys on the internet” who thought “maybe 50 families” might be interested in setting up Nightscout. Less than two years later 16000 people are in the largest T1 Facebook group in the World, with 6000 more in the 27 country specific Nightscout groups around the world.
Building on the lumps in peoples’ throats Wes gave more reasons why Nightscout is so important to so many people and spoke about the only ‘cost’ to a person taking on Nightscout, that ‘cost’ being to Pay It Forward and help others. From my side it’s truly a great community, everyone is there to help others and everything is open.
Open Source.
Open Data.
Open Hearts.
Wes gave good praise to the UK’s Nightscout Faculty – which I’m proud to be a part of – and to Tim Omer for his excellent work on OpenAPS and HAPP (although Wes accidentally said ‘xDrip’ by mistake).

Nightscout Stand

pratikOne of the highlights of being on the stand was when Pratik approached me with his team and asked for a quick run down on Nightscout, so that he could understand what his patients might be using or need to know.
The stand was really busy and I spent all lunch time chatting with those who knew nothing about Nightscout, or those who knew loads but had some questions, some who were struggling with issues, some who were struggling with the concepts, some who were just interested in my family’s use of Nightscout. I was pleased to introduce James to Matt for help on his project, and to signpost people to certain web sites.
If only I’d had the time to eat any lunch!

We need to talk about H

Oh. My. God.
I’ve never felt so embarrassed.
She approached the stand by herself about the same time as Pratik and I turned my attention to him (bad move Kev!) for what I thought was a quick ‘Hi’ but turned into something much longer.
After waiting a while she said ‘I’ll come back later’, I still didn’t recognise her or know her name at that point.
During the afternoon talks I looked around and saw her sat next to Izzy and it suddenly dawned on me who was there at the stand earlier and a pang of guilt ran through me.
Hannah, damn, it was Hannah.
Hannah, the lovely young girl from OopNorf who advocates so well, whose blogged I’ve read for ages, with whom I spoken on Twitter for years, with whom I’ve spoken via Google Hangouts, whom I’d never met.
Hannah, if you’re reading this: sorry, what a twerp I am but I’m so glad you came back to say hello again.

Chatting with the reps

With more talks during the after and some question time later I managed to grab a coffee and chat with Jenny from Abbott about the London Planetarium sleepover happending that night, an event Amy and I had been invited to but had declined. Hopefully there’ll be a few guest blogs on site, coming out of that event and use of Libre. I managed to sort out a trial for Amy – which she’d previously shown interest in – so watch this space for a Libre write up from us.

What a great event

It’s hard to imagine how TAD could have been any better and if it’s run again it’s hard to imagine who could be chosen to match the great line up of this year’s speakers.
To the Doctors who set this up, Partha, Catherine, Peter, I want to thank you, it was truly a brilliant day out and a great opportunity to meet friends and help others.

Basingstoke Type 1 Diabetes Awareness Evening 11/03/16

The start of a whirlwind long weekend of diabetes events was an event organised by our clinic which jointly covers the Royal Hampshire County Hospital and Basingstoke Hospital, and their surrounding areas.

There was one last year and I found it really good, an opportunity to speak with our consultant outside of clinic walls, to mingle with other parents and grill the reps.

Truth be told I was rather nervous about attending this event.

The last time we saw the team was this fateful day back in January and my anger at the apparent complete disregard for our wishes almost saw us transfer elsewhere. So this would be the first time we met since that clinic. How would it go, would I lose it or could we still be ‘friends’?

I decided to put that last clinic down as a bad job, a mistake, a misunderstanding and walked into the room as if that clinic had never happened. And I’m so glad I did. Things appear to be back to normal although we’ll not know for sure until the next clinic.

These events are great for networking and we’d agreed to meet several people there; Steve and Becky; Matt, Sonal and their daughter who adores Amy. I bumped into Claire who runs the Basingstoke PWD group and I suddenly remembered I’m meant to be talking about Social Media and Nightscout there soon so I went over to discuss it. (*writes date in diary before he forgets*). Amy had made a little gift for Matt’s daughter who was thrilled.

The room filled with families and many of us left to listening to the Tech talk. Matt and I haad hoped to present Nightscout as part of this talk but its lack of clinical trials meant we were denied. Shame really as I think the parents needed to hear it, it would have been far more appropriate than talking about Smart Insulin etc.. But then again, there seemed to be so many families who nothing of this stuff. One person even asked if there was any truth that Reiki could help, something I consider as helpful to Type 1 as slapping, although hopefully less harmful.

Matt and I had joked that I’d ask a question after the session, that question being ‘Matt, what’s your daughter’s glucose level right now?’ and looking at his Pebble he’d reply ‘x.xx mmmol/l, how about Amy’s?’ at which point I’d look at my watch. We never did, I bottled it. It could have been funny though right?

The next session was about Transition and Amy and Jane sat in for that. I was gasping for a drink so headed out only to bump into fellow DiabetesDad and cyclist Gavin. Gavin asked if I could chat with him about Nightscout for 640g and I creased up as Matt (the 640g Nightscout solution provider) was a metre away. “Matt, meet Gavin” I mentally said Sorry to Sonal for given her husband even more support to do, although I’m pretty sure Gavin will figure it all out.

I never ventured back into the Transition talk and it’s probabably a good thing as Jane told me that apparently at the first transition clinic they see the kid first and then the parents and child together afterwards. So why on earth did they not do that with us? I just may have exploded if I’d been in there.

I had a chat to Emma, our pump rep, quizzing her on the rumours of Animas’s next pump name, release date and features. She’s good though and gave nothing away, thinking obviously that no-one in the community knows about the 2017 release date of the pump which like Medtronic’s 670g will feature a hypo and hyper minimiser. I already knew that this new pump will use Dexcom G5 as its base, we’d prefer G4 of course with its 4x longer lasting transmitter, but G5 will be awesome in this pump.

It had been a great night, lots of interactivity, lots of chats, lots of meetups and more importantly I’d not glared at the team.

JDRF Discovery Day Bournemouth 5/3/16

nnn-JDRF logo cropped_2“Call me Kath” said Professor Barnard when I introduced her to Amy and Jane. Moments before I’d wished the earth would swallow me up as moments before that Kath had recognised me (from Social Media avatars/photos) and I hadn’t recognised her. A tad embarrasing and not the best first encounter. Still we we’re lucky that Kath could make it to the event as years ago I was almost responsible for her untimely death, after telling her how simple it was to replace a broken dimmer switch. Turns out it is simple if you’ve done it loads of times, not so simple if you haven’t. Anyway, I was pleased I hadn’t killed Kath and I’ll be careful not to discuss electrics with anyone else ever again.

Back in early November I had contacted JDRF South to ask if myself and others could present Nightscout at the Discovery Day in Bournemouth. Imagine that, presenting to a Discovery Day, little old me. I don’t even ask questions at events, let alone present but Nightscout is different, you know the world doesn’t know about it and you want to make people aware. Nightscout however is unregulated and has not past clinical trials so it’s very understandable that JDRF couldn’t let me talk about it.

And JDRF had other plans for the event in the form of the very well respected Professor Katharine Barnard. It’s unusual that a Discovery Day has just one speaker but when you’ve got the chance to give the floor over to a renowned Professor then you do, you most definitely do.

I’ve been fortunate to meet and chat with several Professors this year, Simon Heller, Helen Cooper and now Kath. Here’s the thing, they’re all normal, brilliant but normal, experts in their field, but normal. A far cry from the stereotype British films and TV would have you believe.

Being a mum of a child with Type 1 the down-to-earth Kath found a very warm and engaged audience. This was no presentation though, it was almost a chat amongst friends, a discussion group, a think tank. Laughter rang around, interspersed with more solemn moments as some said things they about Diabetes which have a negative impact. But Type 1 crowds are never down for long and out poured many positives.

Kath picked up on some points and told us it’s okay to feel like that, it’s normal. This meant a lot to many of us who naturally beat ourselves up on a daily basis for not doing quite as well as we think we should, or could. In reality we’re all doing an absolutely brilliant job, but how many of us actually recognise that?

One standout for me was something I’d read before but this time in sank in properly.
Kath asked “Well controlled Type 1 Diabetes is the cause of ?????’
‘Nothing’ answered Helen in the audience.
Absolutely.
We’re all so worried about complications but are actually helping our kids tremendously.
I walked away quite proud that we’re helping Amy achieve ‘nothing’.

In what seemed like no time at all Kath’s hour was up and we all felt sorry it was all over. But then it was time for the peer support socialising and properly chatting with Steve, Becky, Matt and Sonal as well as the usual JDRF Discovery Day chat with Lesley from INPUT.

I loved this Discovery Day and if I ever get the chance to see Kath present again I’ll be there. You should to.

The 2nd #GBDOC Conference (#PWDC16)

pwdc16Last year’s first ever #GBDOC conference for people with diabetes turned out to be very successful, very popular and very enjoyable, so I was glad to hear Team Blood Glucose were going to run a second one. This year’s conference was set up to be a two-day affair at the more upmarket Colwick Wall in Nottingham.

Going, not going, going

As much as I’d enjoyed 2015’s conference I couldn’t really attend this year’s as I had commitments on the Saturday and couldn’t justify the £150 expense (tickets, hotel, travel) and I was sad to disappoint the several friends who’d hoped I’d go. Then Abbott stepped in to support the event financially making it free to attend and more importantly meaning I could attend for just one day, on the Sunday.
As it turns out my Saturday event was cancelled so I could have blooming gone for both days.

The excitement rises

As with last year’s conference my Twitter feed started buzzing several days before the event, everyone excited to finally meet or meet again people they’d spoken to daily for numerous years. If truth be told the conference itself wasn’t the draw for me at all, it was the people.

Trying to avoid Saturday’s excitement

treeAfter finding my Saturday event cancelled and disappointed that I could have attended the conference’s first day I couldn’t face the excitement on Twitter and decided to I needed to distance myself. So I positioned myself up one of my apple trees to give it a little prune, I think I may have overdone it as it took all day.

Stupid o’clock on a Sunday

A 6am start on a Sunday is unheard of but was a necessary evil to be able to arrive at Colwick Hall for the 10am start after a 3 hour, 175 mile drive.
It felt ironic that with so far to travel I was actually the first to arrive, closely followed by my good friend Nick and we went in to be welcomed by Rhodri, who helped organise this year’s event.
Nick, Rhodri, me, and no-one else.
pwdcarrival

A sea of friendly faces

People started arriving, Bob, Philippa, Sacha, Sarah, Steve, Paul, Jules&Lee, Lydia, Lis, Jo, Veeny and so many more. Chatter and laughs filled the room and it almost seemed a shame to break it when the conference started.

Open format conferences, the way forward

In open format conference style there was no agenda and it started with everyone deciding what they wanted to talk about and the topics were grouped together and sessions arranged.

Session One: MDI to Pump and Tech

A few people, Philippa mainly, had asked me to attend the conference just in case anyone wanted to ask me any tech questions regarding CGM, Nightscout or xDrip, so it made sense I’d join this session. I was pleased to hear that Tim Omer had done a great job on the Saturday with chats about xDrip, OpenAPS, HAPP and general artificial pancreas and CGM topics.
The session started off with a discussion about pumps, an intro on what they are, benefits of using one and about getting approval from clinic/CCG to get one. To be honest after 15 minutes I’d switched off a little – as it wasn’t so relevant to my situation – and happily chatted quietly with Steve whom I live a few miles away yet travelled 175 miles to chat to.
But I heard Lis say ‘Kev would you like to say something?’
‘Erm, no’ I panicked ‘I’ve not really been listening’.
The pump discussion had concluded and they wanted to hear about tech, from me, now; I really should have thought about this in advance.

CGM, xDrip, Pebbles, glanceability

Recently I’ve spoken to many about Nightscout, the ability to see your kid’s glucose values from afar, but Nightscout isn’t really suitable for an audience of adults, so I switched to talking about getting glucose values on a watch on your wrist.
Taking a step back I went through CGM and particularly how DexcomG4 broadcasts a signal out to anything which wants to listen.
Moving on to xDrip I explained the £40 DIY kit I’d built back in January 2015, which some had seen at last year’s conference when Amy demo’d it to a few.
I spoke about the glanceability benefits of having your glucose level on your watch gives and explained how it helped Amy through the day, especially being at school where use of phones is banned or frowned upon.
Nic and Alyssa asked some great questions about Dexcom and Medtronic CGM and I answered questions about extending the life of DexcomG4 sensors – obviously no-one does that right?! – and different positions they can be worn.
The time whizzed by and 20 minutes later and it was time for me to shut up.

The Afternoon Sessions

After a lovely lunch with great conversation with Philippa and a table of others it was time for the afternoon sessions although I’d decided session two would be reserved for a chat with Jules and Lee whom I was surprised to see, knowing that she was worn out by day 1.
For session three I joined in with the ‘Food’ topic, interested to hear other people’s opinions on food, different diets they used to manage their diabetes and its effects on glucose levels. After a great discussion led by Nick and with some great input from Vicky and Jo, before Paul arrived and Nick asked him to explain Low Carb High Fat and how it worked for him.
I found myself nodding with Paul’s chat so much my neck ached, he’s really got the knowledge of this completely sorted and it was a breath of fresh air to listening to someone helping others out with fact, not fiction nor flippant comment. Paul spoke in length about ketones, ketosis and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and explained why people with diabetes can deal with ketones. He also answered many questions on how to get started in becoming ketogenic, truly great advice for those who were there and interested.

Post sessions chat

Yet again more time was devoted to chat with friends old and new and I enjoyed my chats with Bob and meeting Tim, Melissa and Matt for the first time, as well as chatting with numerous people who’s names I sadly haven’t remember.

It’s all over

And before we knew it the conference was all over and it was time for the long drive home. I’d had a great day, it seemed everyone had a great day/weekend.

Thanks

I’m not exactly sure of who did what but I’d just like to thank Paul, Alex, Rhodri and TeamBloodGlucose for all they did to organise and run the conference. It’s truly a great event I’d suggest everyone attends next year.
I’d also like to thank Abbott for the investment which meant that I could attend.