Kev – Page 10 – Circles of Blue

Alton Towers tweetup – 28th June 2013

By Kev | July 7, 2013 - 9:44 am |July 9, 2013 event

It’s teacher training day

For the first time in years both my kids were in the same school this year and we’d promised that we’d take them to Alton Towers on the first summer-ish teacher training day. So way back in November I booked up a hotel nearby for a couple of nights. I say hotel, it’s a Travelodge, which many of you will baulk at but it was clean, had a bed as was £20 per night for a family of four.

Talking about a tweetup

In December or January some #DOC (diabetes online community) people on Twitter were talking about meeting up somewhere like Alton Towers, perfect for me, as long as they wanted to meet up on the 28th or 29th June. I mentioned that I would already be there and a few people said they’d try to come too, with Derek and his family (Clare and Chloe) committing themselves and booking up the same hotel for the same two nights.
Many people started saying they would come and I got a little worried about how doing all the rollercoasters would work, but eventually our tweetup group dwindled to what became a perfect number for hanging out together. I would have preferred to have met more people but it could have meant we got to do a lot less rides.
In the end my family and Derek’s family were there for two days and we were joined by Philippa/James for the whole of Saturday, and met Vanessa-Louise and partner briefly on Saturday too. The next article talks about 29th June 2013 when Philippa and Vanessa-Louise were there too.

Friday 28th June starts with a long drive

Both Derek and I had circa 3 hour drives to get to Alton Towers but we arrived within minutes of each other.
Derek’s daughter Chloe has Type 1 Diabetes as does my daughter Amy and they’d been texting each other during the journeys so they were very pleased to see each other again. Chloe’s cousins Charlotte and Martin had come along too to enjoy Alton Towers with us.
Once there we headed straight to Guest Services to arrange the ‘special access’ wristbands that Derek’s daughter Chloe and my daughter Amy were eligible for, both having type 1 diabetes. Here’s more information about Alton Towers’s special access wristbands and fast tracking rides.

The Smiler: it’s time to be corrected

The Smiler is Alton Towers’s newest and biggest ride, with a world-first 14 inversions. It’s mad, it’s really made. Here’s a video of it.
We entered the disabled queue, which seemed odd, but as by that time the main queue was 120 minutes long we were happy to gain quick access to the ride, “just keep your head down, don’t look them in the eyes” 🙂
My family went first, Derek’s behind and after only 10 minutes or so we were waiting to board The Smiler.
Strictly speaking we were meant to be in the back row on the 4 row coaster as that’s where people with ‘special access’ wristbands are meant to sit, but I didn’t know it, so pleaded with the attendant to let us on the front. He agreed.
So our first ride of the day was Alton Towers’s biggest ride and we were at the front.
Wow.
OMG.
Awesome.

Rides, lunch, more rides

The special wristband enabled us to do so many rides: before lunch we’d managed to do The Smiler, Oblivion, Submission, Rita (twice) and some smaller rides, all within two hours which was the length of the normal queue for The Smiler. Amy needed to disconnect her pump for many of the rides, which is advised due to the G forces on the big rides and ridiculously strong magnets employed by them.

Baited breath for the lunchtime BG result

Lunchtime came and we waited with baited breath to see what Amy’s blood glucose level would: 6.5 phew!
Talking about BG levels Amy’s were good for the whole day: 5.0, 6.5, 7.2, 3.6, 13.7, 7.2. Only the 13.7 was massively out of range and that was because she’d had too big a hypo-cure 30 minutes before, easily done. I’d call those figures a win.

Ride after ride

After lunch we rode, Thirteen, Air (twice), Nemesis, Blade and finally the Congo River Rapids.
I think there was no doubt that The Smiler and Air were the two best loved rides for the group.
It was interesting for me as I’d done Air four years ago, paying to fast-pass it but still waiting 45 minutes to ride it at the front; I didn’t think much of it, but today I loved it. Top tip: it is not worth riding Air at the front as you’re looking down most of the time.
But that time we were already soaked from the light rain, it was a good job considering what happened next on the Congo River Rapids ride; take a look.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf-y81Gz1oU

Diabetes and fast tracking rides at theme parks…and free tickets

By Kev | July 3, 2013 - 9:24 pm |September 10, 2013 event

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Colossus at Thorpe Park
c/o Wikimedia Commons

Did you know…

…that someone with Type 1 Diabetes can avoid queueing for ages at some theme parks?

Fast tracking rides at Alton Towers

A couple of days ago I blogged about how to get a ‘special access’ ride pass at Alton Towers for people with Type 1 Diabetes.
That article has quite simply broken all records with regards to views, it’s been so popular, so it’s obviously a subject dear to many peoples hearts.

That’s fine but I want to go to a different theme park

From responses to that blog and elsewhere I’ve decided to write another article to include some other theme parks.
I’ll list a few of the other theme parks people have mentioned, here in this article.
Please note that I’ve not tried these myself (yet!) so please just this information as a pointer and check out the park’s own web site for the current situation.
If you feel any of the information is wrong or if you know of any other theme parks let me know too.

But first…FREE TICKETS…(for kids)!

Merlin, who own several UK theme parks (Thorpe Park, Alton Towers, Chessington), has set up the Merlin’s Magic Wand charity to put “the magic back into the childhoods of seriously ill, disabled and disadvantaged children”.
In simple terms you apply for tickets and if you’re lucky you get some.
This is a great idea but to be honest I’ll never apply as I’d prefer all available tickets to be used by people from families who can’t afford to take their kids to theme parks occasionally. I can, so we won’t apply.
Offical web site: http://www.merlinsmagicwand.org

Alton Towers, Staffordshire, England

It’s all detailed here but in summary:
Name of offer: Special access ride pass
Number of people: eligible person + 3 carers – although you can get away with at least one more
Offical web site: Alton Towers

Chessington World of Adventures

I would presume that being owned by Merlin (as is Alton Towers) that Chessington’s ride access pass would be similar but details seem sketchy and I’ve not heard of anyone trying it.
It seems though that cheaper entry tickets may be able to be obtained you will pay the full rate for your Park entry ticket; also one helper will be admitted free of charge and one at a concessionary rate, providing the second is required to assist you on to specific rides and attractions.
However they state that you must apply online, at least 24 hours before visiting the park and take photographic identification too when they visit.
Name of offer: Ride access pass
Number of people: (seems to be) eligible person and 1 carer (for people with type 1 diabetes)
Official web site: http://www.chessington.com/

Legoland Windsor Resort, Berkshire, England

Someone told me that they did something similar at Legoland a couple of weeks ago saying “it really made a difference to our day”.
I presume that this was using Legoland’s ‘Ride Access Pass‘ which allows an eligible person and three others to avoid queues for up to 10 rides during their visit.
Name of offer: Ride Access Pass
Number of people: eligible person and three carers.
Official web site http://www.legoland.co.uk/

Thorpe Park, Surrey, England

Thorpe Park is also owned by Merlin yet their offer is not as good, only allowing 1 helper, not 3. This must make it pretty tricky for families with just one parent as the helper has to be 14 or over.
Name of offer: Ride access pass
Number of people: eligible person and 1 helper
Official web site: http://www.thorpepark.com/

..and further afield…

Disneyworld, Florida

Angela from Texas let me know that her daughter went to Florida on a school trip and managed to get a fast pass.
Here’s what she wrote:
Re Disney, my eldest has just been to Florida on her school trip. I emailed prior to her going, gave the booking details etc and got a reply from customer relations which I printed off and gave to her.
On her first day, inside the first park she went to the customer service/assistance desk and showed them her pump. They gave her a customer assistance card with her name on + 3 others. This card could be used in any of the theme parks at Disney.
It didn’t put her right at the front, but it let her use the ‘assistance required access, which was a quarter of the waiting time..she regularly passed teachers and school mates standing in the long queues!!
Importantly she also added:
diabetes is quickly being removed as a reason for these passes, as they do not consider it a reason good enough. The best way to go is to mention that you are insulin dependent, and as such find if difficult to stand in queues without food etc which may result in a possible seizures.. Seizure is a good word that they don’t like!

Diabetes and fast tracking rides at Alton Towers

By Kev | July 1, 2013 - 1:09 pm |July 22, 2014 event

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Did you know…

…that someone with Type 1 Diabetes can avoid queueing for ages?
Until recently I didn’t but some people in the Twitter #DOC (diabetes online community) made me aware of it and (after having just returned from two days at the theme park) I’m really glad they did.

In general how does it work?

Once in the park you get a ‘special access’ wrist band which enables the person with Type 1 diabetes and three carers to use the disabled entrance to the ride, avoiding queueing in the normal ride queue.
In essence this means that queueing times is dramatically reduced, meaning you can get to go on more rides. You have to wait a certain amount of time between each ride so that you just can’t keep going on ride after ride.
Note that whilst it only allows 3 carers, on our first ride of The Smiler we had 9 of us ride with just two ‘special access’ passes. I guess some ride operators are lenient, others maybe not.

STOP PRESS – 22 July 2014: there’s quite a lot of reports within the last two weeks that only people with insulin pumps are getting a pass, which in itself seem ludicrous as they’ve got the ability to turn their basal down whilst queueing.

Getting over the guilt

These ‘special access’ passes aren’t only available to people with Type 1, they’re available to people who suffer many different issues.
At first the idea of using a pass like this seemed odd, like we were cheating the system, after all we don’t normally think of our Type 1 child as disabled.
For the first few rides I felt guilty, walking ably down the disabled ramp and getting on a ride in front of people who’d queued for ages.
But I thought about it and realised that for 2.5 years now we’ve ate, slept and breathed diabetes, worrying about hypos and hypers and hospital visits and preventing incredibly horrible future complications.
It’s about time then we got something out of this diabetes, and this ‘special access’ pass was it.
Guilt over.

Getting your wristband/card at Guest Services

Once you’ve bought your tickets and are within the park head straight to the Guest Services building, which is on the right just after you’ve gone down the steps.
In there let the staff view a letter from the hospital which mentions about the kid/adult having Type 1 Diabetes and they will put a ‘special access’ band around that person’s wrist. They will also give you a ride time card.
Note that one of our party didn’t have a letter but was wearing an insulin pump and she managed to get to a pass too.

Getting on a ride

Use the disable entrance. Do not go in at the Fastrack entrance, this is for people who’ve paid a premium to get on rides quickly and this entrance is not for ‘special access’ riders.
Each ride has a disabled entrance, which are often the same place riders exit from. Note that some rides has a ‘disabled’ entrance and a ‘wheelchair’ entrance so use the ‘disabled’ one if you can, or the ‘wheelchair’ one if not. Mostly though, they’re the same entrance and they’re usually easy to find. An exception to this though is Oblivion where you have to go in through the shop.
Once you reach the front of the disabled queue the ride operator will ask to see your ride time card and will write a new time in the next free box. Often this time will be one hour from the current time, although on several occasions it was only 30 minutes. After riding the current ride you will not be able to use this ‘special access’ method again until the card time has been reached.
The ride operator will get you on one of the next available rides.

Only one at a time

Presumably for safety reasons only one ‘special access’ riders is allowed on a ride at a time, so if you go with a group of you as we did, you will not be able to all ride at the same time.
This seemed like a small price to pay for the benefits you got.

Wait…and do it again

Once your ride card time has been reached you just go and do a different ride, or the same ride if you wish.
On Friday we managed to do The Smiler, Oblivion, Thirteen, Nemesis, Rita (twice), Air (twice), Blade, Submision, Congo River Rapids, Hex, Runaway Mine Train and some smaller stuff too. That’s a lot in one day and wouldn’t have been possible without using the ‘special access’ pass.

If you’re interested about whether this is available at other theme parks read this article: Fast tracking rides at theme parks for PWDs…and free tickets

UPDATE: 3rd July 2013
Amy’s pretty switched on and cleverly announced to her friends yesterday ‘if you’re going to a theme park soon you might want to take me’. What a good idea. 🙂

Getting an insulin pump – new gadget, SPIbelt

By Kev | June 26, 2013 - 8:31 pm |November 21, 2013 insulin pump

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Amy’s new Camoflage Pink SPIbelt

This pump is going to cost me a fortune

It’s probably my fault that this pump is going to cost me a small fortune: when discussing pumps before even Amy had decided I’d shown her a web site that many of you know – FunkyPumpers.com – which had pump belts for sale. Amy had spied the One Direction pump belt they sell with eagerness.

Being under prepared

Getting the pump so soon meant we weren’t organised enough to sort out a pump belt so last Thursday, when Amy got her pump, she had no choice but to wear a belt to clip the belt too as the pump didn’t fit in her shorts pocket.

So which belt is right then?

We looked at all the belts available on FunkyPumpers.com which was difficult as they have so many good ones. Amy liked the One Direction one but worried what would happen if she went off them.
We looked at cotton ones, plain ones, denim ones, on and on and on.
Then I saw that FunkyPumpers sold SPIbelts, a belt I’ve heard of and seen before. I knew that the principle is that they’re comfortable to wear and don’t move around much. Realising that they would fit an insulin pump inside was a breakthrough.
Unfortunately Amy wasn’t particularly sold on any of the designs FunkyPumpers sold so I headed off to Wiggle.co.uk, a cycling-centric site which is quite local to us.
After what seemed like and age we found the one for Sheldon (that’s what Amy’s pump is called), it was a pink camouflage one. It was ordered on Sunday and arrived today (Wednesday).
SPIbelts are available in waterproof

First impressions

As soon as Amy put it on she said how comfortable it was, she’s been wearing it ever since. The material feels cool and smooth so no chance of itching or getting too hot.
As with all pump belts you can wrap the excess tube up and stuff it inside the belt.
It looks cool so it will look good over clothes and feel comfortable underneath clothes.

Here it is

Getting an insulin pump – first few days’ blood glucose readings

By Kev | June 25, 2013 - 1:01 pm |November 21, 2013 insulin pump

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BG readings graph from 21st June

Testing…testing…one…two…twelve

Amy would normally test her blood sugars a minimum of four times a day, often 6 and sometimes 10. For the first 24 hours of having a pump she did a minimum of 12, one every two hours.
For those of you who don’t have diabetes – or friends with – let me just say that: yes, testing hurts a bit; no, it doesn’t get easier the more you do; no, you don’t get ‘used to it’; yes, it makes your fingers sore.

It’s not all about the data

Accumulating masses of data is a by product of having type 1 diabetes. It’s hard to ignore the numbers when you’ve been testing your blood sugar, counting the carbohydrates you’re consuming, giving doses of insulin, giving correction doses of insulin, feeding yourself glucose to raise your blood sugar.
Analysing this data can help you and your DSN realise what slight changes need to be made to help achieve seemingly impossible stable blood sugars between the levels of 4mmol and 8mmol.

Amy’s blood glucose data from before the pump

Below is a graph of Amy’s blood glucose from before the pump.
Whilst it look pretty darn complicated the key things to notice are:
– the the yellow bar shows our meters ideals level of between 5mmol and 8mmol. (Amy doesn’t like hypos hence the 5mmol rather the desired 4mmol.)
– the blue line which is an average of the readings, noting that many of the readings hit 15mmol and 20mmol.
– the average is consistently above the desired zone.

Just for information, no analysis

I haven’t analysed the following data and I won’t be making any changes but it’s interesting to see how quickly the pump is helping with BG control. Before she went on the pump she was constantly quite high and to be honest we did nothing about it as we new the pump was coming along soon. As Amy hated injections so much we rarely “corrected” any high blood glucose readings, this being a reason we really wanted a pump.
Here then are the graphs for the different days

Thursday 20th June – pump day

Friday 21st June – a day of overeating

Saturday 22nd June – a relaxing morning, a busy afternoon/evening

Sunday 23rd June – …and relax

Monday 24th June – first day back at school

The full chart

Getting an insulin pump – setting up, log books and BG monitoring

By Kev | June 25, 2013 - 5:40 am |November 21, 2013 insulin pump

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the log book page for 23rd June

Setting the pump up

Going on a pump isn’t just a simple case of plug in and go, it involves a fair bit of work, but nothing insurmountable or problematic, just stuff which needs to be done.
Initially your DSN (diabetes specialist nurse) works out what they believe the best basal profile is for you, doing this by asking lots of questions about lifestyle & food and checking backing weeks of log book entries – that is if you’ve been good and filled in your log book, we hadn’t! So there’s my first tip: make sure you fill in your log book for a few weeks beforehand if you’re not doing it religiously already.
After deciding the profile our DSN read out the values to Amy – during our pump training day last Thursday – she input the values, which brings me nicely on to…

Does your DSN actually need to touch your pump? Ever?

I’d not really thought about this before but at the DRWF event on Saturday Lesley from INPUTDiabetes said something like “Once you’ve got your pump your DSN should never need to touch it, if they do you’ve not received enough training.”
It was a good point and on reflection neither our DSN nor our Animas pump rep has touched Amy’s pump, certainly not to input or change anything, and I’m pretty sure they’ve not touched it at all.
So that’s good then, we’ve been trained correctly.
I suppose it’s oh so easy to hand over your pump to the DSN and get them to change the settings but what do you do when you need to change anything in the future? Would you know how to do it?
In our case Amy is a whizz with things like this so she set up the pump, with me trying to look over her shoulder to make sure they settings were right.
So, for us, not only has the pump not really been touched by the DSN, nor the rep, nor the Doctor, it hasn’t really been touched much by us, the parents.

Filling in the Animas log book

As you’ve probably read I’ve been worried how much my hospital are ok with using Animas as we’re the first in paediatrics in the hospital to have an Animas pump. So it was nice to hear from the DSN who was inspecting the new log book that it was one of the best ones and she’d like us to use it, rather than continue with the Roche one we’d (rarely) been using up to now.
Each day takes up two facing sides, with the top page having columns for each hourly block and rows for readings/values: blood glucose; carb grams; BG bolus (correction doses); Carb Bolus; basal rate; basal rate change; temp basal rate; ketones; set change (tickable).
On the bottom page there’s spaces to write information about food and a big notes area to write notes and things like ‘had a very lazy day’.

Copy of the log book from Sunday 23rd June 2013

A tiring first 48 hours

Our DSN had requested that we test Amy’s blood glucose everything two hours, put the entry into the pump and trust the pump’s suggestion. It seemed a strange request, of course we’d do that, but I guess that some people battle against it and then wonder why their levels are all over the place. I was grateful that it was only 48 hours as a twitter friend of mine, who’s son went on a pump a week ago, has been asked to do it for one week!
These tests were to happen every two hours for 48 hours, including throughout the night so Jane and I divided the shifts with me doing the 10pm, midnight and 6am shifts and Jane taking on the 2am and 4am. This minimised the tiredness levels for both of us, although not by much.
It didn’t seem too tiring initially although I got through most of Friday and Saturday relying on caffeine and much yawning. Luckily Amy managed to almost sleep through all 2am and 4am checks.
From midday Saturday, approximately 48 hours after going on the pump, Amy was taking part in a large choral concert so was without us for many hours. She coped well, still ecstatic about her pump.

Basal/pump reviews and calls from our DSN

Our DSN works Monday to Friday but called us on Saturday in her own time to check how things were going; they were going well.
She called again later that day and again on Sunday.
So far between us we’ve decided that no changes are required to the basal and that we should continue with the current settings.
We’ve got our advanced pump training tomorrow so there may be some changes made then.

DRWF Wellness Day South – 22nd June 2013

By Kev | June 24, 2013 - 12:14 pm |July 9, 2013 event

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Diabetes Research & Wellness Foundation

Going, then not going, then going again

I had originally planned to go to this event, but then something else turned up, I got sidetracked and never put it in my diary.
If I’m honest the photos of the previous year’s event didn’t inspire me that this event would have much relevance for Type 1 diabetes. I’d like to state now that I couldn’t have been more wrong, and some parts probably had a lot more relevance to Type 1 than the majority of the audience who (I’m guessing) had Type 2.

Helping another person with diabetes

For all the diabetes events I go to I do it for someone else, my daughter Amy who has Type 1 Diabetes. This time however I was going for someone different, my dad Roy who has had Type 2 Diabetes for many years.
My Dad seemed to know very little about his condition but to be honest he didn’t need to as my lovely step-mum Liz managed his diabetes, making sure he ate the right things and took his tablet medication. My Dad didn’t really even know what his last hbA1c was – which shocked me – and it as at that point I start talking to him regularly about diabetes. I should have done this some time ago.
So a few weeks ago I convinced my Dad and Liz to go to this DRWF event and freed up my diary to go with them, something my Dad wanted.

On my way

Just before leaving I tweeted (like I do 🙂 )

I love it when social media officers in charities/companies/etc embrace a sense of humour.

Welcome to the family

Arriving at the event earlier than my Dad, I bumped into Helen (who I’d met at the last JDRF event) and had a chat before being tapped on the shoulder and turning around to meet DRWF’s Claire who’d been tweeting with me earlier; I’d not met Clare before but we had a good chat as if we were old friends, that’s what happens at diabetes events, one big family.
Later I caught sight of DRWF’s CEO Sarah Bone who said “Ah, Mr Oceantragic” or something like that. It’s really nice to be recognised at these events, especially by those who must meet so many people in their role.
It feels like being a part of a big family, meeting your distant cousins at some celebration.

The day starts

After a few words from Sarah, then Lee (the event organiser) spoke for a while before the first speaker came on.

The Diabetes Checklist, Dr Mayank Patel

Dr Mayank Patel is a Diabetes Consultant Physician at the General Hospital in Southampton. I didn’t recognise the name but I should have, I follow him on Twitter, but in my defence he doesn’t tweet much.
He spoke about the checklist of diabetes care that everyone should be getting, expecting, demanding. He asked who had heard of the 15 item checklist and I raised my hand, along with very few others; I was quite surprised.
I found myself nodding with many things Dr Patel said and enjoying every minute of his talk.
I could see that my Dad had learned a fair bit in this talk and I was pleased.

Diabetes behind the wheel, Dr Patrick Sharp

Dr Patrick Sharp is a Diabetes Consultant Physician for the Solent NHS Trust. (I’d better check whether I’m following him on Twitter 🙂 ).
He went through the current state of play with driving in you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes; stating the current law and importantly why it’s changed recently.
I liked the way he spoke about the sense/logic behind the DVLA’s current rules and medically the reason for the rules.
Importantly he explained the ‘assisted hypos’ which seems to cause confusion no end, explaining that an assisted hypo is not when you ask your spouse/parent/partner to get you your Dextro tablets, it’s when you need help from a healthcare professional or similar.

Meet The Experts

The hour long coffee break was also the Meet The Experts time where we could go around the stalls. I headed straight to INPUT Diabetes, met Lesley and had a good chat.
I went round all the stands by myself, bumping occasionally into my Dad and pleased to see him getting so involved and interested.
I wanted to also see the Menarini Diagnostics stand and chat with them about their Glucomen meter, which we’ve got two off. I’d called their support desk last week to discuss a potential faulty meter and they were great, so I wanted to pass on my thanks. I found the stand but it looked odd, only showing their GlucoRx meter. Turned out it was a different company (GlucoRx – I only found out after saying ‘are you Glucomen?’. Oops. I was quite impressed with the design of their GlucoRx Nexus Mini and the practicality of the brand new GlucoRx Nexus Voice speaking glucose meter.
Apart from INPUT one of the better chats I had was with a dietician talking but it didn’t start well. I saw the stand and spotted their Eatwell plate, then I saw a slightly different version, it was the Eatwell plate for the Asian community so I picked up a leaflet. The dietician looked at me strangely and offered me the normal leaflet which I declined.
“No thanks the Asian one will do me fine”
“We have it in Bengali too”
(Alright love, I’ll do the jokes around here thanks)
I then kept her busy with questions and questions about low-carbing, low-GI, deducting fibre grammes whilst carb counting and my favourite carb-counting topic of when to count, or not, a portion of 5g veg. (Don’t get me started, I’ll be here all week!!)

Pilates with Priya

Priya Tew is a level 3 pilates instructor and honestly I had no interest in watching her demo. Not for me right, I’m a bloke, I play football, squash and go surfing (although all quite badly to be fair).
But watch it I did and how glad am I that I stated.
Priya gave a few demos although being at the back I could barely see, and she explained why pilates could be good for some of the people in the audience.
Then came the eye-opener for me: “Pilates is good for those with a frozen shoulder”.
Hold on, I’ve got one of them, I’ve had it 3 years!. Whilst it’s no longer painful my arm movement is quite restricted. I listened more eagerly to the rest of the demo.
Afterwards I spoke with Priya and discussed a way forward for me, how pilates could really help. I’ve got her details and I hope I do actually book a session with her soon.

Lunch and meeting the experts again

After a very enjoyable lunch it was time to meet the experts again and I had a nice chat with Dr Patel, speaking about hbA1c checks and things like that. I’d briefly chatted with him earlier, finding out he trained with Dr Partha Kar and what a great Dr/guy he is. I tweeted Dr Kar who’d replied and said Dr Patel was in fact the legend. I found it so nice to see the mutual respect they had for each other.

Pick your stream

After lunch there were 3 streams to choose from: Increase Your Wellbeing; Looking After Your Eyes; Speed Dating for Type 1s.
I sent my Dad into the wellbeing stream whilst I attended the Type 1 stream, along with Helen from earlier and her friend.
In my stream were two Diabetes Specialist Nurses from Southampton. We had a good chat, especially about their lack of pump service and what they’re trying to do to get one.

Q&A

The afternoon ended with a question and answer session with three people; Dr Mayank Patel; Jan Mitchell and Sarah Woodman.
I’d passed Sarah in the corridor and she smiled at me, I thought I knew her from somewhere but didn’t know where until I saw her on the stage. I’d met her a couple of weeks back at a DiabetesUK stand in a nearby supermarket. She’d promised to email me something, I never received it, I wondered if this could be a question I could put to her as part of the Q&A.
Okay, maybe not.

It’s all over

What a great day.
I’d learnt so much, networked so much and drank so much coffee. I’d met some wonderful people, many of which I’m sure to bump into again at future events.
More importantly my Dad had learned loads and picked up an Accu-chek Aviva meter which he intends to use to start monitoring his glucose levels, something he hasn’t done much in years. It was worth me going just to see this.

Thanks

I’d like to thank DRWF for putting this event on and the other great work they do.
Thanks.

Getting an insulin pump – a superb 24 hours

By Kev | June 22, 2013 - 6:56 am |November 22, 2013 insulin pump

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Amy and her new insulin pump and her new DiabeTees iPump t-shirt

A busy (sinful) 24 hours

Since waking up yesterday morning, Jane, Amy and myself have had a great 24 hours, almost a day of celebration of the new pump, a day of treats and especially a day of saying ‘what the heck, just have it’. On reflection this may not have been the best policy on only day 2 of a pump, it just snowballed.
I’ll hold my hands up then and say that on the face of it today we’ve been pretty irresponsible, we’ve let our daughter got all out and eat want she wanted. I’ve made sure we ended in places where she’d say ‘ooh, can I have that?’ so we could let her.
It wasn’t meant to be like this.
A couple of weeks ago we chatted about the impending first 24 hours on the pump and said that we would be good, eating only normal food and stuff that we could easily calculate the accurate carb value for. This was especially to make the carbs/insulin matching accurate so that we knew that glucose fluctuations would be mainly down to Amy’s basal insulin, which the pump delivers every few minutes. This in turn would help our DSN (diabetes specialist nurse) make adjustments to Amy’s basal profile, something that is crucial to the pump being a success.

Early rush for clinic

Amy’s 3 monthly clinic appointment had been booked for yesterday since the last one in March, on the 15th.
That was the one where Amy first saw a pump and later had her epiphany moment and said “I want a pump”.
So our ‘time to pump’ was one clinic, or a little over 3 months. (15th March to June 20th). It could have been quicker if I hadn’t been researching pumps for so long.
Clinic was at 10am, we only just made it.
It was strange being back there the day after the time before, the only times this has happened before for Amy was when she was diagnosed and before that, when she was born. She didn’t remember the first time for some reason.
Whilst I have no experience of other clinics can I just say that I blinking love this one: everyone is part of one team, a team which encourages, helps and listens.

The dreaded hbA1c check/result

For those of you who don’t know the hbA1c is a blood check which in layman’s terms tells the Dr how ‘good’ you’ve been for the last 3 months. It’s a little more complicated than that, but that’s the gist. Many argue that hbA1c is not a good test as you can have a ‘good’ result whilst living a life of hypos and hypers, with blood sugars rollercoasting, whilst a ‘bad’ result could be achieved with very little fluctuation. Many, including me, would argue that the latter (‘bad’) is a better thing to strive for. Dave Sowerby’s article delves into the HbA1c check in more detail.
Amy was generally 7.3 but in December rocketed to 8.3, in March she was back down to 8.0.
I feared for today’s result as she’d been high on average for weeks. We’d done nothing about this as she was going on a pump and it seemed little point changing things about.
The result came in….
8.2
Phew! I was amazed it wasn’t a little higher.

First up: DSN

Our DSN and Dietician attended the first part, looking over the last 21 hours (since going live on pump) log book information. This felt strange, we were only talking about 21 hours, not the normal three months.
They were pleased with the progress made already, amazed at how well Amy looked and felt about the pump, applauded the BG values and corrective doses.
Whilst the DSN said not to bother two-hourly testing through last night, I suggested that we were happy to do it if it meant her basal might be easier to get right.
She agreed and said she’d give us a call – in her own time – sometime later this morning.

Second up: the Doctor

Some people dread the first few minutes of an appointment with their Endocrinologist, but not us, for one simple reason: she always starts with ‘how are you Amy’. She always talks direct to Amy, she leads with questions about her wellbeing and doesn’t lead with ‘your hbA1c result showed that…’.
I love this approach.
We spoke mainly about the pump, how it was going, what it felt like, did the cannula hurt and things like that.
I asked how she found the training day the day before, trying to elicit a response about the Animas pump. I wanted to try and see if there was any issue with us wanting the Animas Vibe and daring to challenge the de-facto standard issue of Medtronic or Roche.
“I like that pump, I think more people may get that one here. What were the reasons you really wanted it?”
This was excellent news, there was no problem about us wanting the Vibe and great news that the Doctor liked it. I went through the many, many reasons we chose Animas over the others.
We offered to come in to do demos for other parents/children who were looking at pumps.

Costa: an easy place for diabetics

It was 11:30am, Jane and I were knackered after a lack of sleep last night. I needed caffeine, so we hit Costa in the hospital grounds.
“Have what you like Amy”
“Really? O.M.G. I’m having that” as she pointed to the Mango and Passion Fruit Ice Cooler.
I should explain that normally Amy would just have water, it’s 0g carbs, or at best a Diet Coke, never something she’d need to bolus for as that would mean another injection. Now it doesn’t, just a couple of button clicks.
Amy at Costa
Jane asked how many carbs and the Barista asked where were sitting and that he’d be one minute.
He turned up with a huge book which he said listed absolutely everything they sold. And it did.
The drink was a massive 55g of carbohydrates, so Amy bolused 4.25 units of insulin for it. What was nice was that she didn’t do a blood test for it, just used the ‘ezBG’ feature to match the insulin to the carbs consumed.
She loved that drink, she loved the feeling of having things she’d denied herself for years.

Retail therapy

We spent the day with some retail therapy, visits to fast food places (which we never normally do) and even succumbed to buying a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts for film-watching time later that evening.
Amy was ecstatic at the new world opening up to her.
We did have a discussion about everything returning to normal today.
Later that evening I reflected on the way forward:
tweetjabba

Two hourly testing results

We’ve got to test Amy’s blood glucose levels every two hours for the 48 hours after having pump. This is something everyone going on a pump seems to do, although for many they have to do it for a week.
Amy’s levels have been:
Time, BG mmols, correction dose
06:00, 3.6, 9g carbs (mis-calculated carbs for 3 dextro, thought it was 5g each, it’s only 3g! Discovered mistake 30 minutes later)
08:00, 5.7
09:00, 4.9
10:00, 5.9
11:00, didn’t test but had 55g smoothie drink, 4.25u insulin
12:00, we were travelling so we forgot/missed this check
13:00, 7.4, lunchtime, eating huge 105g carbs so had 8.05u insulin
14:30, 4.2, 9g carbs, Amy felt hypo so even though technically wasn’t she had 9g to make her feel better. It worked.
15:00, 3.6, 15g carbs, clearly 30 minutes she was dropping quickly
16:00, 6.5
18:00, 14.2, 2.55u insulin, clearly the 9g+15g Dextro tabs earlier had caught up with her
19:00, 11.7, dinner of 56g so took 6.03u insulin – 4.3u insulin for the food, 1.73u insulin for the correction to bring her levels into range
20:00, 6.8, 40g carbs & 3.05u insulin – post-dinner treat doughnut
22:00, 4.1, 24g carbs for a milkshake, no insulin suggested
00:00, 14.7, 2.35u insulin
02:00, 8.8
04:00, 9.1
06:00, 8.0

Considering what a ‘treat’ day it’s been those figures are amazing.
#Winning

Getting an insulin pump – through the first night

By Kev | June 21, 2013 - 7:43 am |November 22, 2013 insulin pump

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Amy and her new insulin pump and her new DiabeTees iPump t-shirt

Back at home and bouncing with joy

We arrived back from the hospital with pretty good glucose levels. It was about the same time Amy’s friends were leaving school.
She texted them “I’m home, come over and see my pump”.
10 minutes later several friends turned up and they stayed outside talking in the garden. 20 minutes after that and Amy’s gone hypo (2.6mmol) as they’ve been bouncing on the trampoline, a lot.
I remembered the conversation from earlier about testing out the temporary basal rate; what an ideal time that would have been, if only we’d thought about it.

First extra bolus at home

Amy had already done her first extra bolus at hospital for 3 chocolates, it had gone well. This was a big thing for Amy as she has missed out having snacks/treats for 2.5 years.
She’s always had the choice to have snacks when others are but if they’re more than 15g carbs then she should give some insulin for it. She hates injections with a passion and virtually always chose not to, thereby missing out on snacks. Only now have I realised how much stuff we’ve stopped doing because of this, such as going to the cinema and having a snack during the film. So looking forward to these things now.
Anyway, yesterday afternoon Amy wanted a snack and chose one of the iced buns we’d bought that day. Its 23g carbs would have needed a bolus so on MDI she wouldn’t have had it. Now though, there was nothing stopping her so she tested, bolused and ate. It actually took longer to eat the thing than prepare to eat it. That’s a big bonus.

Fast food

No, don’t panic, we didn’t hit the fast food restaurants last night, but we did have fast food…let me explain.
The normal meal time routine involves calling Amy 10 minutes before dinner is ready; getting her to do a BG test; calculating her carbs (with her) whilst serving up the food; eldest daughter goes and eats; we stay behind to do Amy’s injection; Amy finally gets to eat.
We’ve kind of got used to food starting to go cold, it almost seems normal.
Last night’s meal was different in that Amy carb counted and immediately bolused, in seconds.
The ritual of preparing the injection site, preparing the needle, hovering the needle over the site for what seems an eternity, doing the injection…these have gone, disappeared, hopefully forever.
Eating hot food just might catch on again.

Two hourly testing results

We’ve got to test Amy’s blood glucose levels every two hours for the next 48 hours at least. This is something everyone going on a pump seems to do, although for many they have to do it for a week.
Amy’s levels have been:
Time, BG mmols, correction dose
16:00, 2.6, 9g carbs – should have been 15g but we mis-calculated Dextro carbs
17:00, 5.2
18:00, 7.2
20:00, 3.1, 9g carbs
21:00, 5.2
22:00, 9.2, 0.3u insulin
00:00, 11.7, 1.55u insulin – we would never have done a correction like that before
02:00, 4.2, woohoo, that last correction worked
04:00, 4.7
06:00, 3.6, 9g carbs – interesting as to whether this is hypo or whether 3.3 is the limit
08:00, 5.7

I’d call that pretty darn good.
#Winning

Getting an insulin pump – the day has dawned

By Kev | June 20, 2013 - 5:23 pm |March 1, 2015 insulin pump

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Amy and her new insulin pump and her new DiabeTees iPump t-shirt

Woohoo, we’re live and pumping

What a long day it’s been, but a great one and one which has left us all still smiling.

Welcome to our world…

Dr Sheldon Cooper (Amy’s new pump name), or Sheldon for short, or Shelly when he’s feeling a little sorry for himself. If you don’t know who he is then do a quick Google, he’s a character from the Big Bang Theory, one of Amy’s favourite shows. If you know who he is then all I can say is Bazinga.

What’s in a name?

Dr Sheldon Cooper says he’s one of the smartest people alive…and he probably is. He’s much smarter than those around him.
He makes many calculations each day and in his own words he’s never wrong.
His soul mate is Amy (Dr Amy Farrah Fowler).
On many levels this pump was always going to be called Sheldon.

Our day starts

Amy awoke excited at what the day would bring.
I opened a conversation: ‘so what are you going to wear today Amy?’
She didn’t know which top to wear.
I suggested ‘what about this?’ as I pulled her new pink DiabeTees iPump t-shirt out of my wardrobe.
I’d been keeping it there for the past couple of weeks, trying not to accidentally tell her I’d bought it.
She put the t-shirt on.
Delighted would be an understatement.

Where’s my pump?

In the room today was Emma our Animas pump rep, our Consultant Endocrinologist, the DSN (DSN1) who would be supporting the pump transistion, another DSN (DSN2) who’s never used an Animas Vibe and the three of us (Amy, Jane and myself). The room was pretty full.
Emma handed over the massive box to Amy who within seconds had got the pump out, battery in and raring to go.
Such a large box of stuff, but importantly containing 20 sought-after pink cannulas, to match her pink insulin pump and pink t-shirt.

On with the training

Each of us was given a pump and we all went through the menus, primarily for the Dr and two DSNs who had not used this pump before. We are the first people in paediatrics at Winchester to get an Animas Vibe, I think though we maybe be the first of many.
Amy and I already felt quite comfortable with this because of all the training we’d already had with Annie and later with Emma.

Filling up the insulin reservoir

Amy hates needles so I had no doubt that I (or Jane) would be filling the reservoirs for the first few months.
Before we left this morning I asked Amy whether she was going to go into the session nervously or with confidence. We hadn’t discussed it much but clearly she’d chosen ‘confidence’ as she took the filling kit and insulin vial.
Slowly she filled the reservoir with insulin, cleared any air bubbles, primed the pump and filled the tube.

Fitting the Inset II infusion set

Emma talked us through using the infusion set installation, something the three of us were comfortable with as we’ve all worn one for three days previously. I was surprised that the HCPs showed no real interest as I guessed they’d not used them before.
Amy installed her set with confidence, it had gone in perfectly, but disaster struck as she immediately felt faint. Under advisement from the Doctor she put her head between her knees and within 5 minutes was feeling much better again.
Here’s Amy in showing off her pink Inset II infusion set.
Amy shows off her pink ensemble

Setting up Amy’s pump

The conversation turned to the Doctor and two DSNs as Emma asked them what settings to apply on the pump for basal, and maximum bolus settings and the like. Once they decided, Amy set the pump up under direction from Emma and a close eye from me. I feel confident in setting up basals in the future, although don’t plan to do any changes by ourselves for some time yet.
Amy clipped in her infusion set to her cannula, primed the cannula with 0.3 units of Novorapid and that was it: she was live on an insulin pump.
And relax.

Lunchtime calls, bolusing beckons

It was time for a well earned break, it was lunchtime. We decided to go the cafeteria, get some food and bring it back to the training room.
30 minutes later, back in the room and Amy did a blood glucose test, chose ezCarb from the menu, entered her BG reading (4 mmol), entered the carbs (50g), clicked ‘Show Result’ and instructed the pump to give the bolus insulin (3u).
Success, a first bolus.

Almost done

After a bit more chat about temporary basal rates, sick days and school it was almost time to go, but not before we opened one of the two boxes of chocolates we’d bought for Emma and the HCPs, to say thank you.
The box said it was 23g for three chocolates, Amy had done a test, entered the carb amount and given herself a bolus within seconds.
This is one of the reasons she/we wanted the pump and as for the last 2.5 years Amy refused to have any snack over 10g/15g as she did not want to increase her daily number of injections.

Word for the day?

Brilliant.

Pink pump, pink cannula

Getting an insulin pump – the wait is over…almost

By Kev | June 20, 2013 - 6:29 am |November 21, 2013 insulin pump

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Animas Vibe insulin pumps

The wait is over…almost

Just a quick update for now…
In three hours time we’ll be starting Amy’s appointment for fitting the pump.
We’re all excited, Amy especially, she’s been counting down the injections one by one, there’s only one left which she’ll take at breakfast time. Luckily we remembered to only take half the Levemir last night.

Questions, questions, questions

I’m normally prepared for days like this, normally writing down lists of questions I need or want answers to. When Amy and I went to the “Portsmouth Hospitals’ Diabetes “Sweet Meet” we’d written loads of questions – we were the only ones who’d done that I think – but we never asked any of them. The day had just flowed nicely and the preparation we’d done wasn’t required.
So today we’re going to wing it: I’ve not prepared any questions and I can tell you that I’m shocked I haven’t. Surely today is more important than anything else we’ve done recently? Surely today we need to leave the hospital in total confidence?

Learning together

There’s no doubt that I’ve done a lot of research about the pumps and whilst I’m sure I know relatively little compared to people who’ve used a pump for a while, I am sure that I know more about the features of this pump than the hospital does. It’s to be expected, Amy will be the first paediatric Animas Vibe wearer, so the DSNs have never needed to know anything about it.
Today then we’ll all be learning together: we’ll be learning about how to program the basal rates; the DSNs will be learning about the pump.
I hope today will prove what a good team we’ll be together. I have not doubt it will.

Over-confident?

I’m a little worried that I’m feeling over-confident about today. Lord knows I’m nervous but it’s just because it’s a major change for my daughter, if it was for me I wouldn’t be so worried.
My confidence boils down to a few things: I’ve done a lot of research, we’re not going into this blind; the #DOC has lots of Animas Vibe wearers who I know will be on-hand almost 24/7; I have phone numbers of parents whose kids are pumping with Animas.
It’s good that the appointment is today as we’re but at the hospital tomorrow for Amy’s quarterly clinic so we can report back, face-to-face, any issues we’ve had before the weekend starts.

Wish us luck then

…and expect a few tweets 🙂

Note to DSNs, Doctors, diabetes clinics and CCGS

I’ve referred to this journey towards a pump as a ladder, once which had rungs but just how many we didn’t know.
This process could have been a little easier for us if we’d known at any point how many steps away from the pump we were. Just a thought for you.

Gav’s GBR30/30 Challenge – the final day

By Kev | June 19, 2013 - 9:46 pm |July 1, 2013 event

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Gav’s GBR30/30 Challenge poster

This article is about my involvement with Gav’s challenge, where I cycled next to him during the last four days of his challenge, whilst he ran 30 miles or more each day for JDRF and DiabetesUK.
If you’re expecting to find out about how Gav got on with his diabetes or running you’re going to be disappointed, you’ll have to wait and buy the book or attend one of his talks. Sorry but his tale is his to tell, not mine.

Donation, donation, donation

If you’d like to donate to Gav’s GBR30/30 Challenge fundraising pot please click this: http://bit.ly/gbr3030donate

Sunday, 26th May 2013 – St Agnes to Land’s End

Today’s route was going to be a tough one, at least 35 miles and having a 500ft hill towards the end.
Early on whilst planning this route I tried to convince Gav to start from somewhere further south, maybe Portreath or the Hell’s Mouth Cafe, so as to shorten the distance and make it easier on himself. Gav was having none of my advice and replied to one email with “If I’ve made it that far on the GBR30/30 then nothing will stop me, I will conquer any hills and any distance”…or something like that.
I felt for Matthew (Wood), Gav’s friend who ran with him on day one of the challenge starting at John O’ Groats; I don’t think he knew anything about this; I wasn’t sure how he’d feel about this. I knew Matthew had completed marathons but 35 milers, up big hills. I decided my best policy was to keep quiet about the route as Matthew followed me on Twitter.
Personally, I was never going to start from St Agnes as I was camping down near Leedstown, near Hayle, so I’d always planned to start from me, which meant I’d accompany Gav and Matthew for the last 20 miles.

Gav’s (planned) route, my route and elevation

Gav’s planned route was as follows – I say planned route as Gav decided that he hadn’t seen enough of Great Britain on his travels and decided to take a wrong turn, turning this planned 35 mile day into 40 miles!. I joined them at Hayle, roughly where the green triangle is shown:

Feeling guilty, getting nervous

Waking up to a glorious sunny day at the campsite my family and I chilled out around the pool, before I headed of to meet Gav and Mat shortly after lunch. In a way I felt a little guilty about this but in honestly laying by the pool felt great. After doing over 80 miles on my bike so far I, or more to the point my bottom, was glad of the break.
I was starting to feel nervous, a strange feeling that I’d not had on any of the previous days. I knew why: I’m no cyclist or athlete and I really didn’t want to muck up Gav’s big day by being too slow etc.. It was stupid really, I knew it was but I couldn’t do anything about it.

The “Where’s Gav?” Game

Jane drove me and my bike to the meeting point as we’d had no word from Gav. This was no surprise once we found out he was lost. Jane drove me up country lane after country lane trying to find the missing runners but we never did find them, so we went back to the meet point and eventually Gav and Matthew turned up, looking pretty fresh considering they’d already run about 20 miles.

Off we, erm I, go

Setting off from Hayle I felt supremely confident about the route: I didn’t really need a map; I consider this part of Cornwall as like a second home having spent so much time around these parts.
Along the Hayle estuary, onto the A30, off to Penzance, up the hill past Drift and then Land’s End. It couldn’t have been simpler I thought, forgetting that these guys who had already run 20 miles still had 20 to go. I was on a bike and much of it was downhill, so on came the (slight) guilt again.
Whilst much of it was on the A30 the route was generally beautiful, with Kites and Buzzards flying around us, sea alternating from this side to that and back again.

A chance meeting – this is what GBR30/30 is all about

On the A30 we stopped in a lay by for Gav to test his blood glucose. A random Land Rover pulled up and out go two people and walked over to us. It seemed a little strange at first.
“Hi” they said and told us that they’d followed the GBR30/30 information on Facebook and just wanted to come and meet Gav and say hello. They lived in Truro where the female was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes within the last year, aged 29. She was inspired by Gav and his challenge and just wanted to say “hi”. This to me epitomises GBR30/30: to bring awareness to people diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes so that they can see that the can achieve great things, they may need to work around/with diabetes but it need not stop them. It was fitting that this encounter happened on the last day of the GBR30/30.

Water, water, give me water, says Gav

The route I’d planned would see Gav running into Penzance around the beautiful bay, in front of the mighty St Michael’s Mount. Things changed though when Gav saw the sea and he decided to go in for a little paddle, to help soothe his legs.

Gav stands proudly in front of St Michael’s Mount, with 12 miles to go until Land’s End:

So much support

At Penzance we met with everyone else before the final push. Well, I say push as it was nothing, it was still TEN MILES. That’s a distance I couldn’t run in a week, let alone one day where 30 miles had already been run. Knowing how slow I am at going up hills and not wanting to slow Gav/Matthew down I put my bike on the car and got taken to the next meet point and cycled on from there. In my mind the hill was too steep for me but as I drove up it I was truly gutted I didn’t attempt it.

Growing Oceans

Gav powered on towards Land’s End whilst I stayed at the back cycling behind Matthew, who had already run one of his furthest distances ever but still had 5 miles to go. I tried offering some encouragement but stayed away from the “just one more hill” comment as I could never be sure. Gav was on a mission, there was no way we were going to catch him up and I knew at this point that I wouldn’t get to see Gav finish at Land’s End, yet it didn’t matter as Matthew seemed to need my support more than Gav did at the moment.
The oceans grew bigger and bigger as the horizon opened up in front of us. We could see clouds on the horizon, or was it, no, actually, that’s the Isles of Scilly. Wow!

The last push

Safe in the assumption that Gav had already finished, Matthew strode on, passing the first/last pub in England, going through Sennen and finally on the straight towards the Land’s End Visitor Centre.
Gav’s Dad Vince was waiting with the Olympic Torch for Matt to pick up and run with.
Matt strode on, we could hear cheers getting louder and louder pulling Matthew towards the finish line.

Fantastic end

Everyone celebrated together, one big team, those that had done it, those that had supported it, all happy together. Gav looked knackered but elated, drenched in champagne. Now it was time for the photos at the signpost and this seemed to go on forever.
Other kids just there for the day saw the Olympic Torch and had their pictures taken with it; anyone we told about what Gav had just completed was amazed, many saying “ran, did you say ran?” to me; the photo taking went on and on.

Gav’s last day run video

A short video of Gav’s run, with some of the photos at the end

Matthew’s last day run video

Much more footage of Matthew, because I stayed with him for support

And finally…

Gav’s GBR30/30 Challenge – Day 29 to Gav, day 1 to Amy, day 3 to me

By Kev | June 16, 2013 - 8:57 pm |February 11, 2019 event

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Gav’s GBR30/30 Challenge poster

Saturday, 25th May 2013 – Bodmin to St Agnes

Today was my 12 year old daughter Amy’s big day: she’d cycle her longest distance ever (27 miles); meet an inspirational athlete who, like her, has type 1 diabetes; raise lots of money for charity; run with Gavin into St Agnes carrying his Olympic Torch. My wife Jane would also be cycling with us today.

The planned route and elevation

Late the night before I changed the plan slightly so we’d join Gavin about 3 miles in, halfway up a 500ft hill. Why? Well to be honest I’d had enough of hills by this point and I didn’t want Amy’s big day to start with a 500ft hill climb, knackering her out with still 27 miles cycling and a run to the end with the Olympic Torch.

Setting off from Bodmin Jail, or Gaol to ye olde rascals

Gav was going to depart from Bodmin Jail and although we weren’t going to cycle from there we went to see him off on his run, to then join him 3 miles later. When we got there everyone was downstairs in the old jail checking out the cells, we ventured down there too but I knew Amy wouldn’t last long, she hates things like that.
Afterwards it was photo time and Gav had a little issue to sort out before we could start his run:

Our journey begins

Meeting Gav three miles in we parked the car in a country layby and left it there, hoping it would still be there 10 hours later. We were halfway up the hill we were trying to avoid but actually it didn’t seem to bad, probably because yesterday’s gales weren’t there any more, leaving a lovely sunny day for us to enjoy.
After a couple of miles Gav’s sister Kaylie joined him running and Amy warmed to her straight away, cycling next to her for the next few miles.
We passed by a road sign for a town which made me smile, especially whilst on a diabetes-related trip.

Lovely countryside, quite roads

For the next few miles we cycled on cycleways, the Goss Moor trail (where people on horseback rode past) and very quiet roads. The sun was shining down and I only was pleased not to need the fleece+jacket I’d worn on the previous two days.
Amy and Jane were enjoying themselves too.
httpv://youtu.be/Q5-pgPmXt1s

A great support team

Throughout the day Gavin’s family met us at different points, giving Gav a cheer as he neared them, motivating through the next stretch.
httpv://youtu.be/LtrLYHkEZaM

Gav in “Countryside Meltdown Shocker”

On the way to the final checkpoint, Gav laughingly had a bit of a breakdown, longing for tarmac and concrete. Watch it happen:
httpv://youtu.be/3fl3tJjzNcc

A cock-up of a finale

With 6 miles or so to go we stopped at the New Inn at Goonhavern for a quick drink, meeting up with Matthew Wood and his wife Clare – Matthew ran the first day with Gav and was going to run the last too. Gav’s Dad Vince bought me a refreshing pint of shandy and as he passed it to me Gav said “right, I’m off to finish this thing”.
“Erm, ok, Gav, I’d better drink this first.”
Matthew was staying in St Agnes and told have which way to run, but it differed to the plan I’d done previously, but I hatched a plan where he’d go one way and we’d go the other and get in front of him, to be in St Agnes ready for his arrival. Amy would then collect the torch and run with Gav to the end point, the St Agnes Hotel.
If only it had worked out like that!
Leaving twenty minutes later than Gav we sped down the first hill – at 35mph for me: “woohoo…yeah…damn, that hill goes up…and up…oh kak”.
The series of hills kept coming and coming, downhill then uphill and downhill again.
After cycling over 23 miles already the last 4 were killers to our tired legs.
This was broken by calls from Emilia, then Gav, then Vince (Gav’s Dad) then Emilia again; all asking us where we were and when we’d arrive. I had no clue.
Finally, St Agnes neared and Gav met us, gave the Olympic Torch to Amy and ran up the hill with her bike, whilst Jane and I followed, slowly.
Amy was elated, but sadly for Jane and myself we’d missed seeing her finish with the torch.

Gav’s GBR30/30 Challenge – Day 28 to Gav, day 2 to me

By Kev | June 15, 2013 - 4:37 pm |July 1, 2013 event

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Gav’s GBR30/30 Challenge poster

Donation, donation, donation

If you’d like to donate to Gav’s GBR30/30 Challenge fundraising pot please click this: http://bit.ly/gbr3030donate

Friday, 24th May 013 – Plymouth to Bodmin

Today would see us leave from Home Park, the home of Plymouth Football Club and attempt to make it to Bodmin, over some hills potentially worse than yesterday. At least yesterday’s hills were at the start, today they were all the way through.

The planned route and elevation

Today’s route on flat land was due to be 33.1 miles, or 53.3km in new money.
You can click on the map to show it in Google maps:

Oh my God, my legs hurt

After the longest ride I’d ever done and a couple of pints of (medicinal!) cider later I’d almost fallen asleep in my dinner, but typically didn’t sleep once in bed as my legs were shouting “you idiot, why didn’t you do a bit more cycle training for this!” at me throughout the night.
They didn’t feel any better in the morning.
I compared the elevation plans for yesterday and today, with dread.

Crossing the Tamar

Gav and I set off from Plymouth Argyle FC’s ground, home park and headed towards the Tamar Bridge. As we got nearer it struck me that this was a momentous time as Gavin stepped foot into the last county in Great Britain, leaving him with around 90 miles still left.
httpv://youtu.be/aJQBU0BwKY4

It’s pretty but it’s hilly

The countryside around us as we went north turned into rolling hills, often full of ripening rapeseed.

A slight headwind

The hills meant I’d lost Gavin once again as he surged forward as if they were flat. I had no idea how far behind I was but kept on going up the hills hoping to catch him up at some point before the next checkpoint at Quethiock.
The wind was heading directly towards us for most of the day but only became a real problem when out in the open. Here’s a sample of what we faced, see how the wires sway and the speed of the clouds. The shaky camera was caused by the gusts:
httpv://youtu.be/oPLwijC5LNM

Where’s Gav?

I reached Quethiock and found my Dad there waiting with a sandwich for my lunch, but where was Gav? He was way ahead of me, but I’d caned it down any available hills and never caught up with him. He called, he was at Blunts, a village I’d passed through 2.4 miles beforehand. He was lost and had done far too many miles already, but luckily his aunt and sister were with him.

I didn’t quite make it

After Quethiock I pressed on but due to pretty steep hills and an horrendous gusting wind I called it a day at Liskeard, having done only 21 miles. If there’d been no wind I’m sure I would have managed the full distance. I guess I’d only set out to cycle 100 miles with Gav, that’s 25 a day and I’d already covered 57 in two days, but I was disappointed about stopping early.
The route I covered was:

Gav’s GBR30/30 Challenge – Day 27 to Gav, day 1 to me

By Kev | June 14, 2013 - 7:27 pm |February 11, 2019 fundraising

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Gav’s GBR30/30 Challenge poster

The night before…

Dad rang me on the phone to confirm the time he was picking me up in the morning.
“Ok, Kev, I’ll see you at 5am”
“What, 5am! No, later, can we aim to leave here at 6am?”
We settled on him arriving at 5:30am, to leave at 6am on our 3 hour drive to Torquay in Devon, to meet Gav and cycle 30 odd miles next to him. It was going to be a long day.
5:30am obviously stuck in my Dad’s head, as that’s when he left his house, to drive to mine, 45 minutes away.
We were already late.

The route and elevation

Today’s route on flat land was due to be 33.6 miles, or 54.2km in new money.
You can click on the map to show it in Google maps:

Plymouth ho!

At Plainmoor, the home of Torquay Football Club, we met Gavin, his sister and his Aunt, took pictures and readied to set off.
I presumed that the hilly route would be quite normal to Gavin, who’d already run through Scotland, the Cotswolds and the Mendips but he next four days turned out to be some of the hilliest routes.
I was dreading it, I hate hills, which is why I’d cleverly (or not!) spent hours changing the route to minimise elevation changes and therefore hill climbs. It only took me a couple of miles to realised all this was in vain and that I should have put it a lot of hill cycle training beforehand; it was too late now.

Did I say that I hate hills?

Just two miles into the route came our first steep hill, a road still within the boundary of Torquay.
I slowed as I cycled and watched as Gav ran on, powering up the hill. Half way up my unfit legs told me to get off the bike and walk.
I was disappointed but as I walked up I looked at the terracing of the houses and realised it was probably the steepest I’d ever attempted to cycle up.
And just at moment Gav’s sister Kaylie caught the moment on camera.
The next 3km were up hill all the way and at this point I lost Gav.
Here I was, meant to be supporting someone who’d already run 780 miles and I couldn’t even keep up. I didn’t catch up with Gavin until we reached the first checkpoint, 5 miles or so in.

Downhill(ish) to Totnes, then up, up, up

Kaylie joined us for the run to Totnes, running alonside her brother for the next 5 miles.
The lack of inclines pleased me and finally I felt like I was doing what I set out to do, thoroughly enjoying cycling through the beautiful countryside.
Totnes approached, where my Dad was waiting with my first pasty of the trip, which on reflection probably wasn’t a good idea.
Out of Totnes the road just went up and up, on a road not suitable for cars, or my bike, at least that’s what it felt like.
Through miles and miles of countryside we went and reached the halfway point at our first pub stop, the Avon Inn at Avonwick. I looked forward to a beer until I looked at the elevation of the road that came next. I ordered a coke.

Climbing and falling

The new few miles were pretty good although it was getting pretty windy and we could see rain in the distance.
Gav had told me he would run at 5mph to conserve energy but at 24 miles in he was caning it at 9mph, as the photo shows.
The road was getting busier, the clouds were getting darker but we pressed towards Plymouth.
Through the pouring rain I cycled into Plymouth and towards the finish line. My odometer told me I’d already clocked 35 miles, the most I’d ever cycled by 10 miles…and that was on the flat.
Gav and I neared the finish line and just before crossing the road I fell off my bike, with my feet still in the clips. My elbow felt like it was broken, I may have sworn a little.
By the time we reached the finish the sky was turning quite blue…as was my arm.

Plymouth. Hi!

Gav ran with the torch to the finish, near the Fish on a Stick and the Mayflower steps.
I was pretty relieved today and its weather and its hills was over.

And finally…

Gav knew the cold water in the harbour would soothe his legs so like our countrymen in 1620 he descended the Mayflower steps in search of salvation.
httpv://youtu.be/ynjPNTVRH70