Behind the headlines

This blog is a reaction to the frenzy that the media got itself into over the news that the number of adults living with diabetes England & Wales had surpassed 3 million.

Now rather than pay any attention to the Press Release as issued by Diabetes UK the media decided to jump on its ill-informed bandwagon and throw slurs and generally 'fat-shame'.

So I thought i'd put myself in the shoes of a hack and see what kinda piece I could write - below is my humble effort, which I think might be a little more palatable, needs editing though and well a wee bit more sensationalism and a picture - but not a f#'king picture of someone eating a donut!

As always willing to take critique!

"Diabetes Doesn't Have to Cost"

A [diabetes charity - insert your favourite] has identified that only 6 in 10 people living with diabetes in England & Wales receive the recommended health care checks.

These simple checks such as getting blood pressure and blood glucose levels measured, as well as the kidney function monitored can prevent the complications that cost.  Complications which are devastating and expensive such as kidney disease, stroke and amputation.

 

There are over 3 million adults in the UK living with a diagnosis of diabetes, the majority of which (some 90%) have Type 2 Diabetes.  A [diabetes charity - insert your favourite] spokesperson believes these people have a right to live a long and healthy life despite their diabetes.  Access to basic testing can help this to happen.

[diabetes charity - insert your favourite] is calling on the government to takes urgent action to ensure that everyone with diabetes receives the eight care processes, reducing their risk of further health complications and the costs these incur for the already strained NHS budget.

3 million people is almost the equivalent of the whole population of Wales, if all the people didn't receive basic care then the whole country would suffer, why should people with diabetes suffer?

 

[diabetes charity - insert your favourite] recognises that a key component of reducing the overall cost of diabetes is to help with prevention, that is why they and other partner charities are jointly investing £m in research for a vaccine to protect future generations from developing the incurable Type 1 variant of diabetes.

[diabetes charity - insert your favourite] also reflected that Type 2 diabetes, which is largely linked to obesity and lifestyle factors, but not exclusively, there are many risk factors, could be prevented or largely managed by the adoption of a healthy diet and exercise

 

 

I Can...can't i?

The theme of Diabetes Week in 2014 is I Can - so i've decided to write a little blog on the phrase 'I Can'

I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in September 1990, that makes me a relative newbie in terms of my life with diabetes, I know there are many who may read this who will have had the condition longer than I have and whose experiences are even more challenging than mine, but hopefully they will allow me license to say my bit and then share their own experiences too.

I Can....

In 2014 'I Can' now test for blood glucose in a small discrete bg meter that requires only a small amount of blood and get accurate readings of my blood glucose to a decimal point which it will keep in memory and allow me to reference back and calculate my average bg reading.

In 1990 all 'I Could' do was squeeze my finger till it hurt to get sufficient blood to cover a test strip that I had to wait one minute before I wiped the blood off and then another minute inside a meter for it to may be decide to read it and give me a somewhat accurate result based on the colours that the test strip had turned into, and even then the message 'Err' was a regular occurrence so you spent your time trying to decipher if the top line was a yellowy brownish grey colour and how blue the bottom blue line was so you could check against a chart on the strip bottle and do your best to make a guess at what the reading was.  And don;t get me started on the meter itself - it was the size of a small brick!

In 2014 'I Can' follow a basal/bolus regime of multiple daily injections with a long acting background insulin, other methods of delivering insulin are available, but this is about me!  I can enjoy the flexibility of deciding what to eat and when by adjusting doses to match my food and my activity, and I can inject there and then, no waiting, ok I might not get it right all the time, but I try my best.

In 1990 'I Could' inject a human mixed insulin, I had to wait half an hour to eat after doing this and then I had to watch the clock post food and feel how my body was reacting to the peaks and troughs of the insulin, it wasn't exactly an accurate tool, I had to be constantly ready to treat a hypo if the walk I did to school or the walk to work meant that I didn't have enough glucose in my system, and again, like today, I might not have got it right, but I did try my best.

In 2014 'I Can' use a disposable needle which can be 4mm, 6mm or 8mm, its relatively painless.

In 1990 'I Could' use a disposable syringe with a 12mm needle, not too painful but a bugger to work with if you didn't have 'fat' bits!

In 2014 'I Can' worry about my blood pressure, my cholesterol levels my weight and my kidney function and my feet and a myriad of other things, I can take tablets to deal with all this and i can survive.

In 1990 'I Could' pre-diagnosis live life without worrying about my blood pressure, my cholesterol, my kidney function - ok my weight wasn't brilliant, but hey there was chocolate and crisp to be had!

Things move and things change - there are advances to our benefit which we embrace and support and we long for even better and more advanced changes.

But we also have the reality of dealing with the fact that organ failure of the pancreas, because lets face it that's what Type 1 Diabetes is, is as bad for our health as long term kidney dialysis is for people with kidney failure, we are using technology to mimic a healthy body, but at a cost to our health.

i 'CAN' appreciate the tools i'm given; a lot of those tools and treatments were developed through the lost lives of others and lessons learned from that loss and advances demanded to ensure it didn't happen again

i 'CAN' enjoy the benefits that innovation brings...but i 'HAVE' to endure this condition.

A bit of joined up thinking

It takes an election to get me thinking about politics, and well as at May 2014 there are a number of elections happening.

And as I sit and read electoral manifestos I get to thinking - all these worthy wonderful things that people stand for and against, quite often its against in the hope that Mr/Mrs Voter will be of the same mind.

As someone with diabetes though i've never read a manifesto that would have pushed me to vote one party over another.

A strange and silly thing - sure we as people with diabetes in the UK are meant to be bankrupting the NHS - should something so significant not be up there fully exercising those excellent political minds in policy teams in political party HQ's?

The sad reality is no, and diabetes isn't alone, many other conditions, chronic or otherwise simply don't merit thoughts in policy minds, well until someone decides its time to talk about how expensive this or that drug is, or they want to 'deal' with the nations health.

There will be a little jumping on bandwagon, drum beating and all that, but then the next big hot potato will come into sight, like how much the EU commissioners car costs...ok yes there can be big issues that merit the limelight, but quite often when you have a condition as serious as diabetes its disheartening to see a bit of focus raised and be hot news for what..an hour, a day...and then suddenly its nothing until Mr/Mrs MP or Minister thinks they can make political capital out of us.

I don't want to be your political capital, I want action and I want it now!

And what if they ask the question - what action? Well maybe that's part of the problem, diabetes is so complex could I really say where to start?

Simple and honest answer.....no.....but I do have ideas.....if a condition is 'sooooooooo' serious and is costing 'sooooooo' much, why then is there not centralised thinking about how to manage that condition within the whole country?  Its bad enough that devolved administration means Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will approach the condition differently, but where it really gets messy is England where neighbouring areas can have different policy.

If you;re going to spend so much money on a condition, why is there no obvious bench-marking of good practice, and if there is, how possible is it for each area to implement it if they aren't given equivalent access to resources - and that's not just money, quite often that can be something as simple as a room in which a Diabetes Specialist Nurse can take someone for a chat.

I'm not asking for the moon, i'm not asking for the stars either, what I want is a little bit of joined up thinking

The Diabetes Family

I'm being either a bit stupid or a bit brave and adding another service into the diabetes online community #doc

I've created a new kid on the #doc

@diabetesfamily on Twitter

&

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/408751785902265/ on Facebook

What is the DiabetesFamily?

The 'family' is huge, and can be summarised into five P's

(i) People with Diabetes (PWD) - Type 1, Type 2 or any other kinda variant/name they come up with in the future

(ii) Parents - And this doesn't just cover parents of children with diabetes, those children will become adults one day, but you will still be Mum & Dad, parents will always be concerned about something that impacts on their children, no matter what age the 'child' is.

(iii) Partners - Husband/Wife/Significant Other, Live in Lover, occasional bed partner - people with a close connection with you and hopefully people who care about you a good deal and have their own questions/queries

(iv) Pals - A wide ranging group - includes brothers/sisters, school friends, university friends, flatmates, pub mates any kind of mate

(iv) Professionals - This is Healthcare Professionals, Pharmaceutical firms, charities, other #DOC support groups - the kinda far-off cousin once removed of the family, strange but nonetheless an important member

Like any family there will be disagreements and breakdowns and shouting, but a family is strong because they share things in common and they have a want to be together, most of the time.

I don't plan to compete with the other longer more established #doc support folk, this is just a little something to add to the understanding that although sometimes diabetes can be a very 'me' condition, it should be an 'us', other people have a role to play, and we as people with the condition have to be open enough to let people in.

So if any of this has grabbed your attention and you can be bothered to follow another thing to do with diabetes then please do using the links/profile names above!

What type are you?

So its been a while and i've decided to write another blog, a blog thats kinda linked to an e-petition I launched on Tuesday the 22nd of January.

You've not signed the petition - tut - well here's your chance http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/44771

Maybe you'd rather hear what the petition is about first and why I chose to create it, well then here goes -

Being diagnosed with diabetes is a rough ride - being diagnosed with something that comes in multiple variants doesn't make it any easier, but lets get down to the beginning -

diabetes [ˌdaɪəˈbiːtɪs -tiːz]n(Medicine / Pathology) any of various disorders, esp diabetes mellitus, characterized by excretion of an abnormally large amount of urine
[from Latin: siphon, from Greek, literally: a passing through (referring to the excessive urination), fromdiabainein to pass through, cross over; see diabase]

So there we have the definition - the big issue is - why has the body suddenly started to excrete large amounts of urine and this is where the problem begins for those with no knowledge of diabetes.

 Diabetes mellitus type 1 (type 1 diabetes, T1DM, formerly insulin dependent or juvenile diabetes) is a form of diabetes mellitus that results from autoimmune destruction of insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas. The subsequent lack of insulin leads to increased blood and urine glucose. The classical symptoms are polyuria (frequent urination), polydipsia (increased thirst), polyphagia (increased hunger), and weight loss.

 Diabetes mellitus type 2 (formerly noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) or adult-onset diabetes) is a metabolic disorder that is characterized by high blood glucose in the context of insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency. This is in contrast to diabetes mellitus type 1, in which there is an absolute insulin deficiency due to destruction of islet cells in the pancreas

 Rates of type 2 diabetes have increased markedly over the last 50 years in parallel with obesity: As of 2010 there are approximately 285 million people with the disease compared to around 30 million in 1985

Variants with lots in common but very different - the things in common tend to be the symptons and the complications -

Long-term complications from high blood sugar can include heart disease, strokes, diabetic retinopathy where eyesight is affected, kidney failure which may require dialysis, and poor circulation of limbs leading toamputations. The acute complication of ketoacidosis, is mainly a feature of type 1 diabetes. However, people with Type 2 diabetes can go into a nonketotic hyperosmolar coma

What isn't common is the 'Why', but the media and unfortunately the Government will tend to make statements about 'diabetes' without attributing the 'Why'.  Yes the costs of treatments is high, yes the treating of complications is time consuming and costly and yes both variants of diabetes will need treatment and a large minority will need treatment for complications.  Where those charged with informing the nation get it wrong is by their constant mis-labeling of People With Diabetes - they engage in covering the condition with a blanket and treating us all the same.

For those readers who aren't diabetic you may question 'Why is this getting the Type right so important?' Good question and in reality before I was diagnosed as Type 1 I couldn't care less - ignorance is bliss, but once you have a connection with something then knowledge is key.

I don't blame people for their ignorance, but that ignorance can have far reaching consequences, one of the complications not referred to above is 'Depression'.

Diabetes as a condition is life altering, many of those diagnosed, both Type 1 and Type 2 will walk the line with depression, such a ground changing event to their lives being the cause, and one of the things that can force people to fall over the line, is the ignorance of others.

What I hope in my petition is to force those charged with responsibility for education and health in our country to use their influence to remove the ignorance.