Postcards from the SHED
Everyone’s favourite chippie Rob Palmer is riding off on exciting adventures, thanks to a new diabetes helper
Well, now I think I know how humans felt when they invented the wheel. You little beauty!!!
Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) hasn’t just changed the way I manage type 1 diabetes, it’s also come hand-in-hand with a new confidence that 50 slaps in the face couldn’t have told me was on its way – until I actually jumped in and gave it a try.
To top it off with whipped cream and a cherry, now the Federal Government is making CGM accessible to kids who really need it.
Just to give some background in case you don’t understand how a CGM device works, I have a sensor stuck to my butt. (All the ads show them on the tummy but the trade secret from me is that the butt is the best... no buts.) It doesn’t ever get in the way or feel like it’s on at all. Mine sits below the belt and on my side, though each to their own on placement.
The sensor reads glucose through the body’s tissue and a little bit of tinsel that sits under the skin. It sends a constant message to my phone and plots my levels as a graph. Now here’s the clanger – it sends alarms to my phone as I approach a low or high reading; I set those parameters myself. Better still, I can set it up so care partners are notified by text if my glucose level drops too low.
Case in point: after going to bed early one night, I had Gwenllian (my Welsh princess) wake me up with a glass of juice and a smile saying “Drink it you muppet, your sugar’s low”. Anyone who’s had a hypo in their sleep knows it’s something best avoided. Thanks Gwen and CGM.
As for my bolstered confidence, the family and I went for a biking weekend in the mountains not long ago. I can’t tell you how good it feels to pedal into the unknown with no more than a glance at the phone occasionally to let you know exactly how you are travelling diabetes-management-wise.
Geez, a six-km climb with a three-year-old hanging on to the bike is plenty enough to make your levels plummet. Do you know why it wasn’t a concern? Because I saw it coming. After a glance at the phone to check my CGM status, I made a preemptive strike into the lunch stash with just the right level of enthusiasm. Greta, the three-year-old, got a gummy bear too. Win win, I reckon.
As many may know, the Turnbull Government has just chipped in over $50 million to make this incredible technology available to kids who live with diabetes and are hypo-unaware. In my opinion that’s nearly all of them. I certainly didn’t see hypos coming on plenty of occasions when I was a youngster. And just imagine all the mums and dads who may get half a night’s sleep for the first time in recent memory knowing little Suzie is being watched by technology that, when I was diagnosed, seemed as likely as a Dick Tracy phone in a watch. Oh that’s right, they exist too.
CARE PARTNERS are notified by text if my glucose level drops