January 17 2016 0Comment

Uncensored Sensors

In the last few days I have realized just how important my access to Continueus Glucose Monitoring is not only to me but also to my loved ones.
Prior too, during and after the North2South run I wore CGM and to be honest without it the run wouldn’t have happened 205kms over 3 and abit days would be hard on anyone’s body but then throwing type one diabetes into the mix certainly gave us some interesting moments!!!!!  Would I do it again?  Of course I would in fact we are already working on something bigger, better and with a greater agenda fueling my desire to do it!!!!
In the weeks and months that followed the North2South run I felt  physically and emotionally drained and for the want of a better term “to tried to be diabetic” let alone deal with it daily (not that we ever actually get a day off from it). With CGM and SmartGuard monitoring my blood sugar levels 24/7 even at my worst during the run aka running, vomiting, BSL of 3.2 all while crying on the phone to my diabetic educator Liz (she put up with a lot but her hug as  I crossed the finish line meant everything !!).   In the weeks that followed the run  my little purple friend aka my MiniMed 640G had my back and because of it we could change insulin settings and settle back to non running/training life faster.  Of course Liz is thrilled that as soon as we had everything humming along I started running again ……. I use the term thrilled but I’m sure Liz had another word to describe it !!!!!
But having seen and proven how wonderful CGM is to help me train and preform as an endurance runner I think the greatest benefit for  me is the security it gives my son Lachlan and partner Brendon. Over the last week I have decided to take a break from CGM. As soon as Lach found this out he instantly became concerned and even though we don’t have major lows anymore his reaction was heart breaking as a mother. Every 5 minutes he was asking me to test and even a simply trip to the supermarket to get milk resulted in him asking me to test before we left the car, a double check if I had glucose gels in my bag and that I had my phone in case he needed to ring Brendon. Once in the supermarket he even noted where the Coke was just in case!!  We then came home and decided to go for a swim once again he wanted a BSL done and to have his own stashed hypo kit and blood tester just in case.
This was followed by “when will we put CGM back in” and the reaction when I said “maybe the weekend before my next event which is only 10 days away”,  let’s just say the face looking back at me was one of shock !!!!
Lach came to me and asked why we don’t have CGM in all the time and I had to explain to my  9 year old son who lives with my type one and knows full well how life saving my MiniMed Pump and CGM have been, that we couldn’t have it all the time because CGM isn’t cheap,  but we are very lucky to have access to it, as many people who are hypo unaware  don’t have CGM and they need it also.  Lach’s response summed it up perfectly “But why doesn’t the government help pay for it so people don’t get sick and need to go to hospital? That needs to change mum as I don’t want anything to ever happen to you because I love you and you are my mum but I don’t want other people with diabetes getting sick either”.
Well Lach here is my promise to you I will do everything a mum can do to make sure you don’t have to stress over my diabetes and I also promise I will not stop pushing for CGM to be funded so it’s affordable to at the very least the hypo unaware.  Lach’s response made me smile, “Mum I will help and when I grow up I’m going to work for Medtronic and make sure sensors are even more amazing and maybe even fix diabetes so no one has it”.  Proud mum moment right there.  But I secretly think he just wants access to their stock of bubble wrap the sensors come with!!!!

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