“Three years ago, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, brought on by my pregnancy with my second child. At 36, my life was completely upended. I could no longer play sport, couldn’t drive, walk the dog, even clean the house or care for my two children safely.
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When I would experience a hypo (hypoglycaemia — low blood glucose) I would become confused, shaky, dizzy, my heart would race and I would break out in a cold sweat lying on the floor hoping I would not slip into a coma. In the early days, I didn’t understand the warning signs and the symptoms came on quickly, and you can get the shakes and even pass out. So I was too terrified to pick up my baby in case I dropped him.
Trying to monitor and control my condition was exhausting. The constant carb counting, trying to figure out how many units of insulin you need to inject before each meal — it was hard. My job involves a lot of events, I needed to be ‘on’ but that became impossible because I could never predict if I would have the energy levels. To be honest, I wasn’t coping, it was a daily struggle.
Then I found out about a trial being run by the Baker Institute. They were testing an artificial pancreas system that measures your blood glucose levels and sends the information directly to an insulin pump that continually communicates with your glucose monitoring device, meaning that the user is not required to carb count or input meals and which automatically gives you the dose of insulin you need.
Six months later, and it has changed my life. I’m not worried about taking the kids out, I can safely exercise, and when I go to a work function I can actually eat and drink with less worry.
It’s brought some normality back into my life, but very few people are as lucky as I am.
Thanks to the work of the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, advancements such as this in technology can change the lives of millions of people living with type 1 diabetes, allowing them to live a better quality of life with the ones they love the most.”