Diabetes type 1 (young people)

I had a year out before I went to uni, so when I was eighteen I went to Australia, went to Australia on my own and took all my insulin with me and all the things that I needed with me, my blood tester kit, took enough supplies with me for the time I was in Australia. It was just something I just, I wanted to do and it wasn't, I wasn't going to let my diabetes get in the way of that. I knew that, I knew that I could take, take enough insulin with me for the period I was there, I was there for, I was there for four months when I was, when I was eighteen. I've also been to Kenya last year and going to Sri Lanka in five weeks so I just, I mean it's, my diabetes has never stopped me doing anything that I want to do it's just been something that I've needed to be aware of. 

Also I had a situation where I was in Australia where I lost well I had my bag stolen with my diabetes, with my, all my kit in it and I was there just totally panicking, totally worried about it. Spoke to the police about it and they were like, right well you know eventually I managed to speak to the pharmacist, the doctor and they were like, 'Right well we can sort you out no problems.' Everybody was more than willing to help you. And as it turned out like my bag had got dumped and somebody, it turned up and the policeman had it, and I was only without it for about eight hours but I mean I, but within that eight hours I'd also realised that if I had, if I'd have lost all my insulin and all my blood tester kits, that there would've been people to provide replacement stuff straight away. And it was a bit of an eye opener really that, to know that there's, obviously there's diabetics right across the world and if I was to go and, I'm thinking about going and living abroad that I'm sure that like the diabetes care in sort of westernised countries like Australia, New Zealand, America, places like that, I'm sure that you know it's going to be quite easy to go and get the same sort of level of care as you're getting here over there so yeah. 
 

What was their advice?

Interviewee 1' Well, I mean the last time we spoke to them, before we went, was on the day'

Interviewee 2' Day, day before'

Interviewee 1' Before we left.

Interviewee 2' 'we left.

Interviewee 1' Like, probably five minutes before we walked out the house.

Interviewee 2' We left it a bit too late.

Interviewee 1' Yeah, before, probably 5 minutes before we walked out of the house we were still talking to our consultant on the phone and like arranging how we'd adjust our insulin. So, she told us to cut our long-acting insulin, our Lantus, by 20%. So I went down to something like 45 and [my brother] went down to about 40. And then when we were up in the mountains we cut our ratios in half, so we went'

Interviewee 2' Down to 1'1.

Interviewee 1' 1'1 as opposed to 2'1.

Interviewee 2' And you're still carbohydrate counting. Eating a lot of carbohydrate. Obviously, keeping blood sugars up. Porridge every day, for breakfast which was horrible. 

Interviewee 1' It was horrid.

Interviewee 2' But obviously breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So, hang on. OK. Well, yeah. Breakfast, the most important meal of the day'

Hmm.

Interviewee 2' Obviously. Porridge every day and then for lunch, it was a bit of an amalgamation of stuff but flatbreads, stuff that wouldn't go off. Tinned foods. And obviously we had to carry all the rubbish down with us as well. So we had to get lightweight stuff.

Hmm.

Interviewee 2' But stuff that would give us a lot of energy. 

Hmm.

Interviewee 2' But we went on to 1'1 ratio so obviously I was happy we were doing something physical, something that would, that we could actually feel, like a 1'1 ratio rather than, 'Oh, you've got to watch your insulin intake.' Something that would stop us from going low. Rather than, 'Maybe you shouldn't do an injection here.' 

When did this'?

Interviewee 1' It was much better.

In, this was the first time you went into something like this.

Interviewee 2' Hmm.

Interviewee 1' Yeah.

How did it make you feel? And '

Interviewee 1' It was brilliant. It was, it was'

Interviewee 2' It was such a sense, sense of achievement. It was absolutely excellent. Yeah, I mean'
 

Yeah. I was quite lucky. I played hockey at school, and we got the opportunity to go on a mixed hockey tour to Australia and New Zealand. We went in July 2003. First of all we spent a week in New Zealand, which is fantastic. We went to the South Island, to Christchurch spent a couple of days in Christchurch, and then went an hour south to place called Ashburton, and we were there for sort of two - two days, and then we went to Wellington, and then we flew out to Australia. It was their winter so it was very cold, but it was a very nice country, New Zealand.

And how did you manage your diabetes? 

Oh yeah'

What changes you had to do, what you had to pack?

The most difficult part was the flight itself, because we went with Air New Zealand, and they fly the opposite way to everybody else. They fly via Los Angeles, so it's actually a longer flight. So going backwards through time, as well was a bit difficult. But what I did was I halved my insulin and then kept my watch on British time so every twelve hours I gave half my Lantus, which at that point, I think, was 24 units Lantus - so I was doing 12 units every twelve hours, basically, to cover the flight. I still had my watch on British time, so when I got to New Zealand, I did it every 24 hours from that point. So, with the time difference, instead of having my Lantus at ten o'clock, eleven o'clock at night, which I was previously, I think I was having it at eight o'clock in the morning. Yeah, but it was still on British time, and that meant that all through the trip I was just having it in the morning, but then my sugar levels and everything were fine. No problems at all with it. And then on the plane of course you get meals sort of every four hours, and they're always quite little, so during the course of the flight I probably injected six times with NovoRapid but they were all little portions, so it was sort of eight units here, eight units there'.

Okay, so obviously you talked to your doctor before you went and he sort of told you - he or she told you'?

Yeah, they sort of set a plan, and said, 'It's best to do it this way'. I stuck to the plan and it worked out fine. I didn't think it was going to work out that well, as it did. I was really pleased when it worked out really well.
 

I go through life, no I don't know what it's like not to have diabetes because when I was, before I was three obviously I didn't have it but I was very young, I didn't know life was like without it and I still don't because I'm older and I've had it all my life almost.

Do you feel that you have missed out on things that you could do, that you could have done because of your diabetes?

Yeah I haven't, I've never been on holiday you know never left England I know because there's a lot of organising you have to do as well as the money, it can, you know you have to go to your doctors to get a different kind of insulin if because of the time zones are around the world and the having diabetes doesn't stop you from going on holiday, it's a lot more organising you have to do that's all and you have to be extremely careful obviously with where you put your insulin because you know airports, you can lose your bags, so just make sure you've got it with you at all times.