It’s been a busy week in my diabetes world and before I launch into it I would like to disclose an event I am attending this weekend. I do a lot of volunteering in the diabetes blog space, advocating space, diabetes event organising etc. Because of the volunteering I do, I was asked if I would allow my name to go into a hat to select the Irish representative to attend Abbott’s European Diabetes Exchange forum (‘dX’) which is being held in Amsterdam, Netherlands from Friday 16th June through to Sunday 18th June.
And because of luck, my name was the one that came out of that hat.
The mission of dX is to create a place where bloggers from all over Europe can meet and exchange ideas in a fun and engaging way, and discuss matters that affect the diabetes community. This is the third year of this event and the theme is focusing on the importance of people with diabetes achieving their dreams:
DREAM BEYOND: YOU’VE GOT THE POWER!
I am very excited about attending this conference to meet other diabetes bloggers and advocates from all over Europe. I’ve already connected with some of the them through twitter. But also I’m excited because unlike other company blogger events the agenda for this one is about helping us become better at what we do without it costing our own personal health. This is something I have struggle with for a couple of years now.
Abbott are paying for my flights and accommodation but all thoughts and opinions will be my own. I will be tweeting, probably not much though, using the hashtag #dXAmsterdam2017 and I will have lots of news to share with you in upcoming blog posts and of course, I will be very interested to hear how the Freestyle Libre is doing in Europe.
And now for my week in diabetes....
FOCUS GROUPS
Last week, I was asking myself “why am I volunteering for something else that I CLEARLY don’t have much spare time for?” as I found myself getting up at a not so reasonable hour in the morning to catch a train to Dublin to attend a HSE Focus Group session.
I had asked myself several times why I was going, and was I really a good representative as a health service user? What was I really going to get out of it?
Well, it turns out it was really interesting, really informative and I really, really hope that we have helped shape our health service for the better.
And focus groups work well because people are gathered in a room away from distractions. The information shared in a group like this just can’t be captured on online surveys, emails, or instant messages. So much information came from sharing our experiences, but so much more information came from listening to others and comparing our experiences. It was eye opening! We may live in an online world but some things cannot replace having face to face contact.
“You really don’t know, what you don’t know” from the Dunning Kruger Effect.
MY LIFE WITH TYPE 1 DIABETES WITH AN INFECTION
My diabetes related story comes from the train journey to attend this focus group meeting. People with diabetes are susceptible to more infections than people who do not have diabetes because bacteria LOVES glucose!! I’m sure that's the scientific reason.
As I write this post I am uncomfortably aware that my husband's aunt reads my posts religiously and I may be over sharing.
I don’t often travel by train but the universe aligned and it made more sense for me to train it on this occasion rather than drive. And it was so much nicer! Plus, I could do some writing while i travelled. Bonus!
About an hour from Dublin, I felt a little bit off, a bit flushed and some chills. I felt a certain twinge that I needed to go to the bathroom. And when I did I realised that a full blown UTI was flaring up. And it caused me to double up in pain. Thankfully, it was a spasm and eased. I sat in my seat trying to weigh up whether I should turn around and travel home on the next train or trying to manage the situation for the 4 hours I was going to be in Dublin.
I decided that I would push on as I had had worse UTI’s and adopt a wait and see attitude.
I used to get UTI’s a lot, like a couple of times a year. And they would just suddenly go from zero to horrific in an hour. They also, ALWAYS seem to happen outside of GP surgery hours, which meant a trip to the out of hours GP service in the middle of the night and scrounging for antibiotics.
Thankfully they're not as frequent now and I seem to be able to keep them from becoming horrific all of a sudden with over the counter treatments. Except for this day where I'm trapped on a train, in a room with strangers, stealing everyone else's water, legging it to the bathroom at every break. The worst part of the trip home was the transfer to a 30 minute journey in a carriage where the toilet was out of order. It was excruciating! I want to thank the lady who sat opposite me and kept me distracted.
Once home I have a supply of over the counter treatment which started to work immediately and thankfully I’m recovered. And AMAZINGLY my glucose levels didn't seem too out of whack during this infection.
Til the next one…. :-(