Interview 08

Age at Interview: 17

Sex: Male

Age at Diagnosis: 3

Background: Sixth form student; lives with mother & brother. Does not like diabetes described as a chronic illness because 'sometimes you just forget it's there'. Learning to manage his diabetes has meant confidence & a sense of responsibility.

Brief outline:He used to take Insulatard twice daily but now is on NovoRapid three times a day and Lantus in the evenings. His mother used to do his insulin injections until he was eleven years old, but he decided to learn to do them himself. Says he got lots of support from his mother, father, and the diabetes care team. He found that when he went on 'a super diet' he was going low all the time. Says that he has always been aware of the grim consequences of poor diabetes control but that as he grows older that understanding also influences the practice.

To watch or read an interview clip, click on the heading that interests you. Either a video,audio recording or text will open, depending on the clip

To close transcript boxes, click here

To print the interview’s text, click here

To him diabetes control means to take over his daily care from his parents and to stop worrying about it.



I've sometimes, you know when I'm having a bad day I think. 'Oh why me, why did he pick me? Why, why is it me that has to have this thing?' Especially when you don't know what's wrong. If you know, you do get a few odd results and you're thinking, 'Oh dear I'm going to be blind for the rest of my life and I'm only going to live to 30'. But, you know if you control it and you will control it because it's intuition and you know there's no problem. You just get on with it and that's it. So I mean it will be struggle to begin with unfortunately. I can tell you that for free. But as long as you've got the intuition there, then you'll know what to do. Yeah.

Struggle when you began this process of transition because you were taking over from your parents?

Yeah, oh yeah because, yeah we would argue a lot more back then because they think, you know, I, they were telling me what to do and I was beginning to get an idea for myself of how to do it. And we'd end up arguing about it quite a lot. But, you know, now that I've taken over it for myself you know, there's no, not anyone there to challenge me except for the people at diabetic clinic and. You're overweight and all that kind of thing which I don't like. Yeah so.

Tell me what would you have done differently regarding your diabetes a few years ago?

I would have probably started doing it myself a lot sooner if I could have done. And I was just so scared of doing it myself because you can, you know you're going to, you know when you're going to put it in. If someone else is doing it you can look away. But if you're doing it yourself you're, you're much more conscious of injecting yourself and taking your blood sugars and everything. 

What does to be in control mean to you?

Being in control, it means you know where you are. If you know that you're in control then you can just forget about it. You don't have to worry about it because, you know, if something is wrong they'll just, they'll have, you know, just go fix it. If you're not in control you're worrying all. And I can, you know, are they going to, is it going to be ok? Are they going to get it right, are they going to get the right mix? Do they know what I've eaten today or I've done today? That kind of thing. Just being in control takes everything off your mind I guess yeah. If you have more responsibility it makes you feel more at ease I guess with the, with what you have to do, yeah.
Diabetes

Mail to a friend

Send

Website development  Website by Thinking Fish