I was on the four, four, well, yes, four to six injections a day regime with the Lantus and the NovoRapid. It was a very good system. I was, my HbA1c was 5.9. But I still had the hormone changes. I had very very fluctuating hormone levels, you know. And the insulin can't, no matter how hard you try sometimes and how, whatever you do, the insulin can't compensate for it. And because I was doing more performing, more singing and trying to get me sort of involved in more theatre, I was noticing that adrenalin in my body was shooting my sugars up through the roof. And when I was coming off stage my sugar would be through the roof. So I thought, 'Oh, well, this is just fantastic, you know. I'm living my dream but in the long term I'm going to make myself even more blind because the adrenalin level is going to get me'.
So I spoke to the staff at my diabetes clinic, which are absolutely amazing, and they knew everything about me. And I talked to them in detail about it. And, you know, I says, 'What can I do? I can't, I've got this far, hell, I'm not giving up my dream now'. My mum, still tried to dissuade me. But, and they says, 'Well, we can try and get you on an insulin pump'. But they are not, unfortunately they're not available on the NHS at the moment. And they can, my particular clinic can only, can only sort of put so many people a year on them through the Primary Care Trust. And they basically, they basically said, 'Because you've lost so much vision at the age of 23, you're so young, and you want to maintain that vision for the rest of your life, and your job affects your, your blood sugars, we'll try and get you the funding for an insulin pump'. And they, they did. It came through. And that's been a, quite a tough ride, getting, getting it all balanced out. But it's amazing. And the first time that I did, I did a gig on stage and I sung, and I came off the stage and my sugar was 5.9. I was like, 'Yes'. Because the insulin pump had worked. I was so pleased. So that, that's how that came about. |