The Silent Assassin

There are certain conditions that, at first glance, can seem completely undetectable, but can have a massive impact on people’s home and working lives. Type 1 Diabetes is one of those conditions.

In Type 1 Diabetes your blood glucose (sugar) level becomes too high because your body can’t produce the hormone insulin, naturally. This occurs because your own body attacks itself and destroys the cells in your pancreas that produce the insulin.

You can still eat and break down carbohydrates from your food and drink, into glucose, but unlike people without Diabetes, there is no insulin present in your system to allow this glucose to enter your body’s cells and provide the fuel and energy you need to function.

It has nothing to do with diet or lifestyle, as it has with Type 2 Diabetes, and no-one knows for sure what triggers it, but some people believe that it is a genetic condition. I myself, have been a Type 1 Diabetic since I was 18 and my father and uncle both have the same condition.

I was 18 and studying for my A-Levels exams when I got my diagnosis and to be honest, I was relieved at first because I’d spent weeks worrying that I’d got Cancer, due to the rapid weight loss which accompanies untreated Diabetes. I ended up sharing a hospital ward with some very old ladies and a slightly strange woman called Marcella, who would randomly get up and wee behind the curtains.

Not the ideal circumstances for exam swatting and an even worse time to find out that there was a 50% chance of any future children I may have, would also inherit it. I think the jury is still out on that one though, and researchers and scientists around the world, continue to study the disease in the search for a potential cure.

Now, you may think that the worst thing about becoming Diabetic, is having to inject insulin into yourself on a regular basis. My current regime means between 4 and sometimes as many as 8 injections a day.

Just call me the human pin cushion! But actually, that’s not the aspect that bothers me the most.

There are a couple of things that worry me and the first is, that you don’t always get your dosage 100% spot on. Factors like alcohol, stress, hot weather, even enthusiastic sex, can make your blood sugars fluctuate, so even if you’re following the DAFNE regime (Dosage Adjustment for Normal Eating), any one of these factors can send you spiralling into a hypo.

Hypoglycaemia to give it, its proper term, refers to low blood sugars and this occurs when there is too much insulin present in your body and not enough glucose for it to work on. When this happens, most people will experience symptom like shaking, sweating, blurred vision and feeling confused and disorientated and then there are few unlucky ones.

I have been known to have mini fits, where I’m aware of being in one place at one point and the next minute I’m somewhere else but can’t remember how I got there. Full scale fits, when I have broken teeth, split my head open and lost consciousness. All these things can be very scary, especially for the loved ones who have to witness it and deal with the aftermath.

For a natural born control freak like me, not having complete control of what’s happening to me is like hell on earth! Worrying about whether people will think I’m drunk, or not trying hard enough to manage it or worst still, am incapable of doing things because of it, keeps me up at night.

And then there is the big concern.

Diabetes is like a Silent Assassin. It is a Killer in Slippers. It doesn’t come at you head on, it lurks in the background, slowly damaging your internal organs, weakening your heart, straining your kidneys, causing Retinopathy in your eyes. It can also be responsible for causing nerve damage and according to https://www.footdoc.org across the globe, it’s estimated that a limb is amputated every 30 seconds and 85% of these amputations are due to Diabetic foot ulcers.

My father had his leg amputated just below the knee around 4 years ago, aged 69. He’s still alive and kicking, if you’ll pardon the pun, but as an ex-professional footballer, it was a devastating blow. That started with an infected toenail.

Thankfully, these days, there is a lot more help and advice around than there was when I was first diagnosed and with the right support, a lot of these long-term complications can be prevented. In the 1900s, the average life expectancy for a 10-year-old with Diabetes was 1 year, so we’ve come a long way!

Gone are the days when I was told that I couldn’t have Ketchup on my chips because of the high sugar content. Now I just adjust my insulin to cover it, because despite living with this condition for 29 years, I don’t intend to let it stop me living my life.

If England Rugby Internationals Chris Pennell and Henry Slade, plus legendary boxer, Muhammad Ali, can achieve such greatness, despite having Type 1 Diabetes, then so can I, or at least go down swinging.

Bring on the sauce!