Help! Pharmac is proposing to restrict NZ diabetics to just ONE type of meter!!

New Zealand diabetics are about to have their choices in blood sugar meters severely restricted by Pharmac. They want to save $10 million by removing most of the popular meters from the schedule of funded meters. Even worse - they are also going to remove funding for test strips!

Read an article about it here:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/6489930/Pharmac-money-saving-plans-alarm-diabetics

What you can do to help:

• write or email Diabetes New Zealand, so they can take our submissions to Pharmac. Their homepage currently lists two Pharmac documents which are out for consultation. Submissions close 14 March 2012.

And here is my email I've just this minute sent to Diabetes New Zealand:

My opinion on whether Pharmac should fund a single brand of blood sugar meter is based on the fact that I am a Type 1 Diabetic.

I do not support Pharmac's proposal to severely restrict my choice of blood sugar meter.

I have been a diabetic for 24 years now, and I have good control of my condition. I will share with you my latest HbA1c result: 43mmol/mol (6.0%). A large part of this good control I would chalk up to the great team of support people and family I have around me. But also in the way I have been encouraged to take control of my condition. To exercise my own choices. To experiment with my treatment regimen until I found a solution that would work for me.

Diabetes is a very personal condition and everyone is unique in the way they manage it. But suggesting that it is good for patients to have choice taken away from them is unacceptable. A large part of learning to control diabetes is taking ownership of it and managing it carefully. I test my blood sugar between 10 and 14 times per day, and I need to know that I will be happy with the medical equipment I have to use. I do not want to be forced into feeling miserable because I am stuck with a poorly designed blood sugar meter. I want to know that if a particular meter is unsuitable for me, that I have options and can try another one.

Personally I use the Optium Xceed, a meter that is small, lightweight, cheap ($20 at pharmacy retail - easy to get a replacement quickly), and it has a back-light which is important for night time testing. I also like the way the test strips are packaged individually in foil - it means I don't have to cart a full tub of 50 strips with me everywhere. These choices are right for me and the way I manage my condition now, but they may not be suitable for another diabetic individual. (For instance, those individuals in New Zealand who are fortunate enough to get an insulin pump will, I imagine, be upset at the lack of a funded meter to test ketones in the blood.) It may seem like a small difference to you - I mean how different can these blood sugar meters be? - but when you use one as often as I do, all the little details of the device get magnified a hundred-fold. If it's too big for your hand, if it's difficult to operate, if the buttons are too slippery... And meter-features that are great for one person will be just plain wrong for another person.

WE NEED CHOICE

Please do not take our choice away.

At the very least, consider meeting me halfway: you could fully fund 1 type of meter (preferably one that has greatest usage by diabetics in NZ to cause the least agony in making the switch), make other meters on the current list available but unfunded, and continue to fully fund all test strips on the current list.

Two final things to note: I would like to question why a more modern, innovative blood sugar meter has not been chosen? There are several available overseas now that I would dearly love to try, but because the test strips are not funded I can't. And secondly - why is there nowhere in these proposals an effort to look at funding CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) systems?

So what do you think? Is what Pharmac wants to do fair? Are we diabetics being given the short end of the stick? Will you write to Pharmac or your MP about this?

Blue Circle Pins

My blue circle pins have arrived! Yay!

Each pin comes with it's own card about Word Diabetes Day

I ordered 10 pins

I'm planning to wear one and give the rest away

They will be donated to the tertiary institute where I work, as there are students and staff with diabetes T1 and T2 on campus. Hopefully it will generate some interest in learning more about diabetes!

This will be the first year I've ever celebrated (is that the right word?) World Diabetes Day, on November the 14th. It will also be the first time I do something publicly to say "hey, yes I have diabetes".

Normally I'm just a regular person, getting on with my life. If someone asks me about it, I try and explain to them my experience of diabetes carefully and clearly. I don't want to be yelling it at people all the time, reminding them that I have it. That's why I like the pins, they are a nice subtle way to start a conversation.

I may also print some posters and banners to put up at work, to advertise the fact that free blue pins are available to those who visit the nurses station. It would be great if she could do blood sugar checks but I'm not sure if she can. Oh well, it will be a first in, first served kinda thing.

If you would like to order some blue circle pins, you can get them from the International Diabetes Federation's website.

A low in the garden

(Note: This post is basically just an excuse for me to show you all my early spring strawberries.)

I planted this plum tree:

...and then proceeded to have an extraordinary low blood sugar. The two main symptoms I got were severe vision distortion and brain fog. I was convinced I had to tidy up all the garden tools and implements. The temperature was in the mid 20's C so it was hot. I was so low that I would have a thought, just long enough to decide something was wrong, but not quite long enough to figure out what was wrong, before the thought would be gone. I'm not sure how may minutes I spent randomly walking up and down the garden before I finally clicked on to the fact that I needed to test.

By the time I got in and tested, of course, I was hovering around 1.4 mmol/L and things were decidedly shaky. I hoovered up anything sweet I could think of, including but not limited to:

• juice
• cereal
• muesli bars
• fruit bars
• cookies
• honey (straight from the jar)

It was a mission to "wait 15 minutes" for my blood sugar to rise, but I know that the worst symptoms often hit during that waiting time. Shaking, sweats, inability to really walk in a straight line, and intense weakness in my muscles. Not fun.

Anyway, enough of that guff, here are the pretty pictures!

Early spring strawberries

Californian Poppies

Chives with flower buds

The crazy red lettuce that's going to seed

A secretive cauliflower that hid in the back of the vege garden looking like a useless non-hearting cabbage until I threatened to pull it out, at which point all was revealed

The grapefruit tree, which takes great delight in dropping fruit on my head when I'm working in the garden beneath it

The garden beneath the grapefruit tree

First apple blossom

Figs

Chomper the cat

Pansies and Lamb's Ears

Aquilegia

More Aquilegia

My new favourite tree, a dwarf peach tree covered in baby fruit

House to myself

Normally the idea of a national holiday fills me with glee. No, not that Glee. Rather, just a happiness that the day will be mine to fill with whatever I want.

But what if the day arrives and it is too mine?

Let me explain: today is Monday, it's also Labour Day here in NZ. About 85% of the population is still in bed with a hangover from last nights All Blacks win against France. Some are still partying.

Closer to home, my family is all out of town. Like, everyone. Just for today. They have all managed to conspire against me (kidding!) and leave me on my lonesome.

Now that's normally not a problem. House to myself. Hmmm, maybe go shopping or do a bit of gardening or work on some web designs I've got on the boil.

However, a thought entered my mind last night and has been keeping me mildly concerned: today I will be a T1 diabetic with no support systems. No handy T3s around to pass me juice or remind me to test.

No one to ring 111 should I (ahem) need it.

I shall have to be extra vigilant.

I shall have to test every hour. Maintain focus. Because I don't want some diabetes mishap to ruin my "house to myself" day.

And yet, it already has.

I am pretty well practiced at this. I've been living with T1 for 23 years now. But there have been only a handful of those days where I've been completely and truly geographically isolated from all my T3s. From those I love. It's disconcerting.

I will be fine, no doubt it's more an issue of overactive imagination than anything else. I mean, my breakfast test was ok at 8.6mmol/mol. Gotta be happy with that.

And yet, diabetes will mean I cannot have a carefree day away from everyone and everything. Because it's always there.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Introducing myself is so awkward

Hi there, I'm Philippa.

OK, so I've actually been blogging elsewhere for a good wee while now, but there were several topics all mixed together.

A new fresh start is what I need.

This blog will be about my life as a Type 1 Diabetic in New Plymouth, Taranaki. That's in New Zealand. The land of kiwifruit, The All Blacks, pavlova, jandals, Pharmac, and the Buzzy Bee.

I will document my life and how diabetes affects me. I also plan to share how to treat my diabetes, and cool technology I use to help control it. Oh yeah, and the DOC. Welcome.