[Diabetes] General Chat and Support Thread

It very much depends on how he is taking it and if it's long lasting or quick acting.

Long lasting is generally taken once per day.

Whereas the quick acting is taken at mealtimes and the dose is based on carb counting.

Some combine both with a long acting basal dose once a day, and additional bolus at meal times.

€80 is the standard In Patient/Day service charge. The LTI scheme only covers drugs and appliances.

Assuming your license is up to date with appropriate codes and you are PSV and class 2 qualified?

If they chose that reason to not progress your application it would be a grounds for a discrimination appeal.

Diabetes.ie have some decent info on it.

What proof could you present to anyone asking to prove you've never had a hypo and that you were hypo aware?

The licensing system for the most part is built on an honour system. You are legally obliged to report an hypoglycemia as a class 2 license holder. If you don't report it, there is no record and tbh afaik that's the only means of proof available.

I fully understand you want some reassurance re: your medical but, if you are a responsible class 2 license holder you are meeting all your legal requirements and the medical should focus on your fitness to drive. That you hold a class 2, is proof of that fitness.

You may fail the medical? But it won't be for being diabetic. You may also pass and not be offered the position. What you need to remember though is that if they don't offer you the position and intimate it is because of your Diabetes? That's a potential discriminatory act and you should report it.

Your continuing to hold a class 2 license, given your legal obligation to report any hypoglycemia is proof of your fitness to drive.

I've been watching a lot of US TV lately and they tend to pack their as breaks with pharma ads.

One product that really caught my eye, is an insulin delivery device called the omnipod. It looks like a 3 day insulin dosing device/pump.

It's tiny, not a lot larger than a libre sensor and seems quite an innovative system to allow both bolus and ongoing dosing for a 72hr period.

I'm still insulin free currently but if/when I need to go back to it? I wonder if this could be an option.

Now I am in Newcastle again after receiving my latest Noctura 400 mask. It lasts for the next 6 months, £500.

This is the first time I have been here since December 2019, due to covid. The mask has been posted to me ever since.

The scans show that things have remained stable (they compare this scan to the last one). The scar on my right eye is also unchanged. My last bleed was over 3 years ago.

So I believe that this product is still making a big difference. I still have my yearly checkup in outpatients in Adelaide road also. They do a fantastic job there.

I am surprised this is not available in Ireland yet, but I would still probably travel to Newcastle for it, as they are very professional and my records are here.

Diabetes Ireland have been having monthly zoom conferences on various Diabetes topics over the last year for both T1 and T2, with Q&A sessions at the end. I've personally found them very useful. The next one is:

Preparing for Pregnancy Webinar for People Living with Diabetes

Oct 27, 2021 07:00 PM

If you're interested and don't have an invite, I'd say contact Diabetes Ireland to add you to the mailing list. They're well worth attending.

My Hba1c has taken a bit of a battering 😣. Have had a very painful and as yet undiagnosed Urological/Neurological issue ongoing now for nearly 3yrs. In the last 6 months it has worsened considerably and hugely impacted in my activity.

My glycemic control is usually quite good and I even managed to come off my Insulin completely @ 2yrs ago. My average Hba1c over the last 10 or so yrs apart from a period where I had a broken leg and it went up to a 52/6.9 I've always managed to keep it below 46/6.4 and my last Hba1c in March was 44/6.2.

Anyway my most recent was received on Wednesday and it was a gut punch tbh. Came in at a 62/7.8.

I know it's not a catastrophe, I know in the grand scheme of things it's not even that bad. But it's a loss for me and I'm already at a low ebb.

My GP was great, suggested maybe going back onto a GLP-1, but rather than prescribe one he asked me follow up with the Diabetes team at UHL.

Immediate response was to restart insulin 😣 I put that off a little while and I have been booked in to see the endo in December. I'm not afraid of needles, nor even of insulin. Took Victoza for quite a while and went on Insulin after that.

What insulin did for me in regards my BG control was great, what it did to my weight and waistline? Not so much.

That success, and by that I mean getting control of my BG rather than my weight. Really gave me a sense of agency an control over my Diabetes. Current issues have robbed me of that control, and TBH heading into my 15th year post diagnosis? I don't know that my pancreas has any kick left in it 😂

If nothing else about diabetes, in any of its flavours! It really is a slow and grinding battle of attrition isn't it!

Best of luck with that.

Its a real problem now I believe, hundreds have left the scheme in the last few years.

My dentist told me the Gov cut the fees to them.

Obviously Doctor rely on data e.g. blood and eye tests etc. If something that bad s/he should refer you to specialist and put you on medication. Anyway is not end of life. Research into ketogenic diet my uncle got off diabetes list after 6 month beign in ketogenic diet and IF.

I don't know if it amounts to outright discrimination tbh. Diabetes Ireland may be better placed to advise?

If memory serves aswell as the T1, you also had an elevated BP at the medical? Apologies if I'm mistaken on that one.

Certainly appeal it, provide a recent holter monitor report to refute their BP worries, your most recent Hba1c to confirm your control range and as I mentioned earlier, the only real counter to their hypo concern is the legal requirement on you to notify the the RSA of any. If you haven't reported one, you haven't had one unless they are presuming to imply you are breaching legal requirements.

Now I don't know what particular scoring matrix they are using to decide on hire or pass. But if they are relying solely upon your Diabetes to discount you from consideration? It seems problematic unless they have certainty there is an issue.

It would be far safer for DB to discount you due to better qualified or more experienced candidates who scored higher overall.

Their relying upon diabetes to discount you when you have met your legal licensing requirements is on the face of it at least problematic and worth a review by someone with experience in the area. Be it initial advice via Diabetes Ireland or a query to the IHREC.

If that's what they've done and how they phrased their decision?

They have IMO left themselves open to action via IHREC at the very least. Yes they may have taken the decision not to hire you due to a perceived risk but, if you've already provided the evidence to discount those concerns? And yet they still made diabetes their reason? It's quite a risky play from a discrimination standpoint.

You meet the legal requirements of a safe T1D driver with the appropriate license and reporting obligations. They can't use diabetes to discount you from the hiring process on a whim, and if that's how they framed it? I'd certainly pass it along to IHREC at that point.

DI will give you an opinion but, I don't know that they'd take an anti-discrimination action? Even if they did it would need to be via IHREC in any event.

I'd certainly be making contact with IHREC to lay out your circumstances and ask their advice.

do you have a source for this? to apply for a C or D class licence you are required to pass a medical from a licenced doctor. Being T1 or having a heart condition are not automatic fails.

As far as I know for t1 or heart conditions you can't drive vehicles over 3.5t professionally for salary please ring NDLS for clarifications.

This 100% th e poster your quoting is an ill informed clown who has form for not having a scooby as to what he's talking about.as can be seen by earlier advice to advise a T1 to focus on keto

Once an insulin dependent diabetic is assessed as fit and is both hypo-free for 12 months. Insulin dependent diabetics can and do drive HGV and PSV vehicles for reward and the nonsense posted by Googlebot, who ironically enough? Cant seem to use Google should be ignored, or at the very least treated with the scepticism their quality of posting deserves.

Further info from the NDLS on precisely what requirements and restrictions insulin dependent drivers face is available here

and here from Diabetes Ireland.

I agree with you, particularly when it comes to something like driving. A newly diagnosed insulin dependent diabetic who is driving professionally could stumble on this thread read that nonsense and rather than follow the rules and continue to drive safely. Be so afraid of losing their job thanks to reading utterly incorrect info, that they try to hide their condition and that could have serious consequences.

I'm in the same camp as yourself when it comes to correcting misinformation. There is enough to be worried about when managing diabetes without needing to fact check spurious claims.

T1 can you get a licence, after a medical, for 3 years, for a regular car.

there is no prohibition on people with T1 driving professionally. stop spreading lies.