Milly's Story

I'd love to share our story about Milly in the hopes that CGMs will be funded for all.

Milly was 11 months old when over night she became very ill. She went from a full of energy, happy, smiley baby, to a floppy, non responsive, sad one. A misdiagnosis at the GP delayed treatment until she was in a serious state of DKA. Once we finally got her to the emergency department, they diagnosed her immediately and took her to intensive care where we would spend the next 8 nights in hospital. She was one very ill wee girl.

We were in a state of despair and immediately then thrown into learning all that we could possibly learn about how to keep our daughter alive now that had been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Six months into her diagnosis we were introduced to the life saving technology - the CGM. At this point my husband and I were broken zombies from six months of no sleep and worry. This device absolutely transformed the way we now lived with type 1. Not only were we able to get more sleep, and able to function more coherently during the day to be able to manage her diabetes better, but importantly Milly was able to attend creche, make friends and learn, and we were able to have the peace of mind and visibility of her glucose level, therefore being able manage her levels more closely. This device is a no brainer for many reasons, for the mental health of the person living with type 1 and their families, to enhance their short term and long term health outcomes. To catch immediate hypos (or lows) in real-time when they happen, and to mitigate highs that damage many organs over the long term.

This needs to be funded in NZ, we need to catch up with many many other countries (even some developing countries) that are funding this for their Type 1 communities. Help our T1 communities live a more healthy, productive, and long happy life. Please.

Thanks Jo and Vito