Lois : I wish I'd had access to monitors as soon as I was diagnosed

I'm Lois. I started my diabetes journey with gestational diabetes at 43, with my second child. 9 months later I was diagnosed type 2, and 7 months after that as type 1, and another 9 months to be given short term acting insulin.

As an adult it took a couple of years, and a new doctor, to be referred to the local DHB Diabetes Clinic. I finally started to learn about carb counting, how to correct for highs, correct carb/insulin ratios, and even to get a sickness plan (so I don’t stay high for my whole illness). 

When my son was 4 1/2 I was offered a place on a Libre trial. It was fantastic, and I was able to have the one monitor while on holiday to visit family up north. We then saved for another monitor for the family holiday a year later. Last year a lovely lady from the Type 1 Diabetes Facebook page donated me a monitor when I was sick in winter, so I was able to have two!

After that, and I know I'm so lucky, my diabetes nurse arranged for a letter to WINZ for some help towards costs. I now use two monitors, then have 2 weeks off. That way I can afford the postage, juices to cover hypos, and patches to hold the monitors on.

I wish I'd had access to monitors as soon as I was diagnosed. My dream would be to afford to try a monitor with an alarm - either a Dexcom, or latter version of Libre (that they aren’t even considering for NZ yet). I wonder every time I'm sick if I will wake the next day.

My kids are 7 and 8. They know the signs of my highs, and they've been there for an ambulance call when I was very very low. Its not just kids with diabetes who are affected by diabetes.

Please, please, Pharmac. Please fund monitors for diabetics. It will save so much money for hospital treatment for diabetic complications,. Monitors with alarms will free up hospital beds in our ERs. Monitors will help mums, dads and kids sleep without worrying about their loved one dying overnight from a hypo. They even mean we use less testing strips, so less plastic waste.

For me, though, it means I can go out with my kids on school trips, to the beach, park, shopping, without having to finding a place to test that’s clean. Where people wont say yuck at the finger pricking... and where I don’t have to stop everyone in order to correct for a hypo because I've caught a low too late.