Type 1 Talk: A Patient's Perspective

I don’t enjoy public speaking. I get the light-headedness, blood pulsing in your ears, stomach full of butterflies symptoms - it can be difficult to distinguish between this and low blood sugars!

However, on 16/05/14, Emma and myself gave a small lecture on what it’s like to live with Type One Diabetes every day.

While becoming more recognized in society, very few people know the basics of a diabetic lifestyle – even medical students. Emma led a short presentation on the causes and treatments of Type One and a short course on carbohydrate counting while I gave a short speech on my own experiences.

It’s so surprising that something you think about on a daily basis is unknown to your friends – many people in the audience were unaware that foods such as grapes or milk would require insulin coverage.

It’s even more surprising when, after nearly a decade with the disease, you learn something yourself! For example, I was unaware of the resistance to glucagon that occurs when drinking alcohol… a fact I should really have known before my first year of university!

It also became evident that many people were intrigued to know more than we could cover in that hour. Emma gave a short demonstration of changing her insulin pump site – something that fascinated everyone in the audience.

Through this talk, we’d hope to raise awareness and educate about our illness. From the feedback we received after the event, many people wanted to know more. We’ve been asked to give similar lectures to nursing students in the future.

This has been one of the first events we’ve run that I feel has accomplished our aim as a student-led project – getting people asking questions and receiving answers about what it is like to live with Type One Diabetes.

By Kate Harborne

photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jill_a_brown/2629206224/">Jill A. Brown</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">cc</a>

#diabetes #success #talk #lecture