As I have mentioned before, I have been wearing a constant blood glucose monitor sensor for portions of this trip. When I wear the sensor, my pump stores all of the readings (one every 5 minutes for the duration of the time I wear it....so, days and days), graphs and data.
I can then use this fancy wireless cord to upload the data onto a computer and store it on an online data base. Once it is there, it can be accessed by myself and even my health care team.
The data base also turns the information into 1 million (no joke) different charts, graphs, tallys, totals, comaprisons, averages....you get the gist...about my blood sugar trends, response to exercise, food, etc. Valuable stuff.
I have about 16 days worth of data on my pump so far.
But there is a missing link.
I have no cord in New Zealand.
Had, no cord in New Zealand, I should say. I have finally located one and it is on its way to me from the kind people at Medtronic Australia...hopefully.
Through this process of cord searching however, I have become educated, informed and aware of some of the differences between the health care systems, diabetes care specifically, between New Zealand and Canada.
I sent a lot of emails and made a bunch of phone calls- diabetes health care people at home, diabetic people I had been given contacts for in Australia and New Zealand, clinics, companies, organizations...and more. Nothing. Well, I talked to many kind and helpful people, but no cord materialized.
Christchurch has a diabetes clinic, so when we arrived, I decided I would just walk in.
I explained my dilemma and ended up chatting with a nurse for quite some time. Here are some things I learned. (I'm not Stats Canada here, so there may be some errors...dont hold be to these, just get the overal picture)
- Pumps are not widely funded in NZ, much like Canada
- There is some funding however, there is enough for 4 people to be given pumps and all of their supplies each year.
- There are about 20 people on pumps on the South Island of New Zealand
- NONE of these people, have the pump that I have....therefore NO CORD.
- Pumps are not common, mainly because people aren't interested.
- Pumps are seen as a last resort for people with serious control problems, not active, healthy people doing well with their diabetes.
- The people who are on pumps aren't having much success...(might be related to the population that is receiving the pumps - they stand as the only role models of what pumps can do)
- Even if everyone here DID want pumps, and they WERE funded, there would not be enough support and ground crew to make that a reality. 4 people a year is more than enough to handle right now.
- People receive funding for strips and insulin.
- HOWEVER, people here in New Zealand are limited to what is funded. They have a choice of 2 glucometers (blood glucose meters), in Canada they give them out like candy and you choose from dozens.
- Not all insulins are funded, similar to Canada. So people are not necessarily using what they want, or what would be best for them.
- The large majority of high-paid people in government making the decisions for all diabetics in this country know nothing about Type 1....sound familiar?
As it turns out, Rich and Col (our couch surfing hosts) have a good friend who has Type 1 diabetes (not on a pump!). He is also an active member of regional as well as national diabetes organizations here in New Zealand. They invited him over for dinner so we could meet.
This is where a large amount of this information came from.
As James spoke about the realities of living in a small, albeit developed nation, with diabetes, I couldn't help but be overwhelemed by how well we do have it in Canada.
Not to say that things couldn't be better, in fact it simply highlighted the fact that we have SO FAR TO GO AS A GLOBAL COMMUNITY when it comes to access to the resources and technology we should have the right to in order to manage Type 1 the best that we can, world wide.
In talking with James, I also realized that New Zealand experiences a similar phenomenon to Canada...there are NO RESOURCES for young adults living with this disease. Once again, there are camps and programs for youth, but as soon as you are too old for those programs...see ya! Good luck! Off you go! This is my main pain when it comes to diabetes support systems in Canada.
It can be really overwhelming to think of all the missing links that need to be found in order to piece together a utopian diabetic global community...
But who knows, if I could find this cord on the other side of the world, maybe there is hope.
A cord, a fitting symbol for the first link, don't you think?
In searching for this cord I have connected and interacted with individuals and organizations in three different nations and two different contients. I now have their support, and they have mine if they are ever in search of their missing link.
Utopia? It won't take long...
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