Driving and Other Important Things

Hello People of the Internet
How are you this rather crappy December afternoon. I don't know what the weathers like where you are but for us in England this is the first time in about 3 million years its stopped raining. You don't even know how excited this makes me, its just adding to my excitement about these couple of weeks which are the best of the year. So in the middle of December it's my birthday and this year is the year I get to, legally, drive a car. However the diabetes just loves to complicate things when it comes to driving. I applied for my provisional in mid November and then a week or so later the DVLA sent me the load of forms to be filled in about the diabetes including the name and address of my doctor and a thing I had to sign saying it was okay for them to look through my records. Which is all fine and I know they need to make sure my control is good enough so that they know I wont be hazard to drive. But I sent the forms off three weeks ago now and I'm actually 17 so you know I'd like to be able to drive. 

If you have a hypo this is the advice/rule from the DVLA "Do not drive on until at least 45 minutes since your blood sugar has risen above 5.0mmols/l and you feel fully alert" okay so for a 17 year old who has had diabetes for as long as they can remember I am expected to wait almost an hour after having a hypo to drive again?! Now my control is pretty good I've only had one episode of severe hypoglycemia (classed as requiring the assistance of somebody else because you are unaware/unable to administer glucose) and then I doubt I would even drive for the rest of the day. But seriously a low hypo for me is about 2.7 and give me a good 10-15 minutes afterwards and I am fine. Don't get me wrong I fully understand where the DVLA are coming from and that for some people it will take that long to recover but as a blanket rule I feel it is a bit harsh. The DVLA seem to have looked at the worst case scenarios of people having a hypo and decided to set rules that apply to the most severe cases to everyone. 

For example if I was driving to college one day for my first lesson I would check my blood sugar before I left and if I was having a hypo and then waited 45 minutes as recommended I wouldn't get to college until half way through the lesson. I just feel that it is so impractical to expect people to wait for so long after a hypo just so the DVLA can be 100% sure they didn't mess up in their guidelines to diabetics. I think that the people deciding theses policies should try living as a diabetic for a day and see for themselves what it's like, they do consult with people but unless they actually experience it from our point of view how will they ever truly understand what they are forcing people to do?

Obviously there are ways around these rules but I won't publish them on the internet as that would be encouraging some terrible behaviour.

Merry Christmas, sorry for such a depressing post. I expect us all to be at least a stone heavier by the next time I talk to you all.

Rhona x

Frequently Asked Questions

What up people of the Internet? I am constantly asked the same questions again and I am always happy to answer them because the more that's known about diabetes the better. But I thought for all the people that don't have a diabetic to hand I would answer the questions that I get asked so often.

1) What's the difference between type 1 and 2?
Type 1 Diabetes, the person's own body has destroyed the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. When your own body destroys good stuff in your body it has what is called an autoimmune disease. Type 1 is known as an autoimmune disease. 
People with Type 2 diabetes has one of two problems, and sometimes both:

1. Not enough insulin is being produced.
2. The insulin is not working properly - this is known as insulin resistance.

Type 1 is often diagnosed in childhood whereas type 2 occurs in adults and a high number of cases are due to obesity and poor diet.

2) So did you eat lots of sweets as a child?
No this is probably the most common of all the questions as people get the types confused. So as a child I personally didn't eat a lot of sweets but even if I had that's not the reason I am a diabetic.As I've already said type one is caused by genetics

3) Does it hurt?
This could be referring to my blood test, my injections or the cannula which is permanently in my body; The answer I always give is no and the reply is always I wouldn't be able to do that but imagine if you from the age of six were doing something everyday all day. It's become a part of my life that I genuinely couldn't live without and it doesn't hurt and it has in the past I've hit a nerve  putting my cannula in and that is the weirdest feeling ever.

Ok so there weren't many questions but to my mind these are the most important and  most often asked questions to me personally.

Rhona x