FINDING THE KEY

THE KEY

Jackie Rankin talks frankly about her own experiences of diabetes and takes advice from the specialist team changing people’s lives through knowledge.

Diabetes – it’s the new talked about health issue, probably because there’s been a massive increase. If nothing changes, more than five million people will have diabetes in the UK by 2025* .

Even more alarming is that where over a decade ago, Type 2 diabetes came with middle age it’s now being seen among in people in their 20s and 30s.

My lovely dad developed Type 2 in his late 50s. I watched over years as poor management led to complications. I vowed that, aside from the one thing we can’t control, our genes, I would do everything I could to prevent history repeating itself.

I BECAME COMPLACENT

A hectic lifestyle - work, three kids, a lifetime of snacking on the hoof and blood tests that always showed my glucose tolerance levels to be within normal parameters, led to complacency – until now. I changed GP, went for a routine blood test… and was told I had borderline diabetes.

It can be due to lifestyle, but there is also some evidence that long term stress can play a part.

Trish Noble, Diabetes nurse educator

‘It’s reversible, you can change this’, the practice nurse reassured me. But I was floored, it brought back memories of my dad’s experiences – like the time he couldn’t have his cataracts removed because he’d eaten a jam tart at 2am and by his pre-op check his glucose levels were 23. (Normal range is 4 to 7). I went home, blamed myself, wallowed for a while then decided I was going to do my best to sort it – for my dad.

IS IT MY FAULT?

Mersey Care Diabetes Nurse Educator, Trish Noble (pictured above and top right) says my situation isn’t uncommon, neither is my reaction. “People sometimes think it’s their own fault. But in the same way some people have high blood pressure or high cholesterol, there are different reasons why someone may develop the condition. “It can be due to lifestyle, but there is also some evidence that long term stress can play a part. Storing weight round your middle is also a risk factor.”

Trish is visibly passionate about the subject but agrees it’s complex and difficult for most of us to get our heads around. That’s why the community diabetes team in Sefton runs short courses to help people in my position, or those newly diagnosed or living with Type 2 diabetes to understand how it occurs and how you can self manage it. “Small steps can make a big difference. During the sessions, we discuss how making small changes in our everyday lifestyle habits can make a big difference.”