About

Mar-2009

Fiftysomething, curious, passionate about lots of things, I spend way too much time on the Internet!

I have LADA – Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adulthood, also known as Diabetes Type 1.5, and it’s one of the reasons for this blog.

Diagnosed in 1978 with Type 2 Diabetes, I was OK for many years. I had nearly 26 years when I could almost control it with diet and tablets, and only used insulin during a pregnancy 20 years ago. Who knows whether I had LADA all along, but a few years ago, nothing much was working so I went onto insulin.

In my quest to get an insulin pump, I knew that diagnosed as a Type 2, I couldn’t get subsidised pump supplies, so it was out of the question. I knew about LADA, and kept asking for tests. Kept that up for about 2 years until my endo finally agreed, but only to rule it out for sure.

Everyone in my medical team was really surprised that the GAD Antibody test came back “highly positive”. A repeat of the test 3 months later came back with the same result. I was the least surprised, considering I have other autoimmune conditions. But this meant that my quest for an insulin pump had begun in earnest.

I had done lots of research and had settled on an Animas 2020. It was the best choice for me for many reasons and I’m more than happy with it!!!

In early June, 2009, I started on the pump and since then, I’ve never had such good blood glucose and HbA1C test results. I hope to continue to improve those numbers, with even tighter control.

I live in the beautiful Northern Rivers of Australia with its gorgeous beaches, stunning hinterland and its mish-mash of interesting people.

Update: After 12  years in Byron Bay, in December, 2010, we moved north to the Gold Coast, Qld.

In my other non-blogging life, I’m a accounting consultant, working primarily with MYOB, and I’m a web designer, working with Joomla, WordPress & Blogger, to name a few. I use a Mac and a PC (depends on what I’m doing).

I’m married to a sweet, gorgeous Persian man, who arrived in Australia in 2008. I have one 21yo daughter (from a previous relationship), who currently lives in Qld. We have a dog, a Border Collie rescue named Charly (we assume from “Charlene”), and a 15 year old Somali Abyssinian cat, named Simba (update: Simba died late in 2010).

For a pretend-foodie, diabetes is about the last disease I’d want. I’m stuck with it, unfortunately, along with Lupus and a few other autoimmune conditions!

This blog started out being something general that I thought I’d add to from time to time. Somehow, it evolved into a more of a diabetes and insulin pumping blog. If you can learn something, great! If you just enjoy reading, great too!