My 12 year old daughter was rushed into hospital 3 months ago in diabetic ketoacidosis. This is a life threatening medical emergency that could end in death if not dealt with. She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and remained in hospital for a week. Whilst in hospital she was injected with insulin several times a day in order to keep her alive. This process continued when we got home, but as time went on, the multiple daily injections and the multiple times per day of finger pricking took it's toll and she subsequently became needle phobic. The hospital said there was nothing they could do and she would get used to it, but she hasn't. After several hours of research and many phone calls to different companies, she now uses an iport device which we change every 3 days and a dexcom G6 which means she no longer needs to finger prick and only has 1 needle stab every 3 days
Neither of these life chaging pieces of equipment are available or funded by the NHS, so as a single mum I have to fund these myself at a cost of just under £300 per month, but they've been a complete game changer for her.
The dexcom transmits 24 hours a day which means she gets her blood glucose readings straight to her phone every 5 minutes. She has no hypo awareness, so the dexcom alarms to alert her when she is low and needs urgent treatment, the problem is she is not allowed to have her phone on whilst she is at school which has proved to be a nightmare when trying to manage her diabetes, so after speaking to the dexcom represtative, they have suggested she use an apple watch (because she had an apple phone) that will pair to her phone and can then vibrate on her wrist, rather than alarm and disturb the class. She won't need to latest model, just one good enough to help make things a little easier for her so that she can have her independence back and manage her diabetes more by herself