Since my talk last at ADATS year about my journey to Loop, I have had many HCPs want to talk to me about my experience using a DIY system. When I was ATTD two weeks ago, several Aussie HCPs also at the conference cornered me, and, in almost hushed tones, asked if they could pick my brains about the whole DIY thing.

I have to keep reminding people that all I can talk about is my own experience – I’m certainly not an expert, my involvement has been following the brilliantly clear step-by-step how to guides developed by a brains trusts of brains far, far smarter than mine could ever hope to be. But I am always happy to talk about my own decision to try Loop, and experiences since.

DIY is not going anywhere and I’m pleased to say that over the next few month I’m giving a number of talks at HCP conferences where I have been asked to speak about how my diabetes management – and attitude to diabetes – has changed since I started Looping. It great to see this on the agenda of diabetes HCP meetings (including the ADEA Victorian Branch conference later this month and the ADS ADEA ASM – or whatever it’s being called now – in August this year. I hope that ADATS will give it more airtime when that come around in October.)

Naturally, and I suppose somewhat reassuringly, the first part of any conversation about Loop is about how safe it is, or rather, questions including varieties of: ‘But the safety! There’s no regulation! There are no RCTs! Where’s the evidence?’ These are often the same things held up by device companies when talking about their products: ‘We are ALL about safety! We have jumped through all the regulatory hoops and come out the other end with flying colours! Here are our RCTs! Here is the evidence!’

When I began reading up about Loop, the thing that would make me close my computer, shake my head and pack all thoughts of it away, was not that I didn’t think it safe. It was that I didn’t think I had the technical aptitude to make it happen.

From the very first reading of the documents and listening to others speaking about it, I realised that this was something that had been built from the foundations of safety. Unlike the health condition that moved in almost 20 years ago.

Type 1 diabetes is not no-risk. At the point of diagnosis, we are handed a supply of a potentially lethal drug. I know I don’t like to think of it in those terms– insulin is my lifeline – but anyone who has even an ounce of knowledge about the treatment of type 1 diabetes knows how potent insulin is.

We know that too much insulin – even a tiny bit too much – can be problematic. And that problem spectrum can be from ‘Shit, I need jelly beans’ to … well, to death. We are faced with this reality every day. I have enough insulin in my pump at any time for it to be extraordinarily problematic if overdosed.

With this knowledge on board – alongside that theoretically lethal drug on board – we mitigate risks with every single thing we do. We over treat lows; we err on the side of caution when we bolus – under dosing for fear of overdosing.

We live safety, we breathe safety – all the time – because if we don’t the risks are high. All too terrifyingly high.

I say this without an ounce of disrespect, but when a device company or HCP implies – intentionally or otherwise – that those of us using a DIY system are being reckless and being unsafe, I find it insulting, and a little disingenuous, because any conceivable hazard is highest to those of us who have the devices stuck to our bodies, and using an algorithm that decides how much insulin to push into our bodies.

I feel much safer Looping that I did pre-Loop. Scary hypos are a thing of the past. My glucose levels sit in a straight, tight line for most of the day instead of the rollercoaster I was used to that would send my mind into a permanent state of fuzziness. I am not running low overnight, only finding out for just how long when I finally wake in the morning and see my Dex trace below the red line for hours and hours and hours without my knowledge. My A1c is in the range that means (allegedly) I am least at risk for developing diabetes complications.

I honestly don’t know how I can be any safer while living with a health condition that throws so many unsafe things at me!