My Diabetes - How I Became Interested in the Psychology And Physiology of My Hypos part 2

Long before Diabetic Dogs became available, I had a discussion with one of my specialist doctors and nurses about smelling the hypo before it happened and therefore being an early warning system. They look sympathetically at me with that 'well if you think thats true thats fine'.
I was still a student and we were studying the so called 'mystic' branch of psychology called Phenomenological Psychology.  It was joked about being 'mystic' because is a branch of psychology not based on external experiments (how I remember it) but on monitoring internal processes. i.e. how do I feel about this.

My Diabetes - How I Became Interested in the Psychology And Physiology of My Hypos part 1

As a 12 year old, we had an interesting Religious Instruction teacher, who covered not only the biblical teachings, but if we were all attentive and behaved he'd spend some at the end of lessons on what we referred to as weird stuff.  Some Old Testament stories of Ezekiel and his description of the 4 propeller 'Lancaster Bomber' and other weird stories from the popular Astronauts from space guru Enrich Von Daniken. He also told us about dowsing and other old mystic type stuff and we'd bring and bend metal coat hangers and search for hidden copper coins in one of the 32 desks to learn how to dowse.  


He also told us about prophets and indian fakirs and ancient and modern mystics and yogi's. He also had a great old book on meditation and showed us pictures of a yogic masters sitting with his legs crossed balancing on their hands, controlling pain and various bodily functions and explain he warned that these took years to perfect, so don't try them at home.

After I discovered I was very good at finding copper coins in desks, a friend and I went to the library for books on yoga.  After some practise I learned to be able to slow my breathing and heart rate and being a thin child I could easily do the half and full lotus.  I discussed with friends how great it would be if you could learn to control things our bodies body and set about doing it, then some years later I discovered it was a new pseudo science called Bio Feedback.

Years on from this, I found a number of  articles in a number of hobby electronics magazines for Bio-Feedback machines and Galvanic Skin Response meters, so I built a couple.  Using the machine I quickly discovered that I actually could do what I thought I had done as a child, slow my heart and respiration, relax very quickly and deeply and the electronic gismos confirmed I was indeed popping in and out of relaxation at the drop of a hat.

So when I became diabetic whilst studying Behavioural Sciences degree, I knew physiological things were indeed happening to me and the effects on my body and from the psychological perspective also my mind. So I decided to become my very own lab rat. I also discovered there was a branch of Psychology that attempted to gain great insights not by doing experiments but by internal personal observation.  It had fallen into disrepute by being a sort of  'mystic' branch of psychology called Phenomenological Psychology.  

It was shunned about being 'mystic' because is a branch of psychology not based on external experiments (how I remember it) but on monitoring internal processes. i.e. how do I feel about this.  Now I had machine that could review my physiology and feelings, tastes, smells and behaviours I could comment on, so I set about using what tools and observations I could make to understand how my hypos affected me and how to prevent them from overwhelming me and rendering me unconscious.

And what an interesting journey it has been.

TBC

My Diabetes - Coming to terms with my insulin injections

A year before I became diabetic I was drinking with friends and we had been watching a documentary about a child with an incurable genetic illness who survived due to multiple injections per day.  We all announced in the way immortal youngsters do, that if we needed to take injections, we wouldn't bother and we'd just have a massive party until the day we died. LOL

The youthful bravado still makes me smile.  The reality a year later was I was going to have to inject myself with a long acting insulin once a day for the rest of my life and I wasn't happy.  For a number of days I felt pressured and angry, why me? what had I done to deserve this?  Back then could darn socks with the thick reusable needles attached to heavy glass syringes I had, they could really hurt when they started to get blunt injecting with them day after day.

Then as I was going through a doorway I banged my elbow, ouch it hurt and as I went to rub it I thought that hurts more than those damn needles.  Here I was in more pain from banging my elbow than injecting myself with life giving insulin.  But was I thinking, "thats it if I have to bang my elbow again in my life I don't want to go on", of course I wasn't. I gave it a bit of a rub and went about my business.

So next morning I tested my urine and gave myself the jab with less hesitation and thought well its not worth dying over. Also, on the insulin I was beginning to feel well again. Also for the first time in months that I didn't feel I could single handedly drink the local lake dry. It was also great to walk about town not having to look for the next toilet with a bladder the size of a basketball.

Learning Point:

1) I was totally terrified of needles almost didn't join the Army when I heard how many injections I had to have in basic training
2) As an Army medic I saw seriously tough soldiers faint at the sight of a needle so being scared was okay
3) Insulin dramatically improved my life as a diabetic and made me feel well
4) Sixty years earlier I would have died without insulin
5) My 32 extra years since diagnosis have been worth the daily injections

The reality of injecting insulin is I became accustomed to it and it became routine.

TBC