Interact: Adam’s story

Adam is 20 years old and was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 3 years ago. He struggles with his diagnosis and tends to try to forget he even has diabetes. He hates testing his blood glucose and having to take injections. When he was first diagnosed, he was started on fast-acting insulin before meals and long-acting insulin at night, but because of his stress and embarrassment about injecting he was switched to twice-daily mixed insulin, which he takes before breakfast and with his evening meal.

He has recently started working full-time in an office. He now has breakfast at 6:30 am, much earlier than he used to, and while his lunch break is supposed to be at midday, it often varies. He walks home and often goes to the gym after work, so he tends to eat his evening meal around 8 o’clock, which is later than he used to. He’s finding his new job quite stressful and spends long periods sitting at his desk.

Since starting work, his blood glucose levels have been much more erratic. When he last went to the diabetes clinic, he was advised to see his diabetes nurse. He seeing sees her every month which means he has to take extra time off work for appointments. He hasn’t told anyone at work he has diabetes, and he’s feeling bad about leaving early or showing up late because of his medical appointments.