Climbing Everest – Type One Nation Summit 2018

I was able to attend JDRF NEO’s Type One Nation Summit this year and it was refreshing to be in rooms full of people who deal with the same things I do. I don’t have much in-person contact with other people who have type 1 so I often feel like the weird one in the room.

Climbing Everest

This year’s keynote speaker was mountain climber Will Cross. Will has climbed mountains on every continent, walked to the North Pole, walked to the South Pole and submitted Everest – all while living with type 1 diabetes. It was an inspiring speech. I tweeted some highlights from the DiabetesMine account. 

I’m at the @JDRFNEO Type One Nation Summit today, mountain climber Will Cross is talking climbing Everest with type 1 #diabetes. “It’d never been done, so I thought I would try it.”

— DiabetesMine (@DiabetesMine) April 28, 2018

 What better reason to do something than that?

Will’s team was the first team with #diabetes to walk to the South Pole. His father who also has diabetes joined him. -RK

— DiabetesMine (@DiabetesMine) April 28, 2018

On his Everest climb, Will used a pen and a pump, he worse 2 infusion sets to have one preplaced as a back up. -RK

— DiabetesMine (@DiabetesMine) April 28, 2018

“Wore” not “worse” – not the worst diabetes phone autocorrect I’ve had. Two infusion sites and having pens on hand meant that Will was incredibly prepared when it came to insulin.

He used a combo of CGM, blood checks and even urine tests to monitor his blood sugar and kept energy gel in his hat when he slept -RK

— DiabetesMine (@DiabetesMine) April 28, 2018

 I thought it was interesting that Will used so many methods, including old-school urine tests to gauge his blood glucose. He also explained that his climbing companions, many of whom spoke other languages, they all knew that that he had the energy gel under his hat if he had a hypo in the night.

Because of the advances made in insulin and technology, Will was able to climb Everest. -RK

— DiabetesMine (@DiabetesMine) April 28, 2018

 When Will was diagnosed with type 1 as a kid in the 70s, they told him and his parents that it would be good if it made it to 30 years old.

I was fascinated my the technical and treatment aspects of these adventures. But also really interested to learn that some of the biggest challenges has nothing to do with diabetes.

My 15 Minutes of Fame

I felt a little famous when I was waiting for the lunch panel of T1D adults to start and a lady came up to me and said, “I wanted to introduce myself, I read your blog.” Hi Patti! Patti was also diagnosed with type 1 as an adult, not too long after I was, and we had the opportunity to talk about the issues the panels were covering, insurance programs and her Medtronic 670G (the hybrid, closed loop system that some refer to as an artificial pancreas).

Our JDRF chapter did a nice job organizing interesting sessions for a range of attendees, I was able to take Advanced CGM, Advanced Pattern Management and Advanced Pumping sessions that were presented by endocrinologists who dug into deeper aspects of management with various tools. There were also intro or basics type sessions for those newer to T1D.

I heard some repeating themes throughout the day from these doctors – one of which was: Better insulins are coming (in this case better = faster) – some references were made to newcomer Fiasp, Afrezza wasn’t really addressed in the sessions I attended, but they did have folks at the vendor fair in the hall talking about inhaled insulin, so I’m glad that education was available.

Another theme was: Preparation. Most of the time, I feel like I’m “winging it” with my schedule. But the tactics for improving time in range included the “pre” fix. Pre-bolus, prepare for your appointments by reviewing data, pre-temp basal (okay not that one). These are things we know, like give your bolus time to start working before you eat, set your temp basal a couple of hours prior to exercise that you know will lower you. And other such things that make me think I need to be more mindful with my life and schedule with diabetes.

Don’t forget to enter to win a pair of Magic Socks! Closes 5/18 and has nothing to do with diabetes.