'You don't have to feel bad for saying you hate it' with type 1 mum Abby Lyons

The path to acceptance with type 1 diabetes can be a bumpy one - but what about acceptance for the parents of children with type 1?

It's just one of the topics covered in this episode with business owner and mum of three Abby Lyons, who has published a book to help other families trying to come to terms with a child's type 1 diabetes diagnosis.

Abby's youngest son Rocco was diagnosed at just 2 years old, in 2020. In this episode we talk about the impact of her son's diagnosis experience on the whole family, and the overwhelm she felt and still sometimes feels when trying to make the best decisions for Rocco's health - along with the guilt that can provoke for a parent.

We also discuss how living with health conditions in the family has opened up honest and healthy conversations with her boys about mental health and wellbeing, and how her book, 'What is diabetes, anyway?' has not only helped Rocco move from shame to pride, but has helped Abby process her own experience to spread a hopeful message to others.

CONNECT WITH ABBY
Follow Abby and Rocco’s journey on Instagram.
The ‘What Is Diabetes, Anyway?’ website.

JOIN THE TYPE 1 ON 1 INSTAGRAM COMMUNITY
Come and say hi @studiotype1on1 on Instagram.

SPONSOR MESSAGE
This episode of Type 1 on 1 is sponsored by Insulet, the makers of Omnipod tube-free insulin pump therapy.

Using Omnipod 5 Automated Insulin Delivery has improved my diabetes management significantly with less diabetes decisions, and of course no multiple daily injections.

How? Well, Omnipod 5 automatically adjusts insulin every five minutes to help keep me in range, allowing life outside of type 1 diabetes to get bigger.

If you want to know more, head to Omnipod.com.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode of Type one on one is kindly sponsored
by Insulette. More on that later. What I will say
now is that we have a shiny new Instagram page
dedicated specifically to the Type one on one podcast. It's
very exciting, So come and say hi and join our
lovely community at Studio Type one on one. The link
is in the episode description. Hi everyone, and welcome to

(00:25):
Type one on one, a podcast that delves into the obscure,
complex and challenging world of life with Type one diabetes.
I'm Jen Greeves, and each week, with the help of
some brilliant guests, I'll be showing that there is no
normal when it comes to handlink this whopper of a
chronic condition, because we're all pretty much figuring out the

(00:46):
messiness of day to day life with diabetes as we go,
and most of all, even though it doesn't always feel
like it, we are absolutely not alone. My guest today
is Abby Lyons. Abby is a business owner and mum
of three boys, originally from Manchester but now living in Dubai,
where she runs an international marketing agency alongside her co founder.

(01:08):
So life was already very busy for Abby as a
mum and business owner when her youngest son, Rocco, was
diagnosed with type one diabetes at just two years old
in twenty twenty five years on and Abby has written
and published a children's book called What Is Diabetes Anyway
to raise awareness and help other families trying to figure
out this very tricky condition. Welcome to Type one on

(01:33):
one Abby.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Thank you so much for having me, No, thank.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
You so much for being here. I mean we got
to chatting and jumped straight into it, and I already
know that we could have spoken for hours, so I
was like, we.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Should probably fresh record here.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
But it is one of those things when you get
to speaking to someone who gets it, it's like, oh,
this is yeah, this is really important, which is why
this podcast is here and why I'm so thankful for
you as a parent for speaking to me today. So
how are you doing? First of all, how are things?

Speaker 2 (02:04):
I big questioned. I'm good. I'm saying it's rama down
here in the UE. So the school hours are less,
It's very short days for the children, so just trying
to pack everything into small amounts of time. So I've
sent them off to golf so we have some peace
and quiet to get on and do this.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah, I appreciate that life does sound very full on
for you. You sound like you've got your hands full
before you bring the type one diabetes into the mix.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, it's you know, mom of three boys. It's a lot.
So I've got thirteen eleven and then Rocco, who's seven,
So yeah, it's Teenage years are interesting. Diabetes years are
always interesting. It feels like a year and a day.
And then Madi, my middle son, is Actually I keep
saying you just do you just keep being cool, like,

(02:51):
let's not have anything happen. This is, this is great,
Oh bless you.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Wow. I mean I always say it. I think parents
have children with TIT one abetes are absolute rock stars.
I think I do think you have it tougher than us.
And you know that's not a nice thing to say,
but I just mean that as in, like, I know
parents carry a lot of well it's not me, I
don't live with it from the parents that I've spoken to,
but I just I just have so much respect for you.

(03:18):
So yeah, I would like to take it back to
twenty twenty, if that's okay. Just set the scene a
little bit for what life looked like for you guys.
You know, you're a family living out there in Dubai.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, so three boys, I'd set up my own marketing
agency in Dubai. It's quite difficult when you gone attorneys lye.
There used to be four weeks maternity ly so obviously
as a new mum that wasn't very much. So with
my first time, I actually then set up my own
business when I went back from maternity ly just to
get a bit of flexibility, and thank goodness I did,
because what I have on my plate now, trying to

(03:54):
do that and work a nine to five and be
answerable to anyone would just be impossible. So I'm very
very grateful that did that. So had the three boys
had Roco he was two. Yeah, living out in Dubai.
We have been here sixteen years now, so would have
been eleven years. So had a good friendship base. You know,
we've made our own kind of family here and my

(04:15):
mom would spend a lot of time here, normally two
three months of the year in Dubai, so you know,
still had quite a lot of support, and the good
thing was Nanny's So I don't think I could do
what I do, what I did then or what I
do now without them. One of my nannies has been
with me since Rocco was diagnosed, very much a part
of the family and has learnt as I have learned.
So you know that although I'll never fully trust anyone

(04:37):
except myself, and I don't fully trust myself, it's so
amazing to have that level of support. So yeah, life
was crazy.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yeah, and then Dibetes starts to make it self known.
So what did that look like. I mean, Rocco was two,
so he was two.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
I knew nothing about diabetes. I was working full time,
had the two boys had four year before we had Rocko,
so it was very overwhelming. I think going back to
toddler years and you forget a lot of what it
was like. So the older two were pretty self sufficient.
Rocco was a two year old. He would eat a lot,
and I remember thinking, got to eat so much. He
had three four weeks of BIX for breakfast, and I

(05:17):
was like, sure, the boys never had that much, but
you're so busy, he don't really think about it. He
was drinking a lot of water, but it was We're
in Dubai, it's hot. And then I would notice he'd
fall asleep a lot at feeding times. Would generally be
a bit more low energy. I was saying earlier. He
would wake up from his nap and he'd be a
little bit wobbly, and I would look at him. I

(05:38):
can see him I head, I can team walking towards me,
and he's a bit all over the place. I was like,
just in my intuition tells me that's not quite right.
But you don't know as a mother, especially with healthcare
in the EUE is so good. I can phone twenty
doctors within a five mile radius sound get an appointment.
I can walk into a hospital and be seen within
half an hour. So you as apparently to become a
little bit I'll just get it checked and then you

(06:00):
By the third child, I was a bit like, I
should know what I'm doing here now, I need to
stop being so paranoid. But when I saw him fall over,
I thought, I'm going to get this check. So I
took him to the hospital. I think, I don't even
know what test they did. They mustn't have done a
blood test, but they checked him over. By this point,
he's eating, so obviously he'd had low blood sugar. His
sugar must have been coming up, and he was fine.
And then I watched him ro around the hospital and

(06:21):
they're all looking at ready to say, he looks flying
for us. I was like, I'll take him a mon,
But that feeling never really left. And then a couple
of weeks later he was to so he was out
of nappis, but at night he would have a napion
and I picked him up fro nursing and he said, oh,
he's got a really bad nappy ash. I was like, really,
he's not even in nappies apart from nighttime. And I

(06:42):
looked and it was a really aggressive looking start of
a rath. So I left it a few days and
then I took him to my doctor, who gave me
some cream and just you know, it's fun on nappiw ash.
It's got infected. That's probably why it spread. The worry're
bad it is. Put this cream on and it'll be fine.
And then I was actually traveling. Mom had flown to
the BIO. She was with the kids. I was in
the UK, and my mom said to me, you know what,

(07:05):
Rocko's still not right. He's crying, he's just vomited. I'm
going to take him back to the doctor. She knew
the doctor as well, and we got a call from
the doctor saying, I think you need to come back.
I'm really concerned that he might have Type one and
I don't want to test for it right now because
I want you to be here, but you need to
be back. So we got on a plane. I think

(07:26):
it was like five o'clock in the morning. We got
on a plane and they said, and he said, make
sure he's fasted. I want to test his urine that fastest.
So I am researching everything you know what can give
a child high blood sugar, and I'm looking at medicines.
Oh he had that medicine. Yeah, that's what it will be.
It will be he had paul my cub that can
cause high blood sugar. He's definitely can't Type one Diaret's
everything not. And we were convincing ourselves he's definitely not.

(07:47):
He's definitely not. We took him to the doctor. They
did a yurine test. They were like, you need to
go straight to the hospital. I was like, right, okay,
this is going to be okay, We're going to be okay.
Nothing bad has ever happened. It's going to be a
Obviously he's not got type with diabetes. I didn't even
google it. I was like, no. We got to the hospital,
they took his blood and even trying to get his

(08:08):
blood out. I think his blood was like seven eight hundred,
you know it was it was like bored. How he
was still awake. I don't know. I'm so grateful for
So the doctor pulls me to one side and says, oh,
it's diabetes, just like it's it was the flu, or
you know, it's got a virus or I was like, right,
I was like, and then I google it type one, noncurable,

(08:29):
type two reversible. Oh is it type two? No, well
it must be type two. He's not got an incurable disease.
And they're just looking at me. Meanwhile, we're in this
emergency department of a really well known hospital and he
was hungry. So my husband at the time had gone
to the canteen to get him some pasta and he
was sat in the hospital bed eating pasta while his

(08:53):
blood sugar was around seven eight hundred and they were
just letting him. So. Yeah, so they so he's in
the hospital bed. They just told me, and I've got
a picture of it. He sat eating pasta and I
look back and that you could have killed him. With
that I still don't understand. So he was admitted the
hospital where we would normally have gone. The endocnologist was away,

(09:15):
so they wouldn't admit him, which to this day kills
me a bit, because I do think this would have
been a lot easier if I'd been in the hospital
where I'd given birth to my three kids. I knew
the doctor's really comfortable there and they've got great, great doctors,
but we weren't. So they admit us, and then they say,
you'll be here for four days and we'll give you
training and we'll tell you how to deal with this.

(09:35):
So I massively seek a prive from the travel back
and then the trauma. And it was basically four days
in a hospital where there was no educator, they were
on holiday, and it was quite a young girl who
was trying to stand in for her who was just
whose English wasn't her first language, and a really really
abrupt doctor who had no empathy, who had no you know,

(10:00):
I was a wreck. She found me crying in the
bathroom floor in his room, like I was really really
like no, no, no, no, no no.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
And I guess you're looking for answers at this point,
as well, going through this absolute trauma. You've got the
thousands of miles that you've traveled not knowing what's going on,
and this word that's floating around that you're determined he
doesn't have because that's your baby, and what you don't
want that for your of course, and you're not getting
the answers that actually you really need.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
I met with like somebody who's looking at it is
a bit like someone has just said to me, you've
got to float. Take some paracetam old. This is like
it was. It was that normal to them, which is
I guess they do this a lot. But Rocco is
in bed and looking back now he's so thin. You're
so thin, but you don't know. And everyone, every parent
I know says the same that prediagnoses, how do we

(10:53):
not know that their bodies are starving? Like how do
we not know? And he's in hospital and he's cooked
up to everything, he's crying and he wants to eat,
and they're telling me you can't eat, and I'm like,
what do you mean he can't eat? How I've got
to feed my child? And it was just this endless
rollercoaster of traumas where nobody could really explain it. I've
got all of my family contact and be saying what's

(11:14):
going on because I've been back in the UK. I've
got his brothers at home, say Mummy, what's going on.
I didn't know what to say, and it was like
every time I had to say it to someone, they
would then come back with their own emotion over it.
So then you're lambastad and everyone else's emotion of like
they're pouring it all over you because they're in shock
and they love him too, and you're just like no, right, everyone,

(11:35):
leave me alone, len me alone. I can't process this.
And it's instant right, It's not like they go, he's
got type one. In a couple of weeks. Once you're
up to speed, we'll start dealing with this. Until then,
we'll put it on hold. It's like no. From this second,
they were saying, you know, you need to count a cubs,
you need to understand what's going in, you need to
dose his interlin. We can't do that for you, And
I was like what. So they literally came in right

(11:58):
so for dinner that night, they in with the menu.
So this is been he's been diagnosed, he's in hospital.
They come in with a kid's menu, which is pizza,
chicken nuggets, burgers, pasta. I'm like, I don't really understand.
He's said, just pick whatever you want because it's a
nurse and she knows nothing about diabetes. So I'm trusting

(12:19):
the nurse. That's our duty. So I ordered chicken nuggets
and they show me how to count them as four
nuggets like a doose it whatever. Obviously it's having no impact.
He's sugar seven hundred, so he's obviously on a drip
to try and get that down. The next night they
come back, what does he want chicken nuggets? This time
there's six in a portion, but they told me the
total carbs, not per nugget for the portion. I'm like, well,

(12:40):
you're setting me up to fail here because you're giving
me different porsh sizes every night. I don't know. And
it was like the lack of cohesion between a medical
treatment plan and a holistic treatment plan, which this food
can kill him, let's get on the same page here.
There was none of it, and I don't think that

(13:00):
change still, which why for me the raids that it
brings out in me when I hear kids still going
into the emergency rooms, still not being able to diagnose.
They still don't do fingerpricks. Why are they not getting
these children this is a symptom that's just finger prick,
because we'll know in five seconds.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
I don't know, Lik, that's such a simple thing.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah, so simple.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
And you're the one out here kind of trying to
get scriptures all this, not to mention like the dose amounts,
you know, like this precious medication that is so life saving.
But at the same time, you know you need to
do around and that's your baby. Yeah, my goodness me.
I can see the fire in you too, Like I'm

(13:41):
assuming where this book has come from and everything to
make sure that other parents don't have to have this
entry point to the condition. And all the while you've
got your baby boy and your other boys as well,
you know, like you're still a mother, you're still a
business owner. Life is still moving forward whether you want
it to or not. How did you then start to

(14:02):
kind of get to grips? I know, like you just
kind of have to. And I think that a lot
a lot of parents have been this through this and
myself as well, Like.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
People like how do you do it?

Speaker 1 (14:11):
And you're like, well, what's the alternative. Yeah, but in
terms of getting to grips with the reality of it
and having to shield those other people and say to
other people, well, he's got type one diabetes. Like, how
did you start to piece thatt ale together? Where did
you gather the information and start to move forward? I

(14:33):
guess for yourself as a mother.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yeah, I think you know. I think it's a bit
of like fake it till you make it. If it
had been me with the condition, I think I would
have wallowed in that for quite some time. As a parent.
You as you say, you have no choice, like my
child needed me to keep him alive, and at some point,
very quickly that kicked in, well that's good. At first

(14:57):
I refuse to take him home from hospital, with the
doctor saying no, I can't keep him alive, so I'm
not taking him home, and she's like not really an option,
Like well, I was like, listen, I will take him
home if you give me your mobile number so that
if I don't know what to do, I can call you.
And she was so resistant, which now I know is
crazy because I have my doctor's WhatsApp numbers, and every

(15:17):
person I know has their doctor's WhatsApp numbers. They're there
to support you. This is not a come for an
appointment tomorrow. This is life or death in the moment.
So I got her number and that's how they eventually
got me to leave the hospital kicking and screaming. And
they had said to me again, the educator wasn't there.
They said to me, you know, now sometimes he might
go low. He might there might be a time where

(15:38):
he goes though not. He's probably going to go low
five six times a day because you're learning, and if
he does, it's fine. They made it sound like at
some point in his life there might be a low
that you have to deal with. So I wasn't really
that worried about the loads because he'd been so high.
So we got him home, put him in his car.
He had the le break, the first version of the
libra where you have to scan it. So I just

(15:59):
sat in a dream and then about three hours in
I like plucked up the courage to scan him because
I didn't want to know. I just didn't. And he
was but like it was like thirty eight, which is
like I do I'm the different. I don't think mL.
But he was thirty eight, which is like okay, so
they say under twenty five is a coma great I

(16:19):
am failing here and I remember just screaming and his
dad came in and I was just like I was frozen.
I was like cold inside, like I don't want to
do this, I can't do it. And for the first
time in my life, I just wanted to run away
from my child and I didn't want to be responsible
for him not surviving this. I just was like I can't,

(16:40):
I can't do this. And then I think the next
day I woke up and I was like, right, just
got to get a grip. And my approach to everything
is if I've got the facts, if I've got information,
I can handle anything, no matter how bad it is.
If I don't know, if I'm in the dark, I'm
a mess. So it's like, right information. And the first
book I read was The World's Worst Diabetes Mom Stacy Simmons's.

(17:04):
She's a huge podcaster and she does so much for
the community. But I read that my mum had come
over and I read that with her, I was like, okay,
so she took sence. She sounds like a very normal
woman who also wants to have a live She went
off to Las Vegas and left her son, and I
was like, Okay, I can go to Vegas and leave
him at some point. Yeah, I can still go out
with my friends. And you know it's going to take time,

(17:26):
but it will be okay at some point. So fine.
And then I realized, oh, he can eat and I
can feed him. And nobody had said to me. Everyone
had said at the hospital, just eats normally, but how
can you eat normally? And I know that he can
eat normally, but they didn't explain how what does that
look like? Okay, so you might have to wait a
bit longer for dinner, or you might have to space

(17:47):
at that meal, or you might have to remove a
car if he's high, but everything on his plate can
look the same as his brothers. If someone had said
that to me, because I was researching diabestic recipes and
everything is just with sweetnar or it's like that doesn't
make sense, because nobody said, it's just a matter of
carb counting and if you get the internin in at
the time that the food hits if you eat anything.

(18:08):
And so once I started to understand that, so I
came home. I've got amazing pa at work, and I was.
I did spreadsheets of like meal plans, and I every
food that he eats, I basically put into a spreadsheet.
April cup five grams? Is this many carbs? And I
counted everything that he could ever eat with a portion
size that I knew was okay to him. Then I

(18:29):
got to the bagging. I bagged up so many low snacks,
cranberries and chocolate and biscuits. My kitchen was like the
Kardashians in terms of organization, but it didn't look pretty.
It was like bags and bags and bag. There was
nothing left in an original container. Pastor was weighed out,
rice was weighed out. Because I thought, if I'm in

(18:50):
an emergency situation, I know that fear that I'm going
to get because I felt it last night. Therefore, I
wanted to just be able to grab stuff and know
that I know how to keep him alive. He goes away.
The highs, I wasn't so bothered about. I was like,
I don't want my son to go into a como,
So therefore, this is what I need to do. So
that organization, that planning, that research, reading and finding a

(19:13):
community here. You know, that was the biggest thing, because
it's a bit like when you're pregnant, you can talk
to your non pregnant friends and they're like, oh, that's
sounds very nice. Oh yeah, that must be hard. But
when you, like, we get on this call we've never met,
we could sit for days, weeks, months, years and just
talk because on a level, you get it and I

(19:34):
get it, and there's very few people who we meet
in this world that get it. And when someone gets
something that affects you so deeply every second of every day,
that connection is instant, and it's energizing, and it's safety
more than your family or your friends can ever give
you because they love you, and they they're sad at
that point. They're just so sad and you're like, oh,

(19:55):
I get at your stab, but can you stop it
because I need to be more than sad. I needed
my I need to handle.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
This, put that sadness somewhere else and come back shoes.
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh I'm so sorry. That's just
so much. And like the way you got to grips
with that so quickly, I mean, as as you said,
you just have to, but I mean, and it goes
to show how important those first interactions are. And I've
said that whether they instill positivity, education, calmness, or terror,

(20:26):
fear and the unknown, like that's that's world's apart in
terms of Yes, that's all you've got to hang on
to in that point, right, And then you go off
with this new thing and you say in the book
like let me find it, life tends to be broken
into two parts, before diaryetes and after diabetes. And you
had that so clear there just diving into this complete

(20:48):
unknown and the help that you should have had for
whatever reason, whatever circumstance. You know, I sort of we
can clearly see it wasn't it wasn't there for you.
It wasn't given to you.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
You know, and think if it had a been, I
wouldn't be able to help other people the way I
feel I can now. So when new moms come on
to the group, where there was a lady in November
who I actually met ten years ago to buy we'd
never really connected again. Somebody had told me that her
son was just diagnosed. He's eight. So I instantly reach
out to her and she's a really open, beautiful soul,
like you know, she wanted to help her. It was

(21:21):
like I sent that night to the hospital I sent
dinner for them. I sent bags and bags of quito
based snacks, of diet coke, of everything that you would
never normally give a kid, but you can have it
as a site where meat and cheese. And I was like, listen,
this will get you through the next few days. When
you're out, I'll come and see you. And I prepared
her a little snack thing and I like gave her

(21:41):
all our measurements that we use and it was like,
and she says to me, I hate this. My sister
died of cans three years ago. I've had this. She's
too much. It's just too much. I was, like, it is,
and you don't have to feel bad for saying that.
And you know when you hear someone else express this
like it is, and you know other people would say
to but you're strong, you can do this, and you

(22:02):
know you wouldn't have been SENTI if you could. And
it's like, no, no, it's not okay. Whatever you say
to me, this is not fair. I like said, so
I still have those moments all the time, you know,
But like you talked about earlier, today, I'm great spy
diabetes world. We're all cracking on. And today I do
not know how to manage the sugars. I don't know
why I've been awake for five hours tonight. I don't

(22:22):
know why it won't come off or it won't go down,
or because there's so much about the body that we
don't know and we're just guessing.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
Yeah, we're just trying to do what we can. And
how have you reconciled that for you as a mum
who wants your boy to be okay and carry you know,
these concerns for him now that you've moved forward a
bit from that time where yeah, you know it's not okay.
It really isn't okay in that moment. So where have
you sort of got to now having figured so much

(22:52):
of this out for yourself and found the support in
terms of, you know, handling this beast as Rocco becomes
an outgoing and fun brother son.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
Yeah, all of it, and he is wild. If you
look at my two older boys, they're pretty calm and measured,
and you know, if they get in trouble. I could
probably tell you on one hand the amount of times
I've shouted at his older brothers and they would cry. Now,
Rocco is so hard, hardened by I think everything he's
had to go through and so resilient, he's just like

(23:26):
a bad time Okay, sorry, I love you. You know,
like he's just so much as water products. Back then,
I'm like, oh God, I don't want him to be hard.
And then I try and give him a bit of control,
and I think, so you asked me, how I reconciled it.
I am a total control freak when it comes to
his diabetes. And that's probably my next stage to work

(23:46):
on is I send one of the nannies to school
with him, so I have somebody sat at school, because
for me, I don't just want someone to do since
him prison. I want him to be arranged. And it's
not fair. I don't think to put that pressure on
a teacher or teaching assistant. He's got twenty five other kids,
and you know, my favor is always what if one
of those other kids has an accident and Roco's got
an urgent my blood sugar, what happens then? What if

(24:09):
the nurse is busy with one of the other thousand
children at school. I can't live my day to day
life without somebody being accountable for his health. And I
know I'm in a lucky position to have that, and
I've you know, I've got two girls, and they alternate,
so sometimes they'll do the night for me. If I've
got a big day at work, they'll do the night
so that I can sleep, because if I don't sleep

(24:29):
the next day, I'm not equipped with three kids anyway,
without the diabetes. I'm really lucky that I had that support.
But for me, the way if I can sad it
is control. I will just do my best to learn
as much as I can, to try as much as
I can to keep on top of his technology. Are
we moving forward? Does he have the right things while
also making sure that he is not feeling controlled by me,

(24:53):
because what I see with him sometimes does this need
to take a bit of control. So then like the
pizza we talked about earlier, so you can have the peace,
but then later don't come to me when I can't
give you that, because my responsibility is to look after
your body. And sometimes when he goes crazy, it's not
that I'm like you, don Rocco, here's your PDM and
here's your phoate. You do it. You make the decisions.
Then if you don't like the decisions I'm making, I'll

(25:15):
hand control over to you because you're not listening to me.
And you put that in your mouth and we agreed
you weren't going to eat it, so you try it
and then his little face and I'm like, oh God,
I'm a terrible human being. I've just made him feel awful.
But at the same time, unfortunately he has had to
grow up a bit faster because the decisions he made
will dictate how healthy is in the future, and it's

(25:35):
a big deal.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah, So you were saying there that if it's pizza
day on a Saturday, if he has the pizza, he
then can't then go on to have like snacks all afternoon.
He has to kind of pick, and I was trying
to like I would come back with that, like that's
where I've got to in my head. You know, I'm
in my thirties, I'm an adult. I've been living with
this for a very long time. But I will pick

(25:57):
the days where the admin or the extra kind of
stress of following the consequences of those decisions are worth
it because it brings me happiness in other ways or
health in other ways, in the sense of being able
to live my life. But knowing that I am monitoring
it that I am taking care of myself. I'm not
just being like, Okay, I'm not doing diabetes today, Like

(26:19):
I don't do that. And I think you're setting him
up there, you know, to reassure you none of this
is easy and who knows what's best and you can
only know that for your child. And by having that
open dialogue, I think that's fantastic, Like that's something that
we didn't really have in those you know, back when
I was a kid. Just like everyone else in the world,

(26:42):
you can have anything, but you can't have everything. And
I think that's a really really healthy outlook to take.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
And that balance. It's like we all want a balance life, right,
we all want those days where we go more this
way and more this way, and then some days we're
straight down the middle. But as soon as someone tells
us no, but I want it. If I'm gore to
the gym and I've got a trainer and he saying
you can only eat this, well I only want to
eat this. Nobody wants to be told.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
Yeah, and meeting that finding that, I mean, I think
balance is completely elusive and just.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
Not doesn't exist.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
I'm just either swinging one way or the other and
trying to keep it all together while I do in
life and diabetes and everything else. But I've noticed as
well on your Instagram that you have quite open discussions
with Rocco about mental health and the emotional side of
all of this, which you seem very clued up on
and very conscious of. And you know, at a young age,

(27:36):
I just think that's so healthy. So can you speak
to me a little bit. Having myself come on a
journey where I had to kind of figure out for
myself more than ten years in when I'd gone way,
way way of course in my poor little mind, and
I didn't even know, you know, from the emotional impact
of living with Type one diabetes having to find my
way back. You are having these discussions and opening up that,

(28:00):
and I really love to hear that. So I'd love
to hear from your point of view how you approach
those conversations and why that's important to you. You know,
I think when you get to a certain age in
life and certain things have happened to you, I think
we all get to that stage where Okay, I think
I'm ready for a bit of therapy now. And you know,
I had I had.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
A face in my life. We're already I mean, we're
already much sooner than we want to admit it. But
I'm a massive advocate for emotional intelligence and talking about
your feelings and raising three boys. You know, if anyone
ever says them, don't be a girl, stop crying, it's like,
you know, that is a bit of a red rag
to the bullet. It's like expressing your emotions is the
healthiest way to live your life. Otherwise you get to

(28:40):
an older age and you express everything through anger because
everything makes you feel angry. And you see so many
men in their forties and fifties and on maybe younger
that are so angry and that are so unable to
talk about their emotions because their whole childhood life. Don't
be a girl, don't cry, pull yourself together. So for me,
that was my mind anyway, before diabetes, I'd gone through

(29:02):
a divorce. I'd lost my grandma, I'd lost my brother,
I lost my dad. It was a really traumatic period
of my life. I never really acknowledged, and I just
carried on because, as we said earlier, you do got
three kids. So for me, the decision to divorce, I'd
come from a family where my mom and dad divorced
when they were quite young, and a lot of my

(29:22):
therapy was centered around in a child healing of as
a child, I knew something was wrong. I was six
and I still can tell you now that feeling it
comes up to me so readily, that feeling in my
gut of this is not okay. And my parents and
my grandma were saying everything's fine, and I'm like, but
I know it's not okay. But they're telling me it's fine,

(29:44):
and I trust them and they're my parents, so okay,
everything's fine, and it was very clearly not fine, and
they what happens is then you're brought up as a
human that doesn't trust your own intuition, and you don't
trust your instincts, so you don't trust yourself, and you're
very easily manipulated. And this want to make sure that
everyone else is always okay, and if I can make
everyone else okay, then maybe I'll feel okay. And once

(30:06):
I started to learn about this when I was going
through the divorce, myself and my ex husband both agreed
to be quite open with the children, and you know,
they saw us both cry, they saw us both really
go through the pain of the family breaking up while
talking to them about it. So Rocco was too, but Marley,
he was must have been nine eight nine, So we

(30:28):
had really honest conversations. You know, we'll always be a
mummy and daddy, we just won't be living together. And
we tried to keep a lot of dialogue with them
so they could talk about if they were sad or
we'd ask them a lot about how they were feeling.
So from a young age, the three boys were really
able to say how they felt, you know. And I
saw Marley going into his teenagers from about eleven with

(30:48):
the hormones, saying, I just feel really angry and I
don't know why, but he was able to express it,
and then we were able to dig into it and
have that conversation about sometimes you feel a certain way
and you don't know, but it doesn't mean that that
feeling is not valid. We can talk about this, you know.
And I had a bit of a moment a couple
of weeks ago with the boys were just really stressing
me out and I was on the verge of tears
and Marley, my eldest, came over to me and gave

(31:09):
me a hug. I went just let it out and
you know those how many words? Three words? It was?
I was. I was just like, I am raising a
human who is really going to do good in this
world because he's got instinct and his strength and his

(31:30):
courage and his openness. It's okay to let it out.
And I did. And I said to Lough, you know what, Marley,
that was exactly what I needed. And Marley and Maddox
and Rocco were all in the room. And then I
spoke to Roco about it afterwards, and I talked about
dealing with your emotions. And I think the conversations with
Roco are the toughest because he has the most rage
in him. He is the one I was like, no,

(31:52):
shut up your stupid Oh. His insta go to is that,
and I often wonder if it's because of what he's
been through in his life. So I talked to about
it a lot, and I say, you know, how are
you feeling? But where did you feel that anger? Was
it in your heart? Was in your throat? Let's talk
about what it felt like, what led to it, what
could we try and do differently next time? And he's
really aware of it. So I think having open conversations

(32:14):
for me is a non negotiable and actually anyone in
my life. So I've probably lost friends over the years.
I've lost partners over the years because I have an
inability to, or I refuse to not have open and
honest dialogues and to not feel like what I'm feeling
is valid. And as a woman of forty three, that
gets more and more difficult, right because in relationships or

(32:37):
you know, whatever the situation, a lot of people don't
respond well to that. They like to be told what
they want to hear, or they want someone who's much more.
We always joke about it, me and my friends, and
some of them are divorced, so it's like, you know,
the women ten years younger than us are much more
amenable sometimes to be like yeah, and you're great, and
that's brilliant, and we're like, God, if only we could

(32:59):
be a bit more like that, maybe this wouldn't be
so hard. But I think teaching your children to be
confident in how they're feeling and able to talk about
that is the biggest life skill you can give them,
and especially with Rocko, because he is able to say
to me, I hate diabetes, and I go I do too.
I do too, but but I do so let's I'm

(33:20):
not that sort going but it's great and you're lucky
because it's not, and that would simply be a lie,
and I refuse to lie for him.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
Yeah, And there's something about opening up those conversations where
you do acknowledge that this is kind of rubbish or
really rubbish a lot of the time that I think
helps I, speaking from my experience, to accept it. And
I find it hard to walk between the line of

(33:47):
this is a really serious condition that absolutely has the
capacity to beat me down, but equally, I'm living a
life that little later year old Jenny couldn't have imagined
regardless of type one diabetes. But I think there are
aspects of type one diabetes that have made me defiant
in that.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
Way, you know it anyway.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
Yeah, it's interesting, But I think acceptance is kind of.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
To me.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
It mirrors this absolute messy, never done, this never quite
bareness of life. It is just all part of one
and the same. And that's not to say that I
am just type one diabetes. It's not a defining thing
in my life, but it's woven into huge parts of
who I am. And I'm quite proud of most of

(34:35):
those because of what diabetes has thrown at me. And
for you to say that you're sort of bringing those
conversations without judgment to the table with Rocco, I think
is an incredible thing to instill. Yeah, for sure, for sure,
because it does bring up so many feelings and they're confusing.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
They're confusing, and you know, sometimes he's like, oh, this
is great because he've got his low snacks and he's like, Mummy,
can you make me go low? You know, when he's
I'm right, where's your bag? You know, he said the
kids have had something that he's not being able to have.
You'll go to his shelf and you'll get his bag
of all the things that he didn't have, and you'll
like jump away at them and it might be a
choose and the kids are like, but we're not allowed
sweets in a Tuesday. I'm like, well, you know, you
had deals on Saturday. He's having his today. He's he's

(35:15):
really mature in some ways, but I see that in
a lot of type ones. I think so much is
stack up against you, and you've got so much to
overcome in those early years of getting to grips with it.
Mentally and physically that once you do, it's a bit like, listen,
I'm an organ you should see what I could do,
how smart I am, Like I can do anything. And
you know, I think there is that very much feeling

(35:37):
of this is not going to hold me back, because
why should it. You know, you've got the medicine, we've
got the technology. We're very lucky. And you know that's
something that terrifies me in countries that people don't have
insulin or they don't have the technology. You know, We're
in the Middle East and you see Gaza and I
would watch that day and day out. I've got a
lot of people that work for me that were a
Palestinian or Lebanese that were hugely affects their families on

(35:59):
the front line of what is happening. And selfishly, all
I could think about is how many days would Roco
have if I couldn't get him intal Limb? How many days?
And that is a real fear for me as well
as like my child is dependent on medicine. That's a
really big thing to get your head around me. Caring
him with his mother is not enough. He is relying

(36:21):
on medicine and every we just went through his annual
blood and I'm reading all the reports and I'm just
like this, you know, I just want to see that
everything's in the green. And I didn't actually just kind
of clicked because I thought, I don't want to see
the name of the test in case it's serious, and
it's if it's his liber or is kidney, and I
was just like oh, and they were pretty much all
in range. And then I was like, you know, he's seven,

(36:43):
and I'm having to worry about is there anything more
seriously wrong with you than this? This is enough on
its own, but the things linked to it, or if
you've ever googled it, which obviously you do. It's like,
I just need to do everything I can to make
sure that he I hand this over to him when
he is ready to deal with it, and I give
him all the information. And I know as a teenager

(37:03):
and as you say what you went through, he's going
to go out drinking. He's going to get crazy load
blood sugars. He's going to think I want that burger.
I don't care, you know, if I give him the
information and try and support him the best I can
and don't be that overbearing helicopter car all the time.
Hopefully he will want to care for his body because
it feels good. But you know, the lady I was

(37:25):
talking to in selfish, so I was saying, I'd seen
someone with the LA brain. I'm that crazy person. I'll
always go up and talk to them because I love
that connection of someone. It just you know this with
women and young girls, the link between Type one and
eating disorders is so great because they're having to be

(37:46):
so aware of everything that goes in. And she was
saying to be that her mother also did weight watchers,
so not only were they counting the car, they were
counting everything, the calories and everything. So she grew up
in this household of just being so obsessed withouting everything
that went into a body. The toll of that mentally
and more specifically on women is terrifying. So it's not

(38:07):
even just the Type one that you've got to worry about,
is everything that can be linked to it.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
This episode of Type one on one is sponsored by Insult,
the makers of omnipodtube free insulin pump therapy. I've personally
used pod therapy to manage my Type one diabetes for
years and using Omnipod five automated insulin delivery has improved
my diabetes management significantly with less diabetes decisions and of

(38:34):
course no multiple daily injections. How well omnipod five automatically
adjust my insulin every five minutes to help keep me
in range, allowing life outside of type one diabetes to
get bigger. If you want to know more, head to
omnipod dot com. And with that, how have you as

(38:56):
a parent been able to process now that you're a
step removed from, you know, the diagnosis and that whole
time you said you found this very supportive group, which
is amazing, and I'm sure like creating the book was
as a result of part of what you've been through
as well, So I'd love to talk about that. But
how are you processing all of this as it's coming up?

(39:18):
And where do you put your boundaries in place in
terms of there's so much noise out there. We have
this wealth of information now that is amazing because I
you know, I didn't have any of it, and I'm
so grateful for it, and you know, I'm sat here
kind of contributing to that, hopefully in a discerning and
objective and journalistic way. And in a way that that helps.
But for you yourself, like, how do you, as a

(39:43):
as a woman of your own, you know, away from
from being Roco's mum, kind of take your own time
to breathe and where do you draw the line in
terms of all the noise that's out there and other
people's opinions and kind of you said you don't trust yourself,
But what I heard from all of this is that
your instinct is on point and you've created this life

(40:06):
where you can make space for all of these different
feelings and challenges. And yeah, I'd love to know your
thoughts on that.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
You know, i'd say, as a parent of somebody with
anything that's wrong with them, I do think you carry
a bit of guilt because it's come from somewhere in
his gene pool. And again I saw a therapist over this,
but it's like, you know, just like get rid of

(40:34):
the guilt, and it's like I don't think they'll ever
that will ever fully go away. Actually kept him safe
and I didn't. So finding the space to deal with
that is really it's really hard, and I think there's
I limit the information, so I am on a path
of balance, so I don't have anikito. I don't like

(40:56):
him any fruit. I don't like him only drinks out
of vinegar. I'm like balance food and if good sugars
are really good, we have a really good HBO and see.
And it's trial and error, you know, It's that acceptance
if you say, some days are better than others, some
months are better than others, but overall these really healthy.
So but I always want to do better. And I
am that person in life that has thrown myself into

(41:18):
everything I've done and always got where I wanted to
be too hard work. I've never had anything handed to me.
I've never wanted something to be easy or for someone
to make my life easier. I enjoy a challenge. And
the thing I hate about Type one the most is
no matter how hard I work at it, it's never
going away. It's never going away. There's nothing I can do,

(41:42):
no money, no time, no love, no effort, no. And
that's really hard for me to get my head around,
because you know, I've been raised and taught myself that
if I want something, if I work hard enough for it,
I'll get it. And when your child's health and life
hangs in the balance every day, it's really difficult to accept.
So I just I accept. Sometimes it really upsets me,

(42:04):
and when it comes to like the three monthly bloods,
I hate going to the hospital because I always feel
like we shouldn't be there, why are we here? And
I was talking to someone else about it. I remember
leaving the hospital when he was diagnosed, and the lift
was full, and it was a children's hospital and there
was some people in there they'd had gastro and the
whole family's been struck down with it and everyone's feeling better,
and I just looked at my mom and I was

(42:26):
just like, this is just the start for us. Like
normally you leave hospital and you feel better. This is
never going to be better. So that acceptance and that
ability that if I am having a tough day with it,
I'll allow myself to express that. I don't have guilt
over saying this is awful, or finding other parents in

(42:47):
the same situation to mine about it with. I don't
do that very often, you know, I had We've got
a new system at the moment, and all of the
incident is given through the phone, and I went to
give him point five and I've never done this for
five years anyway, I gave him point five that I
thought sent him off with this dad. He'd gone to golf,
and then I looked at the app and I was like,

(43:08):
why has he got five unutes of into the body.
He's never had five unutes in his whole life. My
messaged his dad and says like, abbe, you gave him
five units. You didn't give him a point four. And
he's in the car in a traffic jam. We had
five many colollies, a packet of sweets and that was
all that was in the car. And then he rushed
him into the hotel where the golf was and they

(43:29):
had had a fancwer so he had a great time.
He's like, oh fans, so yeah. And I hated myself.
It was like, no, I can't. You can't afford to
make mistakes like that. That's his life. This is not
a oh it's okay, you know, we all make mistakes.
This is I could have killed him. And if I
hadn't of a look, you would have crashed so quickly.

(43:51):
It's a fast act, vincent, and then your mind is
just like I just feel like I'm back on that diagnosis,
say like I don't want to do this. I don't
want this responsibility. He's too great.

Speaker 1 (44:01):
I'm so sorry. That's I mean, the outcome there is
that he had the time of his life with this
being he wass a fan. Yeah, but that doesn't take
away your feelings. And yeah, so let's talk about the book,
because despite all of this, this book, it really struck
me when I read it that the messages are very

(44:22):
hopeful one for parents and for children. So I'd love
to hear kind of whether that was conscious, what drove that.
Talk to me a bit about that.

Speaker 2 (44:33):
Yeah, and listen, I'm opening up about like the deepest
darkets emotions that this brings out in me. But day
to day I am very much like we're good. I mean,
depending on what the crashes happened while he's at school,
that might give me a bit of a heart attack
while I'm in a meeting and my phone is going on,
We're good. We've got the technology, we've got the doctors,
We've got so much happening. You know, incident that you

(44:54):
can inject that you inject once a week, that is
only reacted to glucose. Can you imagine? Can you imagine
one injection? And that's it really is.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
And also I would say to your point there, that
is my line, and I'm sorry I do tend to
do that to people where it's suddenly like, oh, we're
both in therapy right now. But I would say, like,
for me, all of those feelings, knowing that this is tough,
and feeling actually very grateful for what I do have
and the life I do live, and the technology and

(45:24):
the tools I have and the things I've been able
to do in spite of all this crap, I am
so so fervent in the belief that all of that
can exist and does exist at once, and that is life.
So yeah, sorry interrupted you there.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
I totally agree, and listen, you know, I think this
is a this is classic. This is how life is.
You have to hold on to all the good stuff.
You have to be in the moment because nobody knows
what's going to happen tomorrow and nobody tight one on on.
So we all have to live in a moment and
we all have to appreciate what we've got and the
people that we've got, And I think it makes you
incredibly grateful. So for me with the book, when I

(45:59):
was in with Rocco and I'm trying to tell people
what this disease is. I didn't know what it was,
so I googled it and then I cannot say that
to anyone. I cannot, I can't can't use those words.
And my friends in Scotland sent me a book and
it was so depressing. It was it was on terrible
paper and the pictures are already sad, and the words are
already miserable, and it was really medical, and I was like, no,

(46:22):
I don't want to be associated with this, and I think,
you know, listen, the illustrations are everything in this book
for me, Like this lady who illustrated it, she got
Rocco and all of us like she just it was beautiful.
And I wanted this to be a little ray of
sunshine to someone that is going through something awful, that
feels so isolated because the likelihood is they don't know

(46:45):
anyone else who's got it. They don't have any other
mothers or fathers that can say them it's going to
be okay. Listen, I've got loads of points see it.
I'm a cool night as well. Message me whenever you need,
which you know I now have. And I wanted to say, like,
it is really hard, but not too hard, like you're
going to get through this, and your child needs to
know there's so many other kids in their situation and

(47:06):
this is not something to be ashamed of. You know,
Rocco hiding his pard and his pump and it's like, no,
I don't want that. I don't want him to be like, yeah,
I've got diabetes, but I do want him to be
in a room and feel like, well, I'm just the same.
I've got this, You've got that. Everybody's got something. This
is your thing. We deal with it. And before the book,
he was really embarrassed. And when I first wrote the

(47:28):
book and I self published it originally and it looks
very different and I went into school to read it,
he was so embarrassed. But the second Hi I came,
he was maybe two and a half years older, and
he was so proud and that maybe go, oh, you know,
even if I don't care if no one buys it,
Roco feels great about this. And he's talking about his
diabetes and his friends are asking him questions and he

(47:49):
feels really normalized by the fact that we've talked about it.
And you know, any tabooth subject, when you talk about it,
you normalize it. So the more people I could get
talking about diabetes with this book, the more we normalize
it for our children and for anyone living with it.
And I went and did some readings. I did a
reading in Virginin which was amazing, but it was such
a small group of kids that guided around me than

(48:10):
The lady at Virgin was like, I'm so surprised. Normally
we get really big crowds, said. I did speak to
a few parents. I was like, right, and they're like
they just said it was a bit of a serious subject,
and it was like, oh, but what if it happens
to you like you? If you know, knowledge is power,
you can save your child's life or their friend's life,
or you know. I did a talk at Rocco school
when he was first diagnosed, and I knew very little,

(48:32):
but the teachers like, can you come in and talk
about it? So I did and a few weeks lay
so she messaged me and said, listen, I had this remate.
I actually know they had diabetes, and she was unresponsive
one night and because of what you told me, I
realized she had high blood sugar, not loblood sugar, and
I would have normally given her some sugar but because
I didn't the paramedics that I say for life. So
it was like, okay, I had one conversation with a

(48:56):
little bit of information. So if everyone started talking about it,
and you know, you've got people in the UK, but
Kate Massis das a going out with her debts, come on,
you know, we shouldn't be ashamed of this. Our children
shouldn't be ashamed of this. It's a disease that they
were given that they live with and they do a
great job of it. So for me, it was like
this gets people talking. And one of the moms and

(49:17):
the group sent me a message and she fai, we
bought the book and I read it with my daughter
and she said she came over to me and she
was like so pleased that Abby wrote this, like thank
you so much for everything you do for me, mummy,
like it made her feel normal. So this is not
a bucket. Won't teach you how to look after a
diabretic child. I am not a doctor, but hopefully it

(49:38):
will give you perspective of this is massive and it's heavy,
and you know, my next book, maybe he'll be around
the care of burnout and the pressure that comes with
the child and the guilt, but it's going to be okay,
and you have to teach your child the same. They're
not defined by the diabetes. I never call him a diabetic.
He has diabetes, why should he be labeled because he

(50:01):
doesn't have a pancreas. And that's something else that I've
started to say to him more and more. You're not sick.
You just have one body part that doesn't work, but
you're actually not sick. You don't have a pancreas, so
you have something missing, but you're not sick, So don't
act like you're sick, you know. If he's good all,
and he sometimes uses it to say, I don't feel
like I'm going to school today. I'm like, Oka, your

(50:22):
blood sugar is a fine, You're going into school, And
I get it, but it's like, you know that. And
then when I said it to him, I said, you're
actually not sick. You know, you have a disease, so
people think you're sick, but it shouldn't even really be
called a disease. You know that the disease parts kind
of happened. It's killed your pancreas, but the rest of
your body is not disease. And you're not sick. You

(50:45):
just have to do a bit more work to stay healthy.

Speaker 1 (50:49):
Yeah, so empowering, and it put like you say, it
puts it in all your hands, like, yes, this has happened,
but what happens now we can decide that, we can determine,
we can determine what this life looks like. And for
each individual that is different. But that's that's in your
hands still. And I love kind of what you said

(51:10):
there about you know, that group was small, but that
one person then going on and knowing what to do
in that situation that saved a life. You know that
ripples and ripples and ripples, and every conversation is a
conversation more where someone's taking something away from that, whether
that's understanding, whether that's then something that they need to

(51:31):
draw on in a serious situation. And you know, that's priceless,
that's absolutely invaluable. I'm wondering if this has helped you
as well, because you know, I love this side as
you talk about it and the kind of force that
you have there with it. But this this message of
hope as well, has it helped you as well? Kind
of process?

Speaker 2 (51:50):
Yeah, yeah, it's so therapeutic, like selfishly, it's so therapeutic.
And when I meet somebody who's got a newly diagnosed
hard like my friend my own, like we've formed such
instant friendship. And we met ten years ago, we didn't
form a friendship. We met again and it was like,
you know, we mess each other other time. And I
am more open with her than I probably would be
with a lot of my friends about a lot of things,

(52:11):
because it strips away so much, doesn't it, And it
gets you at your most vulnerable. And I love talking
to her, and I love it when she asked me
a question and I can give her an answer and
it helps her because you know, I still feel like
a bit of a fraud. I'm like, do I really
know what I'm doing? I kind of do. But when
you can help somebody else, I think it's such a

(52:32):
rewarding feeling. And you see a mother just take a breath.
I remember somebody was one of the ladies in the
group came to me when I was five days past diagnosed.
She came to the house and she brought her little girl,
who was a year older than Moco, and she had
a lawyer. I think her daughter went to fifty and
she was just carried on talking to me and she
gives her something and I was like this, like every

(52:55):
part this is alarm and a lot of what's gonna happen.
She was just cut and I was like, I will
never be like that, Like how does she be so calm?
And now we talk all the time. She had but night.
I hate this And it's like we all go through
those moments of feeling really in control and really out
of control. But that is also life, you know, that

(53:16):
is life, that is and it sets you up to
go none of it really matters. And I think he
said it earlier, like stripping away all that stress that
is just inconsequential doesn't matter. Let go of that and
let's focus on what needs my attention. And I do
think diabetes takes up such a big part of your brain.
I would say it's fifty percent of my brain is
always consumed consciously subconsciously, and probably for you it's more

(53:38):
because it's happening to you. But I am not capable
or able to fill my brain as I was, or
to work at the speed I was or the capacity was.
I'm way more tired. My mental energy is way less,
and my ability to handle stress is less, so it's like, okay,
I'm full shut down.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
Yeahs. Before there was so much more space, the finessing
of like this is not important to my life and
actually I have my health to protect and you're raising
my quarter sole level. So sorry, yeah, like sorry, not sorry.
Basically yeah, that's been a big piece of the puzzle
for me, and quite rightly so. And again that's something

(54:16):
that I'm like, gosh, I would never probably have got
to that point, you know, not to say like everything
has a silver lining, but for me that's like a
huge key to my life now is what matters, what
really matters. I appreciate silly little things because when the
diabetes noise in my head does quieten down, I'm like, huh,

(54:38):
how I mean this sky's blue today, I feel great,
Like you know, yeah, it's so us but yeah, but
again it's this dichotomy. It kind of exists alongside like
you say, this constant something in the back of your
head or what have you forgotten? What should you be
thinking about? Now? There's there's always that like yeah not
quite switched off. Yeah, oh my goodness, this conversation has

(55:00):
been so therapeutic for me. Very selfishly putting this podcast
out there. But even like and you said, you know,
does this help? Do I know enough? I think even
just normalizing these conversations is so powerful for people because
a lot of people out there never get to have

(55:21):
these conversations, and you putting the book out there in
the world is kind of kind of opening up a
space for that. So yeah, incredible. Where can people find you?
Where can people find the book? Where should they head
to you to find out more about Abby and your
world and Rocco and everything.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
So Rocky's instagram is what is diabetes? So that's our
Instagram handle, so you can find us on there. And
then the book is available on Amazon. It's available in
the UK, the US, and the UAE and then some
bookshops around the world as well.

Speaker 1 (55:54):
Amazing. Is there anything else you want to add?

Speaker 2 (55:58):
No, just you for having me on you know, like
people like you being out there having these conversations. I
think there's so much information that is from a medical perspective,
and I don't think it massively helps. I think somebody
living it, feeling it, understanding it does so much good
in the world. And I think for you as a
role model for these young girls out there, being diagnosed

(56:19):
and listening to you talk and you live a really
normal life, You travel the world, you achieve so much.
I think it's really inspiring. So thank you for sharing
this with me. Like I've been really happy to be here.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
Thank you. You've inspired me an incredible amount today and
I've no doubt that that's the same for the listeners
as well. So yeah, thank you so much. Thank you.
I hope you enjoyed this episode of Type one on one.
Please remember that nothing you hear on this podcast should
be taken as medical advice. I'm definitely not a healthcare professional.

(56:52):
If you like what you hear, hit subscribe and do
leave a little review on iTunes if you have time.
It really helps to spread the word about type one diabetes.
And thank you so much for listening.