I haven’t published a blog post since January, so I thought it was time for a bit of an update. I’ve really missed meeting other people with diabetes. So I’m really glad that Summer is here and while we may be a ways of from getting onboard an airplane to visit places where it’s sunny and warm, we do have a lot of positive things happening.

Many people in the diabetes community have received their first dose of the COVID vaccination, myself included. If you are someone who is still waiting on your vaccination, please don’t despair, there are a lot of us to get through and you will have your turn.

The restrictions are beginning to lift, from Monday, May 10th, we can visit members of our family in other countys, the hairdressers are opening :-O, so we can now see the light at the end of that very loooonnnng tunnel.

I have some updates from the Irish diabetes world to share that have evolved since January that I thought you might be interested in hearing about.

Included in this update:

• Hypo Research Project

• Freestyle Libre Access Update

• HSE Preferred List of Blood Glucose Meters and Test Strips

• More Irish Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating (DAFNE) centres

• Thriveabetes Summer Interviews 2021

Hypo Research

HypoResolve is an international group of researchers, health professionals AND people with diabetes including our very own Laura Cooke, from Laois, We featured Laura in a previous blog post which you can read here.

The group are conducting a study to learn more about how hypoglycaemia affects the daily lives of people living with diabetes & their loved ones and would love you to contribute your experiences through the attached survey.

NOTE - open to ALL types of diabetes if you are using insulin for 6 months or more and you are over 16 years old.

The Survey takes less than 30 min - I had it done in less than 15 minutes 😀 and I would really appreciate it if you had the time to complete it. Here’s the survey link - www.hypo-resolve.eu/haveyoursay

Libre News

The Cross Party Oireachtas Parliamentary Diabetes Group lead by Diabetes Ireland has put access to the Freestyle Libre for people over aged 21 years at the top of their priority list, which is good news. Click on this link for their most recent press release.

HSE Preferred List of Blood Glucose Meters and Test Strips

In February 2021, the HSE created a list of preferred blood glucose meters for adults with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

*** However, the blood glucose meters that are not included on the preferred list are still available and their test strips continue to be included on the list of Long Term Illness reimbursable items

Read the update here and find out what meters are on the preferred list.

More Irish Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating (DAFNE) centres

It’s been very good news to heard that we now have DAFNE courses available in 11 diabetes clinics. However, it does appear that the BERGER courses are no longer available. Our “Diabetes Education” webpage has been updated with these centres listed.

Thriveabetes Interviews

That’s it from me for now and I hope to follow this post up with more Thriveabetes recorded interviews like the ones we did last summer. I’m excited to announce that we plan to record some more this summer, so watch this space. View last summers videos here.

Everyone take care and feel free to reach out to Thriveabetes.

Gráinne