Despite travelling for work most of the year, Dario Leveroni manages to keep his Type 2 diabetes in check. He tells us how.

Dario Leveroni (75) lives in Port Elizabeth with his wife. He is a semi-retired marine engineering surveyor. 

Dario was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2015, at the age of 68, after consulting with his doctor as he was frequently thirsty which was out of the norm. He was prescribed metformin and other medication. “When I was diagnosed I weighed 80kg so immediately reacted and dropped to 62kg within one year,” Dario says.

In 2016, Dario was flying to Italy for his son’s wedding (and being Italian, the carbs were aplenty) so his doctor recommended going on insulin too. Since then he has stayed on insulin, which consists of insulin degludec and insulin aspart (Ryzode) and insulin aspart injection (Fiasp) as well as metformin.

Travelling

When Dario is travelling for work, he always gets his supply of medication beforehand and he tries to stick to a Mediterranean diet. A normal day of eating for Dario is as follows:

Breakfast: cappuccino, oats or crushed wheat flakes.

Lunch: mostly salads (except Sundays).

Lunch and dinner: red meat, chicken, fish, vegetables (mostly raw), legumes, vegetable cold soup (Gazpacho), vegetable soup, and pasta (limited to 50g only once a week).

“Sometime my management goes off the track when it can’t be helped due to the airplane food. Plus, the business lounge and hotel meals throw a spanner in works, but otherwise once again self-discipline comes in,” Dario explains.

Luckily, Dario’s work comprises a lot of walking and climbing, helping him to keep moving his body. But he also tries to gym every day, doing cardio and light weights, for at least an hour.

Dario attributes his good management to positive thinking and self-discipline. “I control what I eat and get plenty of exercise and gym everyday, time permitting. I now weigh between a constant 60kg and 62kg.”

Complication free

Dario is an advocate of the flu vaccine and takes it every year to prevent getting flu. He is proud that he has no other complications from diabetes thanks to his good management of his glucose levels and is happy to be involved with DSA Port Elizabeth where he gets good support from a like-minded community.

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Siyabonga Kwanele Zuma shares how he got tired of living a double life and now that he has shared that he has Type 1 diabetes, he is at peace and his glucose management has improved.

Siyabonga Kwanele Zuma (27) lives in Howick, KwaZulu-Natal with his family, including his fiancée and their six-year-old son.

Diagnosis

At age 11, I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in April 2008. It was a random school day where I fell sick. My teacher took me to the school office and asked for my parents to be called to fetch me. My eldest sister fetched me and took me to the doctor. 

According to her, they could not pinpoint what was wrong with me. I was disoriented, so I don’t remember much of the doctor’s visit. My sister said as I was about to be diagnosed with the common flu, another doctor walked in. He asked what my symptoms were and once he knew, he suggested that they check my blood glucose levels. The results confirmed the second doctor’s suspicions.

The doctor then wrote a letter for me to be admitted at the hospital. I wasn’t on medical aid, so my parents took me to a public hospital. I was later transferred to another public hospitals where I stayed for three weeks.

Interestingly, my older sister also has Type 1 diabetes. She was diagnosed seven months before my diagnosis, in September 2007 aged 16. I call her my chronic twin.

Treatment

If my memory serves me correctly, I was put on Actraphane, which I believe is insulin given for free at government hospitals. I was on Actraphane for over a year, and I would get sick often.

One day in 2009, I was at my uncle’s house for the holidays. My glucose levels were uncontrollable; I think the change of climate also influenced that. One day I would experience hyperglycaemia and the next hypoglycaemia. I ended up being admitted to another public hospital in Durban.

My uncle was traumatised by the whole experience, as the hospital service was very poor. When I got discharged, he decided to put me on his medical aid, so I could get adequate help in managing my diabetes.

After that I consulted with diabetes specialists, who decided to put me on insulin aspart (NovoRapid), which is taken three times a day before meals, and insulin detemir (Levemir) which is taken at bedtime.

Since I’m not on my uncle’s medical aid anymore, I’m now on Isophane insulin (Protaphane) as it’s more affordable than Levemir but still take insulin aspart (NovoRapid).

Keeping my diabetes a secret

When I was diagnosed, those I went to primary school with knew that I had diabetes. However, when I went to high school, I decided to not share it with anyone. So, I would say I kept it a secret for 12 years.

The reason was I felt ashamed. I felt like it was my fault that I had it, and it made me different from my peers and all I ever wanted was to fit in. I didn’t feel cool which is what teenagers like being and I didn’t want to be judged when I did things my peers did, like drinking alcohol and smoking weed. Like I said, I wanted to fit in, and I did just that. Pushed by fear of missing out (FOMO) and peer pressure.

Tired of living a double life

Before my son was born, I felt like I had nothing to live for. Back in 2010, my doctor told me that if I don’t live a healthy life, I won’t reach the age of 21 with functioning kidneys, or even worse, alive. Hearing those words made me vulnerable to peer pressure and pushed me to live my life like there was no tomorrow, subconsciously. FOMO and peer pressure pushed me to rebel.

When my son was born, my perspective started to change gradually. I no longer felt like I had nothing to live for. I wanted to be a father that he would be proud to point out and say, “That’s my dad.’’

What also helped was my favourite artist, Kendrick Lamar, dropping his Pulitzer Prize winning album, DAMN. which made me develop a love for writing poetry. As time went by, I started writing poems about my life experiences and my ups and downs.

My writings made me grow tired of living a double life. As someone who loved and was inspired by Kendrick Lamar’s music, which is honest and authentic, I was doing the exact opposite. I was writing about my life hoping to inspire someone out there, but I wasn’t honest at all. I was omitting the most important factor that affected my life which is living with Type 1 diabetes. How can I claim to be a writer when my work lacks authenticity?

I wrestled with these emotions for over a year. Keeping my diabetes a secret proved to be detrimental in my life, and I couldn’t handle the pressure anymore. So, in April 2020, I courageously posted on social media that I have diabetes.

At peace with myself

I feel at peace with myself as I’m no longer in denial. Plus, I no longer have to worry about how I will take my insulin without somebody catching me do it. I feel so empowered because of that. My management has improved a lot. Before, I wouldn’t be able to say no to something I knew that I shouldn’t be doing because I would have to lie about the reason. But now with everyone aware of my situation, I can say no and give a valid reason.

Battling with flu every winter

Season changes are a nightmare for me. I struggle to control my glucose levels, as they are always up and down during these times. Getting flu doesn’t make it any better because it also affects my glucose levels.

Watching what I eat

I would be lying if I said I follow a particular diet. Even though I’ve had diabetes for 15 years, it’s only been three years since I’ve accepted it so I’m now gradually changing my lifestyle as I’ve found it quite challenging in many aspects.

Added to that, at the moment I can’t afford to be on a specific diet because my household consists of 10+ people, and those who can, contribute to buying groceries. A diet is personal, and I can’t expect everyone to follow my diet because I can’t afford it. What I do for now is to watch what I eat.

Love for poetry

My poetry book is titled Millennial Thoughts and it will be published sometime this year. I wrote most of the poems when I still had not accepted diabetes (2017 – 2020), therefore it doesn’t really focus on me living with diabetes. It’s more of a social commentary book, from a millennial’s perspective.

However, I do have a few poems where I mention my diabetes that I wrote post-acceptance. I’m also working on a memoir, where I’ll be speaking about my struggle with the negative peer pressure in my adolescence while also living with diabetes. It will tell how I managed to break-free from it and gravitate towards positive peer pressure, which led to self-acceptance helping me to regain the self-control I had long forgone for the fast life.

YouTube channel

Recently, I started my own YouTube channel which forms part of my journey to self-acceptance. As I’m a writer, that’s where the Living With Diabetes series on my YouTube Channel comes in.

I want to share my story in every way possible as not everybody enjoys reading. Some may not read my work but may watch my work. I want to grow my audience as much as possible, so I can share my knowledge about diabetes, and also learn new things about diabetes in the process.

A poem Siyabonga dedicated to his sister who also has diabetes.

CHRONIC TWINS

Our diagnosis threatened to make us the weak ones

But instead, it made us the sweet ones.

On some days, we’d feel bleak together

At the end of the week, we’d prevail together.

In a world full of unreliable souls

To me, you’re one of the few dependable

You are far from being expendable

You made an undesirable journey more bearable.

I don’t think I would’ve made it this far

If you and I grew up apart.

I want to impart that you are my star

My chronic twin, I love you with all my heart.

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Lana Breedt gives us a rundown of a typical day in her life of having a child living with diabetes, though she states no day will ever be the same,

Lana Breedt lives with her husband, Maurits van der Horst, and their five-year-old son, Rudi in Port Elizabeth. Rudi has Type 1 diabetes.

Rudi’s diagnosis

It was March 2019 when Rudi was diagnosed with diabetes Type 1 at the mere age of 19 months. My husband, Maurits, and I were both unpleasantly surprised since neither of our families has a history of diabetes. We are one chaotic household at any given time, so the diagnosis added a whole bunch of curves to our rollercoaster.

Rudi just started nursery school and was still in nappies at the time. It started with what we initially thought was a tummy bug of some sort; I had to pick him up early from school a couple of times. It was strange since he was a very healthy kid from birth and going to the doctor was not the norm.

The nursery school has been incredibly supportive since his diagnosis and his class even celebrated World Diabetes Day with us last year. We are very fortunate that both our employers are very understanding as well and they know when we need to leave work right now.

The first year

The first year was a nightmare. We relied on blood measurements only and could not see the trend of his glucose levels. We used to test Rudi every two hours day and night, at home and at school.

My husband created an Excel spreadsheet for us and I manually updated the document weekly to see where we stood more or less. I would send the graph to Rudi’s paediatrician at the end of each week for feedback and he would then adjust Rudi’s insulin intake accordingly. Our first HbA1c test result was just above 10.

Diabetes devices a game changer

When Rudi got a little bigger in size, we started using the Freestyle Libre which did wonders for his little fingers. It made both our and the teachers’ lives a whole lot easier.

Even though we still had to get up every two hours at night, it felt like we could live a fairly normal life without feeling so exhausted every morning.

It was only when we got the Miao Miao Bluetooth extension that our entire ballgame changed. We don’t need to worry about manually measuring him anymore, since the app has an alarm that goes off when his glucose is going too high or too low. We receive the data on our mobiles, so we can monitor him from anywhere, anytime.

No two days will be the same

One sentence from the book, Type 1 Diabetes in Children, Adolescents and Young Adults, sums diabetes up very well: No two days will be the same.

We have a very strict routine we stick to even during school holidays. Our days don’t always go according to plan, but at least we have a framework to work from. The rest of the time we just make stuff up as we go along. Maurits understands and relies on science and I understand nutrition and rely on motherly instincts, so we make a great team.

A typical day

We get up between 4am – 5am Rudi sometimes sleeps slightly later, but that is rarely the case. Maurits will give Rudi his Optisulin between 5am – 6am.

At 6:15 Rudi gets his breakfast injection and then we wait for a good glucose reading before he eats. This is anything from 6:30 until 7am. We’ve had instances where it takes a really long time for his glucose to drop after a high night, and then he will only eat an hour after his injection.

Under normal circumstances, his main meals last around two hours. So, by the time I drop him off at school, his glucose levels are nearly at a stage where he needs to snack again. We have a WhatsApp group including three staff members from the school, Maurits and myself. I usually type the ready for snack message when I leave home and constantly keep an eye on his glucose while driving to work. When it is time, I just press the send button and Rudi will have his snack. It sometimes feels like all this kid does is eat.

School snack time

School snack time is between 9:30 and 10am. I don’t have the energy to pack his lunchbox at night, so I normally do this between 5:30 – 6am. It’s difficult to decide what to pack and what to leave out since his glucose varies so often. In the beginning, I was obsessed with carb counting, but after a chat with a dietician at one of the PE diabetes wellness meetings, my perspective changed completely. She told me to feed my child the rainbow. So, I do just that.

I pack small portions of fruit and vegetables in as many colours as possible along with something carby like popcorn. When he had a high night, I will replace this with something non-carb like droëwors and biltong.

Somewhere close to 11am, his glucose starts to drop again, and the teachers will either give him an apple or a protein bar, depending on how close to home time it is. We also rely on Super Cs for lows and keep rolls of it everywhere.

Lunch

For lunch, he has a sandwich with his flavour of the week (at the moment it’s honey) and a generous portion of protein along with a glass of milk.

During the afternoons we just play it by ear. I’m at home in the afternoons so it makes it easy for me to manage his glucose levels by finding something in the fridge or cupboard when necessary.

When he does go to aftercare, I pack him an entire bag of carb and non-carb snacks, along with his emergency kit consisting of protein bars and Super Cs.

Aftercare is at his school and I have contact with the teacher in charge. She sees that he eats the right things at the right time and is available on WhatsApp all afternoon as well.

Dinner

Just after Rudi was diagnosed, we followed a specific meal plan for supper and I had his menu planned at least a week in advance. After the aha-moment with the dietitian, all of that changed and he now eats what we eat. Even sushi and pizza. It’s a win-some, learn-some experience when it comes to his diet and we figure things out as we progress.

After the pyjama drill, we will either read stories or watch a movie. By about 8pm his blood glucose will be at a stable low and he then has a glass of milk as a nightcap. Ideally, the milk should last him until morning, but when it doesn’t, we give him milk with glucose powder to keep his blood glucose going. Occasionally we need to inject him because of high blood glucose, but he doesn’t even wake up for that anymore.

Rudi’s fourth diabetes anniversary

We recently celebrated Rudi’s fourth diabetes anniversary. It’s hard to imagine things without the sensor and Bluetooth device, but imagining a life without the support we get from friends, family, employers, paediatrician and his school is even harder.

Living with a six-year-old diabetic child is a 24-hour duty and you can’t afford to lose focus for one minute. Our latest HbA1c result was an incredible 6.6 for the second time in a row. It takes a lot of effort and hard work, but the reward is priceless. Looking back, I don’t think we’d ever thought we’d get this far.

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