Other Divers with Diabetes

Good Day,

I have been diving now for a year and a half with type 1 diabetes and was wondering if there are any other diabetic divers out there
with any stories from there diving experiences as a diabetic diver. What I'am looking for is if any has had any problems with dive shops or charters?

Also what do you carry for treating hypoglycaemia, I always have my buddy carry a tube of rapid acting gel, with the idea being that if I should need it I'll indicate to my buddy who would let me take the gel tube from is BCD pocket and then I would head to the surface.

Has anyone had to deal with a low when in the water and how was it dealt with?

Thanks

I've had Type 2 for over a year. I stick my finger in the morning, take a couple pills morning and night and don't worry about it.

A very good friend of mine has juvenile diabetes (i believe that is T1, or at least pretty dang close to it), and it is not a matter of simply eating the ''right'' foods and all will be well.
I witness the struggles to keep blood sugar within normal limits. It SHOULD BE around 100, but what if you're excercising? what if you get low?
am I low or am I high from that gatorade I just drank? or am I normal and just feeling tired because of that surface swim/ lugging gear.

Observing the difficulties from having a tough to control disease such as diabetes, and inserting them into a dive environment can be scary. And I don't even have diabetes!

My suggestion would be to bring your monitor and test right before (or maybe 10 minutes before) you enter the water. 10 minutes may be the best option because if you're low, you can nom nom nom on some food, (hey, maybe the boat will even give you some FOR FREE). Can't count on it. But anyways, so you could test before you dive, maybe bring a juice box with you? - people on this forum without diabetes bring them and drink them because of dry mouth while diving - yes, they drink it WHILE UNDER!- -

I'm assuming you're just doing recreational type diving, not any superlong/superdeep dives?

Ps for thought- I wonder how one of those side monitors (you know, the ones they insert in you and it automatically adjusts, er you press a button for insulin etc) would do @ depth, or with the scuba gear rubbing against it.

well, hope my ramble gave you ideas/ anything that'll help

Hey Wetsuit 4 life,
I have been diving with Type 1 for about 7 years now. I carry two powerbar gel packs with me on a bolt snap in my drysuit pocket, and practice using them underwater. I have been thinking lately to switch to icing tubes to have something more durable. Your post reads like only your buddy has the gel- I would recommend carrying some with you as well if that is the case. I reduce the amount of long acting insulin the night before a dive, and also reduce the amount of short acting insulin on the dive day. In 200 dives I felt a little low immediately prior to surfacing once, but that has been it. I haven't had problems with boat captains, including a one week stay on Thorfinn in Truk.

My regular dive buddy has type 1 diabetes. He is very careful to test his blod sugar at regular intervals before the dive so that he can tell whether he in an upwards or downwards trend and adjust accordingly. He carries sport gel packets in his pockets and so do I, and we have practiced him taking them underwater. Sometimes he carries a camelback attached to his backplate with a sugary isotonic drink.

He always lets his dive buddies know about the diabetes and explains that they might see him eating something under water. It has never been a problem for anyone.

Thanks everyone for the advice, for the time being I don't have a pocket on my wetsuit or on my wing, but I have started to reduce my
long lasting insulin the night before and same with my rapid for the day of. The juice bag idea sounds really good but i can see how that
could go wrong if the bag broke in the water and no one noticed until it was needed.

blackvans1234 what your asking about is the insulin pump or a blood sugar reading machine, neither one is water proof, or can handle the
the water pressure very well let alone the unnatural abuse that is diving.

Just one more question does anyone know about any Diabetic Tec divers and if it's even possible for a diabetic to become Tec?

Thanks

My younger brother has type 1 diabeties and we have just started diving together. He tests before we enter the water and drinks a sugary energy drink before we enter to stock his body up with sugar to use during the dive. He carries a fast acting glucose syrup attached to him in a clear bag. If he feels his sugars are low he signals to me and we ascend for him to treat himself (we haven't had to do this yet, partly due to him managing it well and party as we haven't dived much!).

i also leave his log book in our bag on the side which has details of his diabetes and put a card in the clear storage bag he uses for his sugar. This is because if God forbid something was to happen to us both, whoever was rescuing us would know he was diabetic immediately (as some dive sites in the UK don't require medical questionnaires)

He uses an insulin pump and simply removes it for when we dive (or any other time he needs to). He can give himself a shot of background insulin before he removes it so there is no change over the period it is away from him.

As to becoming a Tec diver i would assume its the same as anything in life to do with diabetes, if you can get a Dr to sign you off then you can do it!