Introducing Timesulin to the Kuwait Diabetes Community
Hi there! I’m Maryam Al-Ostad from Kuwait, and I’ve had diabetes for 12 years now. I’m the only diabetic member in my family, and I still remember the day the doctor told me that I had diabetes. I was 14 back then and didn’t know what diabetes meant! The way the doctor explained it to me made me feel like I was a tough person, more like a hero and it won’t be that difficult for me to manage. For two years I tried my best to control it, but then I got bored because I had a restricted diet and I didn’t know anyone my age with diabetes. I started neglecting myself and eating what ever I wanted for eight years!
One day I met this doctor that introduced me to this course called DAFNE ( Dosage Adjustment For Normal Eating) and since then my life has changed.
Now I eat whatever I want, knowing exactly how many units of insulin needed and I’m totally in control of my diabetes. This course gave me self-empowerment. I started giving presentations in discovery courses in Kuwait about diabetes barriers and hoping to make change, until the date I got chosen to be Kuwait’s representative at the International Diabetes Federation Young Leaders Program. It was a chance to meet new diabetics from all over the world and work together to make change. After finishing the program, I came back to Kuwait and started my own campaign and called it Blue Circle. The purpose of my campaign is to spread awareness and give moral support to all diabetics.
The campaign went fine with the amazing team I’ve had. Then I got my first job as a researcher at the National Centre for Education Development in Kuwait. With this going on, I had no time to scratch my head. I had a busy schedule, but one problem kept on accruing! With my busy schedule, I used to forget whether I’ve taken my insulin shot or not – mostly the Lantus shot! And as most of you know, Type 1 diabetics need to take about 4 insulin shots a day, more or less.
I set the alarm at 6 pm daily because I know without the alarm there’s a big chance that I might miss my shot. And the confusion of whether I took my shot or not used to stress me out. Then I remembered the IDF young leaders program and the presentation John Sjolund gave about his brilliant invention! An insulin cap that counts how much time has passed since the last shot taken, called Timesulin. I searched the Internet trying to figure out how to get my own Timesulin and how to get a delivery to Kuwait! There were no deliveries to Kuwait, sadly.
One year later I meet My friend Alex – the IDF Young Leaders president. We were chatting and the Timesulin topic came up. I told him how desperately I needed one. A few days later on Facebook, I saw comments on one of the pictures I posted of my Novorapid pen. The comments were between Alex and John about Timesulin, and Alex mentioned that I wanted one. John said that he could get me a delivery to Kuwait and one week later I received my own Timesulin pen cap. The stress of whether I took my shot or not was gone, and also it made my insulin pens look cooler – hehe.
We posted about Timsulin in our Blue Circle Account, and also I have an Instagram account about my life with diabetes, where I shared a post about it as well. Most of my Kuwaiti diabetic friends wanted their own and many people started asking about it. Now, Kuwait Diabetes Society is planning to bring Timesulin to Kuwait. I feel so lucky being the first to use it in Kuwait, glad that I shared it, and glad that many diabetics who stress about whether they’ve taken their shot or not just like me before will finally be able to solve this problem.
To contact our distribution partner in the Middle East, please reach out to:
Email: mohammed.jawad@montmed.ca