#DiAview with Kamil Armacky, AKA the Nerdabetic...
The tech testing and T1D championing, insightful ball of energy, that is Kamil joins us for a Diaview. Here, the YouTube sensation – that’s right, step aside ‘Jimmy Donaldson, Jake Paul and… Justin Bieber, you’ve got nothing on our Nerdabetic – opens up and provides some tips on his passion for helping others with Type 1 diabetes in common, trusting the tech and… a side hobby of making expresso flavoured cheesecakes.
Kamil, when did you first come up with the idea to start ‘vlogging’ and sharing media as “Nerdabetic” and was there a personal experience that led to you engaging through this channel?
Kamil: “I have always had a creative side; before YouTube, I had a cooking blog all about coffee-based recipes- you don’t know a cheesecake until you try my expresso-flavoured cheesecake. After trying writing, video was the next frontier I wanted to try. Advancements in diabetes therapies had a huge impact on me personally so I thought that would be a cool little topic to do some videos about. Never expected it to reach people and the rest is history.”
Would you say that your aims with the Nerdabetic platform have expanded over the years?
“I would say so but not massively. My main two aims are to create videos that I would find helpful and to have fun while doing it. I forgot about the second part for a while which gave me creative burnout. In some ways, I feel a greater responsibility to discuss issues that my views care about such as environment or access. When I speak to executives of companies, I try to remind them that ‘future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed’ - I just hope they listen.”
With such a growing variety of diabetes technologies on the health care market, how do you keep up! And go about learning / breaking down all the pros and cons of each device?
“It's a combination of email alerts, being on my phone a lot and knowing people. I used to be always online but I try to keep up to date on things like emails or socials in times that are convenient to me and prioritise those around me.”
Have you always been on diabetes tech? What first inspired you that you can trust this evolution of diabetes care? …Can you trust it?!
“I started CGM a couple of years after my diagnosis. Interestingly, ‘trust’ has never been an issue for me- I fully understand the concerns but they never worried me personally. I’m more than aware they happen including to me but that never created trust issues for me.”
While there are a number of clear advantages, especially in being able to monitor glucose levels so closely on a CGM, does this also increase stress levels - especially looking here at the parent / child relationship? What advice could you give on that?
“In some ways, I think this is an incredibly tangible example of growing up. Kids without diabetes become more independent in various stages- going to school alone, going out alone, moving out, drinking, having sex and of course managing diabetes. CGM data is unusual as removing that CGM follower parent on your phone feels very formal. My advice would be to follow the same process with diabetes as parents/teens use in other aspects of growing up. For some that might be a formal sit-down conversation where various boundaries are discussed and agreed upon; for others, it might be more freestyle and reactive. Either way, I would advocate for the person with diabetes to be in the driver's seat.”
DiAview made in January 2023