Send message to Telegram user using Python

def send_telegram_message(message):
    """Sends message via Telegram"""
    url = "https://api.telegram.org/" + conf.telegram_bot_id + "/sendMessage"
    data = {
        "chat_id": conf.telegram_chat_id,
        "text": message
    }
    try:
        response = requests.request(
            "POST",
            url,
            params=data
        )
        print("This is the Telegram URL")
        print(url)
        print("This is the Telegram response")
        print(response.text)
        telegram_data = json.loads(response.text)
        return telegram_data["ok"]
    except Exception as e:
        print("An error occurred in sending the alert message via Telegram")
        print(e)
        return False
        while True:
    # Step 1
    sensor_value = get_sensor_value_from_pin("A0")    
    print("The current sensor value is:", sensor_value)
    
    # Step 2
    if sensor_value == -999:
        print("Request was unsuccessfull. Skipping.")
        time.sleep(10)
        continue
    
    # Step 3
    if sensor_value >= conf.threshold:
        print("Sensor value has exceeded threshold")
        message = "Alert! Sensor value has exceeded " + str(conf.threshold) + \
                  ". The current value is " + str(sensor_value)
        telegram_status = send_telegram_message(message)
        print("This is the Telegram status:", telegram_status)

    # Step 4
    time.sleep(10)