Diabetes has ruined my life

EllieM

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Staff Member
Messages
9,209
Type of diabetes
Type 1
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Insulin
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forum bugs
Private Health insurance truck loads of Big Macs, but worth it.

Just curious, I had private health insurance in Australia but they never paid for anything diabetic related.... However, I believe they do pay for equipment like pumps? (Still on the fence about going on a pump...)
 

Bluey1

Well-Known Member
Messages
429
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
People who try and make Diabetes the centre of the party and poor me, I'm special because I have diabetes now everyone run around after me.
Just curious, I had private health insurance in Australia but they never paid for anything diabetic related.... However, I believe they do pay for equipment like pumps? (Still on the fence about going on a pump...)
I hated my PHI. I never got anything back except a small percent of my Dentist visit on Extras. My D Educator is really on the ball she sent all the correct paperwork off on 22nd Dec and they approved it same day (that was effectively Christmas eve) the only stuff up was the PHI didn't put her email in correctly. I called them, they sent a copy to me of which I forwarded on and apparently they sorted the issue with her. You are correct PHI pay for nothing else D related, but remember it's all about govt regulation . I will tell you in 12 weeks what I think about the pump. Pump prices have gone up, now AUD$9,500 for the Medtronic 640g, at least their response was will pay for the pump in full ($9,500).
 
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Grant_Vicat

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Messages
1,176
Type of diabetes
Don't have diabetes
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
Dislikes
Intolerance, selfishness, rice pudding
Everyone should be allowed to say how they feel as no two diabetics are the same and we all feel different at certain times. This does not mean anyone is right or wrong, it means we are humans with feelings and at times they are negative this is all part of diabetes. It will be 3 years in April since i had my transplant and i am still in part living like i have always done as it had become my life, i sometimes wake up during the night and go to pick my pump up but its not there. This will be the same as people getting diabetes in their 20s they have lived a life where they get up on a morning and have nothing to worry about but diabetes changes all that and what can you do. You can try and get as much information as possible and try and get good BS or hate the disease and wish you were dead as you don't want to live, both ways are wrong in there own way you can try to hard and have hypos or not give a dam and have high BS. The honeymoon period makes it difficult to control your BS, most people stop producing their own insulin after a year so then you are only getting insulin that you put into your body and sometimes BS go all over the place for no reason at all. If you go on holiday to Spain and it is hot the insulin works faster but in the winter most people need a little bit more insulin because of lack exercise or eating a bit more. Diabetes is a day by day illness which after time you can have a rough idea of what your BS are going to be but you need help from the diabetes team, mental health team, family and yourself because you know your body better than anyone. You can get all the advice but it is up to you how you use it, there is no one who can tell you it has to be a personal choice and yes many choose denial and that is their choice. People worry about problems in later life and i did but the problems still came and all the worry did was unstable my BS, diabetes is life changing but so are a lot of illnesses like my father got polio aged three and has had a load of ops in his life but is still here, my mother had her stomach removed because of a tumor and spent 6 months in hospital with MRSA but she has just gone to Tenerife so she is not letting her illness stop her. Then both of my parents had to bring up a diabetic when it was not well known as it is now and have seen the effect it has had on my all parts on my life and i have to live with that burden that i am still putting them through as well as i know there is a family in this country who lost a 23 year old male and i would think that they would think why him because i do and i also feel guilty. These are things i cannot control like diabetes, the thing that i always wanted was control but diabetes took that away so i had to adapt, i worked in a factory working both night and day shift, worked on building sites before going to work as a salesman selling fruit and veg. So with every job the insulin needed, sometimes i would work a 12 hour shift then go to play football at quite a high local level and then have something to eat at 10 pm before going to bed for another 12 hour shift. In the end i gave up playing football all together at 28 as i became a dad but also i was told a knock on the head could start a bleed behind the eye and also i was finding it hard as my renal function got worse. The team i was playing for offered me more money to play and that i would not have to play in any mid-week games but as i told them i could not take the chance and would not play if i could not give my all, even my local sunday morning team said i could play for them and not head the ball.. I was depressed for 6 months after this and hated diabetes more than ever before as it took something i loved doing. Then i was asked if i would do some coaching i said ok and they sent me on a couple of courses and started to coach a girls team which i did enjoy but after training the coaches had a game of 5 a side with no over head height rule, i felt alive again. My son now plays and all the parents want me to coach the team but i told them i do not know how i am going to feel from day to day but the enjoyment i get watching my son play makes up for everything even though my son keeps getting told you won't be as good as your dad. They are right because he will be better but if i let diabetes win i may never have got to tell you all this and people will still hate diabetes until a cure is found and i hope it is soon as i hate people not having hope of a future.
Interesting your comment about still looking for the pump which isn't there. For at least three years I found it weird getting up in the morning, no longer finding a BS test meter by the bed. I would check my pockets for my syringe case. Now, four years after my pancreas/kidney transplant, I just think I've forgotten something, but not specific. I wonder when this stops, but I suppose in essence we are relatively new guineapigs. Good luck
 

NoKindOfSusie

Well-Known Member
Messages
427
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Interesting your comment about still looking for the pump which isn't there. For at least three years I found it weird getting up in the morning, no longer finding a BS test meter by the bed. I would check my pockets for my syringe case. Now, four years after my pancreas/kidney transplant, I just think I've forgotten something, but not specific. I wonder when this stops, but I suppose in essence we are relatively new guineapigs. Good luck

I get up and end up halfway through brushing my teeth before I think "wow, I feel really **** today, what's going on" and then you remember.

It is horrible and awful and like being diagnosed all over again.
 

Mike d

Expert
Messages
7,997
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Other
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idiots who will not learn
You must get rid of that forever negative mindset. No-one said it was easy living with any condition. No-one consigned a child to a hospital with terminally ill cancer either without wishing life was different.

No need to be going down that dark hall, you ain't tied to a chair you ain't nailed to the wall
 
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Grant_Vicat

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,176
Type of diabetes
Don't have diabetes
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
Dislikes
Intolerance, selfishness, rice pudding
I get up and end up halfway through brushing my teeth before I think "wow, I feel really **** today, what's going on" and then you remember.

It is horrible and awful and like being diagnosed all over again.
I can understand your side of the fence and I really hope your life improves. All the best for the future.
 
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Florence5

Member
Messages
15
Type of diabetes
Type 1
I feel that a good mental attitude is crucial . I know the feeling you have re pump not working properly or failing totally. It has happened me 4 times. Worst time was when I was abroad ! I survived . What we need is a backup pump to take away the awful stress. How long have you been on the pump? I have been on it for 33 years !
Florence
 

Nidge247

Well-Known Member
Messages
205
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Diet only
I get up and end up halfway through brushing my teeth before I think "wow, I feel really **** today, what's going on" and then you remember.

It is horrible and awful and like being diagnosed all over again.

@NoKindOfSusie

I think you need first to accept where you are then look to move positively forward.

I accept you will be depressed in the first period as you adjust; this is something most diabetics will recall even if it was decades ago. (For some people this period is weeks, in others months or years.)

Acceptance will help you past this point. Once you start to get a grip on this condition and move forward (little steps), life DOES get easier, but you have to work at it - there's no "off button" with diabetes.

Remember; diabetes is just a condition, and YOU are in control, as it is YOU that make the choices in life. We may each have been dealt a bad card, but just read through the forums for advice, and you'll find there's more than one way to win the game of life.

Everyone is different, and D affects different people in many different ways. However here you will find support, help and a sharing of knowledge - it is up to you if you accept what is on offer.

Life is a gift not a given right. It is up to us all to cherish, appreciate, and make the most of each day.
 
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donnellysdogs

Master
Messages
13,233
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Dislikes
People that can't listen to other people's opinions.
People that can't say sorry.
I feel that a good mental attitude is crucial . I know the feeling you have re pump not working properly or failing totally. It has happened me 4 times. Worst time was when I was abroad ! I survived . What we need is a backup pump to take away the awful stress. How long have you been on the pump? I have been on it for 33 years !
Florence

Have pumps been around for 33 years?? Crikey 33 years ago I only managed to transfer from syringes to a pen!!!!
 

Florence5

Member
Messages
15
Type of diabetes
Type 1
I was put on a trial along with 5 others in 1984 after doing a marathon and raising £500 for the diabetic unit in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast . The other 4 were brittle diabetics but I was “ normal” if you could call it that. My only concern was the size of the pump as I was fashion conscious. So yes, pumps have been on the go for a long time !
 
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Scott-C

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,474
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Have pumps been around for 33 years?? Crikey 33 years ago I only managed to transfer from syringes to a pen!!!!

This bloke in pic below was pushing the edges in the 1960's! For obvious reasons, he wouldn't have got that far on the Dragon's Den of his day, but maybe he was before his time...

images (1).jpg
 
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chamcham

Newbie
Messages
2
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
There is nothing I can say to you other than what is going through your head is exactly what is going through mine in almost every detail, except that I've only been doing this since September. If I'm lucky I may now live to be in my mid 60s so I am looking at 40 years of it. It's like being sent to prison.
This is so old I've no doubt you'll never see this, but I feel exactly this. I described it recently as being in a bird cage, poked repeatedly, with a toddler with adhd running around it 24/7. I've had it 30 years, it's f'd up .y body, lost me my job (I needed good vision) I've been on redeployment for 2 years so no stability, 2 years of eye injections, layering, monthly checks..I practically love in the outpatients department. I've struggled with it since my teens and now I actually despise and resent it. And I get sick of all the positive thinkers and do Golders on forums who just don't GET that for some of us it's part of life, for others it's a burden. The more I try to keep an eye on it and keep it controlled the worse my anxiety, frustration, anger, despondency, obsessiveness and disordered eating gets. 30years down, the thought of another 30 fills me with utter misery and fear of how much more my body will deteriorate, its beyond what it should be ar 38, by 68 I hate to imagine how miserable it will make me. I've thought about the peace of death many MANY a time.it makes me feel better seeing your message here, knowing just someONE else feels the same. x
 
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