Hi,
Interesting discussion that makes me suspect that T1 diabetes physiologically impacts people very differently (as in eg not all cancers are of similar severity). This in turn impacts how much it impacts people, so for some they're either so good at easily balancing carbs, insulin and the dozens of other factors that affect blood sugars, or their body is just more consistent / better / or something at helping balance things effortlessly.
Picking up on some points (and obviously all of this is with the caveat i'm assuming the outcome people are talking about is good bs control - clearly anyone can do what they like in the short term if they are willing to accept poor bs control!)
Snacks, it takes 5 seconds...
I have to pre-bolus, so quickly popping in to a cake shop for a snack is a no, I need to inject, wait then eat, then check in following hours to see if right as carb data was not available. Before injecting i'd need to check and see where BS was and was trending. If higher end of range and trending up then it's a longer wait between injecting and eating. All of that is certainly more than 5 seconds for me! A non-diabetic does not do this / have to worry about this (so a definite negative impact v my pre-diabetic self), or indeed an easier controlled T1 by the sound of it.
I can eat anything, even a 200g carb pizza and garlic bread and always align insulin and BS perfectly...
I can't, I limit each meal - accept on very rare occasions - to c50g of carb. 200g would be far too much variation. Eating out I also have the challenge of knowing how many carbs the meal will contain and the lottery of when it will arrive (so I can time pre-bolus)!!! A non-diabetic does not do this / have to worry about this (so a definite negative impact v my pre-diabetic self), or indeed an easier controlled T1 by the sound of it.
They can exercise without planning
I definitely need to plan here, I won't start eg a long run until at least 2 hours after taking short acting insulin, so that affects all my timings of my day. A non-diabetic does not do this / have to worry about this (so a definite negative impact v my pre-diabetic self), or indeed an easier controlled T1 by the sound of it.
They can concentrate regardless...
I love being in a 4-5 range, i'm super sharp and on it, 5-6 good, 6-7 ok ish, 7 and above i'm poor. A non-diabetic does not do this / have to worry about this (so a definite negative impact v my pre-diabetic self), or indeed an easier controlled T1 by the sound of it.
But not to say I let it stop me, i've just returned from 2 weeks skiing and snowboarding, i've climbed Mont Blanc, i've cycled 1,000 miles in a week, run marathons, I still eat out occasionally, my job is quite intense, etc... and my A1C is 38... but all of those involve adjustments or compromises to varying degrees v my previous non-diabetic self. And all that with the fact I have a CGM: I would find things so, so, so much harder without.
So while I am also one of the many who are trying to get NKOS to a better place and more ambitious in her approach! I also can't reconcile the view of it has no impact (AND you have good control)... unless my theory that T1 affects different people different physiologically is maybe correct and for some it is just easier.
(And again just to be clear i'm talking about getting good bs control as the outcome... sometimes I notice posters say it has no impact on them, they do whatever... but then look through their posts and sometimes it turns out they have poor bs control).