Type 1 When does this become normal?

[sweetKat]

I’ve been type 1 diabetic now for almost 10 years, never had good control. For some reason the reality of regular blood tests and eating properly has never gone in. I have really great weeks when I do so well with my blood tests and insulin but more often than not, I’m not testing regularly, guessing my insulin and eating junk. My hba1c isn’t too bad as I usually work out when my hospital appointments are and do better so I don’t look bad.
When will I find my motivation to be a normal diabetic. I think I definitely need help with this..

 

[Jaylee]

Hi @sweetKat ,

Welcome to the forum.

What is "normal." Who knows... Feel free to jump into some T1 threads & take a look around the forum.

There are a variety of different ways to maintain reasonable BGs & still live your life!

 

[KK123]

I’ve been type 1 diabetic now for almost 10 years, never had good control. For some reason the reality of regular blood tests and eating properly has never gone in. I have really great weeks when I do so well with my blood tests and insulin but more often than not, I’m not testing regularly, guessing my insulin and eating junk. My hba1c isn’t too bad as I usually work out when my hospital appointments are and do better so I don’t look bad.
When will I find my motivation to be a normal diabetic. I think I definitely need help with this..

Hi Sweetkat, there is no such thing as a 'normal' diabetic, after all is there such a thing as a 'normal' human being? You are not doing yourself any favours by only being good just before an appointment, you are only fooling yourself because in between appointments you are damaging yourself. You know this of course. All I can say is that it is very hard to motivate yourself if you are thinking of diabetes as a separate part of you (if that makes sense). I can think of no other way of approaching it other than by full acceptance of the alternatives of not managing it properly, if you cannot do that then maybe you do need some specific counselling? x

 

[Scott-C]

When will I find my motivation to be a normal diabetic. I think I definitely need help with this..

Hi, sweetKat, there's no easy answer to that.

There's been quite a few posts from folks who have played fast and loose and then started developing serious complications. They've all wished they could wind back the clock and played it diferently. Many have been able to do so and kinda repair the complications by paying more attention to staying in range. I think that having a healthy respect for complications can be quite motivating.

Doing a bit of reading can help too. We can all benefit from a "refresher" course no matter how long we've been dx'd. Think Like a Pancreas by Gary Scheiner and Sugar Surfing by Stephen Ponder are worth a look at, as a reminder of the basics and a few tips on sharpening up on more advanced techniques like pre-bolusing and split-dosing.

Seeing if you can get booked on a DAFNE course or your local equivalent through your hospital would be a good bet. There was a young woman on the course I was on a few years ago who started the week just not caring that she was running in the 15s most of the time. By the end of the week, after a bit of encouragement and/or butt-kicking from the older ones, she was saying she was getting it now and was raving about getting a libre.

It was the DAFNE course which encouraged me to get a libre. Blinged up with a cheap transmitter, blucon, it is full cgm. I've found it hugely motivational just being able to see how my levels are doing in real time and learning small steps to take to stay in range, much easier than the guesswork of strips. Sugar Surfing mentioned above helps a lot with that. Ypu can check out with your hospital whether you're in an area which prescribes it. At the end of the day, we're dealing with a constantly moving target, so being able to actually see it makes a huge difference just by taking the surprises out of it. It's made me feel like it's something I'm co-operating with, not fighting.

Good luck!