We're looking to see what's its really like to be living with diabetes and would like to hear what is a day in the life of your diabetes.
There are sometimes misconceptions about the scale of how much diabetes plays a part in people's lives. The thread could also serve as a good reference for people that are new to diabetes and want to know what it may involve from different perspectives.
It would be great to see a 24 hour period if you have time to put a day's entry together.
How do different levels make you feel?
I am living with bipolar as well as diabetes and it can sometimes affect each other one way or the other - when I am depressed, I will crave foods that are not good for my diabetes. When I have high blood sugars, I can get quite upbeat or irritable depending on my sleep patterns at the time. When I get low, I will feel like I have lost my ability to coordinate my movements, think straight, walk straight. It happens a lot just these days because I am 1.5 LADA diabetic - my pancreas cannot decide if it wants to produce insulin or not, so finding the right amount to inject can sometimes be difficult.
Which thoughts affect your meal choices?
I try to avoid too big amounts of carbs in the same meal - I want to keep my after-meal levels sensible, which for me means below 7. I do eat 5-6 meals a day because my insulin reaction can be rather unpredictable, so I think having less insulin per meal makes 'mistakes' have less impact. I inject about 8 times a day.
What considerations of your diabetes do you make for specific events? -eg driving, meetings
Most of what I do during the day I will be fine as long as I keep a bit of glucose on hand. I do test often. When I go for long walks - 7-8 miles, I will need to reduce my basal insulin to avoid hypos. I generally refuse to let my diabetes limit me, but the nature of 1.5 can sometimes make things tricky.
Whether diabetes makes certain aspects of life difficult?
I would prefer at this point if my pancreas would just die. As soon as I have something figured out with regards to insulin regime, my body will decide it is time for another burst of 'homemade' insulin - then once I adjust to that, it will stop doing it again, so there is a lot of tampering with getting things right. I have had loads of nighttime lows recently, so I have had to loosen my control to avoid it a bit - this doesn't make me particularly happy. Juggling two conditions that both affect mood can be tricky. Work can be tricky when my blood sugar is off, and waking up at 3-4 am in a terror does not make working any easier.
What diabetes considerations affect food shopping?
Not so many, really, apart from I have a healthier diet now - I always include veg. I have meal times - can't just be 'too busy to eat' anymore. I can eat anything, but it's not everything I choose to eat very often.
Also, please state which type of diabetes you have and you may want to state your age (or rough age) if you feel it's appropriate.
1.5 LADA (slow onset type 1, pancreas dying over months/years instead of 'instantly) - I am 33.
I get up at 8, inject my long-acting and short-acting for breakfast and test my bg level before and after. Then I head for work. Before lunch, I will test my levels again - I will normally go hypo sometime during the morning though. Then after work, I have a piece of fruit or something to last me to dinner. I eat a snack before bedtime, then test my levels and go to sleep. In between, there's work and walks and seeing friends and then in the night, I have not had any problems for the first 6 months, but now recently it's been a bit of hassle to get insulin doses right as I mentioned.
With many thanks
Benedict
