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Does managing your diabetes wear you down?

anna29

anna29

Well-Known Member
Retired Moderator
Messages
4,789
Location
Preston Lancashire
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Cruelty to Animals/Children
Liars/Manipulators/Bullying
Am aware that some people can struggle with their diabetes .
In many varying areas such as :
Routine, diet , meds/insulin regime(s) , HCP support .

Once we are all diagnosed - the HCP's say and do their bit .
We attend the GP's, DSN's, hospitals/clinics .
Then we are just left to self manage our diabetes solo .
This is a long solo journey too - being for the rest of our lives .

How do you or others overcome the difficulties ?
As we are approaching a long winter ahead .
It may help other members to share how you/your families
manage to overcome any difficulties with your diabetes .
 
Hi. Yes, insulin is a nuisance but when I look at others with untreatable arthritis, cancer and a host of other long-term illnesses I realise how lucky we are that our illness can be successfully treated one way or another and can put it into the background
 
Much as Diabell says, there are far worse conditions and illnesses we could have and that does make you count your blessings sometimes.

That said diabetes can be a pain with all the testing and injecting together with all the Hospital/Dr's appointments, but keeping a positive frame of mind helps to get through things as does focusing on the future, diabetes isn't the death sentence it once was and new treatments are being researched and developed all the time, I suppose I do cope well but then I've had plenty of practice after living with it for 33 years :rolleyes:
 
Saw this some where, worth a quick look as a memory jogger :
  • If you can't heat all your rooms, make sure you keep your living room warm throughout the day and heat your bedroom before going to bed.
  • A balanced diet will help keep you warm and healthy in the winter. Make sure you and your family eat at least one hot meal a day. Soup is nutritious and warming, and inexpensive to make or buy.
  • Wearing the right kind of clothes can help keep you much warmer. Layers are best, t-shirts and under clothes to keep the base of your back warm will heat you from the core.
  • If you are out walking, such as returning home from a night out, make sure someone knows your route and when you should be expected at your destination. This is especially important if you are walking home alone.
  • Staying active is good for your health. If the weather prevents you from getting outside, stay active indoors - catch up on all the household tasks you've been putting off!
  • Talk - especially if you've been stuck in the house for a few days. Lift the phone and call friends and family for a blether.
  • If you have elderly relatives or neighbours who might need help, please check up on them. You can get a warm feeling inside by ensuring they are warm on the outside
  • Izzzi's tip is to make good use of this forum to keep your brain active, fingers moving and most of all Help each other :), stay warm.
 
In the end you learn to live with any condition, and make the most of what you have, rather than worry about what you don't have,

Diabetes is not that bad, but don't neglect, deny or forget it, or thats where the problems start, in the end it's not really that hard !

Best Regards.
 
A good thread anna
I have found that over the past few years with illnesses and worries, with stress it has taken its toll. But the fantastic help and support I have had on here has been tremendous. Being on my own with a child for quite a few years now, I do miss another adult being there for me. Sometimes all people need is a loving hug and a chat about diabetes and its many up's and downs. Best wishes RRB
.
 
  • A balanced diet will help keep you warm and healthy in the winter. Make sure you and your family eat at least one hot meal a day. Soup is nutritious and warming, and inexpensive to make or buy.
  • Wearing the right kind of clothes can help keep you much warmer. Layers are best, t-shirts and under clothes to keep the base of your back warm will heat you from the core.
  • If you are out walking, such as returning home from a night out, make sure someone knows your route and when you should be expected at your destination. This is especially important if you are walking home alone.
  • Staying active is good for your health. If the weather prevents you from getting outside, stay active indoors - catch up on all the household tasks you've been putting off!
 
@anna29 - Yes, I agree it is a long and somewhat lonely journey. When first diagnosed, I would have thought that much more support from HCPs would be forthcoming - alas, not so :(.

So I have now made my own mental deal with my doctor (which he doesn't know about). The deal is that I myself will take care of my diabetes management (without his advice) and he will take care of tests as necessary.

And it is with the help of forums such as this - and all of you friendly and encouraging posters - that I feel empowered to plod on - but mind you: with the occasional venture into carb land to keep my sanity ;)

annelise
 
I am so p**sed off with stabbing b****dy great holes in my finger.
Yes, it has worn me down on that.

I have just used a sandpaper type thing for hard skin on your feet.
I've sanded off the red marks, the stupid spotty tattoo, the red marks where I've managed to leave some sort of imprint, and also my fingerprint.

Sorry for the rant, but I like my skin.
Just not a red spotty skin!
 
douglas99 said:
I am so p**sed off with stabbing b****dy great holes in my finger.
Click to expand...
I use a naked lancet since the Codefree pen doesn't draw blood even at setting 5, so when I ran out of strips last week I thought I'd give my fingers a rest for a week. But now I'm in the dark every time I eat anything, so I'll be glad when the new packet drops though the door.
Actually I feel more sorry for my poor wife who watched me wasting away without added sugar after I was first diagnosed, and now bravely eats whatever strange combination of foods I dish up. Although she does like pizza with the cauli'n'egg'n'cheese base.
 
I find spending more time on the diabetes and doing more tests actually helps me to relax because it keeps my sugar levels in the right range and that ultimately leads to more energy, a better ability to think straight and therefore less anxiety.

The exception, however, is when I'm not winning. If I get a period of difficult to control sugar levels then it does wear me down. All that effort for little reward is no fun -but it's still got to be done and the perseverance is worth it.

Diet seems to be a big factor. I'm type 1 and a change in diet can send sugars haywire at times. If I need to change my diet say for trips away from home or in rarer instances whereby there's little time to produce home prepared food for a couple of days. The other big factor for the "I'm doing everything right but sugars are still high" situation is illness. Wears me down, but I know it usually passes within a number of days.

Ed
 
Does it get me down... no. Surprisingly, I feel much better now that I did for years.
I think a lot of that is to do with increased knowledge (mostly gained from a few diet books and this forum).
But the reality is that I now have more energy, better concentration, fewer aches and pains, and get much better sleep.

I had a conversation at the weekend with a friend, who complimented me on how well I am looking. she actually used the word 'sparkling'.

It brought it home to me. and I am seriously wondering if my blood glucose has been higher than I thought for much longer than I thought. 10 years, is a possibility. I'll never know if I have been diabetic for that long, but I do know that the doctor's less-than-annual fasting BG tests would have been very unlikely to have spotted it. My Dawn Phenomenon is a law unto itself, and probably has been for decades.

For the past few weeks, I have had truly normal blood glucose levels (less than 7.0 mmol/L ALL the time) And although I have felt better after I clamped down on my diet a while back, I now feel reborn. It is extraordinary.

Sorry to go on about this, when other people are feeling rough. But I have felt rough for years.
And now I don't.
I'm truly grateful, and appreciative.
 
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I once read a comic that sums up my feelings on diabetes management. Two men in conversation, one says 'What do you think of the high cost of living?' The other says, 'Not bad, compared to the high cost of dying.' To be honest if someone gave me a consequence free choice of giving up injections or doing my accounts, I would choose to give up the accounts in a flash.
 
Did get me down, until I discovered that I do not have to follow an inevitable course of worsening symptoms, complications etc. I have found a way to control my health and wellbeing, rather than the other way round. It also helps to be blessed with spouse and family who care and love each other, and face whatever life throws at us together. Usually smiling.
 
I was left to fend for myself after getting told I had D, no information and no referral to any clinic. Saw the endro and he said Your T1, here's a script for X insulin and Y insulin take X amount before meals and this one at Y amount before going to bed, again no referral to a program or anything just told what I needed to do and left to my own devices on the matter.

When asked why was told because I'd been living with a T2 all my life that it was felt that I wouldn't benefit from a visit to the newly diagnosed group, and years later he still says that there is no group that I'd benefit from since I'm outside the norm for diabetics that its best that I not worry about it and just carry on as I have been for the past 11 years.

Its been a lot of trial and error before turning online for insight and possible ideas and I admit that a lot of the help I have gotten has been from the DOC (Diabetic Online Community) in the past couple years, things that for all my reading I'd not have thought of or i had but wasn't sure about if I was thinking it though right or the like. Pros and Cons of course with the DOC but for the most part its been a positive experience
 
Dibbles1 said:
Erm no!
But!
I have a Traumatic Brain Injury, and I'm in a wheelchair, I also have 'syrinx', holes filled with spinal fluid in my spinal cord which can get larger, go up to my brain and kill me.
I also have Central Apnea from this, which just decides to stop my breathing at night, and yup it can kill you too. Al has to bring me round with a kiss (joking) I have a baby monitor which rudely awakens him.
I've got no spleen and have to take emergency antibiotics If I think I've got a infection, which is hard when going through the change and having hot flushes and night sweats. I can't identify them because of the TBI.
I have angioedema and arrythmias and ectopic heartbeats.
I have double vision from the brain injury and very poor eyesight from being misdiagnosed with swineflu over the phone when that scare was on. (I actually had a spinal infection).
I have a fracture in my skull which causes my brain to spill out (joke) I get spinal fluid leak from my nose If I sit up too long or lean over. You can get an infection and die from this too.
I have lupus and mixed connective tissue disease, I think because of the fraud surrounding my negligent treatment at Poole hospital. Which meant I didn't get a proper settlement to allow me to afford a carer so I could go swimming n stuff to enable me to stay healthy.
I have positional benign vertigo, where the fluid builds up in your ear from the damage to my jaw and neck.
My blood vessels in my hands and feet burst when I touch something hard, so I have to have a ball controller on my wheelchair.
I have a broken vertebrae in my spine, arachnoiditis throughout my spine, plus arachnoid cysts.
< They're a bit cruel since I'm in a wheelchair.
I have Fibromyalgia and hypothyroidism from the accident, which were also covered up and ignored for years.
I have tinnitus, which is like being tortured for 12 hours when the neighbour has one of their parties.
I have loss of feeling in both arms and from the chest down, can't open jars, cans, cut bread or cheese etc.
I had some form of heart attack in the MRI machine and a stroke later.
Now I have 'the change' asthma and diabetes to deal with. + With no meds.:eek:
I've got neuropathy and burning in my feet, which I at least now know is from the undiagnosed diabetes.
So with a Traumatic Brain Injury and the resulting seive like memory, it's hard to live with. I can't remember to test my blood sugar, or what I've eaten or am allowed to eat. Nor what has happened.
I can only concentrate on one thing at a time in life, so at the moment it's my diabetes and trying to lose weight. Which when you can only concentrate on one thing for short periods, is a bit of a mess. I've spent months reading and trying to understand my diabetes, all day long everyday, concentrating on it. I finally think I've got a simple understanding on it. Something which without a TBI I'd have been able to grasp in five minutes.
But here's the rub…… I forget it all and have to learn it again, and again, and again.
But I do my best, it's all I can do and I'm happy :)

PS There are probably another dozen or so things wrong with me that at the moment I can't remember. :confused:
Click to expand...


LOL !

I know the feeling, but you even make me feel healthy, take care. !
 
annelise said:
@anna29 So I have now made my own mental deal with my doctor (which he doesn't know about). The deal is that I myself will take care of my diabetes management (without his advice) and he will take care of tests as necessary.
Click to expand...

Pretty much what i have done for years..! They only need to inform me of any problems.. So far after 38 years so good.
No issues with the D stuff.. Compared to the test tube blood sugar testing & surgical spirit submersed glass syringes of yesteryear, coupled with no tinternet whilst feeling like " the only gay in the village." D management is less hassle these days..!
 
Some great replies and points raised here in this thread .
Many thanks to you all who have replied here .

Even if just one reply or point made positively can help many other members .
The support is there and many others will or can be inspired and so
very much encouraged .
One comment or point in a reply post can be invaluable to others .
As I feel really positive vibes and flow of discussion with the replies here .

We can see things differently with our own journey of living/coping
with diabetes .
Its great to share with such positivity of how it can be achieved .
 
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