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Managing my diabetes is essentially my day job.

  • Thread starter Thread starter asparagusp
  • Start Date Start Date
Well, it is a slog at times, but I just get on with it, as it's just a small part of who I am and I am proud to say, I had my daughter at 42 1/2 and got through it :happy::joyful: I sometimes wish I didn't have type 1. but I try to go onwards and upwards and look forward to a happy and relatively healthy life :)
 
From a non diabetic looking in it must seem like a nightmare, but for a type one, all the work put in on a daily basis is fine tuned and tweaked and eventually the nuisance of it all becomes very small......at least for me anyway.....;)
 
I have the utmost respect and admiration for anyone with diabetes, and the fact that we live with it as part of our lives for every minute of every day.

I wish I didn't feel like this, but I, like Amber in the article, see my diabetes as 'essentially my day job'. It's a shame. But it's the only way I can be confident that I'm doing the best I can to get all the numbers right all of the time.

We're all different. And that's absolutely fine.

Love Snapsy
:):):):):)
 
This is so true. Great article. It's sad how few people realise how involved life with T1D is.
 
Is she making a big drama of her diabetes? Or does it strike a chord?
 
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snowleopard said:
Is she making a big drama of her diabetes?
Click to expand...

No I don't think so, we all have different coping mechanisms and this needs to be taken into consideration when judging someone else.
 
snowleopard said:
Is she making a big drama of her diabetes? Or does it strike a chord?
Click to expand...

I feel it's not totally representative.. I've read it a few times & looking at the diary in the photos, over a 15 hour period she's flying low.. Basal tweak?? I notice apart from the breakfast the following morning there's no other carb calc. No dosage filled in either...?

So, is it a day job? All I would say is this young ladies "night shift" is a bit rough.. ;)
 
i definitely relate to her. i think she is being honest about how hard it can be and i appreciate that, as sometimes all the messages about how "diabetes cannot stop me" and "diabetes is easy/fine to manage" can make people feel bad when it definitely isn't, and can make people feel guilty for feeling **** about having it. i also feel that sometimes if im often going low it's harder for me to get out of that rut, as easily you can start going too high. like today i have had 3 lows yet i haven't changed my insulin. i hope that makes sense. anyway i support her, and obviously there's good and bad days, this day looks like it wasn't very good for her, maybe other days she feels better about it.
 
this thread is truly a good starting point for how we all define our T1D.

I try my hardest not to let it interfere with my living day to day and mostly I am successful ..... but sometimes it sneaks up on me and plays dirty....forces me to put it first in the queue.................dealing with that naughty child that is T1d can take its toll
but much like a child that never grows up it is always there.


BTW -- I call it my 24 hour a day job...............
 
I really don't relate to the article. 5 mins to do an injection? 30 seconds maybe. BG levels consistently low - cut back the dosage. Reading the labels at breakfast - make a note of the amounts once and use that on subsequent days. 3 months in from diagnosis I reckon less that 5 minutes total at each mealtime.

If she's having that much difficulty maybe her care team need a boot up the backside to show her how to manage her condition properly.
 
snowleopard said:
I really don't relate to the article. 5 mins to do an injection? 30 seconds maybe. BG levels consistently low - cut back the dosage. Reading the labels at breakfast - make a note of the amounts once and use that on subsequent days. 3 months in from diagnosis I reckon less that 5 minutes total at each mealtime.

If she's having that much difficulty maybe her care team need a boot up the backside to show her how to manage her condition properly.
Click to expand...
a bit harsh @snowleopard
you have not mentioned the waking up at middle of the night to test , the lows or highs that are unexplained after many years of repeating the same patterns , the dealing with sickness ( extra testing and injecting ) , the extra testing and injecting to exercise , the uncertainty of eating out in new places,and all of the various and regular things we do to try and be "normal". .

perhaps a starting point is for her care team to understand the complexities of managing D on a daily basis.......
 
I would say that above and beyond the physical demands of living with diabetes, for some people - well, at least one I know very well indeed, inside and out - it is the thinking, planning, working out, trials and errors - just to be on target (or happy to be close enough - although close enough isn't always enough for some!) all of the time.

But as I said before, we're all different in both our attitude and our behaviour within the limitations - or indeed, for some, not - of our own diabetes life.

I, for instance, find 'close enough' not good enough. But that's me!

:)
 
It can be a right pain in the rear but as with all pains its treatable.

When diagnosed it didn't bother me at all except when i was having thise very first hypo's. I really didn't know what was happening and thats on top of the hypo making me feel that i didn't know what was happening.

For me its a case of just dealing with it, accepting all the help thats on offer and using it as best as I can.

I'd rather be type 1 than type 2 because i simply love a bit of the ole Cadburys and insulin helps me devour it without shoving my BG up.

Regards

Martin
 
As diabetics we often say "people don't realise how hard we work at this". the young lady has tried to explain. I don't necessarily agree with all her statements and agree that from the figures shown she may need a basal tweak but it is trying to show others how much work we put in. and people may be a little more understanding.
 
It's an interesting one really. I used to get really frustrated with swinging up and down in relation to exercise, and life in general. And then I changed basal insulin and that went away.

I think one of the things that UK healthcare is particularly bad it is dealing with the variation amongst T1s and applying appropriate treatment as a result. The classic example is that 80% of people were put on Lantus as the new "Best thing since sliced bread" when the reality of the product (in my opinion) is that it is s****y. It has variability in absorption that is not a lot better than NPH and some characteristics that can cause issues.

Likewise, Apidra, Novorapid and Humalog seem to react differently in different people. So aside from all of the management techniques that are available to help, and Amber's diary suggests that she is not applying all of these appropriately, there is also an aspect of personalising treatments that we seem to never touch in the UK, usually for reasons linked to cost and simply because the healthcare professionals don't understand what it is like to live with this disease. It's highly possible that with a bit more mass customisation of treatment, we'd see people finding it a little easier to achieve more satisfying results.
 
Interesting thread and it just shows the wide spectrum of how people cope, in my own personal opinion I was one of the lucky ones having being diagnosed at 7 years old (I'm 33 now), so my type 1 diabetes is completely second nature and something I've lived with for as long as I remember. It's got to the point now where if I scoff anything I automatically know how much insulin to take so there's no dramas, whether it be a salad or a slice of caramel shortbread!!

It would appear a sizeable amount of folk who are diagnosed later in life (I think I read somewhere that teenagers are the worst affected, for obvious reasons! I went through a rebellious streak in my teens and luckily no lasting damage) struggle a bit at times to cope with it all whereas I don't really give it a seconds thought. It's an interesting discussion and it's great we have a forum like this where so many people with differing levels of strength and coping skills can help and share their stories.
 
very good article, she is a very young woman, she sounds very honest, at her age it must so difficult, as her friends can go out, sleep over, etc, and they are not having to do all the things she describes in her diary, day in, day out - and it is unlikely she will be able to stop changing insulin needs, as the menstrual cycle is going to mess things up, unless she is very fortunate. I had years of constant changes, at least i was diagnosed at the end of my 20's, and not younger. It is concerning that her team is not more worried about those hypos, there are more opportunities now than there were, it sounds as if she needs a CGM or she will find, as i did, that she does not wake when a hypo is mild. She should not have to wait until hypos are seriously bad
 
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