It could be worse
”It could be worse, at least you ONLY have to take insulin” wow that really grates my goat
I bet people have said this a million times to you since you were diagnosed, and in the wrong context it irritates me too. when somebody who knows nothing about diabetes says stupid statements.
When I was diagnosed one thought got me through, there are worse things in life. T1D will not define me, it will always be a part of me though and that is the fact we all need to deal with.
Count your blessings not your curses
We all need a little saying we keep in mind for when times get rough, and that is mine.
Be greatful for what we have
I am very grateful I live in the times we do.
To have diabetes 30 years ago was a whole different ball game, one im glad I never had to endure
Just imagine what all of the older type 1 diabetics have lived through.
No blood sugar meters, all you had was a urine strip which didn’t really tell you anything other than your bloods are above 10 mmol/l, by which time damage is starting to occur.
When the first blood sugar meters were around they were huge and very painful to use.
No blood ketone testing
No CGM
No FGM
No nice short disposable pen tips, all your insulin was administered through a glass syringe, reused many times. Had to be be sterilized by boiling.
Insulin was not as good as the modern day rapid acting and long acting ones.
My point here is ”it could be worse”
All in all us youngsters have it easy compared to what some T1D have lived through. This still doesn’t mean T1D is a walk in the park these days, far far from it.
Test, test and test again
We have enough stuff to deal with in everyday life, and if there is any way to make things a little bit easier then I will make the most of it.
I wanted to get a post up about the ways we can stay on track, what resources are available to us and how to best make use of them.
The only way you will get on top of your diabetes is to test,test and test again. If you don’t have the evidence then you wont have very good DSN appointments and more importantly you wont know what you need to change to get better control.
All of these tests are pointless if results are not recorded and actions taken based upon patterns in your results.
We have all been to see the DSN and had to show them our latest set of figures.How we present these can say a lot about us. Turning up with 10 readings scribbled on a post it note isn’t going to indicate that you care about recording your results. If you want to show you are a controlled diabetic then a lot more effort will be needed here.
Logging all of your test readings in a legible format really helps.
The list of information to log is endless. Blood sugar, basal insulin, bolus insulin, insulin on board, carbs eaten, exercise taken, it goes on and on.
If I were to write all of this down I would need my own PA to keep on track.
How many of us really write everything down? I write down just what I need to maintain tight control. We have an array of technology at our finger tips today, use it!!
Using an app is much more convenient than the old school ”write it down” method.
Head on over to the ”Tech” section in the top menu.
I will be doing posts there soon on the apps I use and their benefit to me.
Take care and be everywhere
Type1Bri
Really liked this post. I have been T1D for the last 23 years so I remember the bad old days of waiting for 30 minutes to eat and carrying around honest to God syringes! The one thing that always got me though we’re the tiny little log books they gave you. I could have written essays just on what happened to my BG between breakfast and lunch. Very glad all the tech angels came along and gave our BG machines internal logs!