Personal | Page 6 of 10

7 Tips to Prevent Diabetes From Interfering at the Workplace

It can be really annoying to have to use vacation time for endo appointments. But if you plan ahead, you can often work with your office or boss to use as little time as possible for this. For instance, I know the day before Thanksgiving is a slow work day, so I grabbed a time slot with my endo way ahead of time to avoid missing a crucial work day.

My Purse Has Diabetes, Too

During my senior year in high school, I once made the tragic mistake of leaving my purse on my car while I drove out of the campus parking lot. Whoever found that purse and turned it into lost and found (thank you, former classmate!) uncovered a satchel filled with loose insulin syringes and half-full tubes of cake icing, my preferred low treatment at the time.

The Highs and Lows of Diabetes in College

you’re in a lecture hall with 100+ people, taking a final exam. Not a sound can be heard except for pencils scratching on paper, the occasional cough, and BEEPBEEPBEEP or BUZZ! BUZZ! from your CGM or pump. It’s absolutely mortifying! Not only do you have to deal with subsequent stares and glares from your neighbors, but you also have to figure out which diabetes problem is causing the device disturbance in the first place – all while taking an exam that you spent the past week studying for. Can it get more overwhelming?

Are People With Diabetes Prone to Violence?

Hallucinations and aggressive violence are not part of everyone’s reaction to a dangerously low blood sugar. I, for example, tend to fall mute and still, paralyzed by confusion. Anyone who has experienced severe hypoglycemia knows the powerful effects of the condition. But is severe hypoglycemia the only cause of aggressive behavior related to diabetes?

How Our Daughter’s Type 1 Diabetes Diagnosis Changed her Life—And Ours

Even though Bisi can live a long, healthy life, I feel terribly sad for her, and for us. Sad that she will need tens (hundreds?) of thousands of blood tests and injections; sad that what she can eat and how she lives is so much more regimented and restricted than it was before; that she faces health consequences and worries that a six year old shouldn’t have to know about or think about. And I feel sad, even though she is a girl who takes an enormous amount of pleasure out of life, that she knows her life is shadowed by this.

From Burned Out Teen to Healthy College Grad: Ways to Help your Child with Type 1 Diabetes

Her adult endo introduced her to the “What About Bob” method (I call it that – not him!): baby steps. Clearly, she wasn’t heading off to college with an ideal daily plan. So, he suggested taking little steps she was willing to try. He opened her up to a world where “success” wasn’t seemingly unreachable; where she didn’t have a million chances a day to “fail.” From that came a new sense of being “good” about her diabetes.

Diabetes New Year’s Resolutions

I can’t resolve to keep my fasting blood sugars between 70 – 110 mg/dL every morning because there are more variables in play than simply my resolve. But there is a “CAN.” What I can resolve to do is test my blood sugar every single morning and make solid decisions based on that number, whatever it may be.

The Uninvited Guest: Making Peace With Diabetes

Diabetes has become a part of my identity. This disease is more than an inconvenience, or a burden, or an adversary. Diabetes has opened my eyes to the incredibly, beautifully direct relationship between what I do and how my body responds. That’s a lesson tough learned, but an important one.

Diabetes: The Ultimate Preparation for Turning 30

I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when I was 12, so, by that calculation, by the time I was 14, I felt 29. That means, right now, if I’m 30 in regular years, I’m 149 in diabetes years (and I’m 210 in dog years, in case you were wondering). What an accomplishment! You might be wondering if I really feel like I’m 149.

Who Cares About Type 1 Diabetes?

We need to stop complaining about how many times mice have been cured of diabetes. That is part of science, and part of learning about each separate part of the complex puzzle that makes up diabetes. We should embrace the researchers who are interested in solving our problem.