It's Diabetes Blog Day, one of many events during World Diabetes Month. Today's topic, blogged by diabetes bloggers across the Internet is 6 Things You Want People to Know About Diabetes1. Being perfect isn't possible. But it's what we often expect of ourselves when we have diabetes. And despite knowing all of that, there's a lot of guilt that comes with each little failure.
2. Fear is a really poor motivator. Don't tell me about your grandmother who lost her leg/eyesight/kidney function thinking that it will convince me to take better care of myself. First of all, I take damn good care of myself as is. Second of all, while the DCCT tells us that good glucose control can reduce some complications by 42% to 76%, NOTHING reduces complications by 100%. I could do everything right and still end up with complications. So keep your fear to yourself.
3. Speaking of good control, in his book Think Like a Pancreas, diabetes expert Gary Scheiner defines very good control as having blood glucose levels in range 70% of the time. Fair control is having the numbers in range 50-70% of the time. Imagine that you made soup using the same ingredients every day, but it only tasted OK 70% of the time. And, your 70% success rated you a master chef.
4. No one knows what causes type 1 diabetes. We know that islet cells in the pancreas are destroyed by the body's immune system. But the why and how are still under investigation. Wheat, viruses, low vitamin D, cow's milk, lack of breast feeding, and aliens are all possibilities, but scientists are far from certain. Chances are, it's more complex than we think.
5. When you think I'm sick, I'm not. When you see me testing my blood glucose or taking insulin, everything is OK. That's what I do to be healthy. Just like you brush your teeth or eat food.
6. And when you don't think I'm sick, I am. Contradictory, I know. Just because I look OK at any given time, it doesn't mean I'm feeling OK. The signs of low/high blood glucose are often easy to miss from the outside.
6 comments:
I had no idea about Diabetes Blog day yet it it something very real in my life. Mr treehugger was diagnosed type 1 4 years ago when he was 42 and the last 4 years have been an eye opener for sure. For the both of us.
Do you recommend "Think Like a Pancreas"?
Think Like a Pancreas is a great book. Lots of practical information about adjusting insulin doses and about how food, exercise, and medications interact.
This is a great post--informative and useful. I'm currently taking a diversity class, and I think that medical issues and assumptions about them can fall under the radar, so your post feels timely to me. Thank you!
As someone without diabetes this post gives me something to think about.
#3 reminds me of baseball stats: a hitter who hits the ball 30% of the time is considered fantastic! If only we had the same goal!
Such a great post! <3
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