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Health & Fitness

Don't Call Me a Diabetic!

A Day in the Life of a Person with Diabetes

It’s true: I AM a person with diabetes. But my medical condition doesn’t define me. It does, however, affect nearly every moment of my life.

It was August 1989. I was single, healthy, working, care free.

Sometimes I ate healthy, sometimes I binged on cookies. I dieted, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

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But everything changed suddenly. I started losing weight when I wasn’t dieting. I became so thirsty at times that it felt as if I had been eating cotton. And drinking lots of juice didn’t help. I spent a lot of time in the bathroom, I was fatigued and I was short-tempered.

I saw my doctor who found, after a couple of tests, what I had suspected but couldn’t even say out loud: I had diabetes!

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Not Type II, the more common form that adults typically get, but Type I, also known as insulin-dependent diabetes and used to be called Juvenile Diabetes. And I was no juvenile.

I was panicked. How would my life change? All I knew about diabetes was no more sugar (translation: chocolate chip cookies) and lots of shots. In fact, more than 700 shots of insulin a year!

There were so many changes to be made: being on a controlled diet, exercising regularly and taking at least two of those darned shots daily. In addition, I would have to test my blood sugar by stabbing my finger several times a day.

That was a long time ago. Some things have gotten better, some worse. Now I have an insulin pump, which means when I eat, I press a few buttons and the pump gives me the insulin. No more running to the restroom in a restaurant to take a shot. That alleviates some of the unpleasantness for sure. But what is a typical day for me?

When I awaken, the first thing I do is test my blood sugar on my meter. If it’s too high, I use the pump and give myself a correction dose of insulin. If it’s too low, I must eat or drink something with sugar right away. If it is just right (very “Goldilocks”) and I want to eat, I have to figure out what I want to eat, weigh or measure the food to determine the aggregate carbohydrates in the food, and then take the appropriate amount of insulin.

Easy, right? But wait! If I am going to exercise within an hour or two, I need to take a smaller dose because insulin becomes much more potent during and after exercise. How do I figure the appropriate dose? And how do I know how long I will be exercising?

Two hours after breakfast, I do another blood test. Again, I may have to take a correction dose or eat more if my blood sugar is not in the “normal range.” Tiring!

If I am going to drive any distance, I make sure and test before I get in the car. If my blood sugar drops too much, I could lose consciousness and crash my car. (Been there, done that!)

Before lunch, I have to test. Again, I will take a smaller or large dose for lunch based upon my blood sugar at that time, and, of course, what I am going to eat.

This routine continues all day and up to bedtime. But that’s not the end of the story.

Every three days, I have to remove and replace my infusion set. That’s what the pump attaches to and is inserted under my skin.

About every five days, when my pump runs out of insulin, I have to replace the insulin cartridge. About once a month, the pump battery needs to be replaced.

Then, there is dining out. How can I ever know how many carbohydrates are in restaurant food? I can only guess. And if it’s high-fat food, such as Thai, Chinese or southern Italian, chances are it will affect my blood sugar when I am sleeping and I will wake up with very high numbers.

How about going on vacation and forgetting some supplies, the kind I can’t get in a drug store? Or being abroad and the pump dies? What about being with well-intentioned people who say, “You can’t eat that. You’re diabetic.” Or just as bad, the one who will say, “You can have a little. It won’t kill you.”

Or going on an unplanned long walk and not having enough “insurance” carbs with me to keep my blood sugar from getting too low? Or developing some new symptom and having everyone assume it’s related to diabetes even if it isn’t?

There is a lot to think about every part of the day. Can I take a “vacation” from diabetes care? Not a chance. It’s too dangerous. Having high blood sugar for a prolonged period of time can cause organ damage or coma. Having low blood sugar can cause a seizure or coma or death!

But, like all other people with diabetes, I persevere; I live with it. It is part of me. I am a person with diabetes. But don’t call me a “diabetic.” It is not who I am!

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