Tag Archives: diabetes

Wordless Wednesday: The people you meet.

March 9, 2016 – 10:34 am

It’s no secret that the best part of going to diabetes events, wherever you are, are the face-to-face connections you make with others in attendance.

Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to attend the JDRF TypeOneNation Summit in Bethesda, Maryland. I was even more fortunate to meet Molly Schreiber.
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Molly lives with Type 1 Diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, and she writes about both eloquently at her blog And Then You’re At Jax.

Often in our lives, it’s the people you meet that make things so great. So great to meet another friend. You should go check out her blog!
 

By StephenS | Posted in Wordless Wednesday | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

Diabetes group think.

March 3, 2016 – 9:08 am

”The virtues, like the Muses, are always seen in groups. A good principle was never found solitary in any breast.”
~Buddha~
 
 
As we head into the diabetes conference season, I’ve been reading and thinking a lot about groups, and how groups, particularly groups of people meeting in person, affect our lives and how we feel about them. And how we feel about others.

It’s not fair to say I’ve always been a joiner; it’s not fair to say I’ve never been a joiner. I’ve been a little of both through the years. Some of the things I’ve joined have been underwhelming (Board of Directors of my community association), and some have been fantastic (hello Diabetes Online Community!). Some of the decisions I’ve made to not join have been okay too. Since I’ve been old enough to vote, I’ve resisted joining the Republican or Democratic party, and I’m still a proponent of a third national party in the USA, though I would not join that either, if asked. I highly value my independence.
 
 
”I was never really attached to a clique, and I wanted to be in all the different groups; I was never a one-group kind of person. I think that’s still part of my personality today.”
~Katy Perry~
 
 
What is it that a group can do that an individual cannot? In diabetes, the answer is simple: A group can provide validation. A group can provide trust. A group can provide empathy and understanding. And that’s just for starters.

Can I survive without ever coming into face-to-face contact with another person who lives with diabetes? Sure… I did it for nearly twenty years. Those were also, arguably, among the worst years of my life. It’s the time when I encountered the worst of my diabetes. It’s the time when I struggled with careers multiple times and was knocked down repeatedly. Sometimes because I wasn’t up to the task, sometimes because someone else in the group found that the best way to get ahead was to make others look worse in contrast. That’s a side of human behavior I’ve really only seen from my generation, and I’m happy about that. I also hope I’m right about that.

At any rate, groups do not always generate the best of outcomes. And outcomes like that never lead to sustainable results. But what about this diabetes group think? How does it differ?

I’m not an expert in this field, but you have to think part of it comes from our shared experiences. We’ve all been down the same road a few times, right? That’s a good starting point. Also, we do not come into contact with others living with diabetes very often. When we do, we are often overwhelmed by an unspoken desire to ask and share and comiserate in equal measure. We want to understand another person’s diabetes as only we, as People With Diabetes ourselves, can understand it.

Occasionally, we will come together as a wonderful group of individuals as part of a shared experience. We all may have faulty pancreases in common, or faulty pancreases may be very close to us via a spouse, a friend, or a child. But rather than the inept nature of one organ being the focus, we instead gravitate toward making our lives better, using our invaluable perspectives of perseverance and empathy to forge a better future.
 
 
”Nothing truly valuable can be achieved except by the unselfish cooperation of many individuals.”
~Albert Einstein~
 
 
Recognizing all this has allowed me to change my focus from “what can I do?” to “what can I do for people living with diabetes?”. Being part of a group who knows my life because they have also lived the same life helps me trust more. It makes me want to engage in the conversation and strive toward a common purpose.

We’re not all perfect. Not all groups are perfect. But shared perspectives, the trust it brings, and the understanding and bonds that derive from it are universal, my brothers and sisters. It will never go out of style.

This weekend, I will be at the JDRF TypeOneNation Summit in Bethesda, Maryland. To find out more, CLICK HERE. If you plan to be there, let me know so we can say Hi!

Next weekend, I will be facilitating at the Diabetes UnConference in Las Vegas. To find out more, CLICK HERE.
 

By StephenS | Posted in Events | Also tagged | Comments (1)

Welcome to March.

March 1, 2016 – 9:08 am

So, how’s your life these days?

I thought I would ask because we’re entering March. Typically, people who make New Year’s resolutions tend to drop most of their big yearly ambitions by the end of January. Even more do so by the end of February, even if there is an extra day in there. I’ve noticed it at the gym. Like clockwork, the number of people going to my gym reduces by about half between the start of the year and the first of March.

QuePasaBut here’s the thing, and you probably know where I’m going with this already: Diabetes doesn’t take a break. It doesn’t care if I’ve put in a lot of effort on it through the first two months of this year. Diabetes demands a full time, consistent approach to glucose management, and oh baby, is it needy.

Still, sometimes you think, ”Hey, I really don’t want to do this right now, I’m kinda burned out”. Diabetes doesn’t care about that. Diabetes won’t cut you any slack. Often, like a stubborn pest, if you try to ignore your diabetes, it will demand your attention even more.

I’m full of good news today, right?

Look, I realize I’ve written a bit lately about how we have to give ourselves a break now and then, and try not to be so damned perfect every moment of every day. But I also recognize that ignoring my diabetes entirely is not an option either.

My question to you is, how do you do that? How do you balance the two?

One of the things that people don’t realize, I think, is that even when you’re right on with your D-management, you can still burn out. Often, you can feel your resolve slipping the most when you’ve been at your most diligent for a while. Other times, no doubt it’s because we’ve worked so hard to achieve good numbers and we still deal with crazy highs or stupid lows. So how do we solve that?

I don’t know if I have a good answer to that last question. But I sure wish I did.

Burnout seems to me to be one of those last bastions of life with diabetes where we can never quite explain how it sets in, or why it happens, or its incredible impact, to people not living with diabetes themselves. We don’t seem to have any super therapies to deal with it effectively. And I know there’s nothing out there designed to prevent diabetes burnout.

Yet the stakes are enormously high.

We all know what the stakes are, so I won’t repeat them here. But as you can tell, I have a lot of questions. Burnout is dangerous, it leads to unintended and sometimes dire consequences, and there is not a one-size-fits-all means of effectively dealing with it that I know of. Of course, consequences could happen even if we never suffer from diabetes burnout.

These kinds of things are going on in my head right now. I don’t know why.

But I know that I’m better not alone, even if burnout is taking over the day. I know that others living with diabetes understand and have been there themselves. That’s something I know I can lean on, and it means the world to me.

If you’re dealing with diabetes burnout, or diabetes is just taking too much of your soul these days, don’t be afraid to reach out and seek that person who understands. Every single one of us has been where you are. And even if we don’t have a foolproof plan that will work for you every time, we can offer absolutely no judgement while you work your way through this. And we’ll be right there to prop you up and support you in the process. You count. You matter. Just as much as anyone else.
Never ever give up.
 

By StephenS | Posted in Out Of the Box | Also tagged | Comments (1)

Do People With Diabetes obsess too much? Or is it just me?

February 26, 2016 – 9:08 am

I was in the grocery store a few weeks back, in the aisle where the boxed juices sit on the shelf.

As I stood there looking at the flavors (because rule #1 for hypo supplies: taste good), I was also checking out the carb count of every single juice box in the aisle.

“Well, this one looks good, but it’s 22g of carbs per box. This one is 12g… how do I count/bolus for that? Each box of this juice is 15g, which I want. But the flavor is… not my favorite”.

After standing in front of these shelves for over five minutes, I asked myself (out loud—good thing I like to shop early in the morning) whether it really mattered if a juice box had exactly 15 grams of carbohydrates per box. I mean, if I’m in the middle of an overnight low, and I need to treat with a juice box, I don’t think an extra 7 grams is going to make a huge difference. So I wound up picking the juice with the flavor I liked (fruit punch), but 22 grams of carbs.
 
Obsession
This is just my viewpoint on the subject… I completely understand if you are into exact measurements and precise management of your diabetes to get to, and remain in, a good glucose range all the time. In fact, I admire you for that level of dedication.

But you know, I just wonder if years of exchange diets, A1cs, and carb counting has made me obsessive about a gram of carbohydrate here and a couple of BG points there. It was brought into focus for me about a year or so back when I visited my endocrinologist, she relayed my lowest A1c result ever, and in the next breath wondered herself if I had been obsessing too much. Her very words were “You know, it’s not the end of the world if your meter reads 140 mg/dL before dinner once in a while”.

Plus, and I don’t think this happens to everyone, but it happened to me: As I experienced more success with my A1c results, I became more and more of a micromanager about my numbers. I mean, it’s great when you get good results from it, but I don’t think I can keep it up forever. And mostly, I need to remember that I don’t know everything, or even much, about day to day management of my diabetes. You may disagree with that, but there’s no denying that I could stand to learn a lot more.

The other side to this is what happens if something unexpected happens when your numbers are so tight. And something unexpected is bound to happen once in a while. I’m fond of reminding people that the better your numbers are, the closer you are to hypoglycemia all the time. It’s a lot scarier to go from 100 to 50 than it is to go from 200 to 150.

If I’m obsessing over anything right now, it’s probably my basal rates and my insulin to carb ratio. Over the past two years, I’ve also cut down a lot on my daily caloric intake. So if I can get the basal and insulin to carb ratio numbers right, I think I will be in a good place with my diabetes about 80 percent of the time. And if you told me six or seven years ago that I could be on top of my diabetes 80 percent of the time, I wouldn’t have believed you.

How about you? Are you a control freak about your diabetes? Or are you more of a rounded, but nice, edges Person With Diabetes?
 

By StephenS | Posted in Diabetes | Also tagged , | Comments (4)

Talking about Cousin Spammy on DSMA tonight.

February 24, 2016 – 9:08 am

I’m not sure I can define diabetes spam exactly… but like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once proclaimed regarding pornography, I know it when I see it.

We’re going to be talking diabetes spam on the DSMA Twitter Chat tonight. What does it look like to you? How does it make you feel? How do you handle it? And many more aspects of what spam does to our already overworked eyeballs.
SpamLunchbox
From ridiculous snake oil cures to workout ads that promise to “reduce diabetes” (ummmm… it’s still DIABETES), we’ll be riffing on what really bugs you regarding quack dietary supplements and what your co-worker heard on the TV last night. We’ll talk about what everyone is doing about the stupid e-mails they’re getting, and maybe a little about what we’d like to do about all these snake oil remedies and the people who tout them.

Diabetes spam is kind of like the stoner cousin at the family get-together. Eating all the non-carby good stuff you brought while leaving your aunt Ginny’s undercooked brussels sprouts for you on the buffet. Eyeing your significant other with a little too much gusto. Borrowing a fiver while promising to get it back to you next week, and finishing up with “We gotta hang out more often, cuz!”. Yeah, right. I’m not a kid anymore, cuuuzzz.

So catch up with me on Twitter tonight (all the details are below) and we’ll compare notes, laugh a little, and generally dis’ about cousin Spammy. He’s got it coming… let’s serve it up beginning at 9:00 eastern time in the USA.
 
 
Living with diabetes? Living with someone living with diabetes? Join us for talk, support, encouragement, empowerment, and more during the DSMA Twitter Chat every Wednesday night at 9:00 Eastern time (USA). Follow the @DiabetesSocMed Twitter handle and/or the #DSMA hashtag and join the conversation!
I also find this link via tChat helpful.

The DSMA Twitter Chat is sponsored by the Diabetes Community Advocacy Foundation, Cherise Shockley, Founder and CEO.
 

By StephenS | Posted in Social Media | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)