Clara the type 1 diabetic

[clarathetype1diabetic]

you’re not sick

I remember when I was a kid I had a cute little illustrated  book about diabetes. In this book it said that I wasn’t really sick. I remember this being the general approach when talking to me about it. I would hear all the time that I could do anything my friends could. And I get that it wouldn’t be helpful to let a child in on the actual seriousness, but growing up and realizing that “oh, I can’t do the same things as my friends” was just really a slap in the face. And I think I really played down in my head how bad I felt a lot of the time and just kept going because: hey diabetes can’t stop me from anything. 

I get it’s complicated but I just think we should stop telling sick kids that they’re not sick.

[diabetest1]

Goals!

[clarathetype1diabetic]

omg yes this is the best feeling

[heartsplinter]

#justdiabetesthings that nobody talks about

- catching every single cold and infectious disease ever because your immune system sucks

- bg levels too high? time for excruciating cramps in a random body part!

- when you can feel your bg dropping

- Constant Thirst™

- related: needing to use the bathroom all the damn time

- do i have my meter in my bag? do i have my insulin in my bag? do i have a snack in case my bg drops? do i have glucagon in case i pass out with no warning? do i have my phone in case i need to call an ambulance? do i h

- someone non-diabetic: “why do you always have a bag with you lmao”

- h e a d a c h e s

- sensory overload when you’re hypoglycaemic

- “why do you care about carbs so much lmao”

- “i would have offered you some cake but you can’t eat sugar right? you poor thing uwu”

- when you’re pretty sure your bg is too low but also what if you’re faking it as an excuse to eat something

- “you don’t look disabled though??”

- your friends looking mildly horrified when you casually joke about stabbing yourself several times a day

- when your phone/laptop is low on charge, and you’re like “oh no it’s going hypoglycaemic” but you’re only half joking

- the increased risk of anxiety and depression, to an extent that many diabetic clinics routinely test their patients for symptoms

- finding someone else who’s diabetic and they understand

[qjusttheletter]

people seem to forget that chronically ill teenagers are still teenagers 

[clarathetype1diabetic]

yesss

[mydiabetessecret]

Diabetes is a very isolating disease. No one will really be able to understand it unless they have it themselves. It’s a horrible feeling to know you’re going to have to go through this for the rest of your life all by yourself.

Share Your Secret | These Resources May Help (via mydiabetessecret)

[mottorolaa]

In honour of diabetes awareness month...

Here’s a little bit of diabetic etiquette for people who DON’T have diabetes!

DON’T offer unsolicited advice about my eating or other aspects of diabetes: You may mean well, but giving advice about someone’s personal habits, especially when not requested, is not very nice. Besides, many of the popularly held beliefs about diabetes (You should just stop eating sugar) are out of date or just plain wrong.

DO realize and appreciate that diabetes is hard work: Diabetes management is a full time job that I didn’t apply for, didn’t want, and can’t quit.

DON’T tell me horror stories about your grandmother or other people with diabetes you have heard about: These stories are not reassuring.

DO offer to join me in making healthy lifestyle choices: Not being alone is one of the most helpful things for me.

DON’T look horrified when I check my blood sugars or give myself an injection: It’s not a lot of fun for me either. Checking sugars and taking medications are things I have to do to be healthy. If I have to hide while doing so, it makes it much harder for me.

DO ask how you might be helpful: If you want to be supportive there may be lots of little things I would probably appreciate your help with. However, what I really need may be very different from what you think I need, so please ask first.

DON’T offer thoughtless reassurances. When you first learn about my diabetes you may want to reassure me by saying things like “Hey, it could be worse; you could have cancer!” this won’t make me feel better. And the implicit message seems to be that diabetes is no big deal. However, diabetes (like cancer) IS a big deal.

DO be supportive of my efforts for self-care: Help me set up an environment for success. Please honor my decision to decline a food choice, even when you really want me to try it. You are most helpful when not being a source of unnecessary temptation.

DON’T!!! Peek at or comment on my blood sugars without asking me first: These numbers are private unless I choose to share them. It’s normal to have numbers that are sometimes too low or high. Your unsolicited comments about them can add to the frustration, disappointment, and anger I already feel.

DO offer your love and encouragement: As I work hard to manage my diabetes, sometimes just knowing you care can be very helpful and motivating.

The thoughtless reassurance one… grrr.

[bentleyhacker]

idk exactly what it’s like for everyone else, but for me diabetes is overall an enormously grinding experience. at least once a week after I’ve checked my sugar or changed my pump site I think about the reality that in all likelihood I’m going to die before my friends do. I have to deal with the fact that so many of my organ systems are incurring damage at a higher rate than the normal people in my life. it’s just such a huge weight to have to carry and be aware of. i hate it. i feel so completely trapped by it.

[clarathetype1diabetic]

no one tells you how lonely it can be to manage your diabetes. It’s like this huge part of your life that your friends and family can’t really understand. Like most people I’m around know next to nothing and only notices that I’m diabetic when I eat and my parents and best friend still can’t even begin to comprehend what it’s like to live with and manage as a diabetic even though they try to help. Like they don’t even know what a high blood sugar feels like or how much diabetes is on your mind when you feel every little change in your body and it’s just this thing that I’m completely alone with and it’s so much of my life that I can never share with any of the people I love.

[diabeticink]

How perfect is this? Isn’t it amazing how small that space is where we get to feel normal, and how hard we have to work just to fit into that tiny space? Baffling. 

[clarathetype1diabetic]

mental health as a diabetic

When I was 16 I went to boarding school. It was the first time that I was handling my type 1 diabetes completely on my own, and it was so, so lonely. None of my friends knew anything and I always felt like I was boring them when I talked about it. On top of that we had activities all the damn time and I was so tired and had absolutely no energy to take care of a disease, so I would just not do it. That on top of other stuff lead to me falling into a depression, and I just stoped caring which meant even more diabetes burnout which in turn lead to more depression. I’ve been a diabetic since I was 1 and I was never told that that could be a thing. I wasn’t told that diabetes puts you at a higher risk of depression, I had to google that myself. My numbers were really really bad and I was crying in front of a doctor and a nurse and no one thought to ask about my mental health. Why haven’t a doctor, especially one that specialises in kids and teens, been trained to take that into account?

Diabetes affects me emotionally every single day. When my numbers are bad my mental health is bad. When my mental health is bad my numbers are bad. I know that not getting the help I needed when I was at an all time low means I’m at a much greater risk of countless side effects. Just being aware that diabetes could be connected to mental health would have helped me so much and been so easy to do. Why was I in hour long meetings with nurses and doctors trying to get me back on track and not one moment was spent on my mental health?

We need to talk about mental health and diabetes more. it needs to be part of the treatment. If you’re not mentally healthy you just can’t take on the incredibly difficult job that is taking care of a disease that demands so much of your energy.

[bentleyhacker]

hey, if u ever meet a diabetic irl, be sure to tell them how much you personally hate needles, I promise they will love hearing it and have never had anyone else tell them that before

[holyshitimalesbian]

How to Make Your Diabetic Friend Love You

As a diabetic, I think one of the nicest things you can do for me is give me food with the exact carb count. I’ve had 2 people carb count for me that weren’t my parents and even though one of them was just a girl handing out cupcakes in 8th grade, I have never forgotten her. I’m pretty sure if anyone ever threw me a party in which all the food was portioned and carb counted, I would cry for an eternity over how nice it was.

[clarathetype1diabetic]

for real this is the nicest thing you could do. It’s one of those things that are just so obvious to me as a diabetic but isn’t for non-diabetics at all