everyday fun with diabetes

My personal rant-and-opinion blog about diabetes. Fun stories and venting alike!

[planstransamanacanalpanema]

Happy disability pride month to folks with invisible disabilities! Because, I swear, if someone tells me that I can't call myself disabled in the same story where they tell me about the horrific way their grandma died, and then about a diabetic cat they saw once, I won't know what to do but I'll definitely have some kind of feelings and that is about as close to a threat as I am personally capable of.

[andiebomb]

Hey genuine question, do people without type 1 diabetes also die if their blood sugar is low?

Cuz sometimes I read fics and it’s like “oh she has low blood sugar she should eat something” very nonchalantly and I go

“Oh shit! Bro needs apple juice and some bread STAT!”

Cuz it’s like…life threatening for me sooooooo

[dandelionwyn-o]

They can use their working pancreas to do a cool trick called glucogenesis to MAKE sugar with their livers. 🙄 This is our biggest tragedy. The loss of glucogenesis in the presence of too much insulin. We can do it, but we can't when we need to. We tend to make glucose after we eat (and we don't need it). This is (one of the reasons) why every dose of insulin is a wild fucking guess.

This is what they (our immune systems) took from us! Literal blood magic.

[moon-cricket-chirps]

My doctors always told me that in case of like an extreme low the body will still just barely manage to pull it off to jolt a T1 back from death. And I never questioned it because I can be passed out and suddenly wake up with a barely functioning brain and go “we need to eat or drink something”

I’ve been dead asleep only to wake up chowing down on candy. My doctor was shocked when she heard this because she’s never treated someone who’s managed to do that before. Again, I just thought it was the last ditch attempt from the body to not die and never questioned it….

[dandelionwyn-o]

This depends on a lot of things. Like diabetics who are diagnosed later in life will have more working alpha cells, or they may have fatty liver which makes glucogenesis easier, or had a carby meal the night before, or took a bath before bed. All these and more can affect whether or not a T1D going low can do a bit of gycogenisis, or not, when dying. It's unreliable though and your burst of action and consciousness may have been adrenaline anyway. Hard to say. Results will vary. If it was common and reliable that t1ds could "pull it off" in an extreme low, then we wouldn't die so often in our sleep... Pack snacks diabuddies.

[dailybetes]

Uhm, so this is something that just happens for me.

I have passed out from low four times in my life and every time I have woken up some seconds later and gone really fucking high IMMEDIATELY.

I usually can go up all by myself without having to eat from normal lows (slow though, I prefer eating over waiting). No doctor has found that weird, they were just like "yeah, your insulin is broken, not your glucose". And that matches my experience.

Does other medication mess with this? I've been diagnosed as a babbling baby, so it's not diagnosis age, apparently. Is there a detailed explanation for this glucogenesis thing somewhere?

[country-fried-fritata]

babe the world isn't ending your blood sugar is just low

[sierraveree-art]

[dailybetes]

Me to my supervisors: Sometimes I'm low and it means I can't work at all or can't work efficiently in those periods of time. That's probably around 2-3 hrs a day on average, some of which will be during working hours.

My supervisors: sure.

Also my supervisors: you need to make up for lost time on evenings and weekends to make it in this field

The people officially in charge of mediating: You need to be more understanding about your students' health

My supervisors: We recommend you work 70 hrs a week. Under consideration of your health, of course 🤡

[dailybetes]

I bought a new holster thing for my pump. It's very clunky but at least it holds way better than the original clip. Too big for under dresses though I'm afraid

[t1d-culture-is]

t1d culture is having to explain to your friends the difference between candy they can take from me and candy that they can't, under any circumstances, touch because I need it to treat lows

★

[marieaqua]

It’s such a betrayal when your pump site is painless going in but as soon as you send insulin through it it hurts like a bitch

[ifwerefree]

Thinking about how low bg is kind of a medical emergency, in the sense that if not urgently treated it is life-threatening, but it doesn't feel like a medical emergency because the treatment is like, drinking juice and waiting 20 mins then it's fine. It's just another Tuesday.

[urghost-andurboo]

dogy and lava monster

[softlydiabetic]

if youre ever going low but think "hmm i'm too lazy to go eat something maybe it'll go away in a couple minutes" dont listen. thats the devil talking

[high-quality-tiktoks]

Ed Gamble on being called a ‘diabetic comedian’🗽

[dailybetes]

What do you all think of creating a global list of anti-low treats and where to find them? I have a ridiculously long list of specific things and supermarkets where you can buy them, where they are the cheapest, which supermarket tends to have offers etc. Also which ones are suitable for hot weather, cold weather, waterpark trips,... But they're somewhat Germany-specific, so probably not that useful for everyone.

[dailybetes]

I'm bringing this to life because my mom sent me a package of my favourite low treats from home and I'm in heaven, so here goes my number one German/European low treats (feel free to add or edit):

Nimm2soft.

- dietary: vegan, gluten free, lactose free

- transportation: individually wrapped, pocket friendly (~4 for one low, normal women's pockets easily fit 8-10)

- weather: get soft but don't melt in hot weather, get a bit hard on cold weather, very difficult to chew if you carry them in your bag below 0°C. Tip: carry a few close to body when cold

- cost: ~2€ for a bag of ~100 (come in two bag sizes, the smaller one is more expensive per individual thing)

Müsli Bars:

- dietary: depends on brand and kind, usually vegetarian, lactose free can be found easily

- transportation: individually wrapped, one per low, fits in pocket but gets mushy and sticks to wrapper easily

- weather: depends on kind, but doesn't melt. Does usually stick to wrapper when hot. Suitable for cold

- cost: varies across brands, but ~2€ for 4-6 is available at many stores

[autisticallyfeisty]

I kind of like when my blood sugar’s a little low, like between 60 and 80. I feel like it’s easier to move, to connect thoughts with actions. Like I have more control over my body basically. Especially my hands. And more clarity of thought. I don’t really hear other diabetics talk about this, which makes me wonder if maybe an autistic thing? 

Do any other diabetics (autistic or not) experience this?

[dailybetes]

I have two modes of low:

1. Confused, jumping between thoughts and tasks twice a second, grumpy, moody, the world hates me and I hate the world

2. The pre-stage to 1., or so I think. It usually happens when I'm on the way to being low. Suddenly I find the motivation to get up and do the thing. Uniquely focused brain cause I don't have the capacity to be thinking about more than one thing. I have a plan and I'm following it . This usually lasts until I either notice I'm going low by looking at my cgm, or phase 1 begins on its own (I wrote a post about this while in that stage years ago)

[whatdiabetesshouldcallme]

When you’re around a bunch of other diabetics

[trollingyoualways]

[exasperated-diabetic]