Six Things You Should Never Say To A Type 1 Diabetic

          I was just recently researching diabetes a little bit on the internet, and came across this list of things that should never be said to a diabetic. When I read them, I could connect to every single one of them immediately and thought it was the most perfect thing for a blog post, and figured I would share how each one of them relates me with my past experiences.

1) "Can you/should you eat that?"
         When going out to eat at a restaurant, having lunch with a few friends, or even a Christmas party with the family, these questions often come up more often than you would think. Anytime I'm not eating a salad with low carbs in it, this question tends to be asked. But the answer is always "I can eat whatever I want, actually". Of course I cant eat something that's loaded with sugar, like pop for example, just because it puts my sugar up so high, but if I really wanted it, or if my sugar was low, I could have it. The trick here is proportions and moderation. I can eat whatever I want, whether its pasta, donuts, cookies, ice cream, bread, whatever. I can have it, as long as its in a proportion adjusted to my blood sugar levels, not every single day, or unless my sugar goes low. If i wanted ice cream, I could have about a half a cup of it as a snack, or even choose frozen yogurt as an alternative. Pasta and bread are also easy to figure out because I could simply have whole wheat toast instead of a bagel, and whole wheat pasta in a bowl instead of white pasta heaping on a plate. Its not a matter what I can eat, its how much and when.

2) "Do you have BAD diabetes?"
          Both forms of diabetes are a chronic disease and not only are they hard to adapt new lifestyles with, but they both require a lot of attention. They cannot be compared to one another on terms of which one is worse, because they are both two totally different things and caused by two completely different factors. Yes, I do have to inject myself with insulin everyday, and yes I do have to take my blood sugar levels but that doesn't mean that its "bad". It means that I am taking care of myself. I may not get to go to Candy Mountain whenever I go to Toronto, but that's because I am taking care of myself and my body to the best of my ability. Both types of diabetes aren't exactly "good", but you cant consider them to be bad either. Its just a matter of how you adapt and take care of yourself. It may not be fun at times, but its livable.

3) "If you just exercise..." OR "If you just eat better.."

          While no one wants to be blamed for causing their own illness or disease is an autoimmune disorder completely unrelated to exercise and diet., This gets me going the absolute most. Being a type 1 diabetic, yes I do have to exercise more now to keep my body even healthier and I definitely have to watch what I eat when it comes to sugar and carbs, but doing this will not "reverse" or "cure" my diabetes. I do not care what anyone has to say that is not my doctor or endocrinologist, YOU CAN NOT REVERSE OR CURE TYPE ONE DIABETES FROM EXERCISING AND EATING RIGHT. It is impossible. I make ZERO insulin because my pancreas decided to quit on me, and your body needs it to function and be healthy. Without insulin, I will die. So if i were to stop taking insulin and just exercise and eat healthy, it wouldn't matter. My sugar would continue to rise, and my body would get weaker and weaker, and eventually have no energy for anything at all. So no, do not tell me that if I do something, my diabetes will go away because it WONT. Type 2 maybe, but NOT type 1.

4) "You don't look like a diabetic!" 

          It is impossible to "look" diabetic, unless someone witnesses you giving yourself an injection, or sees your pump site. To assume that diabetics are "over weight" is completely ignorant and totally not even true. A type one especially. Genetics determines whether you're type 1 diabetic, not your eating habits or how much you weigh and its totally a skewed stereotypical opinion for one to think so. It is absolutely not possible to be able to pick a type 1 diabetic out of a crowd of people.

5) "My Grandfather had that, and he lost his leg"

          Seriously? I cannot handle when people assume the worst of diabetes because they know someone who had it. Odds are that if your grandfather had it, it probably wasn't type one, and if it was, then he might have not take care of it the way he should have. Of course there are times where this isn't the case, but its not fair to assume something just because it happened to someone else. I am not your grandfather and diabetes effects everyone differently. Even though your grandfather had diabetes, do NOT act like you know everything about it because you DON'T. You don't know what its like to inject, or how to balance carbs with insulin and do adjustments, or how my body reacts to certain things. Do not give me advice on how to take care of it because your grandfather told you something, because we have two totally different medical records.

6) "I couldn't do that!" (inject insulin)

          HA. Pretty sure you would if it meant you were gonna die without it. That's all I really have to say about that.

jenn :)

The Best Years

I haven't really written a post in a while with all this back to school craze and being on the go with all my friends, appointments, sports and homework but I figured Id make a little time to write about a certain topic I've had a few of my readers email me about recently and I figured the time frame for it right now is absolutely perfect. Diabetes at school.

As many of you know, I am currently in my senior year at Assumption College in Brantford. They say your senior year is supposed to be the best year of your life, but with all the stress of good marks and finishing off highschool, it took me a little while to realize what it is exactly thats so awesome about it. Being a type 1 diabetic with stress, as I've explained earlier, is not at all the easiest thing in the world. The stress does cause my sugars to rise from time to time, which of course affects my grades in the long run as well, but thats besides the point. Many people ask me "How do you do it at school?". Well the same way I do it everywhere else of course. I take my insulin the mornings before eating breakfast (Note: Breakfast is the most important thing when it comes to being a diabetic attending school) just as I would if I were at home, I jump on the school bus, or drive, whichever way I get to school that day, and I attend all my classes. But what about low blood sugar in class, right? This was my most frequent question, and the answer is quite simple. I eat. I carry my purse to all of my classes and inside it I have my insulin, my glucose monitor, a granola bar or two and my Dex-4 tablets. Although it may seem easy to just reach into my purse to pull out a snack and start munching, a lot of teachers still don't understand. Just this semester, my original english teacher (before i changed classes) wouldn't let me eat in my class because her exact words were "My room is not a breakfast room, you can eat at home before you come". For a diabetic to hear this from a teacher is like a nightmare because you know right off the bat that this teacher isn't going to be a very understanding one. Of course, my first day with all the running around finding my classes and getting myself situated, I had low blood sugar and needed to have a small snack. As i finished off my granola bar, my teacher then told me I wasn't allowed to eat, and I told her that I'm diabetic and I didn't have much of a choice. To my benefit, the teacher at least pulled me into the hallway to talk about it, but of course I got the "Oh my dad has diabetes, I know you dont need to eat all the time". Excuse my french, but this royally pissed me off. I'm sorry but I highly doubt my diabetes and his are the same, especially if he doesn't need to eat all the time. My guess was that he was a type 2 diabetic. I then explained to her my situation and I believe she somewhat understood. I really can't emphasize enough though, that you should probably tell your teachers that you are a type 1 so they know how to react when things like low blood sugars happen, just because a lot of them don't understand.

Insuln at school was the second topic I received in a lot of questions, too, Well, I'm not on the insulin pump, so i can't bolus for my food that I eat, so I need to take injections before my meal at lunch time based on my blood sugars (as I am sitll on the sliding scale). This can be difficult sometimes, but again, telling your teacher that you have type 1 can really benefit you because leaving that extra 5 minutes really does help. When it comes to lunch hour at Assumption, I know our bathrooms are absolutely crowded with girls fixing their hair and makeup, along with their group of 3 or 4 friends who are waiting for them, so I dont exactly like stabbing myself with a needle when there are so many people in one confined area. And no, I refuse to do my injections in a bathroom stall because of all the germs and other bacteria in there that aren't good for me. I know its a long shot for that to make me sick, no pun intended, but diabetics really can't risk getting an infection what so ever. When you take those 5 extra minutes before the lunch bell to do your insulin, you don't run the risk of having someone bump into you while there is a needle in your stomach. I sometimes even do my insulin in the caff right before my meal since I'm not one to really care too much if people think its gross or not, or even in the hallways if the bathrooms are too busy and my teacher won't let me leave early. Its not difficult to do insulin at school, you just have to find the time and place to do it.

Of course there will always be those people who never understand diabetes, especially type 1. For some reason, a lot of people at my school think I have it because I didnt eat healthy, which is obviously 100% incorrect, but when it comes to dealing with these people, its best to just ignore them and let them think what they want. Theyre clearly uneducated and know nothing about the disease, so theyre really not worth your time. My senior year in highschool is not going to be filled with drama and people bringing me down, because I dont need that. Im going to make it the best that I can, and Im going to try my hardest to prepare for college because that's what it's about. I wouldn't go as far as saying highschool was the best years of my life, but I sure can say that it taught me a lot about who people are and how people act. Its been a very adventerous learning experience, but as soon as this years over, Im ready for a new adventure, with all new people, a totally new lifestyle, and a totally new province. Im ready for the next chapter in my life, because I believe every year should be your best year!

Jenn :)