Hi! It’s your friendly neighborhood diabetic. As you may or may not know, November is National Diabetes Awareness Month, AKA the month where I have an excuse to talk more about diabetes and its causes, effects, and stigmas. Let’s get into it!
What Actually Is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a condition where your body cannot produce or use insulin correctly. Some types of diabetes happen when the pancreas stops making insulin, and other types can be caused by the body simply becoming resistant to insulin.
What is insulin? It is a hormone that allows the body to convert glucose into energy, keeping the body’s sugar levels from going too high. When you have diabetes, your body cannot turn glucose into energy or regulate your blood sugar levels, leading to hyperglycemia (severely high blood sugar).
When I am without insulin or when my body resists it, it is a real fun time. A couple times, my insulin pump site has ripped off my skin while I’m out in public, leaving me without insulin so I couldn’t eat anything. When I got a new phone recently and had to connect it to my insulin pump app, it required me to set my pump on its charger in order for the app to work. I was not home and did not have the charger with me, so I went out to dinner with my grandparents with no insulin and then went to a fellow diabetic’s house to quickly use their charger. Other times, I have my pump with me and my site inserted, but my body just doesn’t want to react to the insulin. When this happens, I have to do jumping jacks or squats or run up and down stairwells (my boyfriend has done this with me before) so that I can eat dinner or have popcorn at a movie night.
There Are Multiple Types
Most people probably know about type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes. However, there are many more types of diabetes than just those two! My type of diabetes, cystic fibrosis-related diabetes, can be classified as type 3c, but it is treated as type 1, so I usually just say I have type 1 diabetes. I developed diabetes because, due to having cystic fibrosis, my body produces too much mucus, and that mucus blocked my pancreatic ducts, causing scarring of my pancreas. That scarring impeded my ability to make insulin. I didn’t develop diabetes until I was 11 years old. Some people develop it as infants, and other people develop it much later in life. You can get diabetes at any age.
Most of Us Can Eat Cake
People often think that diabetics can’t or shouldn’t eat sugar. While this is true for some diabetics— everyone is different— many diabetics can eat exactly the same foods as non-diabetics. The only difference is that we must take insulin before eating our food.
When preparing to eat or drink something, we must consider many factors. Some of these things are, “How many carbs are in this food?” “How much fat or protein is in this food?” “Is there caffeine in this drink?” “Am I going to exercise later?” “How much sleep did I get last night?” “Am I under the weather?” “How stressed am I right now?” All of these things can impact our sensitivity to insulin which affects our blood sugar. For example, when I exercise, my blood sugar usually goes down, often rather quickly. That is why I keep little bags of candy with me when I go running. When I am sick or stressed, my body often gets much more resistant to insulin than usual. (Also, when I am prescribed steroids for a CF lung infection, taking insulin seems to not work at all. I learned this the hard way.) Therefore, it is not just carbs that affect our blood sugar; other food macros and other aspects of life and health have an impact as well. But after I consider all these things and calculate my insulin dosage, I can go to town on that ice cream, candy, or lemonade.
High Glucose vs. Low Glucose
When my blood sugar is high, I need to take insulin to turn the extra glucose into energy and get my blood sugar to a stable level. When my blood sugar is low, I need to eat carbs to increase the amount of glucose in my blood.
I have CFRD and not regular type 1 diabetes, but I still have many of the same symptoms as T1D. People with type 1 diabetes while having a high blood sugar, often have symptoms like feeling nauseous, feeling overly thirsty, or needing to urinate a lot. While I get similar symptoms, they do not occur until my blood sugar is extremely high. When my blood sugar is low I get shaky, sweaty, confused, extremely hungry, very exhausted, and often irritable. One little known side effect of a low blood sugar is that it takes our brain 45 minutes to recover after our body does. Not everyone will feel the same symptoms when their blood sugar is high or low; we are all different.
Everyday Annoyances
Every outfit I wear has to have a pocket or a place to clip my pump on. My formal dresses— I have to wear shorts underneath for my pump. I want to wear a romper— my pump is clipped onto the back of the arm hole. Running— I need shorts or a sports bra with pockets to keep my phone with me to read my blood sugar, so I know when I need to refuel before my blood sugar drops too low.
When my alert goes off while sleeping because my blood sugar is urgently low, I have to get up and drink juice or eat something with sugar immediately. I am often so tired and weak that I don’t want to get up, but it’s a matter of life and death so there is no choice. It ruins many nights of sleep, no matter how careful I am.
Ever heard of a “naked shower”? It’s a term diabetics use to refer to taking a shower free from medical devices. I change my insulin pump site approximately every 3 days and my glucose monitor every 10 days. On the rare occasion that they line up, it allows the glorious freedom of showering unhindered by medical devices. While my devices are water resistant, their adhesives often lose their stickiness from too much soap and water, requiring me to be more cautious of my devices when showering.
Conclusion
These are just some facts about diabetes! It is not a one-size-fits-all disease; it affects everyone differently. If you want to read more, consider checking out my article “‘It’s a Bomb!’: Insights from a Type 1 Diabetic” at this link: https://www.hercampus.com/school/bowling-green/its-a-bomb-insights-from-a-type-1-diabetic/. Thank you for reading, now go hug your diabetic friend and tell them they are doing a great job!