Knock on wood

Today at the Adults with Type 1 Diabetes meeting put on by JDRF there was a newly diagnosed woman named Haley Doyle. Haley was very upbeat and positive about her diabetes even though it caused some serious concerns towards her long term goal of graduating from the Naval Academy and making all the requirements the government has on its military personal.

Beyond the speaker other things came up such as Ketoacidosis (KDA) - I'm not even going to try and explain what it is but I have a link here from the American Diabetes Association for your review:

http://www.diabetes.org/living-with-diabetes/complications/ketoacidosis-dka.html

Diabetic Retinopathy - Diabetic eye disease, damage to the small blood vessels in the retina. Loss of vision may result.

Dawn Phenomenon - the early-morning rise in blood glucose level (4 - 8 a.m.)

Low Blood Sugar -

Diabetic Coma -

Man - all these things are SCARY but they need to be talked about. Unsure if I've ever been through KDA and I'm 100% sure I haven't gone into a diabetic coma, they're both scary to think about. I remember my early years as a diabetic I would go to bed with my blood sugar high because I was afraid of dying in my sleep. Enough time went by where I trusted what I was doing and wasn't afraid to die in my sleep but now the worry for me is what about other complications? By having these early fears did I create a long term problem by running high?

Diabetic coma, phew, big sweat drop off the eye brow on that....could be a literal and figure comment because I've been quite sweaty on some of my low blood sugar instances. If I sweat I worry, that's an extreme low and a "oh shit, I'm around Doug and I know he's not ok" type of feeling, this feeling sucks too. I feel very fortunate that I haven't ever passed out due to a low blood sugar. The lowest I have read my meter and been awake for it was 15, true story.

In the end I wonder to myself and out loud on this blog "Am I a bad diabetic?" Shouldn't I know everything that can go wrong with me, shouldn't I know what it feels like to have KDA or not? I should at least understand how to read a test strip. I've had diabetes since 1999 and I didn't know the difference between Basal and Bolus until I went on the pump almost 2 years ago, almost 15 years of being a diabetic and the first 13 I was clueless.

The thing I've found most helpful in the last 2 years has been the diabetes online community and support of the JDRF adults with type one group. Early I wish I had come to some of these JDRF Meetings, their are a lot of great people who know exactly how you feel. It sometimes sucks to try and explain how a high or low feels but its amazingly wonderful to sit in a room and listen to someone such as Haley Doyle explain how she goes into survival mode wanting to eat everything in site to recover from a low, talk about BEEN THERE DONE THAT!

I hope you've enjoyed this post, please share with a friend if you learned anything or enjoyed the read. Time to test and go to bed!