Hi... Anyone else get frustrated?

Ginger - posted on 10/13/2009

to be honest...i havent met a diabetic who isnt frustrated pretty much every day!! and any stress makes your sugars worse!! its a great little vicious circle. ive been diabetic for 23 years now and still get angry and depressed! my advice is to find a dr that you can be completely honest with (nurse practitioners also, sometimes you see them more than the dr). diabetes is definately a disease that you must take one day at a time. i really understand about the little debbies!!! but i have found some really tasty sugar free cookies and little debbie type products at wal-mart, and jelly belly makes some really good sugar free jelly beans!! my advice is to try them!! id also calmly tell your dad that it can really be hard seeing him eat them in front of you. good luck, i hope i helped! try to stay positive!! :)

Sybil - posted on 08/15/2009

Hi there! Sorry to hear that you're having such a rough time right now - hang in there! You know stress can cause havoc with sugars (it does with mine) & adjusting to all these stressful changes must be so hard for you - mentally, spiritually & physically! Adjusting to diabetes is hard to do too but it's so important for you to take care of yourself! I've been a type 1 diabetic for 23 years now & it's still hard for me sometimes! Are you taking several shots a day or on a pump? Are you seeing an endocrinologist and/or diabetic educator or nutrionist? A nutrionist can help you with carb counting because we all have our moments of weakness & carb counting helps deal with those. My husband has a real sweet tooth & sometimes I give in way too easily :) When I do have something sweet, I try to find the carb count to the best I can & shoot insulin (I take Humalog which is fact acting) for it. Of course staying away from sweets & fatty foods is ideal, it's unrealistic for that to never happen. An educator can help you identify the effects these foods have on your sugars & how best to cope with it. That's why I like a pump since you can do a dual wave bolus if needed, giving a little insulin now & a little later over time for those high fat/high sugar foods. And check your sugars before & after meals so that you know if your insulin to carb ratios are working for you.



Here's a site you should check out too:

http://diabeticmommy.com/



Hope that helps! And hang in there! I know it's rough but you deserve to treat yourself well & you'll be a better mommy if you're healthy & happy!!! I have a 1 year old son Kaden & he's my little sweetie! I'm sure your little guy is very important to you too!

Marla - posted on 08/03/2009

I've had type 1 diabetes for 14years now I got it when I was 9. I still get frustrated. I've been on the insulin pump for 6years that has been a blessing. All I really need to know is the amount of carbs I'm eating and my pump is programed to know how much insulin to give. I have to change it every 3 days but that is better then 5shots a day. pumps are the best. Also I know they have a pump that will check and monitor your blood sugar for you if your having trouble checking it. If your not on the pump you should look into it. I've been through it all and it sucks if you have any questions I'll be happy to help.

Michele - posted on 07/31/2009

Hi Penny. Let me tell you that I get frustrated every day I wish I could be 100% on top of it, but if I was I don't think I would consider myself human. I have 4 boys and my younger 2 are 9 months apart. I am also a full-time student so I can tell you that my diabetes does slip my mind A LOT! When I got pregnant my doctor put me on an insulin pump and that has been a major blessing. My diabetes was better then it had ever been. My CDE and nutritionist were wanting me to give up a lot of things that I love and I'm sorry but that was not happening. I am very stubborn. So I learned to count my carbs and cover what I it. I found that the more I tried to restrict myself from certain food the more I wanted them. When I was diagnosed with diabetes I had was on a calorie diet which meant I could only eat so much a day. I had to eat from the diabetes food exchange. I had to measure everything I ate so by the time the night came I was starving but couldn't eat anymore. If i ate anything at all it HAD be sugar free and we all know that sugar stuff tastes like crap. I used to hide tons of candy in my room and eat it all the time. It's funny bacause now that I can pretty much eat all the sweets I want, I don't eat them. As a matter of fact I don't eat sweet hardly at all. I had been hospitalized several time with ketoacidosis (which is very dangerous). Heck I was hospitalized with a blood sugar of 1160 and was still contious. You should consider a pump. It is awesome. The part I do still have major trouble with is checking my BG. Another thing to think about is that at least you don't have type 2. I think that would be horrible. At least we have the opprotunity to eat pretty much what we want and cover with insulin; however type 2 diabetics have to watch everything they eat. Since their pancreas still works a little they take pill so they can't cover everything they eat. Half the time they end up on insulin anyway. Anyway I don't know if that helped you at all. Just always remember things could be worse.

Jessica - posted on 07/30/2009

HI Penny, I totally understand what ur goin through, i was diagnosed 3 weeks bofore i turned 18, then 3 weeks later found i was pregnant with my 1st son. I handled it all pretty well he was 3 weeks early cause i developed pre eclampsia. Then 2 years later found out i was pregnant again, that pregnancy was a shocker. My son was born 8 weeks early the size of a full term baby. I still havent accepted im diabetic and now the doctors have told me to be look after it or i will have complications in the next 5 years.

The only way i found it easy to watch them was to see a diabetic educator every week to pull me into line and to make me look after them for that week so she didnt tell me off. Lol. My kids are forever eating lollies and cakes (things i shouldn't have) but i still do. sshhh ;) if you find you cant stop ur self dont have them in the house or sit somewhere else when ur dad eats them, he might feel bad then and stop!

hope this helps

xox

Sherisse - posted on 07/28/2009

Hello Penny! I have been a type 1 diabetic for 8 years. I was diagnosed when I was 20, which was a horrible age as I was all set in my ways, used to eating what I wanted when I wanted. Out on my own with not a whole lot of money and healthy food cost a lot. Not at home for family support. I know how tough it is. It took me 5 years to get it under control. And to be honest it wasn't an individual effort. I ended up in the hospital almost dead on more than one occasion and I had to enter a treatment program aimed at educating diabetics with eating disorders (which I ended up with because as soon as doctors told me I had to change my eating habits I just started eating EVERYTHING). I was in denial and it was awful and scary. I don't have sites for you, however I have experience and know that no matter how frustrated you get each day is a new day and whatever you did yesterday ends when you fall asleep. It took me a long time to realize that if I screw up and eat a whole bag of cookies that yes, it's not good for me, but it didn't mean that I couldn't take insulin and tomorrow start over. It's so much easier to think about it as your whole life at one time, but the reality of the situation is it's one day at a time and if you want to eat a little debbie cake, or two... you can. The more you restrict yourself the more likely it is that you will resent yourself and the diabetes and continue to eat unhealthy.
I hope this helps in some way, even to know that someone else felt/feels like that and has given up before and been able to come back from it. I am now 37 weeks pregnant with my first baby and we are both healthy and I am so glad I didn't throw it all away years ago.

Gemma - posted on 06/05/2009

I understand your frustration, I too am frustrated with the whole diabetes thing and can't wait for this baby to be born to maybe be free of it.

I don't mind not being able to eat cakes and biscuits etc. but I do find it really hard when I am out and have to find food to eat or when I go out for dinner and trying to work out what I can and can't eat! I am also sick of my fingers hurting from the blood tests and the bruises on my stomach from the insulin injections.

All I can say is don't give up, you need to be healthy for you and for your son. Ask your dad to be a little bit more empathetic to the fact that you have diabetes and suggest some other kind of evening snack that you both can eat. I am sure that there are plenty of recipes to be found on the internet. If you have a savoury tooth at all try some parmesan chips with marinated pepper dip, great for your sugars and really tasty. Parmesan chips are made with grated parmesan cheese in little piles on an oven tray, cook for about 8 mins until they have melted and gone golden, they will crisp up as they cool, you can top with chilli flakes or sesame seeds or anything else like that before melting. For the dip add marinated peppers to greek yogurt (non sweet) and blend until smooth then refrigerate until firm again, very easy and very tasty and very good for diabetics as a snack.

I hope that this helps somewhat, keep on working at it, to watch your little boy grow up will make it all worth it for you.

Cheers, Gemma