When it comes to making sense of diabetes and food, do you count carbs, or do you wing it? Turns out, there’s plenty of gray area between those two concepts. Folks on Facebook seemed to do a bit of both winging and measuring. “We will wing it when we have to, but for the most part, we strive for accuracy…
Dino Days
Diabetes Advocacy, Diabetes and Emotions, Diabetes and Family, Diabetes Community, Diabetes Online Community, Psychosocial Support, Real Life Diabetes, RelationshipsBeing diagnosed with diabetes as a child twists time, making me feel like I’m not terribly old but that my diabetes is ancient and withered. Looking back at an online journal that chronicles almost half my life with diabetes paints me as a digital dinosaur, one whose story and community has evolved in response to time, technology, and ability. The…
(This is not the sexiest post. Or one that it’s easy to find a not-disgusting stock photo to illustrate. But my fingers are in a world of stingy-pain half the year, and it turns out I’m not alone.) Let’s just cut right to the chase: my finger tips split open about six months of the year. It’s gross. The skin…
I love going out on the town for the night And having a meal by a soft candlelight (Because I know, at a restaurant, meals are yummy; For the food isn’t prepped, touched, or cooked by me.) But to dine with type 1 can be quite complex, Because restaurant food has a whole set of specs That require some SWAG’ing;…
My diabetes blog turns 13 today. Teenageabetes, in the bloggiest sense. And fitting that my diabetes doesn’t always want to talk to me, has friends I don’t particularly care for, and only listens to me when I threaten it. I have just finished 13 years of writing, now kicking off the 14th. 31 years of diabetes and 13 years of…
The Diabetic Survivor: Interview with the Artist
Diabetes Advocacy, Diabetes Community, Diabetes Online Community, Real Life DiabetesI love when diabetes goes visible. Artistic interpretations of life with diabetes are my favorite, because they have this way of distilling diabetes down to a single image that says so much. I felt that way when I stumbled upon thediabeticsurvivor’s Instagram account, where simple drawings spoke volumes about the emotional baggage of diabetes. I love how his work peels back…
A few months ago, I stumbled upon StayPut Medical and tried one of these overlay tapes out over a Dexcom G5 sensor. And even with a history of wonky adhesive issues and easily irritated skin, this tape helped my sensor hold tight, without issue. Thankful for the free trial sample and eager to share this “simple solution” with you…
Victoza for T1D: A Few Weeks In.
Blood Sugars, Diabetes Products, Psychosocial Support, Real Life DiabetesI’m on my fourth week of Victoza. Here’s the good, the bad, and the reminder that none of this even remotely resembles medical advice for the love of Loopy. THE GOOD: My numbers have been excellent. Truly excellent. And I’m the last person who is going to post perfect CGM graphs all the live long day because I have always struggled…
A Look at Body Posi Betes
Diabetes Advocacy, Diabetes and Emotions, Diabetes Community, Diabetes Complications, Diabetes Online Community, Psychosocial Support, Real Life DiabetesA few years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Georgie Peters when I was visiting Australia. This woman is a force – a combination of positivity and raw honesty, writing about her lived experience with type 1 diabetes. She’s written here before and today she’s visiting SixUntilMe to talk about her latest social movement of combining body positivity and diabetes….
Visualizing Diabetes
Diabetes and Emotions, Diabetes Complications, Healthcare, Mental Health, Psychosocial Support, Real Life DiabetesLast week, I had the pleasure of connecting with Katie McCurdy through my work at The Patient Revolution, and she and I talked about her health visualization tool, Pictal. (That interview can be found on the Patient Revolution blog.) From the article: “Pictal is a set of worksheets that patients can use to create a health history timeline and show…
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