How did diabetes affect something you did last week?

[Stefan Diabetes UK]

As part of the Diabetes UK 'Future of Diabetes' project, we'll be asking one question each week here on the forum about what it's like to live with diabetes, and what you hope (or fear) the future might bring.

And our first question is a pretty simple one:

How did having diabetes affect something you did in the last week?’

There's no wrong answers here - medical, work, family or social life, how it affected your mood. Please share absolutely any way diabetes affected your life recently.

Your answers will help us build our Future of Diabetes report, which will be published in November, and will be used to help us push for a world where diabetes can do no harm. We want that report to closely reflect the real lives, concerns and hopes of people living with diabetes, so the more discussion we get from you all the better 🙂

There's more details about the Future of Diabetes project on the website. I'll be keeping an eye on the thread as well so feel free to ask any questions.

But mainly I'm just here to listen, so look forward to seeing any and all responses 🙂

 

[Pumper_Sue]

How did having diabetes affect something you did in the last week?’

I have no idea as can't remember what I did yesterday let alone last week 🙂

 

[Stefan Diabetes UK]

A

I have no idea as can't remember what I did yesterday let alone last week 🙂

I can empathise! And in that spirit, answers from today/ right now / any other time also very welcome 🙂

 

[Grannylorraine]

Tired and emotional. I am so tired I don't go to the gym as much as I know I should.

 

[Sprogladite]

It ruined fathers day for me. I took my family out for lunch, we went for a nice country walk (in the middle of nowhere), was lovely and sunny...and then my BG shot up for no apparent reason. Assuming it was the heat as I have nothing else. So instead of a nice quiet walk it turned into an 'Oh no my sugar level is 21' fiasco. Very disappointing and left me quite upset that I can't just have one nice day out with my family!

 

[Steff]

Meant I could not do my usuual daily walk Sunday my bloods were running hi all day

 

[Lucy Honeychurch]

Stubborn hypo on the way to the shops, had to turn round and go home, luckily not too far from home.

 

[Martin Canty]

Went to the Farmers Market & had to pass an artisan bread stall..... Love that stuff, used to have it all the time pre-DX, now, well I'd hate to think what it'd do to my BG as I could eat a loaf in one sitting.

 

[Robin]

Went to a birthday lunch celebration, some distance away on Saturday. It involved extra practicalities, like:-
Choice of dress, ie something I can hitch up discreetly to inject
Remembering to pack insulin, hypo treatment, Libre reader,(and test kit in case I had to drive) etc
Checking nibbles were available before I accepted a glass of Cava on an empty stomach
Thinking about the food as it arrived, and doing the quick maths for bolusing
Keeping an eye on my levels throughout the day
Seizing an opportunity when I wasn't being overlooked by the cab of a large lorry whilst trying to inject basal in a traffic jam on the way home,

I think l what I'm saying is, I miss the spontaneity of not being diabetic!

 

[Bloden]

I couldn't play The Shark Game with my class of 6-year-olds - it's very energetic and I didn't want to go low (it was one of those 'trending too low for comfort' days🙄 but I didn't want to eat something and go high either). I had to pretend the shark had swum back to the ocean. They were very disappointed (me too).

 

[Stefan Diabetes UK]

Great to see so many different answers already, thanks all 🙂 Really interesting points and look forward to reading more of them.

By the way if anyone is on Twitter, we'll be asking some similar questions on the @theGBdoc Tweetchat tonight from 9PM to 10PM.

 

[grovesy]

Did not affect me at all.

 

[Amberzak]

I was teaching (I'm a private tutor) when I had a horrid hypo. Really messed up my tutoring.

 

[happydog]

I went to a bring and share picnic with friends. As I try to keep carbs under control I took my own peanut butter sandwich with livlife bread. Could not have any of the strawberries because they had sugar on them and there were a lot of other lovely things that I could only look at, no champagne either. I felt a bit embarrassed as not everyone knows that I am diabetic and people were saying things like "you don't need to diet, you are so slim anyway". Get a bit fed up with D at times!

 

[Ditto]

D stopped me having a massive plate of fried egg and home-made chips. Sucks. 😡 In the past I would give up food because I wanted to slim, now I have to give it up because it'll send my BG into overdrive. Very depressing.

 

[Flower]

How did having diabetes affect something you did in the last week?’

I went to town to buy a sandal. I still have 2 legs thankfully but my left foot and ankle joints have collapsed as I have Charcot foot as a result of diabetic neuropathy and I'm in a cast long term. Buying a pair of shoes is a waste of money really as even out of plaster my Charcot foot is deformed and will never fit into a normal shoe but I really wanted something pretty to put on my other foot. I had to ask for help with the colours as I'm partially sighted from proliferative retinopathy and apart from dark and white all other colours look much the same to me. The label on the pair I chose read 'Multi' which really didn't help at all! It all terrifies me but I'm still independent and able to get around and that's the part I try to focus on to keep me optimistic for the future.

 

[Pigeon]

I'd like to say it didn't affect anything! Yes, I have to plan ahead a bit more now and carry stuff with me, but last week I managed 2 exercise classes, a 5k run, 2 days of cycling to work, a lot of cricket with my nephews in the sun, going for a long drive to see family, eating lots of different foods at a barbecue, plus some cake for a birthday too. Yes, it's not easy, and no I don't have perfect results all the time, but I like to think diabetes doesn't affect my life very much. Interesting that in seeing 9 family members at the weekend plus a very old friend, not one asked how my diabetes is... and I like it that way because I don't like to think of it defining me.

 

[Bill Stewardson]

The D affected not much at all.

People's ideas about it did.

Best I move on now.

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

I have no idea as can't remember what I did yesterday let alone last week 🙂

That's exactly what I thought when I saw the question!

I do remember that a couple of weeks ago I went round local open gardens, which meant a lot more walking than I'd normally do, and I had a hypo at the gate of one of the gardens. Tried to explain to the man at the gate that I needed to sit down because I'm diabetic and my blood sugar was too low (hoping he'd offer me his seat for a few minutes!), but couldn't get him to understand it was a medical emergency - he kept trying to direct me to a different garden, where there were refreshments. There was a gravel drive which didn't look comfortable to sit on, so ended up sitting on the pavement. Thankfully had my test kit and some glucose gel with me (as well as R!), but it was frustrating, and while it didn't ruin our day it did rather put a damper on it.

 

[mikeyB]

In my 21 years as a type1, I cannot think of a single thing I have done or not done because of my diabetes, apart from having the odd year off driving due to having epileptic fits brought on by sudden hypoglycaemia.

I did get rather tetchy the other day with a hypo, I must admit. That gets ignored, of course, after 21 years, apart from the comment "eat something".