Aware
Today is Type 1 Diabetes Day. Today also kicks of Diabetes Awareness month. November 14th is World Diabetes Day.
For me, today is a normal day since Type 1 Diabetes invades every moment of my life. But for those of you without diabetes, please take today to educate yourself about this condition and break down myths about diabetes around you.
I don’t look sick, because I’m not sick. I have an uncle who said it fairly well after I was diagnosed, “You’ve had an organ failure.” I’m living basically without an organ that some people don’t even know they have one or what it does.
If you want to try to image what diabetes management is like in one day, you an attempt with this text message challenge from the JDRF. The messages attempt to simulate blood sugar checks, insulin injections, etc. Inspired by that challenge, I’m recording my day today the best that I can when it comes to what I do to… well live. Or live well in general. But even that won’t give you a sense of the emotional, physical and mental components of diabetes.
In your attempts to be more aware and actually help people with diabetes, take 15 minutes to exercise and do the Big Blue Test. Exercise is good for everyone, for people with diabetes it positively impacts blood sugar levels, and by doing this challenge, the sponsor donates to send diabetes supplies to those who can’t afford them. And diabetes is expensive. You can do the test as many times as you’d like, and since I know that a lot of my readers are going to exercise, or did exercise today, I hope that each of them will do it.
To read more about Type 1 Diabetes, please start here. (Also feel free to browse the related posts at the bottom or anything I’ve written under the Type 1 category)
Also, I make a point to wear blue every Friday in November at least. You wore pink all last month, you might not be shaving this month, so do some blue once a week maybe?
Thanks!
I thought I had crappy insurance and when I was first diagnosed I was like there is NO way I can afford this. Well I started out with just the pills which Giant Eagle fills for free regardless of insurance. Then I had to add Lantus to my routine and my doctor kept giving me samples. One day she ran out of samples so I had to order it from the pharmacy, and I was petrified that they wouldn’t cover it. Surprisingly I got 5 pens for free. Same when I was just put on Novolog…. I am very lucky that my insurance pays for EVERYTHING for my diabetes so far! They will pay for OneTouch test strips but not Freestyle, but I prefer my Freestyle meter. I found out through my endocrinologist that there was a program I could enroll in since my insurance wouldn’t fill them and I’m able to get 3 months worth of the Freestyle test strips sent to my door for free. Talk with your doctor. s/he may be able to help you find some more discounts?? But yes… If my insurance wasn’t so fantastic, it would be beyond expensive. I mean if non-diabetic people would look at the cost of test strips at the store and account for checking 4ish times a day and add that up, on top of alcohol swabs, needles, etc, it really adds up! I do pay for my own sharps containers because with only putting pen needles, lancets, and test strips in it, even a small $3 container from walmart will last me a couple or three months!
Thank you for this post! It’s so important to be aware.