4 ms·

I am type 1.5 and disagree with both parts of your post. While learning to use them routinely only takes a few days, needles and lancets do bother people for a

I am type 1.5 and disagree with both parts of your post. While learning to use them routinely only takes a few days, needles and lancets do bother people for anxiety reasons, but also for physiological reasons. Lancet areas develop callouses, can have blood flow issues and in more advanced stages of diabetics can risk infections/damage. Injection sites go bad over time or appear to; right now I am dealing with an issue where I think some of my preferred injection sites are becoming less effective, but I can’t really tell, which is preoccupying. I don’t think research into alleviating the need to use needles and lancets is getting anything wrong just because it solves a need not every diabetic has. Secondly, I think your description of diabetes is overblown. If you’re checking BGL frequently with a CGM, then you have a good understanding of what will happen in routine situations. If you’re not, you aren’t going to sweat 30 minutes in the car or the delta between the carbs from dinner plus toast and physical activity (I do like the humble-brag here, though!) because you don’t know what’s going on anyway. Hypoglycemia has the advantage of being treated with glucose tablets, which don’t spoil and can be stashed everywhere. Moderate activity and water intake are important but not going to swing your BGL wildly like a bottle of soda or an intense workout. This disease can be a hypochondriac’s dream and I think that teaching other diabetics to be so preoccupied is dangerous to them because it increases the temptation to give up on the daily routines that actually make a difference.

RPLong 8y ago
teaching other diabetics to be so preoccupied is dangerous to them because it increases the temptation to give up on the daily routines ^^ Sorry, this makes no sense at all. Maintaining a routine is one way to express a preoccupation with diabetes management!
- 1123581321 8y ago
  I mean: there are a few things you need to do each day to manage diabetes. These are important. What you don’t need to do is worry about it between those times. If you convince someone they need to do too much to manage the disease, they’re more likely to give up on the whole thing.
  - RPLong 8y ago
    More likely, as measured how? How do you know this? Spending more time thinking about my condition is a great way to improve blood glucose control, at least in my experience.
    - 1123581321 8y ago
      Of course. I spend plenty of time thinking about diabetes and I stay involved in the data measuring communities (Nightscout, Spike, etc.) I enjoy knowing what’s going on with my body and I try to get like-minded diabetics to look into that. I also help people figure out how to get a CGM prescription and sell them on it by loaning mine out for a few weeks (and just that much data eases worry once they see their actual operating parameters. It’s worth my going without for a bit.) I know this because I know diabetics who have lapsed out of control, or retreated into a rather small life, because they felt the excessive personal rules they’d either self-imposed or been taught by others were burdensome. When possible, teaching them a lighter set of principles to follow has had a positive effect.
bigtunacan 8y ago
"Hypoglycemia has the advantage of being treated with glucose tablets, which don’t spoil and can be stashed everywhere." Umm... glucose tablets do in fact spoil. I've never seen an unopened bottle spoil, but once they are opened they can spoil over time mostly from the humidity. I found this out the hard way.
- 1123581321 8y ago
  Sure, I replace them periodically. They don’t spoil quickly, though, in the sense that insulin spoils just from being outside too long. You don’t have to curtail your physical activity to avoid hypoglycemia because glucose is portable and durable.
  - bigtunacan 8y ago
    "You don’t have to curtail your physical activity to avoid hypoglycemia because glucose is portable and durable." Between this and your "humble-brag" on your other post, what I'm led to believe is that you're pretty ignorant on how variable insulin sensitivity and blood sugar management is from individual to individual. I've maintained an A1C of less than 6.5 for more than a decade so I'm the picture of "perfect" control and I can tell you that physical activity is a pain in the ass. I'm hypersensitive to insulin during physical activity. When I go to the gym I want zero insulin on board because just 10 minutes on the treadmill could drop me from 160+ to 30. Just walking is enough to cause me to have low blood sugars, so I have to reduce or skip insulin with food accordingly. I'm required to elevate my blood sugar to 200 before I can scuba dive and then I can still only dive for a maximum of an hour because there is too much risk I will pass out and drown. And then you say, "I am dealing with an issue where I think some of my preferred injection sites are becoming less effective". Preferred injection site? WTF dude? Of course it is becoming less effective, that is why they tell you to constantly change the location. Preferred injection sites are a huge no-no.
    - 1123581321 8y ago
      Yes, I deal with all that besides Scuba diving (interesting!) These routines around everyday exercise are not constant worries as represented in the earlier post. After exercising a few dozen/hundred times you know what to expect and don’t need to think about what to do. I will say that inconsistently performed intense exercise can be challenging; a regular exercise schedule is less effort to manage for diabetics. I rotate injection spots but have favorites based on convenience, sensation, etc. like anyone else. The variation in effectiveness I’m seeing is small enough that I’m not sure what’s happening yet. It’s not really a big deal because my numbers are fine. It’s not a disease that varies so much from individual to individual that lessons can’t be learned and shared, and it’s a disservice to misrepresent the mental effort to new diabetics and people potentially lapsing into poor control.

RPLong 8y ago

teaching other diabetics to be so preoccupied is dangerous to them because it increases the temptation to give up on the daily routines ^^ Sorry, this makes no sense at all. Maintaining a routine is one way to express a preoccupation with diabetes management!

1123581321 8y ago
I mean: there are a few things you need to do each day to manage diabetes. These are important. What you don’t need to do is worry about it between those times. If you convince someone they need to do too much to manage the disease, they’re more likely to give up on the whole thing.
- RPLong 8y ago
  More likely, as measured how? How do you know this? Spending more time thinking about my condition is a great way to improve blood glucose control, at least in my experience.
  - 1123581321 8y ago
    Of course. I spend plenty of time thinking about diabetes and I stay involved in the data measuring communities (Nightscout, Spike, etc.) I enjoy knowing what’s going on with my body and I try to get like-minded diabetics to look into that. I also help people figure out how to get a CGM prescription and sell them on it by loaning mine out for a few weeks (and just that much data eases worry once they see their actual operating parameters. It’s worth my going without for a bit.) I know this because I know diabetics who have lapsed out of control, or retreated into a rather small life, because they felt the excessive personal rules they’d either self-imposed or been taught by others were burdensome. When possible, teaching them a lighter set of principles to follow has had a positive effect.

bigtunacan 8y ago

"Hypoglycemia has the advantage of being treated with glucose tablets, which don’t spoil and can be stashed everywhere." Umm... glucose tablets do in fact spoil. I've never seen an unopened bottle spoil, but once they are opened they can spoil over time mostly from the humidity. I found this out the hard way.

1123581321 8y ago
Sure, I replace them periodically. They don’t spoil quickly, though, in the sense that insulin spoils just from being outside too long. You don’t have to curtail your physical activity to avoid hypoglycemia because glucose is portable and durable.
- bigtunacan 8y ago
  "You don’t have to curtail your physical activity to avoid hypoglycemia because glucose is portable and durable." Between this and your "humble-brag" on your other post, what I'm led to believe is that you're pretty ignorant on how variable insulin sensitivity and blood sugar management is from individual to individual. I've maintained an A1C of less than 6.5 for more than a decade so I'm the picture of "perfect" control and I can tell you that physical activity is a pain in the ass. I'm hypersensitive to insulin during physical activity. When I go to the gym I want zero insulin on board because just 10 minutes on the treadmill could drop me from 160+ to 30. Just walking is enough to cause me to have low blood sugars, so I have to reduce or skip insulin with food accordingly. I'm required to elevate my blood sugar to 200 before I can scuba dive and then I can still only dive for a maximum of an hour because there is too much risk I will pass out and drown. And then you say, "I am dealing with an issue where I think some of my preferred injection sites are becoming less effective". Preferred injection site? WTF dude? Of course it is becoming less effective, that is why they tell you to constantly change the location. Preferred injection sites are a huge no-no.
  - 1123581321 8y ago
    Yes, I deal with all that besides Scuba diving (interesting!) These routines around everyday exercise are not constant worries as represented in the earlier post. After exercising a few dozen/hundred times you know what to expect and don’t need to think about what to do. I will say that inconsistently performed intense exercise can be challenging; a regular exercise schedule is less effort to manage for diabetics. I rotate injection spots but have favorites based on convenience, sensation, etc. like anyone else. The variation in effectiveness I’m seeing is small enough that I’m not sure what’s happening yet. It’s not really a big deal because my numbers are fine. It’s not a disease that varies so much from individual to individual that lessons can’t be learned and shared, and it’s a disservice to misrepresent the mental effort to new diabetics and people potentially lapsing into poor control.