In my experience as people, we tend to belong to all these clubs. It's part of how we define ourselves. Personally, I belong to the the club of being Diabetic. It's something I haven't wanted to take ownership of before, I've wanted to pretend it's not me. I've wanted to hide away from it. But, delving more and more into the online community - I've discovered, as Kerri from Six Until Me would say - "Diabetes doesn't define me, but it helps explain me."
Being Diabetic is only a part of me. It's not who I am. I'm also a whole bunch of other awsome things:
- Almost a practicing lawyer! - Currently undertaking a Legal Professional Course, which in NZ is a precursor to being Admitted as Barrister and Solicitor - we join the two here.
- Someone who loves reading! My book case currently has about 10 books that are on my imminent "To Read" list. So, with that in mind I recently bought 3 new/second hand books off the internet. I'm addicted to buying second hand books. Seriously.
- Someone who enjoys helping others - I'm currently training to be a phone counselor with Youthline
- And many others
But - these things aside. It occurred to me a while ago that saying I belong to the club of being "Diabetic" isn't really enough! When I began exploring the Groups section of Tu Diabetes it really began to open up my eyes to all these differences we have in being Diabetic! For example, I'm Type 1, use a pen, use Lantus & Novorapid and etc.
After reading a bunch of discussions I felt so reassured, that even though these differences exist we still all have these wacky diabetic "clubs" which we belong to.
Recently I joined another one - one I read about on the forums and thought, man that's so stupid, how could anyone do that. It's really the inspiration for this entire post.
The "I've injected myself with way too much short acting insulin, because I thought it was my long acting stuff " Club.
I injected myself with 24 units of Novorapid (my usual Lantus dose) at 1am one day last week. It was single handedly the stupidest thing I have ever done as a Diabetic. I'd had a manic day and I picked up my Novorapid pen - which looks entirely different to my Lantus:
After reading a bunch of discussions I felt so reassured, that even though these differences exist we still all have these wacky diabetic "clubs" which we belong to.
Recently I joined another one - one I read about on the forums and thought, man that's so stupid, how could anyone do that. It's really the inspiration for this entire post.
The "I've injected myself with way too much short acting insulin, because I thought it was my long acting stuff " Club.
I injected myself with 24 units of Novorapid (my usual Lantus dose) at 1am one day last week. It was single handedly the stupidest thing I have ever done as a Diabetic. I'd had a manic day and I picked up my Novorapid pen - which looks entirely different to my Lantus:
But I did. It shows how exhausted I was. And then followed a VERY sleepless night of eating and rechecking my BSL over and over again. Right before an exam. Blergh. But I felt a little bit comforted knowing that others had done the exact same thing as me! Thank you DOC!
I don't usually take Lantus at 1am - That was just me renewing my membership to the "Oops I forgot to take my insulin Club"
I have many Diabetic related clubs - some wacky, some not, some serious and some light hearted. Here's a few:
- The "I've woken up to Paramedics in my bedroom club"
- The "I've eaten tablespoons of straight sugar to treat a hypo club"
- The "I've been DKA club"
- The "I've imagined up BSL numbers to make my log book look better club"
- The "I've felt inspiration from others online club"
- The "I'm addicted to Diet Coke club" - and then later
- The "I'm addicted to Coke Zero club" - and now
- The "I'm addicted to Pepsi Max club"
This can is from today, even though Pepsi Max is a current favourite, I still go back to my classic Diet Coke from time to time. Coke Zero or Pepsi Max wasn't even available when I was diagnosed!
We all have these little "clubs" that individually do not define us - but together make up who we are.
2 comments:
I think it is a very important thing for MDIers to make their long acting and short actin insulins really really different. Like one by syringe, the other by pen. Or one by pen, the other by jet injector. That different. This is especially true if you take a long acting at night, because overdosing on the rapid acting at bedtime can lead to a serious low in the night, which leads to paramedics in your bedroom only if you're lucky.
I used to take Lantus by syringe and Novolog by pen; since I switched to Regular, which in the US is not available in pens, I use Lantus by pen and Regular by syringe.
I think you're very right Jonah! In my 9 years of being diagnosed this is the first time I've ever done it. I thought it would never happen, but unfortunately not.
I have an appointment with my Clinical Nurse Educator so will discuss it with her then, I think I forgot to mention on the blog but my blood sugar was already quite high so I would have needed a correction dose anyway - so thankfully I think that stopped me having a terrible low.
Post a Comment