How do I control my diabetes?
Male: At this point, you have learned a lot about diabetes, but you may still be wondering, “What can I really do to take care of myself?”
Male: In my mind as a physician, I can think ahead one year or 10 years or 20 years and I know in all probability what fate will bestow upon this individual if they continue to live their lives like they are. If they continue to smoke, if they continue to be sedentary, if they continue to make poor food choices, if they choose not to be involved monitoring their blood sugar, if they pay disregard to their cholesterol and so forth. I can anticipate what will happen to that person and it is upsetting to have an opportunity to avoid those problems if the patient or if the person can simply take charge of their own health management.
Male: It does not take that much. It is not overbearing to pay attention in the very beginning. It is really not a lot of work or extra duty on your life. So, it is smart to get into it, so you will not end up anywhere, where I was.
Female: You learn to live with diabetes, and I think that it is not so much to shock of you being a diabetic. It is to learn to live with the disease.
Female: You just need planning. You need to be educated and know exactly what your body is capable of.
Female: My advice would be just to learn everything that you can and just do the best that you can.
Male: You really need to seek out people who share your experiences so you can talk about them. You can vent about them, but you can also relate to someone else who knows exactly what it is that you are going through.
Female: The more you talk about something, the easier it becomes to accept that there are needs that have to be realized.
Female: It does help to belong to a group, or to have somebody to be able to talk to that has the same disease as you have.
Male: There are lots and lots of people out there with Type I Diabetes and they have the same kind of struggles we do. They explain to us the highs and the lows, and it is things we see in our life, as well. So, it is nice to know that we are not in this alone and there are people like us.
Female: Nothing works better than talking to somebody that has been through it because they are the only ones that understand it. And the same for parents, that if they talk to the parent of a diabetic as to what they have gone through.
Female: Contact the Diabetes Association. They are very active. They have a lot of good information that they supply to the public, and they will send out material to people and that is helpful. You can get a lot of information from your family doctor because they themselves are the primary care givers and they can certainly provide some basic advice about the kinds of changes they may need to make.
Female: Once they have an understanding of what the complications of diabetes are, then they need to start taking things into their own hands in making sure, for instance, that they have booked their eye appointment at least yearly, so that they are trying prevent eye disease. They probably need to have their own home blood pressure cuff and that way, when they come to see their physician, they can say, “This is what my blood pressure readings have been” or even call their physician and say, “Gee, my blood pressure has not been well-controlled the last couple of weeks. Maybe we need you to rethink it”. And certainly, they need to very proactive in checking their blood sugars and writing that down as well, so that when they come and see their physician or go to the diabetic clinic that they can already present the information and things can be done very effectively that way.
Male: Take ownership. Understand diabetes, learn to live with it. It is not a death sentence, it is a life sentence but it is something you can look after, it is something you can keep yourself healthy by following a proper routine.
Female: Diet and exercise and going to the doctor is very, very important in keeping your blood sugars under control.
Male: It is very important to realize that this is one of the few medical conditions where you actually have control over the treatment and the management. That you are going to be your own best doctor. You are going to be a better to yourself than your family physician or your specialist, or anyone else can ever be.
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