More than one???

Diabetes is always a serious thing, but it becomes more serious when you have other
diseases. You have to be careful what you eat with diabetes, but what if you had a
disease that made it even harder to choose things? Here's an example: My sister has
Type 1 and Celiac so choosing things for her to eat is hard. If she has a low blood sugar
but we don't have milk, she can't have a piece of bread, or a pack of crackers. How
would you deal with having more than one disease?

Be aware ...

Something every family with diabetes struggles with is going out to eat. Picking a
restaurant can be important because keeping a good carb balance isn't just good for
blood sugars, but for your overall health. For people who go out to eat a lot there might
be one or two places that they go to because it's familiar. It's hard to try new restaurants
if you don't know what you'll find when you get there. If you get to a new restaurant and
everything there is high in carbs it's difficult to track blood sugars later. A good way to
prevent that from happening is to research a place before you go. A great thing for all
"diabetic families" to havens a Calorie King book. They have pretty much any restaurant
in them with carbs, calories, and fat amounts. You can look through there to find places
that are better for people with diabetes to eat at. I'm not going to tell anyone that they
can't eat wherever they want, because I have places I eat that are horrible on diabetes,
but in my opinion it's better to know your options. If you do eat at places such as iHop,
you have to know that syrup and pancakes are long lasting carbs. You have to know
how your blood sugars work to be able to work around carbs.

Attitude

Two things that go hand in hand: diabetes and attitude. In some situations your attitude
is affected by blood sugars, but I've also noticed that your blood sugars can vary with
your attitude. I'm sure every diabetic is tired of hearing that they need to check their
blood sugars and take insulin but a way you can avoid hearing that is by your attitude.
Most times, if you're cranky or sassy,it's because of either a high or low blood sugar. But
when it's not because of that, you just need an attitude adjustment. I'm sure every kid/
teen has heard that at least once in their life. Unless you're me and hear it quite often.
Everyone will get scolded at some point because of a bad attitude. So if you notice
you're being unpleasant in any way, then yeah, you probably need to check you're blood
sugar. So go ahead and do it yourself and fix the problem before someone has to do it
for you. I'm not gonna say its easy to do, because I rarely ever do, but I just have to try.
It'll take time to get used to it, but it'll be way better when you can adjust yourself on
your own.

Insulin ... Will you be mine?

Well it's that time of year when sports are starting up again. I'm not super interested in
sports, but I'm all about soccer. When playing sports, it's extremely important to stay
aware of yourself so you can sense when something isn't where it should be. The most
common thing you will encounter is a low blood sugar. I don't know how it is for other
people, but when I'm active, I can't tell if I'm having a low blood sugar or not so its
important that I check my blood sugar often. Whether you can feel it or not, it's always
important because you could have a low or high spike out of nowhere and not feel it
right away. Another add on to this blog is about Valentine's Day. Everyone's gonna be
getting candy and gifts and the candy along with excitement is sure to cause high blood
sugars. Candy can be good, but try to enjoy it in moderation. You can't make yourself
not be excited about something so just keep yourself in check, and remember: Insulin is
your friend.

How Could You???

Ok, so I don't know how many of you have ever experienced this, but I hate when someone says this: "How did you forget to take a blood test/insulin? You've had diabetes for 7 years!"  I don't know why exactly, but that really gets under my skin. Yeah, I've had diabetes for a long time, but I'm a 16-year-old, I get distracted very easily. And I'm not just mentioning this for me, because I know a lot of people hear this all the time. If you're hanging out with friends and you're busy talking about how cute that waiter is, or if
you're a guy and you're just daring each other to ask out that totally smokin waitress, you forget to check your blood sugars, or you forget to take a shot or bolus. It just happens. When someone mentions something or says something about it to you, just ignore them. Or do what I do and say, "You spend the next few years of your life with diabetes, then come back and tell me to never forget things." People might watch us and help us and think they know what we're going through, but they have no idea. But also, don't let people tell you what you know about diabetes, because no one knows better than the person with it right?

Who's who ...

Who's who when it comes to diabetes? There are several famous people who do tremendous things for diabetes advocacy, and for the further study of the cure for diabetes. Some of the obvious ones are of course Nick Jonas, Bret Michaels, Patti LaBelle, and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Although these people do great works and use their fame to to help support diabetes, there are a lot of famous people who don't even want people to know that they have it such as, Halle Berry, Anne Rice, and Larry King. These people do mention their diabetes but don't do much for the world of diabetes. Along with these people, there are people who don't even get recognition for their work in the diabetes world: JoAnne DeNovio (founder of the Sugar Free Gang), Ellis Medicine (a diabetes research team), Carling Coffing, and so on.  I recently had the privilege of meeting Tony Cervati, a Type 1 Rider.  Though celebrities throughout the world do great work in supporting the JDRF and other associations, we also have to recognize the people who just do great work in their own communities.  So next time you think you can't make a difference, think again.  Your community needs you!