Finding Diabetes Support

Being diagnosed with diabetes can be overwhelming, but you can reach out for help. People living with diabetes share their stories about their diagnoses and support networks.

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Transcript:

JIM: My feeling at the time was I hope I’m going to live, because I really didn’t know anything about diabetes.

JENNIFER: I didn’t believe it. I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what to think.

MICHAEL: I felt a bit unnerved, but I wasn’t surprised.

ANDRE: I expected it. My father passed from complications with diabetes, and my sister and two older brothers had diabetes, and I felt like I was next in line.

VICKY: When I was diagnosed with diabetes, of course I was upset. But then I had to move on, it’s not the end of the world.

MICHAEL: Sometimes you feel like it is you against the world when you’re a diabetic. It’s a very lonely feeling.

VICKY: Sometimes I feel alone dealing with my diabetes because I was in denial for quite a long while.

JENNIFER: I know my father has it. My boyfriend’s father has it as well. So I kind of remember and think about I’m not alone.

ANDRE: All of my siblings have diabetes, and every surrounding I pretty much know the people who have diabetes and we tend to look out for each other.

JIM: I talk to my younger brother, Bill, about diabetes, because he has it. He’s made tremendous gains, his blood sugar levels are normal, like 112, and he serves as an inspiration for me.

VICKY: I asked my brother for advice regarding diabetes because he’s been dealing with it a lot longer than I have. We talk about what and what not to eat in our diet and that I should get my blood testing kit.

JIM: My friends and my family don’t always understand what diabetes is, and how can it affect your
life. But they are supportive in their own ways.

KIM: My husband helps me in that he doesn’t bring the bad foods into the house. I really need him to keep the things that I have no control with, out of the house, so he’s pretty good about that.

VICKY: My friends and family help me with my diabetes by helping me go to exercise classes
with me.

ANDRE: The most support comes from other people who are handling diabetes properly.

JIM: The most helpful support, I find, is with the doctors or with the nurses who know about this disease, and also about the pharmacists. The pharmacists always seem to look out for me.

KIM: It’s helpful when people don’t try to monitor my mouth. In the older days when I was diagnosed, everything I put in my mouth my parents would watch and calculate and admonish me about eating certain things, and it’s not like that anymore.

MICHAEL: I find the support from the medical community most helpful for my diabetes. Also, I find I can answer a lot of questions myself by going online.

[CindySutter]

this is so upsetting because i simply cannot find out how many starchesare in certain vegetibles. as it is, i’m on a very strict diet and can no longer eat anything with any kind of starches in the foods i can eat. i can only eat vegitables, meat and a small amount of berries. my diabetes went totally out of control! the highs and lows are extreme now since i turned 65. i have gotten more highs and lows into the 30s. i am now 66 and diabetes is fighting my body. i had ketoacidosis 10 years ago have been on insolin since then. i was in acoma for five days, and almost died. i have nueropathy in my stomach and i got high blood pressure, diabetic retinopathy too. my eyes are damaged and if i don’t take a certain med, i get severe diahrrea and throw up all day. none of my meds are helping me very much anymore. my endo has tried adding another med to the list of things i take, and i have started to gain weight since i started the diet! i finally got down to my gowl weight and this happend. that just isn’t right! how do i find out how many starches are in the vegies i eat? can anyone help? something has to give.