An Inside Look: The Unusual Blog of the Common Diabetic

Special opinion of people in the topic of diabetes

Tanya, your blog is a kind of “manual for a typical diabetic”. You planned to reveal the topic from the first signs to psychology and self-control. What topics do you consider the most important for beginners, and what should be reminded to experienced diabetics?

– The main task of beginners is to learn how to manage their diabetes. After all, if you keep sugar under control and do not go beyond the target values, you can live a long and happy life.

Unfortunately, diabetes in Russia is still treated incorrectly: in childhood, people were intimidated by this diagnosis, and most consider this disease almost fatal. Diabetics are pitied, avoided, redirected from doctor to doctor – in general, they run away from “problems”, they don’t want to figure it out. But if diabetes is compensated, then we are practically no different from healthy people, and sometimes we can even give them a head start.

The key thing for beginners to know (I’m talking about the first type of diabetes) is:

  • how many bread units they need to consume during the day;
  • how to correctly count proteins, fats and carbohydrates (after all, you need to pin up not only on carbohydrates – we were not taught this in the hospital);
  • how much insulin they need to inject for 1XE and proteins;
  • how foods are digested in their body;
  • how much short insulin to inject to increase sugar by 1 m / mol;
  • how much long insulin you need to inject so that all day, regardless of food, sugars are normal;
  • how it manifests itself and how to stop hypoglycemia;
  • how exercise affects their sugars.

I have mentioned only a few aspects. In fact, there are many more. But the essence is clear: first you need to learn how to manage sugars with the help of a balance of food and insulin, and then learn the nuances.
Everything comes with practice, because in addition to general knowledge, individuality is important. To study the characteristics of your body is possible only on personal experience. In any case, every diabetic must first of all give up all resources in order to achieve normoglycemia . After that, improvements begin in other areas of life.
Advanced diabetics can find highly specialized information on my blog. I’m talking about ordinary moments in the life of each of us, which become special because of the “sweet diagnosis”. For example, healthy people often snack on fruits. Fruits are not very useful for diabetics, especially in large quantities. In the blog, I give a list of foods that you can eat and not worry about sugar. Is it possible for a diabetic to eat sweets and drink alcohol, get tattoos, plastic surgery, how to find motivation – I reveal many burning topics. But the main idea of the blog (and I remind all subscribers of this, regardless of experience) is to make a choice in favor of health every day and perceive yourself not as a sick person, but as a real superhero. Good sugar is always a goal that is real. And even if it doesn’t work out now, then you have to try again and again, to understand the issue, consult with doctors, achieve your goal – and then in the end it will definitely work out. Remember, as in Harry Potter: “Happiness can be found even in dark times, if you remember to turn to the light.” I try to create this light on the blog so that everyone can find support there!

What do you think, are there any provocative topics in diabetes, or what concerns real life, in principle, cannot be called a provocation?

– Not that provocative, there are many controversial topics. Basically, yes, just like in real life.

As an example, I can cite the controversy under my post about droppers. I go to a planned hospitalization, do a course of droppers at least once a year (although every six months is better) and decided to share this.

The most popular publication, where I gave a list of must-haves for diabetics in the field of drugs, caused a lot of controversy. Some subscribers did not hear at all about the need to support blood vessels with the help of droppers and were indignant that they were not offered this in the hospital. Others shared their experiences, reflecting on the cost of drugs. Still others supported the theme, approving the list of medicines given. Fourth – completely denied that droppers can help. Say, the only prevention of complications is normoglycemia , and if there really are problems with the vessels, then a course of droppers is indispensable. Serious therapy is required. To be honest, despite my great experience, this question still remains open for me.

I absolutely agree that for any diabetic the most important thing is to keep sugar levels normal. At the same time, helping your body with the help of various procedures, medicines and dietary supplements is also not bad. There is no 100% medical evidence base that would confirm the relationship of such maintenance therapy and improvements in the condition of a diabetic. I think here everyone decides for himself. Even if all these manipulations are just a placebo, then believing in the power of self-care can work wonders.

Is your endocrinologist following you? Were there any comments and corrections from her side?

I don’t think she’s on Instagram. Plus, we are not in such a close relationship to dedicate each other to personal and creative plans. She is a very classy professional who cares. This is the main thing! But she has so many patients (she works in a polyclinic and really understands the health issues of each of them) that there is simply no time to follow the blogs of her wards.

As for edits and comments – I’m not writing anything that requires medical verification. This is the concept of my blog: to give information and share my personal experience, and then the person decides what to do with it. Understand yourself, google, discuss with a doctor, check in practice. I am not a doctor, I never impose anything and do not give advice similar to medical directives, and in case of any controversial issue I send to the doctor.
By the way, this is another of the pillars of my philosophy: to constantly remind diabetics that they are responsible for their lives.

How is a blog theme born? Personal experience, study of the topic, feedback from subscribers?…

– I consider myself an experienced diabetic (my experience is more than 14 years) and during this time I learned a lot of important and useful things. These insights came from experience, and for some reason no one ever talked about it in the hospital. For example, about a foreign body and diabetes, signs of hypoglycemia, a food counting scheme (in addition to the notorious carbohydrates).
At first, I just wanted to share this with people and help them make their dialife better. I would be happy if someone told me about the “diabetic discoveries” 10 or 5 years ago. Initially, the content plan was made up of such relevant topics, plus some basics. I wrote it in notes, made several posts, and then the development of the blog itself began to lead me.
Now it’s different. Often I write posts that answer questions from subscribers (every day I receive a lot of messages in direct and in comments). Sometimes I myself learn something important from the world of diabetes – and immediately share it with my people. Of course, I have a plan, but very often it is adjusted as the play progresses. As for personal experience, I always write only about what I really understand or what I myself have gone through. This is one of the golden rules of my project.

What do you use for compensation and self-control follow technical innovations?

– I can’t call myself an advanced diabetic, because I almost don’t follow the news. But with blogging, of course, I have become more knowledgeable in these matters: I subscribe to several cool publics from the world of diabetes, and some information occasionally reaches me (@diabet.connect and @stylish_diabetic).

I manage my diabetes with a glucometer and pens. By the way, I have several glucometers: most often I use Contour TS (I am attracted by the convenience and affordable price of the strips) and One Touch Verio (I really love this glucometer , but the strips for it are a little expensive, and I only use them if they are discharged). There is still One Touch Ultra and recently donated to Accu-Chek Active (but I haven’t even opened it yet). By the way, I advise every diabetic to have at least 2 glitches, especially if you leave the house 🙂
I have the most common syringe pens, I prescribe them at the clinic. Long insulin – Tujeo , short – Apidra .
Recently, I often think about switching to a pump, but so far there is a complete zero in this topic. Until this year, the very thought of a pump scared me because of the physical connection to the wiring. Therefore, I plunged into the topic of blogging with diabetes, I realized that ordinary people use it, and not just Batman, and the fear was removed. Now I plan to find out everything: how to get it, how to use it, where to get consumables and how much this pleasure will cost per month.

Are you familiar with the state of psychological burnout on the background of diabetes?

– I don’t remember that I ever gave up because of diabetes. Yes, diabetes dictates certain rules of life and you can’t eat a bag of sweets with 2 liters of juice. But this is not useful for a healthy person either …
If you organize and understand everything correctly, then managing diabetes is not difficult. Attitude plays the main role. Addressing the readers of your journal, I repeat: do not consider yourself sick. Consider yourself SPECIAL, a person with a special mission and greater responsibility. A super hero, if you will. The best thing to do is to come up with your own personal diabetes “taming” scheme and add elements of play and joy to it. For example, it gives me great pleasure to see good values on the glucometer . Write them down and know that I’m in control. If there is a problem – through control to find a solution.
Also, all my dia -accessories are in a beautiful shiny cosmetic bag. She charges with her brilliance and color. Everyone can find accessories to their liking that will just cheer you up.
The main thing is not to limit yourself and not to become isolated. Diabetes, as one of my favorite bloggers wrote, “is a reason to be better.” That’s all.

Do you have your own list for inspiration: personalities, books, blogs?..

Oh, I could talk about this forever. From the age of 14, I have been passionately interested in the topic of self-development. Narrowing inspiration down to diabetes, I’m incredibly in awe of @dia.star.w, a girl who proves by example every day that it’s possible to be healthy and successful, and that’s the result of a choice. She travels, moves, cooks, raises a child, and just lives, sincerely sharing her life with subscribers.

Yes, eating right every day is sometimes hard, you want to eat junk food, but, Friends, let’s prioritize. Stuffing your stomach with fast food and drinking soda is nice for the first few minutes. But living a happy, fulfilling life, giving preference to proper nutrition, is much more important. She broadcasts this idea in her blog.
It was Olya who at one time turned my idea of diabetes upside down. Doctors told me that sugar 12 after eating is normal. Looking at her blog, I realized that only sugars that are in the healthy range and do not exceed the so-called “kidney threshold” can be considered normal. She proves that this is not only possible, but also necessary. For me, her lifestyle is a kind of dream of a diabetic who has embarked on the path of compensation and is confidently moving forward. It’s unrealistically inspiring.

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