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Blog Entries With Tag: educationFrom: lizmariposaPosted: Feb 16, 2012
It's a place of shock, bewilderment, desperation, sadness, fear, or sometimes, misplaced relief or joy.
It's a diabetes diagnosis. Sometimes, it might come at us in a tactful way, but more often than not, it gets thrown at us like a volleyball in a game of tag. "You're it! It's your turn now, to go, and get it figured out!" A diabetes diagnosis may be paralizing for a patient, especially, when little is known about the disease, or when the diagnosis was not expected. However, few medical professionals seem to realize this, nor the need for essential information right from the start to communicate not just the seriousness of the disease, but to ease feelings of helplessness or resignation that a patient might experience. Insurance hurdles, often limiting helpful actions a medical professional might take, usually end up making matters worse. So, what can we do? Where can we start? How do we help ease the fogginess of confusion? Well, if Bob's crazy journey in the movie "What About Bob?" taught us anything... the answer begins with "Baby Steps." Bob is right: "All I have to do... is take... one little step at a time... and I can do anything..." Truer words were never spoken by a "crazy" man. See, Bob isn't really "crazy." He's just soooo overwhelmed by looking at the big picture of life, and everything, all at the same time -- that he's distracted from the little baby steps, and the things that matter. His psychiatrist, just wanting to get rid of him, unwittingly gives him the answers. Type 2 Diabetes is much like this; a baby steps adventure. Yes, it's an adventure! Just as Bob goes on, exploring a brave, new, and often frightening world... so must we, also, discover that we can do this, and much, much more. Just what do baby steps look like? Well, I find that learning what the problem IS before I even start, can help signifficantly. So, let's begin. Just what exactly IS diabetes? (THIS is the real problem. The equation to solve.) Diabetes is a condition in which the body does not use glucose adequately.
If you have insulin resistance, your pancreas will try to continuously make insulin until it can process that extra glucose in your blood stream, allowing it to enter your body's cells and tissues, etc. This means that if you have pre-diabetes, your pancreas has to work a little harder to process that glucose because it is struggling to keep up with the demands. It might take a few cycles of insulin production for it to get that extra glucose into your cells and tissues, but it can still get the job done. If you have Type 2 Diabetes, your pancreas can no longer meet these insulin production demands adequately, and your blood stream will start to carry unsafe levels of blood glucose long past digestion. Any extra insulin your pancreas might produce is not communicating adequately, or quickly enough, with your cells and tissues to allow glucose to enter them effectively. Sometimes, the level insulin resistance is so great, that a person may need to supplement with oral medications, or even insulin, to help overcome it. If you are insulin deficient, this means that the beta cells -- the little cells within the Islets of Langerhans, inside your Pancreas, which are responsible for insulin production -- have become exhausted from the constant insulin production cycle, and have "pooped out." A good amount of them have died, if not nearly all of them. Your pancreas can no longer make a safe level of insulin to help keep you healthy, and processing glucose, so that you don't starve. (Yes, our body's cells, and organs, will starve without glucose!) Patients with insulin deficiency, must supplement with insulin therapy, or risk fatal consequences. Some insulin deficiency is absolute, and it is brought on by the body's own immune system suddenly attacking these beta cells, for currently unknown reasons, until there are none or virtually none, left. This is called Type 1(a) (or Type 1) Diabetes, and though it is often seen in children, it can present at any age. The fact that it is brought on by an autoimmune attack, makes it distinctly different than Type 2 Diabetes, and it is the main reason why Type 2 Diabetics do NOT turn into Type 1 Diabetics if they become insulin deficient. Knowledge is Power And this is our FIRST baby step. Now that we are armed with at least, some of the most basic concepts of Diabetes, and the problems and hurdles it may present, we can live with a little less fear. Do you see the light yet? A little bit? Is it too much? Read it... just a little paragraph at a time. Try to visualize it. Next blog post, we will discuss what we can do... with ALL this power. :) Stay tuned. Related posts:Mama - Why Was I Chosen? | Here's an interesting study | About me | My Diagnosis Story | Diabetic ketoacidosis at onset of type 1 diabetes remains frequent in childrenBlog: AdministriviaFrom: administratorPosted: May 22, 2008
I found this on NewsRx: there's a troubling accessibility deficit in education materials regarding diabetes, yet low-literacy and special-needs populations are some of the populations most vulnerable to the condition (particularly type 2). Looks like we need to do better at making educational material about diabetes accessible to everyone.
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![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Tags: numeracy (1) diabetes (1) access (1) healthcare (1) education (1) literacy (1) Related posts:Surviving the Holocaust with Type 1 diabetes | Eating from the ground - Yuca Fries | My first month with Bowie my Dexcom G4 CGMS | Miss Idaho is Defeating Diabetes | Sugar and Your Health | When You're Hot, You're Hot | My First Night with Dexcom G4 CGMS | Low potassium diet | Diabetes among us... | About meBlog: From the Intern...Posted: Mar 21, 2008
IHi all, my name is Dan Weiman and I am an intern here at Body1, primarily working here on diabetes1. You may have seen some of my feature stories already on diabetes, or on the the Body1 stories of the day. I am in my senior year at Emerson College here in Boston, MA with a major in Political Communications and a psychology minor. I have a strong interest in public health and health advocacy and education, which is what led me here to diabetes1.
I'll try to use this blog to discuss the latest news in diabetes treatment, or elaborate further on certain articles. Look forward to seeing more of everyone!
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![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Tags: diabetes treatment (1) understanding (1) lifestyle (1) education (1) health advocacy (1) healthcare (1) politics (1) type 2 (1) type 1 (1) diabetes (1) Related posts:Surviving the Holocaust with Type 1 diabetes | Eating from the ground - Yuca Fries | My first month with Bowie my Dexcom G4 CGMS | Miss Idaho is Defeating Diabetes | Sugar and Your Health | When You're Hot, You're Hot | My First Night with Dexcom G4 CGMS | Low potassium diet | Diabetes among us... | Diabetes ExpoBlog: Getting it doneFrom: ekcPosted: Feb 21, 2008
I am not your typical diabetic. I was diagnosed as a teenager even though I was athletic and as far as I knew, healthy. I'm now 30, still feeling healthy, still athletic but am a diabetic. For me, diabetes is something I have to live with but I don't let it control my life. By eating right and exercising I'm able to have good control and only the people who are very close to me even know I have the condition. I'm really interested in learning as much as I can about diabetes in order to stay one step ahead of the disease.
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![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Tags: education (1) control (1) exercising (1) eating (1) 30s (1) type 1 (1) athlete (1) diabetic (1) diabetes (1) Related posts:Surviving the Holocaust with Type 1 diabetes | Eating from the ground - Yuca Fries | My first month with Bowie my Dexcom G4 CGMS | Miss Idaho is Defeating Diabetes | Sugar and Your Health | When You're Hot, You're Hot | My First Night with Dexcom G4 CGMS | Diabetes among us... | Diabetes Expo | keep going |
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