Friday, November 11, 2011

Retraining

When I was first diagnosed with diabetes in June 2006, I was a golden patient. At 22 years old, I knew what the consequences of "uncontrolled" diabetes were (are) and I refused to let my disease take me down a sickly path. My sister is also diabetic. She is 10 years younger than me and was diagnosed when she was 7 (I was 17), and things have never really gone great for her. She's been in and out of the hospital  multiple times for DKA and doesn't really see many optimal blood sugar readings. I said I wouldn't be like that... I said I was gonna "keep control" (is there really such a thing though?).

Then I got my master's degree, got certified to teach, quit my job at a preschool, and became a full-time substitute teacher. That was 2 years ago. When I quit my job, I lost the thing that might be most precious to all of us with diabetes (or any other kind of chronic issue)... NO MORE HEALTH INSURANCE, KIDS!! Weeeee I was out and about and off the books. Me + my pump + nobody.

It's 2 years later and I have only just gotten health insurance again (the perks of marrying someone with a "real" job). So, soon, I shall be off to the doctors' offices and getting my correct prescriptions and such. Here's the rub though, friends. I am going to get yelled at. Big time.

No health insurance for 2 years = no doctor visits, no prescriptions (if I told you how I had been getting my meds, I'd have to kill you, so don't even ask), and.... drumroll... no bloodwork! It also means that I've fallen off the proverbial wagon and I am now the girl who rarely sees any type of "good" bs reading.

So, now, after 2 years of pretending that I'm fine and keeping my bs readings secret and no one need worry and I don't care about this whole diabetes thing cause it's not a big deal, I am starting to retrain myself to truly take care of my blood sugar and me. And it's hard. And it kind of sucks.

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