Managing your diabetes should be a full time job with a nice hefty paycheck. From checking your blood sugar to counting carbs and everything in between, there are so many things that come with taking care of your diabetes. There are many people that don’t understand what it’s like to live with diabetes on a day to day basis. Because of this certain thing that happen in your life or around you that only you would understand because of diabetes.
These are the little things that allow you to find some humor in a life that is stressful every single day. If you have diabetes you will probably get a chuckle out of this article.
Contents
- A Papercut is the Perfect Opportunity to Test Yourself
- You Have Thousands of Lancets and Only a Couple Test Strips
- You Avoid Wearing White, Just in Case
- The Phrase “I’m High” Means Something Totally Different to You
- You Can Look at a Plate of Food and Just Know the Carbs
- You Can Make a Math Master Bow Down
- You’ve Mastered the “Not Sick” Look
- You’re Un-phased by Diabetic Horror Stories
- The Diabetes Food Police is Around Every Corner
- Everyone Thinks You’ve Jumped Back in Time with Your Pager
- You Put the Easter Bunny to Shame with Your Test Strip Hunt
- You Own 50 Diabetic Cookbooks and Have Never Opened Them
- You Have 12 Different Blood Sugar Meters but Only Use One
- Let’s Hope CSI never Has to Come to Your House
- You Have Stock in Juice boxes, but they Aren’t for Your Kids
- Not Only Do You Know Your Pharmacist by their First Name but You Trade Christmas Cards
- You Mean the Insulin, um Butter Compartment
- The Feeling When You’re Expecting Your Blood Sugar to be High but it’s in Range
- The Frustration of the Dreaded Error Message on Your Meter
- Having a Hypo Before Exercise or an Activity
- Speaking of Activities, Having a Low Before Intimacy
- Wrap-Up
A Papercut is the Perfect Opportunity to Test Yourself
When you live a diabetic life, you know that there is no such thing as wasted blood. No matter how you cut yourself or drew a drop of blood, it’s always a wonderful chance to test your blood sugar.
I suggest reading the following:
You Have Thousands of Lancets and Only a Couple Test Strips
When’s the last time you changed your lancet on your lancing device? This is probably the first time you’ve thought about it for a while, so you’re welcome for the reminder.
You Avoid Wearing White, Just in Case
You never know when you will get a gusher from your finger, and because of this you avoid wearing white.
The Phrase “I’m High” Means Something Totally Different to You
It’s a funny occurrence when you are in public and someone overhears you saying you’re high. The looks you get are quite amusing because, if they only knew…
You Can Look at a Plate of Food and Just Know the Carbs
Some people would love to have the superpower of hearing others thoughts, but when you have diabetes, your superpower is the ability to count carbs wherever you go.
You Can Make a Math Master Bow Down
With all the numbers surrounding your insulin on board (IOB), insulin to carb ratio (I:C) carbohydrates, sensitivity factor, current blood sugar, and more, you definitely know your math.
You’ve Mastered the “Not Sick” Look
You have most likely heard the phrase, “But you don’t look sick” more times than you can remember. You’ve pretty much created a new fashion line titled “I Don’t Look Sick”.
You’re Un-phased by Diabetic Horror Stories
You hardly bat an eyelash when you hear about how Uncle Mike’s left toe was amputated because he didn’t take care of his diabetes, or how Grandma Minnie lost her eyesight from high blood sugars. You’ve heard them all and frankly you don’t care.
The Diabetes Food Police is Around Every Corner
The statement “You can’t have that” follows you every where. Everywhere you turn, once someone finds out you have diabetes, they automatically turn into the diabetes food police. While they mean mean well, it still doesn’t make hearing this phrase any easier.
Everyone Thinks You’ve Jumped Back in Time with Your Pager
Whenever someone catches a glimpse of your insulin pump, they automatically assume it’s a pager. Because it gets old explaining that it’s an insulin pump and what it does, you just go along with it.
You Put the Easter Bunny to Shame with Your Test Strip Hunt
No matter where you are, whether inside and outside of your house, it’s guaranteed that you will find a used test strip somewhere. It’s like an Easter egg hunt with test strips.
You Own 50 Diabetic Cookbooks and Have Never Opened Them
One of the most common gifts you get from friends and family members for holidays and birthdays is a diabetic cookbook. In fact, you own so many that you could start your own library, but you’ve never even opened them.
You Have 12 Different Blood Sugar Meters but Only Use One
When your meter is missing it’s almost the end of the world. While you may have 12 other ones, the missing one is the only one you use and probably have strips for.
Let’s Hope CSI never Has to Come to Your House
With all the blood gushers, used test strips, and lancets, CSI would have difficulty, or maybe a fun time, investigating your house.
You Have Stock in Juice boxes, but they Aren’t for Your Kids
Treating your low is a delicious box of juice. They are perfect for overnight lows when you are barely coherent enough to chew a glucose tablet.
Not Only Do You Know Your Pharmacist by their First Name but You Trade Christmas Cards
You can tell when you visit your pharmacy a lot when you are on a first name basis and Christmas card list with your pharmacist.
You Mean the Insulin, um Butter Compartment
You no longer use your butter compartment to house butter, instead it’s your insulin compartment. You really don’t even know what a butter compartment is anymore.
The Feeling When You’re Expecting Your Blood Sugar to be High but it’s in Range
You feel like you’ve won the lottery when you hit numbers within your range. So when you think you’re high and then find out in fact it’s right in range, that feeling is amazing. Only those with diabetes would understand the joy that comes along with it.
The Frustration of the Dreaded Error Message on Your Meter
No one knows frustration quite like someone with diabetes when they receive the error message on their meter. During that moment you try to make sure you don’t bump or touch the blood still on your finger and even try to squeeze more out of the same one so you don’t have to test again.
Having a Hypo Before Exercise or an Activity
You’ve probably been looking forward to the big game all week long or exercising but prior to starting you find out your low. Any other desire you had to get started in this activity you now have to test your blood sugar and then treat all of the excitement has been side railed.
Speaking of Activities, Having a Low Before Intimacy
Whether the acts are spontaneous or scheduled time together, you have that feeling that you might be low but it is difficult to stop what you are doing to check. You are stuck trying to decide if you should break the mood and then test your blood sugar or just delaying it.
Further reading:
Wrap-Up
When you have diabetes you get used to a new normal. This normal includes many things that people with diabetes don’t have any idea about. Even the littlest things are seen in a different light all together when you have diabetes.
*Please note that this is a humor article and is not meant to be used for educational purposes.*
TheDiabetesCouncil Article | Reviewed by Dr. Jack Isler MD on May 28, 2020
