Jane K. Dickinson, RN, PhD, CDCES

Diabetes management is all about choices

Posted on March 28, 2016 by janekdickinson

It’s unlikely you have no choice. More likely: There’s no easy choice. When we say we have no choice, we feel trapped and we are powerless. That’s no way to do our work every day. – Seth Godin

This is so true with managing and living well with diabetes. We make choices every minute of every day. Diabetes affects everything and everything affects diabetes. But here’s the good news: we get to choose how we integrate diabetes into our lives!

We get to choose…

what we do
what we say
how we respond
our attitude
what meds we take
what we eat
what we drink
how we advocate for ourselves
what we share with others
the questions we ask
the information we seek

The first step is to accept that diabetes is about choices. They may not be easy – or inexpensive – but they are choices. Although we certainly didn’t choose to have diabetes, thinking of diabetes management as a series of choices puts us in charge. It gives us strength and power and helps us live well. I choose that!

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Diabetes No-Shame Day

Posted on March 22, 2016 by janekdickinson

Today is Diabetes Alert Day. Everyone knows someone with diabetes, but millions of people who have diabetes don’t know they have it. So the person you know with diabetes may not even know!

Unfortunately many people who are at risk for diabetes (or already have it and don’t know it) are reluctant to find out because

they are embarrassed
they are ashamed
they are afraid

It’s time to take the shame out of diabetes. If you have or are at risk for diabetes, it’s not your fault. There are many factors involved with developing diabetes, and most of them are not things you can change (like your genes, for example).

Fear is understandable – you may have heard scary things about people who have/had diabetes; you may worry about what changes are in store; you may fear that people will shame you.

My hope for the future of diabetes care is that professionals will put a stop to the shame that has gone with diabetes for so long. I also hope that with this bring a new mindset for the general public.

But in the meantime, don’t hurt yourself by staying uninformed. If your blood glucose is elevated there are things you can do to lower your risk of developing full-fledged type 2 diabetes, or at the very least delay its onset. And knowing your health status can prepare you to take better care of yourself going forward.

Please consider getting checked for diabetes if you have any of the risk factors. Encourage your family and friends to do the same. There is no shame in advocating for your health. You are worthy of a full, happy, and healthy life. Take the first step today!

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Understanding vs. Memorizing

Posted on February 7, 2016 by janekdickinson

It is more important to understand something than to do it by rote – or memorize it. Especially in diabetes management. If you find yourself doing something “just because” or “because they told me to,” ask about it. Find out why this works, rather than that. Find out so that you understand it – so that it makes sense to you. It’s your body, it’s your diabetes, and you deserve to know what, why and how.

Know the names of the medications you take, how much you take, how they work, and the possible side effects. Also know what other options exist.
Understand why exercise is important – how it works and how it makes a difference in your body.
Understand the effect food has on your body and your diabetes.

Don’t accept answers like “it just does” or “trust me.” Ask questions and demand answers.

Posted in about diabetes, diabetes advocacy, diabetes care, diabetes education | Tagged diabetes, knowledge, understanding | Comments Off

A1C frequency and glucose stability

Posted on January 28, 2016 by janekdickinson

This article says that people with type 2 diabetes may be having their A1C checked too often. They say that people whose blood glucose level is stable only need to get their A1C checked once or twice a year, yet many are getting it checked 3 or 4 times a year.

Right now Medicare covers quarterly A1C checks. The last thing we need is for that coverage to be taken away. I know that having my A1C checked keeps me in check. I am motivated to make sure that number comes out where I want it. When I go longer between A1Cs, I tend to slack off.

So let’s flip things around and ask this question: what if checking A1C more frequently actually contributes to healthier blood glucose levels?

Posted in about diabetes, diabetes advocacy, diabetes care, diabetes news | Tagged A1C, blood glucose, diabetes, insurance coverage | Comments Off

Prediabetes and Reducing Risk for Diabetes

Posted on January 26, 2016 by janekdickinson

At least 86 million Americans have prediabetes and most of them don’t know it. About 30% will go on to get diabetes. While diabetes is unavoidable for some people, it is possible for many people to reduce their risk for developing type 2 diabetes.

The Centers for Disease Control and diabetes health professionals discuss the importance of getting screened for prediabetes and knowing your risk for diabetes. If you do have prediabetes, there are steps you can take to potentially lower your risk for diabetes, such as being active and making healthy food choices.

Do you have prediabetes? Complete this prediabetes screening tool and find out today.

Posted in about diabetes, diabetes advocacy, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes | Tagged diabetes, prediabetes, risk, risk reduction, screening, type 2 diabetes | Comments Off

Fear and Hope

Posted on January 24, 2016 by janekdickinson

Fear slows us down. Fear takes away our strength and our power. Fear is a negative, draining approach. Even writing about fear brings me down. Hope, on the other hand, lifts us up and gives us strength. Hope gives us energy to figure things out and do the best we can to live well. Hope helps us to focus on the positive.

The best part of all is that we get to choose. Although fear will creep in from time to time (often without warning or invitation), we can choose to overcome it and instead let hope guide us. I choose hope.

Posted in diabetes advocacy, diabetes motivation | Tagged diabetes, fear, hope | Comments Off

Learning Style

Posted on January 17, 2016 by janekdickinson

As an educator I think about learning styles a lot.

In terms of my own learning style – I love to read and I like (short!) videos. If I need to learn how to use something on the computer, I want a short, informative video to walk me through it. If I’m learning about something more in-depth, I want to read about it. I also like hands-on practice. I don’t want someone to show me how to do something; I want to do it myself. And nothing drives me more crazy than someone saying, “Oh, that’s easy!” when I ask how to do something.

Think about how you prefer to learn – how you learn most effectively. And then ask for that delivery in your diabetes care. There are pamphlets, lectures, hands-on sessions, videos, books, websites, games, group discussions – so many different ways to learn.

By taking some time to really discover your learning style, you could transform your diabetes experience. Time to find out?

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POLI Diabetes

Posted on January 14, 2016 by janekdickinson

The other day I read a blog post about POLI, an acronym I’d never heard. In fact, it’s a diabetes management practice I had never heard of. It stands for Pumper On Long-acting Insulin. I’d heard of using a pump for the basal (background) dose and then injecting bolus (meal or correction) doses. In fact, I’ve done this in the past because of my experience with atrophy in infusion sites.

In this article, the author, Mindy, explains that POLI alleviates her anxiety about DKA (diabetes-related ketoacidosis). People who use insulin pumps have a higher risk of DKA because they are only receiving short- (or rapid-) acting insulin. If the pump fails for any reason, once that last dose is gone, there’s nothing working. So POLI gives someone peace of mind that they have a background dose working regardless.

Mindy also mentioned that in the summer she often likes to disconnect from her pump for swimming, fashion, or other reasons, and POLI makes this go more smoothly.

What a great reminder that there is always more to learn, and that there is always more than one way to do things – in diabetes management and in life.

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Excellent, good, fair, or poor?

Posted on January 6, 2016 by janekdickinson

How do you rate your health?

You’ve probably seen those survey questions at health care provider offices that ask if you would rate your health as excellent, good, fair, or poor.

People who answer “excellent” are more likely to live longer.

Health ratings can be tied to attitude. Centenarians (people who live to be 100 or older) have been shown to have positive attitudes. It would probably be difficult to have excellent health and not have a positive attitude.

Having excellent health doesn’t mean doing everything right every day. It doesn’t mean having blood glucose levels in the target range every time. It doesn’t mean never getting a cold or tired or overeating or skipping stretching.

It means working hard and doing our best (most of the time). It means that when we mess up or when we get a number that makes no sense rather than beating ourselves up we move on. It means focusing on health, rather than disease.

They say people tend to answer “fair” or “poor” more often as they age. My plan is to continue choosing “excellent” as long as I’m alive. I guess that could be a long time!

Posted in about diabetes, diabetes advocacy, diabetes research, health information | Tagged blogging 101, diabetes, health, health ratings, life expectancy, self-reported health | Comments Off