Support and Christmas preparations

Very important for someone living with diabetes is the support of the people around them.  I think I did not realise how important this actually is.  I am a person who prefers to sort out things herself, because I don't want to bother other people with my problems and I think, I will figure it out eventually.  Now, I slowly start to understand that is OK to ask for help and to discuss what bothers me.  

When I was diagnosed with Diabetes 2, I searched on the internet about what to do to reverse the diabetes.  When it was not working, I got frustrated and blamed myself  but I never thought of discussing this with my doctor and/or asking for a referral to a specialist.  Of course sometimes I talked about things with my husband and with my friends,  but most of the time my reaction would be afterwards: "I will figure it out myself" 

Now that I know that I have diabetes 1 and that I have the insulin pump,  I start to see how important it is to ask for advice and to accept this advice.  It is still difficult for me, but writing it down in this blog  means that I really start to become aware of this.  

The most important support person is of course my husband.  How often already was he the one who had to deal with my mood swings.  One moment I am so happy when my BGL's are good, the next moment I am so terrible upset as the BGL's go up and I cannot understand why this is happening.  He tries to calm me down and he tries to put if all in perspective.  He went to the pump training with me and although my initial thoughts were that that would not be necessary, I now know that this was really important, as I should not exclude him from my "diabetic life".  Now he can advise and support me.  All I have to do is accept this.  

                                                            With my support of life

In the past I also waited way too long to contact my medical team.  Maybe I did not want to bother them because they would be too busy to see me.  Now I know that my diabetic nurse is just one email away and that he will make time to talk to me and that this will give me reassurance that I am on the right track.  

I know that accepting support and asking for help will always be difficult be me, but I see how important it is, not only when you have diabetes, but for everyone. 

So, the serious stuff out of the way, time for something fun. In three weeks time it is Christmas again.   Although you can eat "everything" when you are a diabetes patient, it might not be the best thing to do.  Knowing how much carbohydrates you eat and giving yourself the correct amount of insulin is a way to deal with.   I just want to deal with this a bit more responsible. 

Over the years I bought the magazine "diabetic living" regularly.  This magazine has articles about how to live with diabetes and it also contains nice recipes with the amount of carbohydrates.  I have four Christmas editions and I will "hunt" for our Christmas dinner in these magazines.  Later this month I will update you on the result.  

A Christmas cake needs to be made in advance, so that is already done.  Please see the recipe and the result below.  As the recipe might be really hard to read, but you like to bake this diabetic friendly Christmas cake, please let me know and I will forward it to you. 

 

Well, enough for this blog.  I hope you enjoy reading it and although I think it is hard to ask for advice, I love giving it and to be a support for someone else, so don't hesitate to contact me.