The Diabetes Experience

In order to gain a better understanding of what it’s like to be a diabetic, I have been given the task of checking my blood glucose and giving myself “insulin” shots (which is actually just sterile water) for the next four days. The exercise is designed to increase my awareness of the difficulties and inconvenience associated with a disease like diabetes. In doing this, I will be able to counsel patients more effectively because I will be able to empathize with their situation and understand the rigidity of the different treatment regimens.

This is only my first day as a type 1 diabetic and I can already tell I’m going to have compliance issues. I have been assigned to test my blood sugar four times a day and, after going over the different insulin regimens, decided that I will be giving myself injections four times a day (Lantus at bedtime and Humalog before each meal). I decided on the four times a day regimen because I’m not very consistent with the timing of my meals so this seemed like the best plan for me. So far I’ve given myself two injections, one in the back of my upper arm and one in my abdomen. I have to say I’m very surprised with how little they hurt. I was expecting the injections to be much more painful but I’ve found that the finger pricks for glucose testing actually hurt worse.

Overall, I think this is going to be a very interesting and worthwhile experience. It will be a huge help when talking with patients about which injection sites seem to hurt the least and add some credibility to the information I’m giving since I have actually gone through some of the things they’re going through.