Sunday, August 13, 2006

Craving Information

I am approaching almost 1 year with diabetes. I'm also seeing my insulin needs go up up up as my honeymoon ends. And I am learning a ton.

But one thing seems inevitable: the more I learn, the more I want to know.

I seem to never be satisfied with what I know. I want to learn more. Read more. Explore, and discover. I want to know about current developments, and about the history of diabetes. I want to ask questions and look at graphs. I want to find patterns.

But is any of this actually making my diabetes better? Yes and no. Some things I put into practice and it improves my control. Some things I try to put into practice and I find don't work for me. Some things I just seem to ignore, though I should do (basal tests fall into that category).

But any way it goes, I need to keep going. People who are ignorant on their own disease bother me. Ignorance is not bliss, nor does ignoring make the condition go away. I can't ignore it. And learning is a source of hope. Hope for not only better control, but a cure. I NEED to learn.

After all, knowledge is power.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've had diabetes for over 23 years, and I'm still like this. I don't believe we ever stop learning about diabetes, or at least our own diabetes, if for no other reason than that it is constantly changing.

I totally identify with what you say about whether it actually improves diabetes control too. And it is funny how, despite aspiring to the best control we can achieve, we all still tend to ignore doing certain things that we know we know we should. I guess that is human nature!

Anonymous said...

The thing about folks you blog about their diabetes is that they are always looking for more information.
We all treat diabetes as a road towards more knowledge. It is a disease and we have it, but we need to fight it with as much information and as many tools we can get and share the ideas for others to try out too.
Keep up the fight and keep up the blog.

Anonymous said...

I was diagnosed in 1974, living in a small town in central Minnesota. There was one book on diabetes in the public library - and it was on the bottom shelf and smelled old and musty. I think it had been written several years before that because it had a big chapter on sharpening your own needles.
I was lost in a fog of ignorance, and am so overjoyed at the information available to us now - books, magazines and of course, the world wide web!!!
Knowledge is power, a million times over.

Anonymous said...

oh man...i'm the same as you megan...but i met someone recently who had been a diabetic for 7 years and just heard for the first time that unused insulin should be refridgerated.

how does that happen????

Anonymous said...

It all depends where on the "Line Continuum" you are. From the time where people would just fall into a deep coma....to starvation as a treatment....to the introduction of insulin and glass syringes.....to disposables...to insulin analogues...to the pump....to transplantation and the risk/benefit of lifelong immunosuppression.The one thing that has not been eliminated however are the various☞ COMPLICATIONS ☜
all associated with having T1DM.