Welcome back to Day 5 of Diabetes Blog Week 2012!

The topic for today is “What They Should Know:”

What They Should Know – Friday 5/18: Today let’s borrow a topic from a #dsma chat held last September.  The tweet asked “What is one thing you would tell someone that doesn’t have diabetes about living with diabetes?”.  Let’s do a little advocating and post what we wish people knew about diabetes.  Have more than one thing you wish people knew?  Go ahead and tell us everything.

The main thing I wish people know about diabetes is that insulin is not a cure. It’s medication that keeps me alive, but it doesn’t replace all the thinking that a working pancreas would do. It’s a tool to maintain my bloodsugar. Even with insulin, I still check my bloodsugar, monitor it with my CGM, calculate everything that goes into my body, calculate the activity I’m doing, worry about future complications, and more.

Sure, I like to make managing type 1 diabetes look easy, but I’ve been dealing with this diabetes thing for over two decades now, and I’ve just recently felt like I’ve gotten the hang out it. It take time, patience, and lots of insulin! ;)