lack of enthusiasm for caring for my diabetes, need help

[jumping0shires]

A year and a half ago I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.  (Threw me through a loop, i was active on a triathalon team and ate healthy) For the first three months I took great care of it.  The next six I let my AIC..or A1C (whichever) get up to 11, but then back down to 7 again.  My problem is I know what it can do to me, but I for some reason just can't motivate myself, and I just want to be cured, and ignore it.  Is there any advice or any simple routines I can try.  I lost a lot of muscle and weight when I first was diagnosed and never really got back into the swing of things, I run occassionaly but not regularly and I want to take care of it, but I hate the shots I have to give myself.  Am I just being too stupid and stubborn, or is there something that can actually help me get motivated (besides scaring me into it)?

[JDRF-VOL-SG]

I have 2 suggestions for you.

1) Contact the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Online Diabetes Support Team to be put in touch with a 'mentor' who can help encourage you. You can do this by going to www.jdrf.org/ and clicking on Online Diabetes Support Team (ODST). Then write a brief note and ask to be put in touch with someone who can help motivate you.

2) This is advice that I give to everyone who contacts me with this motivation problem -- and it is indeed a common problem. Don't look at the big picture, but instead focus on the 'NOW'. What I mean is that you can easily manage your diabetes if you simply look to normalize your current (yes, right this very instant) blood sugar levels if you test, and then respond to the number you see. If high (and if it has been 2-3 hours after your last insulin injection, assuming that you take a quick-acting insulin such as Novolog or Humalog), you can do the mathematical formula based on your own insulin-to-carb ratio to figure out how much insulin it takes to lower the number to normal within the next 2 hours. Then take that amount of insulin. If low, then drink a small amount of juice to raise the sugar levels within the next hour. There! You have achieved good glucose control. Then you do the same thing about 3 hours later. But you ONLY focus on the one test and normalization at a time. It becomes no big deal this way, and your a1c magically drops. And you find yourself feeling more energetic and happy when sugar levels are normal most of the time. Some of your lack of energy to do the work may be because your sugars are running too high -- it makes you feel bad. So every 2-3 hours, you simply test and adjust.

The only thing you need to do is to take that minute to test. And react, just the way the brain of a non-diabetic person reacts when their sugar levels climb too high or drop too low. In the non-diabetic person, the brain sends out signals to the pancreas to either increase or decrease insulin production, and in our case, we do the same thing by taking shots. I don't know if you are male or female or how big your frame is, but I personally use the child-sized needles because my frame is small and I am lean. They don't bruise and they don't hurt like the larger needles. This is just an idea in case the shots can be made more comfortable for you by reducing needle size. You could talk to your doctor about it and see.

But don't worry about the long-range control. You only have to control the NOW. That really is just a mind-set issue and I personally find it the best way to tackle control. One step at a time. It is easy to achieve perfect control within 2-3 hours by simply testing and adjusting with quick-acting insulin. Then you do it over again a few hours later. And again. it becomes routine like brushing your teeth, and you FEEL so much better when your control is good that this alone is great incentive. I wish you the best. I speak from personal experience.  Doing this has brought my a1c down to a steady 6.1 for the last 2 years without any real effort other than testing so I know what the numbers are and adjusting.

[duped]

I am not a teenager and this is my first visit to this forum, but I really identify with your problem.  I have had huge motivational problems off and on throughout the 20 plus years I have ben diagnosed with IDDM.  At first, it was mainly because it was so unfair.  I was eating, exercising and keeping slim and nobody in my family had diabetes.  It wasn't supposed to happen to me!  It was a rotten, mean blow by the gods. Then, the formulas and regimens didn't work for longer than half a day or one day.  It takes a lot of time to figure out the hidden factor messing around with your BGs.  And personality type for an athlete -- you concentrate for long periods of time on something and you tend to approach other things in life with this intensity and your BGs go to hell while you are doing it.  You can't change without losing all the flavor and zest of life, but the key to successful stabilizing is to test about every 3-5 hours and that is very very very difficult to do when you are caught up in an activity that makes testing really really really inconvenient and conspicuous and sometimes impossible if you want to win or make the goal/deadline more than you want to normalize your BGs at that time.  But, motivation is around everywhere - in the newspaper article about the basketball superhero that has a nurse attend all games to test him regularly for BG levels, the movie star with perfect figure and face who appears to have conquered it, etc.  For me, finding someone with a similar problem - even if they have not overcome it - helps.  Misery needs company????  Anyway, I wish you well and hope that you find motivational answers and don't expect to get that fixed instantly by a visit to the doctor.  Life and diabetes is a constant challenge -- don't get too tired or disheartened about it - it is just a big dose of "life" and getting involved in the here and now is the answer.  Yoga helps with that awareness and focus, so do other similar disciplines, but I would recommend trying to get into meditation and maybe some Iyengar yoga.  The muscle loss can be reversed, but every time you have an insulin reaction you have to replace about 30 grams of protein in the liver and that robs the rest of your body of the protein usage.  On my last successful diet, I started eating high protein bars that seemed to have a reasonable amount of sugar (Advantage seems to be a good one and Cliff Builder has 20 g protein).  Hope you can get involved in something and rebuild the muscle and learn to be "mindful" in the here and now!  It also means others are there learning and experiencing same things and misery loves company.  Namaste!  

[JDRF-VOL-SG]

Wow, what an insightful answer! Excellent advice from "duped".

[mlz]

Don't give up! My husband has been T1 for 23 yrs. He rides his bike to work almost everyday in the summer, he has also participated in a couple adventure racing events. He doesn't let his diabetes stop him. And you shouldn't either.
You've got a lot of good things in your favor. You're already a dedicated athlete, you've trained for triathalons. You've got the focus and dedication to do that, I think it's great that it's on a team. You can have people there for you, to watch for lows and keep you focused on the goal.
I read this great article in the NY Times. You must sign up on their website to read it (it's free to sign up). It was all about athletes and diabetes. People just like you, hard training athletes who were shocked to find out they had this disease. Many were told they could never train again. Fortunately, none of them listened. Of course, you need to closely monitor your BG and carbs to make sure you're still giving your body what it needs to run at it's best.
There are also a couple links to websites of some mentioned in the article who do major sport training, suggestions, hints and the like for those who are interested. Check it out.
It's an uplifting, positive article. I encourage anyone who enjoys participating in sports to read it.