Walking a Mile in Someone Else's Shoes

Today we pricked our fingers to find out our blood glucose levels. Then, we gave ourselves subcutaneous shots of saline (instead of insulin) to mimic what diabetic patients have to go through every day...multiple times a day.

The worse part is definitely pricking your finger. I now understand why patients don't want to do it that often. I had to prick my finger twice because I pulled the lancet away too quickly (because it hurt!). I think the automatic lancets are worse than just having a needle you can poke yourself with -- there is definitely an increased level of anxiety as you push that button. There is also anxiety as you wait for your readout. Will you be in normal range? I felt anxious about it and I don't even have diabetes (my fasting glucose was 84, so need to start worrying quite yet). The needle for the insulin shot, however, is so tiny that I barely felt it when injecting myself -- definitely not as bad as I expected. The nurse told us that even some of the really young kids can inject themselves by the time they leave the hospital after their training.

Just a small slice of what life is like as a diabetic...