5 Things To Do When You Have a Bad Day With Diabetes

By Helen Edwards | September 18, 2015 | 2

Life is a series of days. Some days are golden, some are very grey indeed. This is the same for all of us humans. However those of us living with things like diabetes, can experience more than our fair share of the crappy ones. Do you have those terrible, awful, no good days with diabetes? I think most of us do.

Sometimes you have more than your fair share. So I was thinking that we need to have some things we can turn to when these days hit.

Here are my 5 things you can do when you have a bad day with diabetes.

  1. Scream and shout – if you wake up with a blood glucose level that makes no sense at all, have a day that is more like living on a bouncy castle than solid ground, or can not work out what the hell is happening, then feel free to let it out, scream and shout, whinge, complain, even have a cry. Letting these emotions out is useful and helps you get to number 2.
  2. Nut out what to do about the situation – if you are facing one of those days with diabetes what can you do to get it sorted? Can you tweak things, go for a walk, have a rest day to recover, or make some changes to your overall management?
  3. Talk to someone – this is so important. Tell someone close to you, post it on facebook, call a friend. You need to share these terrible days so they don’t hold much control over your life.
  4. Call your diabetes team – if you are having more than your fair share of bad days with diabetes maybe you need to call your diabetes team and get some input about what changes may be able to help.
  5. Let it go – sometimes, once you have had a scream and a cry, worked out what to do about the current situation, talked to a friend, written a blog post, called your team – the only thing you can do is let it go. Tomorrow is a new day and the next and the next. You are more than your diabetes and you can learn to lessen its grip on your life and focus on something else. Put some music on loud, take a walk, paint a picture, go op shopping, tidy the house, take a short holiday, make love, cook, visit a friend. Do something other than diabetes and watch its tricky little face fade into the background.

What do you do when you have a bad day with diabetes?

Helen

xx

2 Comments

  1. Bronnie on September 22, 2015 at 6:55 am

    Hi Helen,

    I’m 50 and have only been diagnosed with late onset Type 1 in the last year. Taking shots, jelly beans, readings, needles, it’s all new to me and some days are very difficult. I’m getting use to weighing food, reading labels and approximating insulin doses but nothing prepares you for those horrible times when you take a bit too much, especially in the middle of the night.

    Thank you for the advise, I’m still putting a team together but so far it consists of my amazing hubby who is also trying to get his head around all this… I look forward to reading more on your blog and thank you for doing what you do.

    Bronnie 🙂



    • Helen-Edwards on November 6, 2015 at 1:54 pm

      THat must be very hard to be diagnosed with something people presume is diagnosed only in children, thank you for being part of our community and I hope it is useful