Tips and Tricks – #DBlog Week Day 5

Let’s round out the week by sharing our best diabetes tips and diabetes tricks. From how you organize supplies to how you manage gear on the go/vacation (beach, or skiing, or whatever). From how you keep track of prescription numbers to how you remember to get your orders refilled. How about any “unconventional” diabetes practices, or ways to make diabetes work for YOU (not necessarily how the doctors say to do it!). There’s always something we can learn from each other. (Remember though, please no medical advice or dangerous suggestions.)

I was diagnosed about two years ago, so my tips and tricks are few and far between. I’ll offer what I’ve come up with, but I’m really looking forward to reading what you guys have to say!

Did you know that the fun-size bag of skittles is about 15 g of carbs? Did you know that at halloween you can buy giant bags of these guys with all different flavors of skittles? I keep these things EVERYWHERE. Everyone at work knows that if I have a low and they need to help, I need either one fun-sized bag of skittles or 4 starbursts. All of these options taste way better than glucose tabs.

Also, I hear some discussion about getting rid of the leftover blood after doing a BG check. I always wait until my meter flashes the number, pull out the test strip, and use the side of it to wipe of the rest of the blood. If I’m lucky (or feeling particularly not-lazy and go find myself a trash can), I throw it away immediately. If not, I leave it in my meter case. I still get blood on the case like people who wipe their fingers directly on it, but somehow it feels significantly less gross to me.

This isn’t a trick, but something I wish that someone had told me at the beginning was to fight for what I needed. I was so afraid to argue with doctors, and I didn’t know I was allowed to disagree with insurance companies. Of course, this is pretty hilarious to me now. I learned pretty quickly to fight for what I need, to change doctors if I have to, and to make things work for me.