A Lot to Learn

Information Overload?

There is a lot to learn with diabetes!

No one "gets" it all the first time. Even if you are a health professional, you may find it hard to understand what to do when you are the patient.

Diabetes is complex, and it's even more confusing if you didn't take a lot of science in school. Plus, feeling upset or worried about diabetes can interfere with your ability to concentrate on learning all that information.

Once you get the main ideas down, it will be easier.

Keep asking questions. Keep learning.

If your diabetes education class goes too fast, if you don't understand the instructor, or if you thought you "got it," but you somehow "lost it" on the way home and now you are home and have no idea what to do,

DON'T GIVE UP!

You deserve to understand this, and you need to give yourself some time. Learning to handle your diabetes is a process.(I don't know about you folks, but the first driving lesson I took was, well, rather harrowing. Many things in life are a learning process, and you don't get it all the first time.)

HOW DO YOU LEARN BEST?

Are you a reader? There are many educational books about diabetes available at your local library, or you can buy them through the American Diabetes Association's online bookshop.

Do you learn better if someone shows you?

Ask for some one-on-one time with a diabetes educator. Diabetes Teaching Nurses and good dieticians are worth their weight in gold. They have all seen more than a few tears, so don't be afraid of letting some feelings show. If a health professional has the initials "CDE" after his/her name, that means s/he has passed an examination and is a "Certified Diabetes Educator."

THE LIGHT IS ON BUT NOBODY'S HOME.

If you brain works just fine otherwise, but you are NOT getting all this diabetes education, your anxiety may be getting in the way. Be patient with yourself. If you stay with it, you will "get it."

(Someone has to be in the bottom of the class. Although I was pretty good in school, I tend to hover around the bottom of the class when I take quilting classes. I specialize in sewing the wrong side of one fabric to the right side of the other. But, I stay with it, because I know I will "get it" eventually. As I watch other women sew and stack their piles of perfectly stitched pieces, I hide my sewing errors under larger pieces of fabric. But, I know that I will bring new knowledge home, where I will indeed reap the benefits of the class!)

ARE YOU A PERFECTIONIST?

There is no way to be perfect with diabetes. Even if you do everything according to your instructions, sometimes your blood sugars will act unpredictably. If you are a perfectionist, you need to find a different way to define perfection. The truth is that although we know so much more about the body now than 20 years ago, the treatment of diabetes is still an imperfect science. Your "numbers" cannot be perfect. At times, they may be pretty crummy, even when you are doing everything "right." As you gain experience with diabetes, and if you have some good coaching from your diabetes support team (physician, nurse, dietician and others) you will gain knowledge tht will help you improve your blood sugars. You will also get to know some of the quirks of your own body. There will still be times, though, that your blood sugars will surprise you.

GET ALL THE HELP YOU NEED, AND MORE.

If you go to one Diabetes Educator (a nurse, physician's assistant or dietician) and you don't find her or him helpful, try one or two others. Or six others! Find one with whom you are comfortable. It's your health, remember?

I hope you can find someone:

whom you like
whom you feel likes you
who knows a lot about diabetes
who wants to help YOU find a way to live with your diabetes.
who offers suggestions that help you, and that help you eventually cope on your own much of the time.
who is willing to return phone calls to answer occasional questions.
who helps you know, when you walk out of the office, what to do TOMORROW.

In turn, you have an obligation to:

show up on time for appointments, and not to cancel at the last minute
bring in records of what you have done, so your consultant can see what you have been doing.
be honest in reporting those records
ask for help with what you need help with. (If the diabetes educator could read your mind, s/he could be making a lot more money as a psychic!!)
write down your questions beforehand, or think about where you need help.

HOW DO I FIND SOMEONE LIKE THAT?

Start with your endocrinologist, diabetologist or general physician. Find out if there are nurses or dieticians that your physician can recommend.

Call your local office of the American Diabetes Association or other diabetes association. If possible, talk to someone who has diabetes, or who has worked in the field a long time. Tell them the type of person with whom you work best, and although they may need to give you 3 names, they may tell you enough about each one so that you can tell what person you might prefer.

Call an endocrinologist's office and ask whom they recommend.

Go to a diabetes event at a local hospital and ask the speaker about diabetes educators.

Call the closest major teaching hospital or university in your area. In larger metropolitan areas, a variety of classes and perhaps a support group may be offered. Attend as many events as you can, and you will meet the experts in your area

KEEP THAT EDUCATION COMING. GO TO INDIVIDUAL SESSIONS, LECTURES AND SUPPORT GROUPS. WHY?

Each time you hear a talk about diabetes, you are likely to learn something - some useful fact or trick.

You have an opportunity to ask a question, and you may get help both from the speaker and from people in the audience.

These talks about diabetes are affirming. They remind you why you want to take care of yourself, when you are constantly bombarded with junk food advertisements and unhealthy attitudes toward food in many places.

It is cool to hear about new developments in diabetes.

Going to group talks about diabetes can remind you that you are not alone in this struggle. You may also meet some really nice people.

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