Diabetes Diary, Part 4
I’m sick of waking up each morning and pricking my palm or forearm to do the first of four blood-glucose tests a day. I’m tired of injecting myself with short-acting insulin before breakfast, lunch and dinner—and of having to wait 15 to 20 minutes before I can eat. And I’m so over having to end my days with yet another shot of insulin—the long-acting kind that’s supposed to sustain me for the next 24 hours. I’ve got the blues…the diabetes blues.
In my first blog, I briefly mentioned the diabetes blues, or burnout, as it’s more commonly known. I surmised that my late aunt had suffered from this affliction and been unable to shake it. I also vowed to develop strategies to beat back burnout when it comes my way. But lately, the stresses of being a mother, wife and first-year grad student—and of being severely sleep deprived—have made it hard for me to stay positive about my self-care. In fact, I’ve begun to resent my chronic condition; I even made an emotional outburst about it to my husband the other night: “I H-A-T-E having to do this,” I said. Half asleep, he muttered, “I know.”
Realizing that being mad about having diabetes is no way to beat my blues, I decided to be proactive. Yesterday, I checked the Web for ideas for coping with burnout. Here’s a sampling of what I found:
BOOKS
• Diabetes Burnout: What to Do When You Can’t Take It Anymore, by William H. Polonsky.
• 50 Secrets of the Longest Living People with Diabetes, by Sheri R. Colberg.
• Cheating Destiny: Living with Diabetes, by James S. Hirsch.
WEB SITE ARTICLES
• “Diabetes Burnout: How to Stop the Daily Grind from Bringing You Down,” by Linda Beeney, PhD.
http://www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/conquest/0101-burnout.htm
• “Diabetes Burnout: When to Leave ‘Good Enough’ Alone,” by Linda von Wartburg.
http://www.diabeteshealth.com/read/2007/04/13/5116.html
• “Avoid Diabetes Burnout,” by Joslin Diabetes Center.
http://www.joslin.org/managing_your_diabetes_596.asp
Until next time,
Nicole Crawford-Tichawonna
Contributing Editor
In my first blog, I briefly mentioned the diabetes blues, or burnout, as it’s more commonly known. I surmised that my late aunt had suffered from this affliction and been unable to shake it. I also vowed to develop strategies to beat back burnout when it comes my way. But lately, the stresses of being a mother, wife and first-year grad student—and of being severely sleep deprived—have made it hard for me to stay positive about my self-care. In fact, I’ve begun to resent my chronic condition; I even made an emotional outburst about it to my husband the other night: “I H-A-T-E having to do this,” I said. Half asleep, he muttered, “I know.”
Realizing that being mad about having diabetes is no way to beat my blues, I decided to be proactive. Yesterday, I checked the Web for ideas for coping with burnout. Here’s a sampling of what I found:
BOOKS
• Diabetes Burnout: What to Do When You Can’t Take It Anymore, by William H. Polonsky.
• 50 Secrets of the Longest Living People with Diabetes, by Sheri R. Colberg.
• Cheating Destiny: Living with Diabetes, by James S. Hirsch.
WEB SITE ARTICLES
• “Diabetes Burnout: How to Stop the Daily Grind from Bringing You Down,” by Linda Beeney, PhD.
http://www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/conquest/0101-burnout.htm
• “Diabetes Burnout: When to Leave ‘Good Enough’ Alone,” by Linda von Wartburg.
http://www.diabeteshealth.com/read/2007/04/13/5116.html
• “Avoid Diabetes Burnout,” by Joslin Diabetes Center.
http://www.joslin.org/managing_your_diabetes_596.asp
Until next time,
Nicole Crawford-Tichawonna
Contributing Editor
posted by heart&soulmate @ 8:35 PM
2 Comments:
At 5:58 PM,
Adam Greene said…
Hi heart&soulmate,
Best wishes to you as you go through this. I don't know if this will help saying this, but having watched my father and family go through this since before I can remember, burnout is just a part of dealing with Diabetes. There are periods where we are all proactive and really gung-ho about doing our best in dealing with diabetes, and other times we just want to throttle the damn thing. One thing we've tried to do is make sure we overlap on the burnout. For those of us w/o diabetes, we try to "rotate through" to make sure we aren't all burnt out at the same time, and for dad...well, knowing that burnout is a part of the deal helps us not jump on him when he just does the minimum needed to make it through.
Another thought is that if you are burned out see if someone else can help with some of the really mundane tasks of diabetes; do the meal planning or set the exercise schedule, or do the calculations on how much insulin you need. Many of us *want* to help, but sometimes it is hard to know how, and this might be a way.
well, there is a jumble of ideas and thoughts! I hope there might be a nugget of something useful there for you. BTW, Hirsch's book is *top notch*, and well worth a read.
Adam
At 8:11 AM,
Unknown said…
Hi, I would like to suggest you to go and try alternative therapies. Now a days we are much aware of the side effects of medication. So it will be better to go with alternative treatments. I know a site, its http://www.rvita.com. Hopefully here you will get the solution.
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