In short; it's complicated.
If you've read my diabetes diagnosis story here, then you'll know that I understood nothing about diabetes when I was diagnosed with it. And having talked to hundreds of people with diabetes around the world, I can say that's the case for most people.
One of the questions I hear most often is: what causes diabetes? And once you're diagnosed, what happens when you get diabetes?
The short answer is that diabetes isn't just one condition: Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes, and the many other forms of diabetes we keep learning about all have different causes and experiences.
But for me, having Type 1 diabetes means that my body doesn't produce insulin anymore. That part of my pancreas just ghosted one day, no explanation.
Unfortunately, it has lifelong implications for me. Insulin is what our bodies need to balance the levels of sugar in our blood. Without insulin, my blood sugar levels would go rogue and that would have serious consequences.
Coming back to what happens when you get diabetes, for me the answer was learning how to manage blood sugar manually, every day, which means:
- Checking my blood sugar throughout the day (and night, because my body loves a 3am hypo) to keep track of what it's doing.
- Taking insulin with every meal, as well as whenever my blood sugar rises to keep it in a safe range.
- Bringing blood sugar back up to safe levels when it drops through fast-acting sugar (looking at you, Mentos).
- Hauling around all the diabetes equipment needed to do those things: insulin pens and pump accessories, blood testing meters or CGMs, hypo treatments, and many, many back-ups. (Curious? I’ve written more about diabetes technology, CGMs and insulin pumps here).
And the real kicker about diabetes is that it's unpredictable. Pretty much everything affects my blood sugar: food, exercise, sleep, sickness, stress, temperature, medication... did I say stress?
It means that managing diabetes, even on a good day, isn’t straightforward. That's one of the reasons I started redesigning the bags and cases we use to carry diabetes supplies in the first place (more on that here).
If you're new to diabetes, I hope this gives you some sense of what the heck it all means. It’s a weird one.
You can find loads more information about diabetes from Beyond Type 1, an awesome global organisation that supports people with diabetes through advocacy and sharing stories from our community.
I'd love to hear from you on this one – how do you explain diabetes?
Bridget xx
Designer & Diabetic
