Sometimes we have questions that doctors might not be able to answer—and that’s when we turn to our diabetes community. We’ve compiled “hacks” from some of our friends living with diabetes that help make each day a little lighter, and a little easier for us.
The tech
“I place my sensor on the day prior to let it settle, wash that blood away from insertion then activate it the next day.” – Eden Miller
“I have an extra cord in my car at all times so that I can charge my insulin pump while I’m driving. I also invested in a pump holster/pump band to wear around my leg under a dress. Gamechanger!” – Erika Szumel
The numbers
“I change my settings to 70-155 on my CGM—baby steps to get to a tighter range for me!” – Diane Scherer
“If you use Nightscout or Tidepool, you can use AI to crunch data that’s hard to get your head around. Don’t take advice from AI, but use it to identify trends to talk over with your healthcare team!” – Paul Hetzel
The brain space
“Make sure you’re getting the positive notifications from your CGM. For example, I get notifications from CGM app that I met my time in range goal for the day yesterday. It’s just a nice, small reminder that I’m hitting my target (when I do). I’m all about thatpositive reinforcement!” – Scott Johnson
“I try really hard to view my CGM metrics as pieces of information – not an evaluation of my efforts. Looking at my time in range for 24 hours might have demoralized me previously if it wasn’t what I wanted to see. Now I consider what factors might have impacted that information, like being sick or stressed, or just having diabetes. Then I’ll change my CGM view to see my time in range for the past week or month. This helps remind me that I’m often doing better than I think because I have the pieces of information to make adjustments in real time and all those little efforts add up.” – Julie Heverly
The daily grind
“When I’m out socializing or eating out and I’m unsure when food’s coming but I’ve already ordered, I’ll pre-bolus for 15g just so there’s something working in my system and I don’t have to wait to eat when the food arrives. Then I’ll bolus the remainder of carbs once I get eyes on the plate. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely helped me flatten out some of those steep hikes from not pre-bolusing!” – Derek Helm
And one of my personal hacks during the day…I always forget to pre-bolus! I created a reminder on my phone that is always on my lock screen, so that every time I open my phone, i have the reminder to pre-bolus right there!
Every person’s diabetes is different, but we do share a lot of the same struggles. We can all learn from each other, uplift each other, and remind each other that we’re not alone.
Check out more stories from people with diabetes by clicking here!