A Day in the Life of a Diabetic
By: Morgan Gray (Type 2)
Biology of Type 2 Diabetes
Ages: 19-60+
Goals
- Healthful eating pattern to improve overall health
- Attain individualized glycemic, BP, and lipid goals
- Achieve and maintain body weight goals
- Delay or prevent diabetes complications
blood sugar monitoring
From Your Fingertip: You prick your finger with a small, sharp needle (called a lancet) and put a drop of blood on a test strip. Then you put the test strip into a meter that shows your blood sugar level. You get results in less than 15 seconds and can store this information for future use. Some meters can tell you your average blood sugar level over a period of time and show you charts and graphs of your past test results. You can get blood sugar meters and strips at your local pharmacy.
Meters That Test Other Sites: Newer meters let you test sites other than your fingertip, such as your upper arm, forearm, base of the thumb, and thigh. You may get different results than from your fingertip. Blood sugar levels in the fingertips show changes more quickly than those in other testing sites. This is especially true when your blood sugar is rapidly changing, like after a meal or after exercise. If you are checking your sugar when you have symptoms of hypoglycemia, you should use your fingertip if possible, because these readings will be more accurate.
Exercise
Professional help
- Primary-care physician
- Endocrinologist
- Nutritionist or registered dietitian
- Certified diabetes educator (CDE)
- Exercise physiologist:
Medication
- glipizide
- glimepride
- saxagliptin
- mononydrate