I havent read all the posts so sorry if this was already posted.
But to check your sugar you can just go to the bathroom and do it in there. And Maybe pack meals before work that you can eat maybe even if its just throughout the day.
Our American work ethic is sick, sick, sick and getting sicker.
All this talk of “increased productivity” has resulted in:
– Higher unemployment (fewer people doing more work while others struggle to survive);
– Fatter butts (no time to exercise, play–dance, ride bikes, do sports–or cook and eat healthy meals rich in organic phytochemicals);
– More chronic diseases (everything from heart disease to depression to type 2 diabetes);
– Social dysfunction (an epidemic of divorce, alienation between parents/children/siblings and mounting social problems because no one has time to be engaged in finding ROOT CAUSE solutions.)
I hate, loathe and despise what sick, sick, sick places our workplaces have become, where the less time you spend on your health, your family, your faith and your community the “better” you are in the eyes of the rapacious bosses leading their teams into divorce, diabetes and early heart attacks, all in the name of the almighty dollar. Our whole economic system is based on rewarding you for driving yourself, the natural environment and everyone around you into the ground.
When you step back and look at the big picture, the whole thing is revolting.
If your work really helps others then you are one of the lucky ones.
But the bigger picture is the one I’m speaking of. The fact is, when I was a child a father could work a forty hour week at a blue collar job and support a wife and a few kids – in their own their own home. Try doing that in today’s economy, at today’s wages!
I blame people like Bill Gates – who was famous for his “four hour turn-around time” each night – and others making it seem normal to spend 12, 14 even 16+ hours per day, six or seven days per week, working to enrich themselves, while putting this tremendous expectation on everyone around them to do the same in order to enrich a corporation and it’s shareholders.
I personally know one man who “cut back” to “only” 70 hours per week and his co-workers HATED him for “slacking off”. I know another man who took a 90-hour-per-week job four months after marrying the sweetest girl in the world – essentially abandoning her during their settling-in period to make money. I know two other men who just abandoned their wives and children to accept a transfer to a different state because that’s what seemed normal to them in order to progress in their careers – the only thing that really mattered to them. Money, money, money…it won’t care for you when you’re sick, or give you a hug, or lovingly bear and raise your children, or laugh at your jokes, or hold your hand as you lay dying.
Why are we so willing to give up LIFE for CRAP?
We’re not all finding the cure for cancer or saving our citizens from terrorist attacks. We don’t all need to work 70 to 90 hours per week. Making money is NOT more important than our children, our spouses, our parents, or our own health.
As far as I’m concerned, having diabetes is a part-time job – it takes up hours of my week to stay on top of it and stay as healthy as possible. I’m not going to have a heart attack in five years to make some corporation’s bottom line a fraction better. To heck with that. I’m going to walk and visit with loved ones and cook healthy meals and get in my eight hours of dream time. If more of us Just Said No to corporate slavery, what would happen? I think the world would be a MUCH better place.
Oh, and that looks like a cool chair.
Something from Star Wars, maybe?
R2-Chair2?
Your health and peace of mind are TOP PRIORITY. No job is worth your health. My health took a nose dive from all the pressure, politics, etc., which stressed me out. The stress caused an initial rise in blood sugar, which caused an ugly turn of events. No job is worth it man, trust me. De-stress your life and focus on you because in the end you’re viewed as replaceable by the job. You have to look out for number 1, which is you.remember there is a difference between working hard and working smart. Construction work is hard work. If you are in an office and getting stressed, make a run for it. Its not worth it.
I currently work in what I would consider a ‘cubical farm’ - meaning that there is no privacy. I don’t have the option of going somewhere private to test so what I’ve taken to doing was testing under the desk so that my more squeamish co-workers don’t have to see blood.
I’ve informed all of my bosses of my requirements - testing, eating, bathroom, etc - and they have been understanding. Really, by law they have to accommodate the condition. Maybe talking to your bosses about the issue and brain storming would help come up with a solution that would work for everyone?
Hi “lotsofshots” 
My name is Fabiana and I have been a type 1 for 18 years.
I could see myself a little while ago struggling with the same situations you describe… I was working 10 sometimes 12 hours a day in a very dynamic job, and handling alot of pressure. So, I felt I had no time to take care of myself the way it should be.
For example, if I was in a meeting I would never leave the room the check my BG. Well, the result was that I had a poorly control of my BG and even If I couldn’t realize, It was affecting also my performance.
So I decided that no matter what happened my needs would come first, things on my personal life and also at work became much better…
No matter where we are and what do we do, we can’t forget our needs.
It was, seriously, a quite simple change. I just started watching myself, stopping by for a glass of water in the middle of the day, measuring my BG, stretching or talking to someone really uplifting. In life we need some breaks, with diabetes is not different…
Hopefully you will handle it
… And trust me, its not about he job itself, I mean, of course there are mild routines or harder ones. But basically its about us! We are in control of our lives…
Love
Fabiana
I really appreciate how determinate and hard working you are. But try not to overwhelm yourself because you are still delivering so much and exceeding expectations, but we are human beings, and our body always stops us at some point if we don’t take care of it properly…
Its a lot of pressure, you take care of your family, but taking care of yourself is essential to keep your health and be able to help them.
i agree,
make a life
not
make a living
i heard a gen z, gen me, gen web (whatever your call the current generation) person say that
- awesome!
Hello lotsofshots,
Really understand what you mean.
Attend a lot of salesmeetings myself and used to struggle in managing my diabetes.
After some time it got to me that shots were the thing that kept me healthy and energetic so i just decided to be assertive and make my own plan in managing my diabetes. Another person may have problems handling stress, i fugured.
So basically the only advice from my experience I can give you is: be assertive and take control in this matter.
I think it would be really useful to set up a group to deal with diabetes at work.
I a very stressful job with ridiculous hours and every time i raise the issue with my doctor, he tells me to quit!
It would be nice to be able to compare experiences with others in similar situations…
I work overnights (10pm - 6am) and that alone makes my sugars wacky. On my day off, I go back to a “normal” schedule, which certainly doesn’t help. My sleep and eating patterns are randomized from the shift, so of course my levels are all over the place. Because of the fast-paced environment at work, I can’t eat 15g of carbs and wait 15 mins as directed to treat a hypoglycemic incident, so I pretty much scarf down a bag of candy and wait to rebound from a low. Then I end up way too high, bolus for it without checking my BG numbers, and hope I don’t go low again.
To the people saying that being fired because of diabetes management is illegal, you are right. But I have seen people try to prove something like that, and even if you are a spot-on employee, when a company wants to, they find a way to pink slip you. They just have to get more creative to do it, but where there’s a will, you know…
Every time you go to the restroom, test. Unless your desk comes complete with a catheter, this should ensure that you are testing at least a few times during the work day :).
I have had numerous jobs where it was a struggle to attend to my diabetes needs (testing, lows, shots etc) Not to mention deal with sudden emergencies. I found using my pump during those jobs made diabetes easier to manage. Now, I thankfully have a job that is not acute, where I am actually responding to this discussion group, and check my blog a few times a day. Very nice. I hope you do okay with your current job, health is important. What good are you to your co-workers if you crash and burn, so to speak. Cheers.
Trev from the famous blog(I can dream…can’t I) http://www.three2treat.com
Bless you and your valiant mission, lotsofshots.
Of course I wasn’t talking about people like you. I’m sure Mother Theresa and Albert Schweitzer worked long hours, too!!!
I do volunteer work raising money for leukemia research. I’d much rather do that with my extra time than enrich some bloated tick who already has billions, eh?
What you do is priceless. I hope you can re-read my posts and realize I most certainly wasn’t talking about YOU but about the corporate culture in America today.
Hi, I think you skipped over some of the very important “qualifier” words in my posts.
I wasn’t talking about YOU because at the time of my post I had no idea what you did for a living (I didn’t read every other post before posting–my bad.)
I was talking about the corporate culture in America, and how destructive it has become over the past fifty years–especially how real wages (adjusted for inflation) have DROPPED over the years and the corporate expectation now when setting wages is that any family will have TWO wage-earners, not one. They’re heading back to working people outrageously long hours on a suppressed, fixed salary (no overtime pay) – something our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers fought against during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.
I work in software and it is “normal” for people in software to work 70-80 hours per week on salary NOT to help anyone or do anything vital for the welfare or well-being of anyone as YOU do, but strictly to make money for their bosses and their company’s shareholders. Many of these companies don’t even offer stock options anymore. They also bring in a lot of foreign-born workers to suppress wages and keep American-born workers scared for their jobs (docile, compliant, willing to work themselves outrageous hours.)
I understand that this is not your situation, but you are (tangentially) also a victim of this trend. If the pro-corporate, anti-worker types hadn’t eroded services and fought against reasonable taxes, there’d be more people working to help your client base – and more funding for services – and your work-load would be more reasonable, too, while the collective efforts of people like you would be helping even more people.
That said, I am also searching for ways to thrive at work. I find that advance planning is key:
– having a “diabetes kit” that I stock every night before I go to bed helps (Google “Medport” – I love their case for all my diabetic gear). I always have extra test strips, lancets, alcohol swipes, insulin, pen needles, dextrose tabs, etc. on hand at work or anywhere, really;
– packing lunch and snacks that are easy to eat on the run (e.g. Greek yogurt or a small Tupperware of pre-made tuna fish salad or egg salad and some celery sticks) and not being shy about eating when I need to;
– setting alarms in Outlook to remind me to test my BG’s, remind me to eat and remind me to drink water;
– sending myself an e-mail at home with my BG’s and Novolog numbers/times so I can log them later
– letting my boss and closest co-workers know that I’m diabetic so I’ll know that they’ll have my back in an emergency (putting up with a few “diabetic police” comments is worth it, to me)
– taking my backpack with me EVERYWHERE helps me feel more secure. I always have my test kit, emergency glucose, bottled water, cell phone, etc. with me no matter where I am: in a meeting, in the ladies room, walking across campus. I’m always ready for anything.
– testing before I commute home and having a snack if I’m a bit low before I drive.
As far as energy goes, I’m working on MAKING myself lie down and close my eyes, even if I’m too keyed up to sleep. Usually I get better quality rest (and better numbers the next day) if I just lie down even if I’m tense from work. Deep breathing and deep relaxation is restful and restorative, even if it takes a half hour or longer to fall asleep. Diabetics need our rest. It lowers insulin resistance and all those nasty stress hormones (cortisol, etc.)
I happen to LIKE your ball-chair. I think it’s darling and a good idea. I use a balance ball for exercise but I like the idea of sitting on one while working at a desk. It looks like they solved the problem of flopping over during a moment of inattention. ;0)
Well… My job is crazy, in that it’s overnights. It throws off my eating schedule enormously. Postprandial numbers seem okay, as long as I don’t mess up. If I mess up, I pay for it big time. No longer is it 140s, if I mess up, or 160s… it’s 200s, or so.
Temptation is a ■■■■■, right now, too, as our break room… has naughty things EVERY NIGHT. The staff buy ice cream, soda, subs, walking tacos made of doritos, even a candy feast, every night!!! Brownies, and sheet cake have been some of the meals provided on some nights… If I didn’t have meals I bring from home every night, I’d be doomed…
They know I have Diabetes… so they do buy some diet soda… but that’s about the only “healthy” thing they buy… lol They provided us “breakfast” once, and the thing they considered “breakfast” was toaster stroodles (sp?) and pop tarts, with jugs of milk and juice, and sugary cereals. lol Sigh
Ironically, they have some wholistic “Health Campaign for 2011” going on… and a big poster where they ask people what they will do for each aspect of their health, as a change in 2011… I should write “Avoid eating any and all food provided by my employer at break times.” lol
That sounds like an excellent place to start – testing at each potty break.
I LOL’d at the catheter because I worked at one software company where we swore that was the direction they were headed:
– IV drip of glucose, caffeine and electrolyte water
– Catheter
– Shock from the chair when our productivity “lagged”
I worked there for three years without a vacation – getting laid-off from there was another blessing in disguise!
i was fired from rite aid for being unable to maintain my blood sugars. several rescue squad episodes that were caused by not being able to take a break and get a juice or something to eat. i warned them when i was hired that i had unawareness and needed to snack and drink often. their reply when i was fired was that i am a terrific worker, great to work with but they can’t handle the diabetes part of me. i would work sometimes 9-11 hour days without any kind of break except if lucky a 30 minute lunch. i am so upset that they being a pharmacy were not a little bit more sensitive to the subject. hope you have better luck then me.
You could have demanded those breaks, through the ADA… and perhaps, a letter from your doctor. It’s a reasonable accommodation… And if they didn’t want to, you could’ve made a claim against them, through the ADA as well (Americans with Disabilities Act).
I had an employer that didn’t want to give me ANY breaks at all, all day, except for a 15 min break for an 8 hour shift… And when they told me they didn’t want to… I just looked for a new job. No job is worth the stress.
I am pretty sure it is against the law for them to fire you, too… Unless you were outright not wanting to take care of yourself, and you were obviously willing, just not allowed. Idiots.