This is a good point. When you have diabetes, it forces you at some point to pay attention to it. Being proactive produces better outcomes than being reactive. In fact, the surfing metaphor works well with this point. A surfer up and on the face of the wave, responding to the wave dynamics, expends less energy and is having more fun than the surfer paddling like mad to gain entry to the wave face.
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This ^^^ exactly! My daughter experiences much better outcomes (less variability and better A1cās, plus [and most important] she feels better and more able to live her life to its fullest) when I put the time and effort into proactively managing her T1D, which for me (like Terry4, Jen, Shadow2, and many others) means correcting to a BG of 100 or lower (90 to 95 for my daughter) whenever possible/appropriate. Contrary to what some may think, doing this work does not negatively impact my ability to live a busy, active, and fulfilling life myself. 
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Iām reminded of the motor oil TV commercial from times long past. The argument was to use this motor oil now and save a lot more time and money later. The tag line, delivered by an auto mechanic, was, āPay me now or pay me later!ā
Diabetes taxes our time and other resources. No one escapes this reality. The choice you have is whether to spend time and energy in advance and enjoy better outcomes or simply accept the endless parade of challenges that demand a fix right now.
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Not true, KatieY12!
Dave26 is right: how one lives their life with D (regardless of Type!) is their lifestyle. For example, many who follow a LCHF lifestyle have an easier time managing their BG. Many PWD, (Types 1 and 2 alike) who have a more physically active lifestyle find that this has a positive impact on the management of their D.
@KatieY12, would you please be a bit more careful reading?
For the second time, I said nothing about lifestyle as a cause of diabetes. NOTHING!
I made a very short, simple statement that, if you ācan not control your BG with the lifestyle you lead, you are diabeticā.
Again, simple english. I hope I donāt have to become a middle-school english teacher here, deconstruct the phrase in the quotes above, and explain what is, and is not there in terms of meaning.
Heck, T1 and T2 (and MODY, and gestational andā¦) are not even mentioned.
Katie, you seem to have a chip on your shoulder for some reason to be so blind to simple statements, instead loading them down with all sorts of baggage that simply isnāt there.
@rgcainmd: Rose, Iām not ārightā in that I didnāt say or imply what you and Katie are debating. I DO have an opinion on that matter, but given how this going in this thread, Iāll stay out of it for now.
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Dave26, Iām a little confused. The whole point Iām trying to make is that I agree 100% with the fact that you **didnā**t say or imply anything about lifestyle as a cause of diabetes.
Iāll have to remember in the future to be more careful about how I agree with your postsā¦ 
My badā¦ I should have read your post a little more carefully 
It seems that Katie is having an argument with herself. 
My, such a simple thing has gone so far off the rails! I was simply advocating for a more straightforward (and practical) definition for ādiabetesā. The word ālifestyleā seems to have set off all sorts of jerking knees, much as the word āracismā does.
So, let me restate without that nasty idea, ālifestyleā: A better definition for diabetes is simply ācanāt control your blood sugarā.
There.
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I disagree, Iād suggest and phrase it as, āif oneās body cannot lower or
increase blood sugars on itās own, she/he has diabetesā regardless of
ācause or type or lifestyleā.the diagnosis made by an endo or doctor is
imperative, tooā¦lifestyle has nothing to do with diagnosis for a type
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yes, I agree with thatā¦as I stated, for me it has nothing to do with my lifestyleā¦for me my body cannot control my blood sugars on itās own, canāt lower them, canāt increase themā¦I donāt produce amylin either as my pancreas, as a T1, no longer works.
Youāre doing the same thing here with what Iāve posted that you did with Dave26ās postā¦
I never stated or implied that lifestyle has anything to do with diagnosis! Why do you insist on reading something into what Dave26 and I have posted that simply isnāt there?
Addendum:
āitāsā = it is
āitsā (no apostrophe) = belonging to it
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I think this is where the pump provides some benefitā¦ on MDI I have to really make a conscious decision and weigh all the variables in my mind as best I can to decide if I should correct that 120 (or whatever) or not, then go through a couple actual steps to really make it happen. With the pump it sounds like you can just punch it in and hit go and be on your merry way. I guess I can see the appeal to that.
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Well, it is easier in the sense that it would be difficut or impossible to do a 0.25 unit bolus with a pen. But I still have to weigh every variable and decide if itās something I should do, which is why I donāt do it all the time and (when I do) usually wait for a number thatās more clearly trending high. A lot of the time Iām just trying to stay off the rollercoaster and donāt worry about a reading thatās already solidly in range.
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Setting a goal between 80 and 120 is very aggressive and it would be very hard to even know if you were successful. Glucose meters give a result within 20% of the actual number 95% of the time so that if you only get readings between 80 and 120 you would be pretty sure that you were never outside of a range of 64-144 which in itself would be an extraordinary achievement using bolus insulin.
There are some people who can keep their BG within a very tight range using a variety of strategies and I hope you become one of them. There are also people who live long and happy lives with OK but not control. I hope even more that youāre of those elect even if you do maintain tight control. Itās better to be lucky than smart.
Maurie
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I trust my daughterās Dexcom readings a heck of a lot more than I trust her meter readingsā¦
I would never give a full-on ācorrectionā at 120 (my sonās BG target is 120 so correction would work out to 0), but if heās 120 double arrows up from 80 or 90 and he just ate pancakes or some other carby food I might (but donāt tell my husband, he thinks thatās nuts!) The only other time is if heās going to eat soon, I might set āeating soonā mode or give him 0.1 or 0.2 units of insulin to correct him down to about 80. Thatās only in the mornings or occasionally at dinnertime, when heās woken up with a flat BG profile and not much is going on food-wise or otherwise. During the day at daycare heās usually too deep into the roller coaster to achieve such fine-grained control, and besides I try to not to spend every second at preschool, so I let the openAPS autopilot do its thing.
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And by the way, openAPS will often give temporary high basals even if heās at 80 or 90 or 100 but rising quickly, because of how its predictive model works.
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I would love it if you wanted to start a topic about openAPSā¦ Iāve just recently heard about it and find it absolutely fascinating. I would love to know more and hear all about it.
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I agree with Sam, @Tia_G. Perhaps you could start a thread on the OpenAPS and provide some basic info. What do you think?
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Well, I am not typical. I also have 8 years of experience under my belt. I also am not terribly sensitive to insulinā¦ and typically 1 unit of insulin will drop me about 10 - 15 points.
So I wake up in the morning at 83. I know as soon as I start moving around / go walk the dogs Iāll go up to 95 - 100 or so. So I will inject 1 unit of insulin to try to stop that rise. That is not strictly a correction as a pre-emptive. If I wake up higher, such as this morning at 111. Then 3 units of insulin to hopefully bring me down and cover the rise that will come with moving about. I donāt know how far it went down with that because I didnāt bother to checkā¦
I do intermittent fasting on many days. My target blood sugar is low 80s. So I will do a unit correction once I get to the high 90s.
I am a bit more cautious about correcting post eating, particularly if thereās still bolus on board. And usually wouldnāt correct unless I am over about 110 - 120, unless I was sure there was no fast acting left.
Iām on my last cartridge of levemir and will switch back to Tresiba in about 10 days from now ( I did a 2 month trial of tresiba about 6 months ago and am looking forward to getting back to playing with that). That may well change the gameā¦ and I shall proceed cautiously and with interest.
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Yes, that is the big appeal to me. Trying to tight control, I issue small corrections all day long. Iām OCD enough about it that I will keep correcting until I get to my target, even under 120.
It literally is a few button presses, and with the wireless Omnipod controller (called the Personal Diabetes Manager, HAHA!), itās about like check a text on your smartphone in terms of difficulty/inconvenience.
When I was doing MDI and had a CGM, Iād never do this.
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