If you were going to invite someone to join TuDiabetes; what would you say?
Living well with diabetes takes knowledge, motivation, and persistence. People with diabetes command a wide set of facts about diabetes not usually found in clinicians. I’ve been visiting TuDiabetes for about 10 years. The things I’ve learned from other members have greatly improved my quality of life. It also gives me a good place to share what I know about diabetes. I find it emotionally satisfying helping others with what I’ve learned.
The people I’ve interacted with here are smart and accomplished in their lives. Most importantly, they want to help their fellow members, whether it be with supplying some critical knowledge or just providing emotional support so we never feel all alone.
I stumbled onto Tudiabetes from my Twitter feed and I had no idea that an online support group that wasn’t on Facebook even existed and since I don’t use Facebook that didn’t work for me.
I don’t really know any type 1’s IRL so the subject doesn’t come up and most of the type 2’s I know do not use the internet but if someone I know was having an issue that I couldn’t personally help them with then I would suggest that Tudiabetes is a good place to connect with those who have gone through the same issues and might be able to help problem solve.
I would simply say that I’ve gotten more help, advice, understanding and occasional constructive criticism to help me manage my diabetes and live a healthy life from the DOC, and specifically TuDiabetes, than from any other source - medical, including doctors, nurses, educators, and social. People living with this 24x7 have more valuable experience than all the books/texts/papers out there!
I might add that TUD is a good place to start when diagnosed, especially for T2s. Most D-blogs are T1 centric, so. It’s nice to see a healthy population of T1s& T2s all helping each other giving/getting constructive advice that allows them to have more meaningful conversations with their Dr’s.
I love this site. I’d recommend it to anyone that has diabetes or a caregiver to a diabetic. Great info.
Tu has a wealth of information for insulin dependent diabetics, both 1 and 2.
I don’t generally recommend it to the general T2 population.
I admit it has improved a lot since the days of “everyone needs to be on insulin”.