Managing your diabetes
Why learn about diabetes?
There are many things you can do to manage your diabetes. One of the most important things is to learn about diabetes and the type of diabetes you have. Knowing as much as possible about your diabetes will help you adjust your lifestyle, implement changes to your daily routine and get used to the daily tasks and decisions that is part of managing your diabetes. The more you know, the easier it is to stay in charge and make decisions that will help you to stay healthy.
What do I need to know?
People with diabetes make many decisions every day which will affect their diabetes. These are often simple, every day decisions such as when and what to eat, what sort of shoes to wear and when to fit in the daily physical activity or exercise. Some are decisions necessary for looking after your diabetes such when and how often to monitor blood glucose levels when, remembering to take diabetes medicines and how often to schedule appointments with your doctor. It is important to understand and know:
- How diabetes works
- The role of healthy eating and physical activity in diabetes
- How you can make changes to your lifestyle and introduce daily diabetes self management practices
- The importance of making informed decisions about lifestyle and treatment choices
- How to use diabetes tablets and insulin safely and effectively
- How to monitor blood glucose level at home and use the results in your diabetes self management
- What to do to prevent and treat high and low blood glucose levels
- How being sick or feeling unwell can affect your diabetes and what to do about it
- The risks of developing health problems from diabetes and what can be done to reduce these
- How diabetes can be managed so that you can continue to work, look after your family and be a part of your community
Making an appointment for diabetes education will help you learn about diabetes, decide on a course of action and develop a diabetes self management plan to suit your lifestyle and circumstances.
Where can I find help?
There is much to learn when you have been diagnosed with diabetes. Your diabetes, and therefore your diabetes management, may change from time-to-time. Similarly, as your life and your life’s stages change, your approach to looking after your diabetes will also need adjustment. It can be difficult and confusing and the following pages have information about different aspects of managing your diabetes, but you don’t have to do it all on your own. We recommend that you seek the assistance of your doctor, your Credentialled Diabetes Educator and other members of a diabetes team. To learn more about health care professionals providing services to people with diabetes, please visit the Diabetes Team and the Peer support pages.