TuDiabetes

Does the DOC ever end? I’ve joined TuDiabetes recently, where I have discovered a whole new world of People With Diabetes to connect with. I’d heard of the name before, but I had no idea what it was. And it wasn’t until a prompt from my friend Rick at RADiabetes a few weeks back that I decided to join.

The biggest drawcard of TuDiabetes for me would have to be the forums, which are filled with lively, supportive discussions relating to almost anything I can think of. Chances are that if you have a question, there is probably already a discussion going on about it over on TuDiabetes. And while I’m hardly qualified to give advice, here are a few words of encouragement I’ve left in the forums recently.

In response to feelings of weakness and self defeat:

“Firstly, don’t compare yourself to others. You are your own unique, wonderful person. I’m sure that those other T1Ds have their own struggles. You probably just don’t see them, or they don’t show it in public. If anybody said diabetes was easy all of the time, they’d be lying. Secondly, don’t think of those setbacks as defeat. Think of it as knowledge you’ve gained that you can apply to the situation next time to ensure you won’t have a setback again.”

In response to not feeling human (which actually inspired last week’s post A Letter to My 17 Year Old Classmates):

“I was diagnosed a week out from my 18th birthday. Everyone else was out drinking, doing Shisha, living off Red Bull and generally abusing their bodies. And yet I was the good, sensible guy who ended up with diabetes. I get it.

Unfortunately, having diabetes means constantly having to field questions about why you’re not having cake or why you look so miserable. There’s no point in setting boundaries, because people aren’t going to remember. My best advice would be to come up with a strategy to deal with these questions, such as politely declining the cake, or politely telling the in laws you don’t feel like talking about diabetes today. Don’t let it bother you, because we all get those “stupid questions” all the time. And they only do it because they care (I know, I have a hard time believing it sometimes too!)

Finally, don’t be too hard on yourself. Diabetes is ALWAYS changing, and sometimes diabetes is more to blame when things go wrong.”

Another big drawcard of TuDiabetes is the interviews and other interactive activities which I can live stream from my computer if I so wish to. Sadly, the majority of these events happen while I’m fast asleep in the early hours of the morning! Ditto for the chat feature, which is pretty much like Facebook chat. I have my own profile page, which displays my latest activity. There are also diabetes resources and fact sheets at my disposal too.

I know what you’re thinking – another social network? My thoughts exactly. Blogging and Twitter take up a lot of my DOC time, so I only check into TuDiabetes occasionally. However, many people do get their source of DOC support from TuDiabetes, and perhaps you will too.

You can sign up for TuDiabetes at www.tudiabetes.org.

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