Finish the sentence:

"I wish my doctors told me..."

I wish my doctors told me the honest truth: that I am the one in charge of my health, not them.

When I was first diagnosed, I listened so intently to my doctors' orders that I would put myself at risk all the time of overdosing insulin and more. I didn't realize, until about 19 years old (5 years after diagnosis) that I'm the one who knows my body the best- not them.

I wish my docs told me about the new technologies without my asking.

I do all of my own research now. If it weren't for my research, I'm sure I'd still be on two shots per day of NPH, mixed with Regular

I wish my docs told me that I can become resistant to insulin and that my dosages will increase... causing my weight to increase by association.

I'm not talking big pounds here (just ten or so) but for years I thought it was ME who was to blame. I thought that I'd suddenly started eating too much, or not exercising enough... when in reality I was doing everything the same as always... just I was taking more and more Levemir and Humalog... until I switched brands. I'm almost back to normal now.

I just felt so guilty for so long- I cried with relief when I found out it wasn't my fault.

I wish my docs told me how hard it was going to be every day.

They always gave the positive spin on it that it's really no big deal and that diabetics can live "normal" "healthy" lives.

But, no one told me that it's also completely NORMAL to have to struggle every day to get the dosages right- that almost EVERYTHING affects my BG and that I have to be proactive VS reactive.

If they had told me to expect it to be hard, I wouldn't feel so self-loathing when I just simply had a BAD day.

What a great question.  I'll have to think of some good ones. 

1.  That just prior to menses my insulin requrements go up. 

2.  When I changed from Regular and NPH to Humalog and Lantus, how quickly it starts working, when it peaks, and that after 3 hours, only 10% is left.  I wasn't really reeducated when I was switched.

3.  With humalog or novalog, if you have a high fat / high protein meal (like Thanksgiving dinner, or pizza), you might need multiple boluses to keep your blood sugar from going too high or two low. 

4.  My doctor didn't know how long levimir lasts, and when it peaks.  I later read that there is no definite answer, because it can change based on how much you take.

5.  Weight gain / loss affect insulin requirements.

6.  It is impossible to be perfect.  We need to do the best we can, and strive for perfection.  Nobody is perfect.  This created some self esteem issuse, b/c no matter how good I was, I always feltl like a failure. 

I agree with you completely. My doctor tells me some of these things, but for sure there are always lots of things left for you to figure out on your own. Sometimes it feels like you're fighting a losing battle, but tomorrow is always a new day. I also agree that we must be proactive instead of reactive, but that is hard to do sometimes. I end up on the rollercoaster of diabetes mainly because I tend to be more reactive than proactive. I always feel like I should be doing alot better managing my diabetes than what I am, but at the end of the day, I guess all we can really do is do our best to manage our diabetes.

just the opposite!  my a1c  went up he had the nerve to look in my face and tell me "I thought you would be my star diabetic,guess I was wrong" I cried the entire day