Diabetic-Forum.net

Where to even start...?

And that is the point, you don't know where.

When someone is newly diagnosed with diabetes, where should their educational journey begin? Sure, there is the inevitable hospital stay, and the chat with a doctor, and possibly a self-injection tutorial (for the insulin requiring crowd), but what is the next step... after the hospital scene?

I remember sitting in my hospital bed and trying to wrap my head around the situation of being newly diagnosed. I couldn't let myself be scared because I didn't know what kind of situation I was entering. I didn't know what I should be afraid of, if anything. So I took it day by day, focused on the tasks at hand. Willing the needle into my stomach while the nurse coached me through, internally deciphering the odd feeling of a low blood sugar, calmly wondering what was next...

My journey started with the tiny booklets that I brought home from the hospital. I filled in the meal records and tallied up carb counts (actually carb exchanges at that time... which didn't last long), followed by insulin doses, and times. It was literally "by the book" at first. Then I ventured online to see what else was out there. And let me tell you, a lot of what's out there is very repetitive and dry. I finally got a more thorough perception of what I was dealing with when I stumbled upon personal blogs of diabetics, and entire online communities dealing with the topic of diabetes.

I finally got an overview of what so many people deal with every day. It helped paint a picture of what worked in the life of a diabetic and also what didn't work.  All of which came from the virtual mouths of the people who experienced it every day. By seeing the individual routines, product viewpoints, and personal stories of these people, I was able to shape my own life with diabetes. And in many cases, the online community gave me a launching pad to further discuss topics with my endocrinologist.

Where does a newly diagnosed person with diabetes start? Tell me where you started.

And if someone close to your heart was newly diagnosed... where would you send them to be able to understand this disease and the daily upkeep of dealing with it?