I am 16 years old and I have had diabetes since the age of five. My A1c right now is about 13.3. For me that is a normal A1c, sarcastically speaking. My sugars are never in normal range. I go to school full time, work full time five days a week and go to dance classes every Monday. I am a very busy teen.

I have been in and out of facilities to help me better take care of my health. I have been in about five or six treatment programs. For the most recent program, I had to go down to Cumberland Hospital in New Kent, Virginia where I stayed for six months in an in-patient program to help take control of my diabetes and receive on campus therapy and other additional help that I had needed. I was discharged from the program on March 1, 2005. I was taking care of myself properly for about the first two months after my release.

I am relapsing back into my old habits. Why do I keep doing this? Do I need to keep going into programs to get myself under control? Is there anything else I can do to keep my sugars stable?

It sounds like you have been struggling with diabetes for a long time. It also sounds like you do well in your diabetes care when you have a number of people in your life supporting you and helping you. The times that you struggle the most seem to be the times when you are trying to care for your diabetes by yourself. Diabetes is not something anyone can handle by themselves, without support from others. Although people that don’t live with diabetes may think it’s easy to check blood sugars and get insulin injections, anyone who has lived with diabetes knows that the burden is much greater than that, and that sometimes it’s exhausting. So, please figure out who there is in your life that can be on your team, that can help you when you need it. Some people may check your blood sugars with you. Others might help you get your insulin. Some might be available to give you a hug. The more people you have on your team, the better off you’ll be. You may also enjoy reading the book Diabetes Burnout by William Polonsky. It’s published by ADA and describes some of the struggles you’ve had.

JWB