Diabetes type 2 affects millions of people in the United States and if you are like me it affects you personally. Maybe this diagnosis was expected. Perhaps you began to experience some of the common symptoms of diabetes type 2 such as increased appetite, thirst, and frequency of urination or you noticed a change in your vision so you used resources such as the internet or you asked a friend in the healthcare field and therefore you were not completely surprised to receive your diagnosis. On the other hand, maybe you never saw it coming. Either way you are now aware that you have diabetes type 2 and your life will be changing. It is the hope of this website that you can use the information found here to help you adjust to your diagnosed condition. Despite having degrees in nursing and clinical laboratory science I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information I was expected to process about diabetes. Unlike most people in the United States I had at my disposal a large number of experts I could consult and learn from each day that I went to work at the hospital. If I had a question about my eating habits and what foods to consume and which to avoid I could contact Registered Dieticians who worked down the hall. If I found myself wondering what some of the confusing information that accompanied my new prescriptions meant for my daily life I would ask one of the Pharmacists, and the first time I took my new prescriptions and did not eat during my entire shift, which caused my blood sugar to drop, there was a Physician less than 20 feet from me who directed my coworkers actions to raise my blood sugar and educated me after I returned to a normal state of functioning on the dangers of not eating as I should when taking prescription medication meant to reduce my blood sugar levels. My experience though is atypical. That is why I wanted to create a website for newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics. Most people do not have experts on diabetes right around the corner for at least a third of their day, and many do not have a background in healthcare. I wanted to provide as much information as I could without overwhelming someone who wanted to become more familiar with the disease and the many aspects of life that the disease intersects, and let’s face it, it is overwhelming when you are first diagnosed. This website is broken up into resource tabs that provide either direct information about the disease and how it affects a person or gives links to follow that contain more in-depth information than I could assemble here and still keep the information simple and manageable. At the top of the page you will find these tabs. There is a glossary/dictionary of terms frequently associated with diabetes, a list of questions to review that you might need to ask your healthcare provider in order to better understand your disease, a place to explore medications that are prescribed for diabetics through website links created by experts, lessons on food label assessment (which every diabetic should learn), businesses that cater to a low carbohydrate lifestyle plus other links to institutions that can help teach diabetics about other life skills that need to be developed, and a link to my Pinterest page which has nothing on it but recipes that every type 2 diabetic can consume plus some information about sugar substitutes and food. Please keep in mind that any information obtained here which contradicts information provided by your healthcare provider (Physician, Nurse Practitioner, or Physician’s Assistant) should be dismissed. You and your healthcare provider are in this journey together and their advice should be considered correct if it conflicts with anything you find on this site. I hope that this resource helps someone out there in cyberspace who feels as helpless as I did when I was diagnosed, because that is the entire purpose of this site.
