Episode 35: How Our Lives are Affected by COVID-19

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This is our take on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting us, and how it's affecting our diabetes. We're all dealing with uncertainty, and we're in what Brene Brown calls the "Tough First Time" (though she uses stronger language for her adult audience). This is new for everyone on the planet.

We talk about it in this and in a future episode that COVID-19 does NOT make us more at risk as type 1 diabetics.

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While young, well-controlled Type 1 Diabetics are supposedly not more at-risk of getting it, we ARE more at risk of developing complications and not fighting it off as well as otherwise healthy adults. This is because having high blood sugars reduces our immune response and makes it more likely we’ll have difficulty fighting off sickness.

Gandalf's Relevant Advice

Wins & Fails

Jessie's Win: Jessie has established a regular blood sugar checking schedule for her time in quarantine/lockdown.

Colleen's Fail: I have failed to consolidate all my diabetes supplies to one supplier. It's a hassle to get things from 3 different places, and it's on me to get the two third-party distributors down to just one.

Hack of the Week

If you use hand sanitizer before testing your blood sugar, wait for it to dry! If you test when it's still wet, it could give a false high reading.

Diabetes Spotlight

Our spotlight this week is on Levi Davenport, an up-and-coming YouTuber whose channel is called Between Two Lines. He makes some pretty funny videos about life with Type 1, including a two-parter on if your low blood sugar could talk—the first of which went viral and I’ve even shared it on the Facebook page for This is Type 1.

On St. Patrick’s Day, Levi released a video about what Type 1 Diabetics should focus on in the panic about COVID-19. It’s an informative video and the advice is pretty simple: take care of your diabetes! Besides all the hygiene measures, that’s the best thing we can do to help keep ourselves—and others—safe.