5 Tips When Starting a New Job with Diabetes

Working for two straight days, I’m definitely not used to this.  I haven’t worked over 16 hours in a two day period in a very long time.  This makes managing and planning things out for my diabetes a lot more important.  For the past 9 months, I have been on my own schedule.  When I was consulting with Volvo, I was making my own hours and when I worked from home I obviously made my own hours.  I haven’t worked a salary job since I worked for that joke of a diabetes, well it’s actually like a pet store now, but that’s besides the fact.  I love my new job, it is effin’ awesome if I must say.  The people are awesome, the office is cool, and I love doing what I do, so how can you argue with that?

I haven’t had many diabetes talks with people yet.  I mentioned it to several people and they at least knew what diabetes was, not sure if they knew all the ins and outs, but I didn’t get into any of that.  I decided to make a list of my 4 tips for going to work with diabetes.

1. Be Prepared – being prepared has to do with several things.  Make sure you have candy or glucose tabs to eat just in case your blood sugar goes low. Also, I work 45 minutes from home, so going home to insert a new infusion set is just not going to happen, so bring along an extra vial of test strips and an extra set, reservoir, and insulin.
2. Take time to test – I work an office job, meaning that I sit at my computer for pretty much 7 hours a day.  From time to time I need to take a break to get a fresh start, so why not test my blood sugar?  While at work, I test every 2 hours, so 4 times while I am there.  This helps me prevent any lows before meetings or drive home.
3. Take a walk – once again, if you are sitting down all day, take a 5 minute walk.  This will help circulate the blood through your body because you know as a diabetic, we have some issues with blood flow, don’t know if you have heard that yet.
4. Let people know – Don’t be afraid to let people know that you have diabetes.  Wouldn’t your rather somebody in the office know what to do in case your blood sugar goes low?  Or would you rather keep quiet and then if something happens, nobody knows what the hell to do?

Have a great day everybody!