Category: Type One Entrepreneur

In my final post about Powering Through the Extraordinary, I wanted to talk about powering through growing pains of moving from a small freelance business to gaining more clients and larger clients that require more time which means less time for diabetes management.

In my last post, I talked about the late hours and long stretches of working without any breaks or testing my sugar, but I wanted to dive deeper into that.  With taking on larger projects that may require more strict deadlines, pulling all nighters may not be out of the question.  However, those all nighters are typically bad news for my blood sugar.  It tends to tank throughout the night and then be high during that next day.

Making sure that the work is complete and blood sugar levels are can sometimes be a tough situation.  Planning ahead has made this a lot easier for myself.Knowing that I am going to need a late night, I will check my blood sugar a bit more often to make sure that it’s not all over the place from the stress of trying to beat a deadline.  Not meeting that deadline also means not getting paid which can lead to not getting the supplies I need for proper diabetes management.

By planning ahead, I can make sure that I eat at a certain time and give myself a break at a certain time and be prepared for eating a snack if I feel that my sugar is too low to push through the next task.  There were times where I would keep working until my blood sugar was too low and my work needed to be re-done.  Those days are no longer here.

This was my final post about powering through difficulties that come up from being an entrepreneur with type 1 diabetes. I want to thank Duracell and Accu-Chek for allowing me the opportunity to be a part of this.

**Disclosure: By agreeing to participate in this program Duracell will provide me with batteries and Accu-Chek will provide me with test strips for a month. In return, I will post several times in the month of June about powering through several stressful moments.

This is another post in the Power Through the Extraordinary series.

Being an entrepreneur comes with its ups and downs, just like any profession does, but there are some added stress levels that occur quite too frequently. One of the main issues is, how and where do you get insurance as an entrepreneur, then add to that, when you have type 1 diabetes, it makes it even that much more difficult.

When I first started this venture of running my own business, it was more of a freelance gig, but with a company name for tax purposes, so there was no way that I was getting “company” insurance that way. Keep in mind, I am not married, but that is changing soon.

There was also a point and time where I was receiving COBRA benefits from my previous employer, but there was a really big mishap with that and I lost that coverage almost a year ago.  After that, it left me with no insurance and having to pay for everything out of pocket.  This is where the challenge came about.  As an entrepreneur, I could power through this issue of not having insurance and work harder and grow my business to be able to afford the high costs of living with diabetes.  That is the decision that I made and I knew that I was going to have to work hard to meet the financial levels I needed to.

This led to late nights, long stretches of work with no breaks, missing or skipping meals, forgetting boluses, not testing my sugar.not exercising, etc. I was no beginning to create another problem by trying to solve the initial problem.  I knew that something had to change.  That something was to schedule breaks, create mandatory exercise and meal times and to set a reminder to test my blood sugar.

I have been checking my sugar frequently with the Accu-Chek Nano provided to me to help me power through this obstacle that diabetes has put in my way.

** **Disclosure: By agreeing to participate in this program Duracell will provide me with batteries and Accu-Chek will provide me with test strips for a month. In return, I will post several times in the month of June about powering through several stressful moments.

Accu-Chek and Duracell have partnered together for Power Through the Extraordinary, which is a way to announce their partnership that Duracell will be powering up the Accu-Chek Nano meters from now on.  You may have seen or read about a few other bloggers who have agreed to take part in Powering Through Diabetes.  There are a lot of examples of how you need to power through certain struggles of living with diabetes, especially when you are climbing mountains or running 5K’s.

I have decided to take part in this adventure, but with a little type of adventure, Powering Through Diabetes as an Entrepreneur.

I have written here before a little bit about the struggles that come along with being an entrepreneur with diabetes, so I will be writing a few more blogs this month about getting through certain struggles and hurdles in my daily life of running a business.

**Disclosure: By agreeing to participate in this program Duracell will provide me with batteries and Accu-Chek will provide me with test strips for a month. In return, I will post several times in the month of June about powering through several stressful moments.