Discussion:
I never really knew how being a diabetic could control how you spend your time throughout the day, every day, of your entire life until I have had to actually witness the struggles my cousin went through with juvenile diabetes, my dog being diagnosed with diabetes, my father being diagnosed in his 60's as a Type 2 Diabetic and living with my significant other who is an uncontrolled Type 1 Diabetic. With all of these, I have become much more knowledgeable with this disease that so many people and animals have had starting when I was a child. This disease is when your pancreas will produce either a little or no insulin and in order to live, you need to put insulin in your body on a daily basis.
My cousin and I were the same age and I can remember to this day how this illness controlled his short-lived life. Diabetes played a major factor and in the last couple years he literally lived in a hospital. Shortly after the passing of my cousin, my dog was starting to have some problems and the vet had told me that he had diabetes. I had to make sure that I had needles and insulin on hand as he needed shots on a daily basis for the rest of his life.
When my father was diagnosed with diabetes at an older age I actually went with my parents to an information session to gain knowledge of this chronic illness. Now here I had my father, who has since I can remember, had a sweet tooth being told that he should not be eating the half of cake or the entire box of Little Debbie brownies when he awakes in the middle of the night for a snack. Yeah, right! He had to keep a good watch with himself when he was home alone by trying to maintain normal blood sugar levels. There were two instances where I was with my father and his blood sugar level dropped rather fast whereas he did not even realize what was happening and became unconscious. It is rather scary the first couple times something like this happens I will say.
Now, as for with my significant other who has had this illness since his 20's, diabetes is also the reason as to why he was diagnosed with End Stage Renal Disease (kidney failure) and glaucoma. His diabetes is more of an uncontrolled type of trying to maintain normal blood sugars, heck, there have even been times when he was in the hospital for a couple days and they could not even maintain his levels. As he has been living in my house the last couple years, I have been able to figure out as to when his blood sugars are extremely low just by watching his actions. It almost seems like he has been drinking all day, his eyes are glassy, he is wobbly when trying to walk, and even will talk with a slur.
But the point that I am trying to make is there are many control mechanisms influencing in how diabetics spend their time, including the people around them. You have to know what amount of insulin to give yourself is your blood sugar meter is reading "HI" which means it is over 599 or any number for that matter, you need to know what to do when your meter is telling you a lower number such as "34", and whoever is around you need to also know everything I just mentioned and what to do when a diabetic is not responding as you need to get their blood sugar level back up as soon as possible. Then you have the understanding of what types of foods and drinks are best for you as your diet is extremely important along with exercising.
Just from my experiences, I would say that there are complexities of controlled mechanisms influencing how a diabetic spends their time.