Think like a Pancreas
By Gary Scheiner
My name has been confused for Gary more times than I care to remember.
Despite this drawback, I’m willing to look past it and highly recommend this book by an American CDE (Certified Diabetes Educator).
Even though the title is bad advice when it comes to choosing a career, dating, driving a car, etc. Scheiner gave me a lot of useful knowledge into understanding how a pancreas reacts to all the stuff thrown at it every hour of every day. Probably my favourite t1d book.
Highlights
Author having t1d himself.
Explaining the difference between basal and bolus insulin.
How to fine-tune mealtime insulin (eg getting enough info, watching out for things that might contaminate the info).
Adjusting insulin for different types of exercise.
Timing of injections.
Conclusion
It goes into a lot of detail, and there’s a lot of fine-tuning. Still, any t1der can get useful ideas from the book. I think I overdid trying to get ‘perfect’ blood sugars using the book, instead of appreciating getting ‘pretty good’ blood sugars.
Overall, the book helped me understand how complex the pancreas’ job is, and how to be a bit smarter in my methods.