Table 1.

Struggling With Their Changing Health Situation

General issues

“It puts time constraints on us … you’re just not free to go out and have a day out to yourself because you always have to think about, I have to take that second shot or second pill.” “You have to plan life around when you get your next meal.” “I don’t do half of the things I used to do.… You can’t go on vacations with people like you used to because you can’t keep up with them…. So I stay home a lot. So then the depression—the whole circle starts again.” “I can’t feel my feet and sometimes I hit the wrong pedal [when driving]—it’s little things that you can’t do anymore or that are hard to do.”

Specific issues

“When I’m feeling like my life is in balance and I’m feeling good about everything, I’m in control and it’s easier for me to be in control.” “You don’t control the stress level; you don’t control your sugar.” “Once you remove the structure, everything flies out and then your numbers are all over the place.” “We know how to control our diabetes by eating and taking our medications and that way, diabetes don’t get us; we get the diabetes.” “The bottom line, I think, is control. Because to control the diabetes is to control yourself.”