Diabesties | College Diabetes Network

Download Diabesties, search for it in the App Store today!

Join the Facebook group and find a diabestie!

Description

Track, share, support. Diabesties is a blood glucose monitoring tool and one-to-one social support network designed specifically for people managing diabetes. Diabesties allows two friends to track all of their important blood glucose information with an intuitive diabetes tracking tool, and support one another through private, secure, one-to-one conversations.

Features:

Intuitive, easy to use BG tracker
Private, secure, one-to-one messaging
Custom blood glucose target ranges
Elegant, straightforward log entries
Exportable tracking data
Emoti-tags for entries and posts
Private notes
Meaningful support between two Diabesties

Diabesties was a concept originally started on campus in a CDN chapter. It has now been developed into an iPhone application by Ayogo.

Diabesties History

Sam, Jo and Natalie met at Wellesley College in the winter of 2011. The three girls instantly hit it off and agreed that it was time to take responsibility and to hold each other accountable to live healthily with Type 1 diabetes. They became diabesties. Each were desperate for friends who understood what they were going through each day. Almost immediately, they started texting each other each time they checked their blood glucose levels (i.e. wake-up, pre and post meals, exercise and bedtime). They finally had other diabetics on campus to look out for them: to call about a tough day, to have low food supplies in different places on campus, and to calculate carbohydrate counting during meal time.

Let’s face it, there’s something special about talking to another diabetic who deals with it every day. When you get older, you don’t want parents telling you what to do, so, here’s a way for diabetics to look out for each other. This relationship was so helpful to each of the students that they decided to share what they were doing with every diabetic they knew. They created a Facebook group called Diabesties and added every young adult living with type-1 diabetes that they knew. Soon the group turned into a forum for young adults to find each other, talk about hot topics, and to feel normal. On that same note, they reached out to other students on their campus and started the Wellesley College CDN chapter.

Diabesties Quotes

Getting advice from other diabetics makes it 1) less embarrassing / stressful, 2) more relevant and real and 3) makes you feel included in a community, instead of feeling like someone who is just diseased.

… the fact is that we are, for the most part, normal. We have no disadvantage intellectually or physically (as long as we take care of ourselves). Emotionally we have actually have an advantage: we know what it’s like to have a chronic illness, and are more well-rounded and deeper people as a result. Most importantly, we get to show the world the strength each and every one of us has within us. We do have a significant obstacle. But when we overcome it, as all of us has in order to be a healthy member of this group, we get to show fortitude and inspire those around us.

It’s the different from getting advice from your parents on how to do well in a class that you are failing, that they’ve never taken, versus studying with someone who is in the class with you. Diabesties share each other’s strengths, weaknesses, frustrations, and commonalities. In the end, you just don’t feel so alone.