Meet IDS patient Anastasia Wasylyshyn, MD.
She is an Infectious Disease Doctor and has had type 1 diabetes since 2002
Q: What brought you to IDS?
A: Gary trained me on my first insulin pump back in 2003 at DuPont Children’s Hospital. That’s how we got
hooked up.
Q: Who have you worked with at IDS?
A: Gary, exclusively.
Q: What challenges did you have with your diabetes that you were able to work through?
A: I think medical residency was one of the most challenging periods of my life– 24-hour shifts, night calls, emergencies. My schedule would change every week, and there were a lot of situations where I could not let my blood sugar get in the way. I was weirdly reluctant to use a CGM until then but finally gave it a try. It literally changed my life. It allowed me to focus on my job instead of worrying about my blood sugar.
Q: What do you do in life that is easier or better since you’ve worked with Integrated Diabetes Services?
A: I spend all day thinking about and helping other patients. The last thing I want to do is analyze my own data and make a ton of decisions about my own care. Working with IDS means that I can jettison that mental effort/responsibility/care plan to another human that I trust so that I don’t have to treat myself
like a patient. I really like being able to have monthly check-ins, review of data, and recommended changes.
Q: What new skills/strengths have you been able to build in your diabetes management?
A: Adding relatively low-effort routines that make a difference – like setting up the weekly Dexcom Clarity summaries, and planning ahead for exercise.
Q: What would you say to someone who’s struggling with their diabetes management right now?
A: A significant portion of my professional life is treating patients with complications from diabetes. It only gets harder to dig out as things start piling up. I would encourage you to try to pinpoint one thing specifically that sucks, and how can you make that take up less brain power to get back on track. If it feels like you’re stuck in the same routine, check out some of the new technology and consider a switch to see if that helps. If it is diet/exercise, consider meeting with a nutritionist or personal trainer to see if there is a new avenue that you haven’t considered before. Everybody in the world is dealing with something about their health that bothers them, so you’re really not in this alone.
Q: What are your hopes for diabetes management in the future?
A: Give me a fully closed loop system! Or make islet cell transplantation/survival actually viable.
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