Understanding how diabetes affects your body can help you identify problems and learn how to solve them. But you can't plan for every situation you may face. Problem-solving skills can help you prepare for the unexpected, and are an important part of your diabetes care.

Your diabetes educator and doctor can help you develop these skills. Some of the most important problem-solving skills for diabetes self-care are learning how to recognize and react to high and low blood glucose levels, and learning how to manage sick days.

What would you do?

Think about how the following situations may affect you - and about what steps you could take to maintain proper control of your diabetes in similar situations. Talk wtih you care team about these and other potential challenges. Work together to come up with solutions:

• You get the flu and notice that your blood glucose levels are not normal. What do you do?
• While on vacation, you don't have access to a gym or time for exercise. How will you handle this?
• You have a hard time finding healthy food choices within your family's cultural or taste preferences. What steps can you take?