For those of you that have neglected to read my “about” page, (wink, wink) I have type 1 diabetes. I am coming up now on 19 years since my diagnosis. It is important to me to raise awareness, but at the same time, I don’t talk about it very much. Or more specifically, I don’t COMPLAIN about it very much. I try not to. This is the hand I was dealt, and I am managing it the best I can. However, if you don’t want to hear a bit of a T1D rant, I suggest you stop reading now…
Every diabetic at some time or another, even the most well-managed ones, will have a bad diabetes day. The dia-monster has come out to play with no warning and no explanation, and is here to wreak havoc on your day. The monster is alive and ready to play. And he does not play fair. That was my day yesterday, and today. He brings me up, then down, then up, then down, crashing (well, bouncing really) over and over again.
I woke up low, 52. I drank some juice, took the drama tween to school, and came home. Blood sugar now in the 60’s. Drank some more juice and was feeling super nauseated, so I went back to bed. Flash forward 3 hours later, and I wake up, test, and am horrified at the number: 234. What?! Why?! Seriously? So, I bolus the appropriate amount, eat some lunch, and everything seems to be semi-stable for now.
About 5:30pm I drop again. Inevitably, while I’m driving, and of course do not have any glucose tablets with me. Well played, diabetes. Well played. I manage to make it home and proceed to eat half a jar of peanut butter. (In hind sight, this wasn’t my best decision, but when I over-treat my lows, it’s not pretty!) At this point I’m feeling super cranky and terrible. And then for the rest of the night, I just stay high. I try to sleep, with no success.
So I go out to the couch around 1:45 and turn on the tv. It’s astounding how terrible late-night tv is. Needless to say, I was pretty bored. (Hence the title about counting my teeth lol) But no rest for the weary. Gotta keep checking, gotta keep bolusing. At this point I have switched to injections just to get back to normal. (A 2:00am reading of 502 definitely kicked me into gear on that one!)
And then before I know it, it’s 6am again and time to get the morning started. I get everything done, blood sugar still in the 200’s, bolus some more, and go back to bed. Wake up at 11:00 still in the 200’s. At this point I change out my pump infusion site. Probably should have already done that, but I had JUST put on a new one. Those things are like gold ya’ll! Can’t be just wasting them!
As I type this post it is 6pm and my blood sugar is now 105. 36 hours later, I finally have an acceptable reading. Now comes the fear of another serious drop, but I’ll cross that bridge if and when I come to it. And I still have no idea what caused all that. I didn’t do anything or eat anything out of the ordinary, and the pump seemed to be functioning fine. But what I’ve come to learn with the dia-monster is that sometimes you can do everything right and you’re still gonna have days like this! It’s just a way of life with a chronic illness. What I also realize is that I may be chronically ill, but I’m also chronically awesome!
In closing I will just say, try to remember that we are all dealing with something. Just because I don’t talk about my struggles with T1D that much and play it off like it’s no big deal, doesn’t mean it isn’t a daily struggle for me to manage this horrible disease. It’s 24/7, 365. It never quits. And so, neither do I!
whineandsparkle 