Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Sometimes It's the Little Things That Get Us

It occurred to me as I was sending an instant message to my husband (during the work day) about a roller coaster of a blood sugar day; that sometimes it's the little things that we deal with as people with Type 1 diabetes that add up and make us want to scream.  Not that the big things don't get to us to, but it feels like those are easier to explain and possibly easier for the outside world to understand.

The little things, you ask?
Like today:  my blood sugar quickly dropped from 125 to 59.  Just as I was eating  lunch.  My hands shook, I felt dizzy.  In my head I knew that the food I was consuming for my lunch would kick in, yet I still gobbled down some Skittles. And as expected my blood sugar went higher than it should have post meal.  So. Annoying.  More annoying? Is that I bolused correctly for everything.  Then low again a few hours later.

Or like that time my jabber, I mean lancing device fell to the bottom of my purse and I couldn't find it so I manually poked my finger with the lancet.  Then found it as soon as I was done.

Or how about having to eat when you aren't hungry because your blood sugar is low?  Or eating to bring your blood sugar up before working out which you  are doing in hopes of losing weight?  Or eating after the workout because something went awry with the temporary basal you set on your pump before working out?

Or being convinced you were given regular Coke not diet Coke despite the server confirming.  And your blood sugar spiking later because you were right.

Or snagging your insulin pump tubing on the doorknob and the infusion set that you just put in gets pulled out.

Most of us laugh these things off since they are somewhat trivial in the day in the life of a Type 1 diabetes.  But they are annoying. And when more than one happen in the matter of a few hours, it makes you want to scream.