Monday, May 10, 2010

A Typical Day In Living A Life With Diabetes???

"A Typical Day in The Life With Diabetes" was the first assignment for Diabetes Blog Week.

Hmmm, not as easy as it sounds. Diabetes is never the same disease two days in row. What works for me on Monday, might not work for me on Tuesday, even if my blood sugar numbers and activities are similar.

Life with the Big D is a balancing act requiring us to precariously balance blood sugar numbers - both high and low, carbs, ratios, activities, doorknobs attracting pump tubing, the occasional appearance of ketones, and the every so sneaky attack known as Murphy's Law.

I've written the analogy before, life with diabetes is a circus of sorts, a theater of both the absurd and required. And like all good theater, every performance is slightly different.

A typical day requires me to jump through diabetes hoops and be flexible and diligent at the same time.
And every day, typical or not, requires me to test my blood sugars, over and over, and over and over, and over and over, and over and over and over and over, and over and over, and over and over again.

A typical day requires me to triple check my work bag to make sure I have back ups of everything. And by everything I mean; pump supplies, test strips, lancets- OK, who am I kidding? I may bring back up lancets, but I rarely use them. Back to the check list, extra insulin, two Lara bars, pump batteries, and a penny- not for luck, but to unscrew the lid on my pump so I can replace the battery.

On any given day, I know that when I least expect it I'll run into a Cappo in the Diabetes Police who will lecture me (for my own good of course,) on Diabetes management, etiquette, and the likes there of - and will most certainly get it wrong. I prep myself to keep my cool, except of course, when I throw caution to the wind and my "cool" out the window and rip said Diabetes Police a new one!

And lastly, I prepare myself on a daily basis to expect both the expected and the unexpected- and roll with it. Because by rolling with the diabetes tide instead of against it, I not only keep what little sanity I have left, but end up with the diabetes upper hand....at least for the moment at hand~

12 comments:

Rachel said...

Ahh, some k2 humor for the first assignment. :)

Meri said...

I love the circus analogy! There are so many things going on at one given time, it's hard to concentrate!

George said...

It's like our days equal 2 or 3 of a non-D's day. We have so much to worry and think about. It is ridiculous!

Reem said...

i <3 you kelly! great post---and i love larabars for lows, too. especially cinnamon, mmmm ;)

Kellys Blogs said...

See what happens when I don't have a job? I miss the fun stuff!!
Love this! Sigh.....we are circus performers. *clink

Crystal said...

I'd fit right in at a circus, for sure.

No two days are alike, no matter how hard we try. So I don't. Ha. :-)

Karen said...

LOL, yupm when I finally sat down to write my post, my first thought was "what was I thinking?? Typical day? No such thing!" Ah well, thank you for understanding exactly what I was going for and telling it in your own wonderful way!

meanderings said...

We get to keep our sanity? Yay!

Seriously - when I'm having a not so good week, I don't panic as I know from reading you and everyone else, that I'm normal. Or at least as normal as a PWD can be.

Anonymous said...

"Rolling with it" is such an important element of living with diabetes. One I could be a little better at.

Molly said...

Great post! I always say that diabetes causes me to not be able to live spontaneously. There's always so much checking... supplies, blood sugar, low food. Argh.

Unknown said...

You are so right! Describing a "typical" day is hard! Your post made me chuckle more than a couple times though, so you get flying colors for this assignment!

Cherise said...

"roll with the diabetes tide instead of against it" I <3 this! Your post made me smile...over and over and over again.