What Diabetes Decisions do I make in a Day???

In an attempt to bring more awareness to Diabetes and how it affects our daily lives the, Diabetic Social Media Advocasy, DSMA for short, does a monthly Blog Carnival with posts from people with diabetes, or taking care of someone with diabetes, asking thought provoking questions.



This month’s Blog Carnival question is, “What types of decisions and frequency of diabetes related decisions do you make in any given day?”






I read someones post that was in a timeline format and I liked it so that's what I'm going to do as well. So here goes my day ; )





6:30 am This is when my alarm goes off to make sure my daughter's alarm went off. Though before I walk upstairs to her room I first must evaluate how I feel, do I feel low? I don't want to trapes upstairs with a low blood sugar and make it worse. Today I was good so I went to make sure she was up. Crawled back in bed for 30 minutes or so then got up to make her some breakfast and to see her and my husband off.





To go back a little I woke up at 4:00am for no reason, which is unusual, before my diagnosis it happened all the time, but once I got diagnosed and started getting the insulin I needed I started sleeping through most nights. I didn't feel low so I didn't check my blood, so I laid there for a while trying to go back to sleep, more about this later.





7:30 am Got on the computer, to go on Twitter and read some blogs, totally a diabetes decision, since most of the people I follow are diabetics. In the back of my mind is the fact that sitting still will raise my blood sugar. My mouth was already feeling a little dry so I knew I was probably already a little above my range of 70-150.





8:22 am Started feeling hungry, yes actual hunger not that low blood sugar feeling. I think my stomach might have actually growled so I got up and started deciding what I wanted for breakfast. First what do I want, I decided on 1/2 a Whole Wheat English Muffin w/Smart Balance margarine, 1 slice bacon, 1 fried egg, 1 c fat free milk, and 2 ozs strawberries, total carbs 30.





8:40 am Wait, don't forget to wash hands, the juice from the strawberries could cause the test to be inaccurate. I tested my blood sugar, just as I suspected a little high 171, I figure I woke up a little on the high side because of waking up at 4:00 am. I think my liver decided to produce a little extra glucose to get myself up and going. Anyway back to breakfast, I injected 1 unit of Novolog, fast acting insulin for the 30 carbs I was about to eat, as that is my current approximate insulin to carb ratio, and I also gave an additional .5 unit to correct the 171 and bring it down to 80-100 hopefully. I only correct at meal times. I don't correct in between, as I don't want to stack insulin doses, and without a pump it's too much math to try to figure out how much insulin I have on board. And besides that would be more shots, who wants that. Breakfast was delish by the way.





9:40 am Getting ready for a walk, is this a diabetes decision, yes and no. I should walk anyway whether I had diabetes or not, it's good for me and my dog, however the diabetes is what gives me the kick in the pants to actually go do it. I decide not to check my blood sugar because I just ate, my insulin hasn't had time to peak, and for me history shows that if I'm going to go low due to my insulin, it will happen at about the 2 hour mark when my insulin should be peaking and I will be home before that. Now having said that I do pack a backpack with my blood glucose meter, glucose tablets, glycogen kits just in case. Also, some non-diabetic items, plastic bag for Bentley's business, iphone set on Pandora, and off I go.







10:47 am My 2 hour post meal blood sugar check, it was 130 yeah!!!!! Between the extra insulin and the walk it is coming down. Ok, I'm off to go do some housework. I'll be back, you can count on that.






12:30 pm YEAH, my husband came home for lunch. Oh sorry, guess that's not d-related, stay focused ; )







1:15 pm What's for lunch? Decided on a grilled ham and cheese w/tomato sandwich on whole wheat, with 1 slice American cheese and one wedge of Laughing Cow spread on both slices of bread, the Laughing Cow makes it so creamy, 1 c salad w/1 T Newman's Own Light Balsamic, and 48 grams of diced apples w/some Smart Balance margarine, cinnamon and Splenda, warmed in the micro, ooohhh it is so good, reminds me of apple pie. Total carbs 42.







1:40 pm Tested my blood sugar, as I have no idea what to do till I know what that number is. It's a good number 119, no need to correct, just bolus for the carbs I'm going to eat. I injected 1.5 units of fast acting insulin, since I am going to eat 12 carbs over my insulin to carb ratio of 30. After all that rigamarol, now I can eat. Sandwich was awesome.







3:48 pm My 2 hour post meal blood sugar test is 152, great number only a 33 point spike, that's great.







4:00 pm I have to go do some errands and pick my daughter up from cheer leading practice, I normally would be doing a blood sugar test before I drive anytime, anywhere, but I just did one 10 minutes ago so I should be fine. However I must remember to take my testing meter, glucose tablets just in case I happen to go low while I'm gone, a little carb and protein snack to eat after said low, glycogen kit, and my insulin. No I won't be eating while I'm out, but everyone in the world takes their insulin with them where ever they go, mine is just in my huge purse, not my pancreas.

5:30 pm Time to decide what's for dinner and start making it. Decided on talapia rolled in whole wheat bread crumbs, 1/2 c cous cous, broccoli and cauliflower. Total carbs 31. In the grand scheme of things 1 extra carb isn't going to make that much difference.

6:33 pm Tested my blood sugar 121, another good number, no need to correct again, just inject 1 unit of fast acting insulin for the carbs I'm about to eat. Might I say dinner was delicious ; )

7:41 pm I had to go pick my daughter up from an activity she was doing after cheer leading practice. Since it had been an hour after I had eaten and I was driving I did a blood sugar test, my number was 176, not where I would like it to be only and hour after I ate, but it's a good driving number. Also, don't forget all the necessary d supplies.

8:39 pm My 2 hour post meal number is 165, better than an hour ago, (fickle diabetes) this kind of crazy stuff happens a lot in the evenings. I tend to go up a little in the evening, maybe because I'm not as active after dinner dishes are done. Or maybe because I'm approaching the time that my 24 hour long acting insulin I take before bed is beginning to wind down, hmm.

9:50 pm Time for my bedtime blood sugar test and bedtime shot. My number is 167, I'd prefer to be under 150 but it's ok. Between 9:30 and 10:00 pm every night, I take a 24 hour slow acting insulin called Lantus. Since it will be several hours till I eat breakfast and I don't want to have a low blood sugar during the night, I eat approximately 30 carbs with a little protein before I go to bed. Some nights I will eat dessert, something nice and sweet, like ice cream or cookies with milk other times not. Tonight I decided I wanted something simple, I had a graham cracker, peanut butter and light coconut and pineapple flavored yogurt. It was tropical and good.

This has actually been a really good day, as far as my blood sugar numbers. It's not always that way, sometimes I do all these same things and I have numbers up in the 200's. It has been a rather uneventful day. I pretty much stayed home and did housework. If it had been Wednesday, I would have volunteered at the church, which means I would have had to pack a lunch just in case I was there through lunch time.

You might have noticed there is a lot of time between my diabetes decisions. Partly because I stayed home most of the day and I didn't do a lot of driving. Also, I don't have a job outside of my home, so I don't have all the stresses that come along with that. Which in itself was a huge decision my husband and I made because of diabetes. In between all those D decisions I made today I did laundry, got my Halloween decorations out so I can figure out how I'm decorating my car for Trunk or Treat, scanned some pictures for a future blog, wrote a thank you note to a lovely lady I have known forever. Yes, I live with diabetes, it's a day in day out condition. Yes, I have great days, and I have days that are crappy, but you know what, I can say 8 months into my diagnosis, I live a great life in spite of diabetes.

“This post is my October entry in the DSMA Blog Carnival. If you’d like to participate too, you can get all of the information at http://diabetessocmed.com/2011/october-dsma-blog-carnival/