I studied English in college and I’ve built a career around writing and editing; plus, I run this blog…so I’d say it’s a little more than obvious that I am a words person.

What might be less obvious is that I am not a numbers person

And yet, I was bestowed with a diabetes diagnosis early in life, so that’s forced me to become a numbers person.

Very reluctantly.

Of course I’ve got a chronic condition that is centered around math – so much damn math. It’s a lot better now, with technology advancements, than it used to be back in the day. I definitely don’t miss having to take a calculator out at mealtimes to add up all my carbohydrates and then dividing that number by my insulin-to-carb ratio.

But still, there’s plenty of subtle calculations that I must perform on a daily basis. These include:

• Number of hours it’s been since my last bolus
• Number of days I have left on a CGM sensor or pod
• Number of units of insulin I should fill my pods with
• Number of carbs I need to consume to fix a low blood sugar
• Number of carbs in every meal I consume (yes, I still have to figure this out on my own – I can’t wait ’til technology can do this for me)
• Number of supplies I have left
• Number of visits to the doctor each year
• Number of dollar bills I spend on supplies
• Number of hours, minutes, and seconds I spare thinking about the next diabetes decision I have to make
• Number of blog posts I’ve written about diabetes (this happens to be post #706 on this blog alone…wow!)

Those are just some examples of the mathematics behind diabetes. Some are basic numbers and data points, whereas others are based upon true arithmetic or equations. Nonetheless, what they all have in common is that amount of space they take up in my mind, which is to say…it’s a lot.

No wonder I’m not overly fond of anything pertaining to numerals.