So many things in this world come with an “off” button or switch – just about all electronic devices, that obnoxious toy that your child loves playing with, and pretty much anything else that could be considered loud, disruptive, or downright annoying.
I wish diabetes was one of those things that came with an “off” button.
I suppose that technically would be a cure, but since we’re already talking about things that are purely imaginary at this point in time…
Think about it, though. Diabetes is 24/7/365. Even when I’m sleeping, it sure as hell is not, and despite my Omnipod 5 making it so that my overnight blood sugars are more stable than ever, it’s still disheartening to wake up to a low or high blood sugar alarm that I have to immediately do something about. So having an “off” button for my diabetes throughout the night, at the very least, would do so much for me.
But it’s also during times of interaction with others – in the workplace, at a bar/restaurant, in my pole classes, and so forth – that I find myself sometimes really longing for a diabetes “off” button. It’s not so much when my devices are alarming in those settings, because I’ve found that most people don’t even notice them. It’s more so when I’m having a low or a high that’s preventing me from being fully present in the moment.
Take, for example, the time that I was in my office and experiencing the symptoms of an oncoming low. This just so happened to coincide with lunchtime, but that was also when my coworkers decided to get up for an afternoon stretch/walk. They invited me to join them but I had to turn them down, as I knew that walking would only drive my blood sugar lower and potentially create a situation that I definitely didn’t want to subject my colleagues to. I hated having to say no on a particularly beautiful mid-September afternoon; alas, I don’t have an “off” button for my diabetes so I couldn’t just ignore what I needed to do at that moment in time.
Before I get too caught up in pessimism here, I’ve got to remind myself that it’s not like diabetes makes every social situation difficult or awkward for me. Far from it. There are even some occasions in which diabetes enhances the quality of interaction I have with others.
But this knowledge isn’t enough to make me stop wanting (yearning) for a diabetes “off” button, even if it only means that I get to utilize it for a short stint of time.
This past June, I wrote a blog post about how cleaning is an unexpected blood sugar buster for me – meaning that my levels are guaranteed to start dropping after a prolonged period of tidying.
And just today, I realized that there’s another (perhaps even more unanticipated) blood sugar buster for me…and that would be…
Trying on clothing. Yup! An innocent, well-intentioned act meant to improve my wardrobe resulted in a low blood sugar, and reminded me why I hate shopping for clothes so much.
Before you jump in and say, well of course her levels dropped, she was walking around a store, let me tell you that this store really wasn’t even that large. There were so many racks of clothing strewn about haphazardly that I felt more like I was stumbling my way slowly through a maze as opposed to the laps I can easily take by walking around a Target or a grocery store. My pace was positively snail-like, and I got more and more dragged down over time by the weight of the clothing items I was carrying in my arms.
By the time I got to the dressing room, my energy was going downhill as it had mentally worn me out to search for clothing even remotely close to the style I was looking for. I only had 9 items to try but the prospect of putting on each piece felt daunting. (Let alone doing so while maneuvering around the matchbox-size dressing room; seriously, it was so small that if I spread my arms wide then I would be touching both sides of the room.) With impending senses of claustrophobia due to the teensy room and dread at the notion of trying on new clothes, I also registered that I was getting very, very warm. And a little dizzy.
Was I blacking out from my latest endeavor in clothes shopping, or was it just my blood sugar going low?
Naturally, it was the latter. Something about hauling a haphazard collection of clothing around the store, then trying said clothing on (and getting increasingly frustrated as my “no” pile grew) triggered a low that I wasn’t anticipating, and suddenly my desire to leave the store hit its peak as I knew it was more important for me to take care of myself than to score big on new wardrobe additions.
With a heavy sigh, I paid for the couple of items that I ended up liking enough to want to buy, and made my way to my car where a low snack in privacy was waiting for me. I also walked away musing over this unexpected blood sugar buster and how to prevent it from happening again and again in the future – perhaps with a nice mall snack? A treat from the food court?
Sounds like a nice way to put the fun back into clothes shopping, that’s for sure.
(Gotta give credit where credit is due on inspo for this blog post’s title – Judith Viorst authored the children’s book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day in 1972 and a movie that was loosely based on it came out in 2014. I admit that I’ve seen neither but as someone who has appreciation for books and movies, I can at least claim an awareness of both and a deep appreciation for such a memorable title.)
At the end of July, I had my worst 24 hours of diabetes in literal years.
I’m being a little dramatic, but really, everything that could go wrong pretty much did. And what made it that much worse is that it just happened to coincide with my girls’ weekend with my college friends.
It all started after dinnertime. I had flatbread from a local restaurant that I frequent, and I substituted traditional crust in favor of cauliflower crust – my hope being that this would have less of an impact on my blood sugar levels.
No such luck. In the 3-4 hours post-dinner, my blood sugar steadily climbed, reaching a peak of the low 300s at its highest. It just didn’t make sense! I had 4 pieces of flatbread. They weren’t massive. Veggies were the only topping. Maybe it was my pod? When I went to check my PDM to see how much insulin I had on board for what felt like the fiftieth time that evening, I discovered that I’d been burning through so much insulin that I only had a few units left in the pod, meaning that I’d definitely have to change it before I went to bed to ensure I didn’t run out of insulin overnight.
I was super annoyed as a result of my hyperglycemic state and the need to do a premature pod change, but apparently also exhausted by the ordeal as I lapsed into an early sleep in my armchair while my friends stayed up. By the time I snapped out of my slumber, I was groggy, thirsty, and upset that my diabetes was affecting my ability to hang out. When we all turned in for the evening around midnight, I went to bed hoping that my mood and blood sugars would be turned around by the time I woke up in the morning.
Except they didn’t. I woke up in the middle of the night with not one, but two separate low blood sugars. My broken sleep combined with the wild oscillations of my blood sugar caused me to roll out of bed with a stinging pain in my eyes and a defeated spirit that I tried my best to hide from my friends, but to no avail. In fact, I ended up in a heap on the floor, crying to them as I apologized for my grumpy mood and attempted to explain to them what had gone wrong in the last 12 hours. They were all very understanding and supportive, but I felt horrible for being so temperamental and curt with them; after all, none of this was their fault. I promised them that I’d cry it out, wash my face, get dressed, and spend the rest of my time with them with an adjusted attitude.
This mostly worked – we were able to enjoy bagels and lattes for breakfast, as well as a long walk in the first truly gorgeous morning of weather we’ve had since May. My attention was absolutely still partially focused on my diabetes, especially since bagels are notoriously tricky to bolus for, but my resulting spike from indulging in one wasn’t too bad since it was offset by the walk.
By the time my friends departed, my blood sugar was mostly back under control. This must be when things started turning around for me, right? Wrong! As I cleaned up my condo, I ripped my pod – the one that I had just applied the previous evening – clean off my leg. Cursing, I tried to calm myself down because this was something I could easily fix. I decided to call my boyfriend while I did the pod change routine, which was yet another mistake on my part as I accidentally deployed the cannula before the pod was even on my body.
It was like a comedy of errors. I shouted – yes, legitimately yelled – to my bemused boyfriend that I had to go. I needed to get this pod change done and over with, distraction-free. So I repeated the process, only to find that pod #2 was unusable because the cannula was poking out.
Was the universe laughing at me at this point? It sure felt like it.
Third time’s the charm, I told myself as I audibly sighed out of frustration. And thank goodness that it really, truly was – the third attempt at putting a new pod on was the one that did the trick. I remember falling back in my chair after the pod was securely attached on my body. The rollercoaster blood sugars and the unpredictable technology demands truly drained me, and this was just one 24-hour window of dealing with diabetes.
Thank goodness most days aren’t like this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad diabetes day!
This blog post was originally published on Hugging the Cactus on August 3, 2022. I’m sharing it again today because the dog days of summer are officially here and I’m THIS. CLOSE. to giving into the temptation to eat ice cream for dinner most nights. And guess what? I can, if I truly wanted to, and it doesn’t even have to be sugar free. Read on for my thoughts on ice cream and diabetes…
I have strong opinions about ice cream. Potentially controversial ones:
Chocolate ice cream is the weakest flavor out there.
My ratio of ice cream to mix-ins is…gimme ALL the mix-ins. The more chopped-up chunks of goodness, whether it be cookie dough or candy, the better.
Ice cream tastes best when it’s a little softened – like, almost to the point of being soft-serve consistency. I used to microwave my ice cream for about 20 seconds when I was a kid before eating it and loved every drop of my ice cream “soup”.
See? I warned you. Those are some triggering statements I just made about my personal ice cream preferences. But one not on that list, that I think most people would happen to agree with me on, is that sugar-free ice cream just ain’t it.
“Oooh, Molly, look! They have sugar-free ice cream on the menu, are you going to get some?” One of my truly well-meaning girlfriends asked me this, ever-so innocently, on a recent ice cream outing.
I remember raising my eyebrows incredulously as my eyes scanned the regular list of ice cream compared to the sugar-free options. There were dozens of delectable-sounding regular ice cream flavors: all the traditional ones, plus more exotic ones like cotton candy, blueberry pie, s’mores, German chocolate cake, coffee kahlua cream…and then in direct opposition to that were TWO, yes TWO meagerly sugar-free choices: black raspberry and coffee.
I turned to my friend and, as non-condescendingly as I possibly could say it, told her that those “choices” had to be a joke and that furthermore, sugar-free ice cream just ain’t it for me. If I’m going to eat ice cream (and I’ve consumed LOTS of it this summer, let alone throughout my lifetime), then I’m going for the real stuff – no question about it. So with the air cleared on that particular matter, we both got matching ice creams (the blueberry pie flavor with blueberry and graham cracker swirled in a vanilla cream base) and enjoyed the heck out of them.
This blog post was originally published on Hugging the Cactus on June 19, 2020. I’m sharing it again today because truth be told, I needed to hype myself up a bit about having my diabetes devices be a lot more visible during the summer months. As I’ve gotten older I’ve grown less comfortable having them on display, but it’s inevitable when I’m wearing short sleeves, shorts, or a bathing suit. Read on to learn about the other things that make diabetes a little less invisible in the summertime…
Sun’s out, guns pumps out, amirite guys?
The summertime season is in full swing, and now that it’s here I’m thinking of the various ways my diabetes is more pronounced in the warmer weather. It’s much more visible, leading to many more questions, but what are the cues that give it away to others? I thought of four…
Visible sites. Shorts-and-t-shirts weather makes it much harder to place pods or CGM sensors in discrete locations. And if I’m going to the beach? There’s no way that I can even attempt to hide my devices. That’s probably why I make them even more obvious with…
…Pump and sensor art. I’ve written about Pump Peelz and GrifGrips in the past – they make adhesives and skins that are specially designed to fit pods, PDMs, pumps, meters, and more. The products they make are truly little works of art for diabetes devices, and I like to make sure all of mine are decked out in the summer months so I can show off tech that’s not only functional, but also stylish.I’m looking forward to donning my best beach-y Pump Peelz on what I hope will be many trips to the beach this summer.
It’s tough to “hide” diabetes in the summer when short sleeves and tank tops become wardrobe staples.
Gadget tan lines. Or if you’re like me, it’s more like sunburn lines. That’s because each summer, without fail, I somehow manage to neglect the space around my pod or my sensor, so when it’s time to remove it, there’s a huge red circle around the perimeter of where the device was situated. Maybe this year I’ll actually learn my lesson and take the time to apply sunscreen properly so I can avoid the very not-cute sunburn circles.
Travel coolers. This is probably the least obvious sign of diabetes in the summertime, but to those in the know, coolers meant to protect insulin are pretty recognizable compared to regular coolers. Whether it’s a Frio cooling pouch or another brand of insulin cooler, people with diabetes tend to carry these throughout the summer months in order to prevent insulin from spoiling due to heat exposure.
This blog post was originally published on Hugging the Cactus on December 4, 2020. I’m sharing it again today because while it may not seem obvious, diabetes can make relationships of any type difficult. Get my advice on how to help friends and loved ones better understand diabetes and your needs below.
Diabetes can interfere with so many aspects of daily life…including friendships and relationships with others.
I’m an extremely fortunate person: I’ve never had my diabetes be a “deal-breaker” for a friendship or a relationship. I’ve never had much difficulty in explaining it to others or receiving support from friends when I’ve needed it. Of course, the level of support that I get from people in my life with T1D is much different compared to the support I get from people in my life without it, but both types of support are invaluable.
Recently, I had an Instagram follower ask me for my advice on how to help friends understand T1D: what it’s like and what’s appropriate to do/say to a person with diabetes. She expressed her frustration with a friend who doesn’t seem to understand that just because she has diabetes it doesn’t mean that she can’t enjoy sugary treats from time to time. So in response to her anecdote, I decided to round up my five best tips on how to navigate T1D and friendships/relationships in which there’s a lack of understanding and a little too much judgment.
#1: Be open, honest, and willing to answer questions. In almost two-and-a-half decades of life with diabetes, I’ve learned that this is the most important thing I can do when meeting new people and forging friendships/relationships. It’s not like my diabetes is the very first thing I say to people (“Hi, I’m Molly and I have diabetes” sounds like a South Park gag)…but it is something that I make sure to casually cover early on in the relationship. Opening the door to communication about diabetes from the get-go seems to have helped me avoid tricky situations in which I have to spend too much time correcting misunderstandings about life with diabetes and not enough time on fostering my connection with an individual.
#2: Show all aspects of life with T1D. My philosophy is to never hide any part of my diabetes from friends. I let them watch me when I do fingerstick checks, site changes, and more. I involve them when I need help correcting a low blood sugar or need to take a moment to do a bolus calculation. I’ve found that this really helps my friends feel included and they tend to show more interest and genuine curiosity when I do my “diabetes stuff” around them. It creates natural learning experiences for my friends and they get to see firsthand just how much work it can be to take care of my diabetes.
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#3: Tag along to endocrinologist appointments. I understand that this might not be possible right now in this “new normal”, but in the past, I’ve had my significant other come with me to endocrinology appointments. The most memorable experience was seeing a diabetes educator with my significant other so I could be retrained on how to use an emergency glucagon kit, and so he could learn for the first time. It was really eye-opening for my partner, and ever since then, I’ve encouraged others to invite their loved ones or the person/people they live with to attend appointments every now and then. And hey, since so many doctors’ visits are virtual these days, maybe it’ll be even easier for more people to tag along to these appointments than before.
#4: Make an introduction to the DOC. Some of my friends are more social media savvy than others, so for those who have shown interest, I’ve introduced them to the diabetes online community on Instagram. There are sooooo many profiles there ALONE – forget Facebook/Twitter/other diabetes blogs – that do an incredible job of shedding light on the significant and mundane (and everything in between) parts about daily life with diabetes. These accounts have helped them truly get diabetes in a way they hadn’t previously and I think it’s made my friendships stronger, healthier, and judgment-free.
#5: Correct misconceptions – gently. Even my closest friends, or the ones with the best of intentions, have slipped up now and then and said something to my face that is simply not true about diabetes. And that’s okay, they’re not perfect (and they certainly know that I am not). When this happens, I use it as a teaching opportunity and let them know why what they said is wrong or factually incorrect. I find that the gentle, patient approach helps to reinforce whatever it is that I’m telling them, so at the end of the day, it’s a win-win for all parties.
Random confession time: I used to think that I couldn’t order anything at “fancy” coffee shops like Starbucks other than a plain, black coffee.
Truthfully, I do drink my coffee black 99% of the time. I used to load it up with Splenda and a generous pour of cream, but in an effort to reduce my artificial sweetener intake (and cut excess calories from the cream), I started drinking it black in my late teens and haven’t really looked back…
…except for when I find myself ogling the incredible-sounding concoctions from places like Starbucks.
Vanilla sweet cream cold brew? Iced brown sugar oatmilk shaken espresso? Mocha cookie crumble frappuccino? All of those sound fantastic, and I don’t even know what “shaken espresso” or “cold brew” really means! But besides having appealing monikers, these drinks’ names also imply heavy sugar contents, and that scares me as a person with diabetes who tries to avoid sugary drinks (I’d rather “save” my daily carbohydrate intake for actual food). Moreover, I’ve always assumed that it wasn’t worth it to ask for substitutions in those drinks, so up until recently I’ve just stayed away from them.
Things changed, though, when I won a couple of Starbucks gift cards at work and I decided that I wanted to venture out of my comfort zone. I wanted to try a “fancy” drink, dammit, or at least one that was a notch or two above my usual plain black coffee! So I hit up the website to see what my options were, and in pursuit of as much nutritional information as I could find.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover two things: One being that nutritional information was extremely easy to locate, and the other being that I could customize any drink of my choosing by clicking on it and making modifications to my heart’s desire. So I started with the most intriguing-sounding drink – the shaken espresso – and swapped out the oatmilk for almond milk (which is much lower carb), the vanilla syrup for sugar-free vanilla syrup (they don’t have many sugar-free syrup options, but they do have basic flavors which was just fine by me), and a light caramel drizzle for fun (I liked that you could choose to make the drizzle light, regular, or extra). The website updated in real-time to reflect my customization options, so I had a sense of how many carbs the drink would contain. I opted to make it a large – venti in Starbucks-speak – and picked it up from the closest café to me.
I’m happy to report that my drink upgrade was delicious and didn’t spike my blood sugar like I feared its sugary counterparts would. It was a total win! And a learning experience to do a little more research before making assumptions about what I can and can’t have from different restaurants. I have to remind myself that many places are making strides to not only make nutritional information more accessible, but to also accommodate people with food sensitivities/allergies. So swaps aren’t necessarily an uncommon or unreasonable request for most spots oblige.
Duly noted (and appreciated) by this person with diabetes.
Over the years, I’ve seen many online debates (and participated in a few in-person) about the language of diabetes: the power of it, the meaning behind pairing certain words and phrases together, the connotations that can be unintentional or intentional…or even both at the same time.
As someone who writes as part of my full-time job (and, obviously, as a side hobby on this blog), I try to be very deliberate about my word choice. I may not always be 100% correct in my spelling or grammar – I am human, after all – but I’d like to think that I’m thoughtful in both my writing and my speaking. Specifically, when it comes to talking about diabetes, I’m careful to phrase things in a way that doesn’t discriminate or dehumanize people who live with diabetes, and generally avoid pessimistic undertones. I wrote about this before in a blog post from August 2018 – here’s an excerpt from that post that features some clear examples:
Read the following five sentences. Can you tell what’s wrong with them?
She’s a diabetic.
He’s testing his blood sugar right now.
Her diabetes is out of control!
Isn’t that a really bad blood sugar?
He suffers from diabetes.
Have you figured it out?
The language in those five sentences is extremely negative. “Bad,” “out of control,” and “suffers” are obviously gloomy and cynical words to use when referring to diabetes – you don’t need to be a wordsmith make that connection immediately. But what’s wrong with “diabetic” or “testing”? It’s the connotations around those words. Calling someone with diabetes a “diabetic” is labeling them with the disease and removing the actual person from the equation. Saying that a person with diabetes is “testing” their blood sugar makes it sound so…clinical. It also implies that the person could pass or fail the so-called test, adding pressure and guilt to the situation.
So those are just a few sample sentences in which the language of diabetes is definitively negative, in turn, making it more difficult to have conversations about it that are productive. But what about the case of this blog post’s title?
Diabetes is tough.
Or is it…diabetes can be tough?
I think both are true.
I’ve read through a few different social media threads recently in which the phrase “diabetes can be tough” is ripped to shreds. The argument is that people living with it know for a fact that it IS tough, period, bottom line, end of story. There isn’t a gray area where that “can be” belongs, so it simply shouldn’t be the way that folks characterize life with diabetes.
I’m not saying that I disagree with people who are pro-diabetes-is-tough: I absolutely have my days where it’s virtually impossible to live with and I think that nothing in my life is more difficult than my diabetes. Fortunately for me, though, those days are outnumbered by the days in which diabetes and I coexist – not always peacefully, but at least side-by-side with little fanfare. Those are the days that I can say with confidence that I’m fully aware that diabetes can be seriously sucky, but it’s not like that’s always the case for me.
So to me, both phrases – diabetes CAN BE tough and diabetes IS tough – can be true at the same time because it just depends on how easy or challenging it is for me on a given day to manage it. That’s just my truth. Plus, as someone who tends to avoid negative words when it comes to describing my life with diabetes, I like the power that I can find from the “diabetes can be tough” phrasing. In my mind, it perfectly captures and acknowledges that diabetes isn’t easy, but that it isn’t the worst thing in the world, nor does it stop me from living a full life. That’s just my take on the debate. I know folks will both agree and disagree with me, and that’s totally acceptable.
If there’s one thing we can all agree on, at least, it’s that the language of diabetes is a complex matter filled with many nuances.
I guess I’m hopping on the “what I eat in a day” bandwagon.
This trend has existed long before the TikTok videos and Instagram reels in which vloggers share what they typically eat on any given day of the week – it’s also been something that tons of celebrities have been asked to share in interviews. And while I’m far from a celeb (especially Gwyneth Paltrow, who allegedly is sustained by a cup of coffee, bone broth, and steamed veggies on a day-to-day basis), I do have a certain meal routine that’s centered around my diabetes. Nobody asked me about it, but I figured, why not share it on the blog? After all, so many of the “what I eat in a day” videos and articles I’ve viewed sound a little too perfect. I often wonder how realistic folks are when they’re covering this topic, so I’m going to be pretty matter-of-fact when going through my “meal plan”, and cover how it varies on a weekday versus a weekend. So here we go:
Breakfast on a weekday: I am usually eating breakfast between 7:30 A.M. and 8:30 A.M. I love all breakfast foods, but lately my go-to has been a baked oatmeal. I prep this myself on Sundays and it makes enough servings for 6, so I’m covered for breakfast for the week. I add a couple of scoops of protein powder to it and top it with berries so that I make sure I’m getting a nice balance of carbs, fruits, and protein. One serving is roughly 30-35 grams of carbs, and I’ve found that my blood sugar fares well whenever I eat this meal, maybe spiking a bit in the hour after consuming it but settling back down nicely in no time.
Breakfast on a weekend: Anything goes! My wake-up time could be as early as 8 or as late as 10:30 or even 11 (though I don’t like sleeping my mornings away). Depending on when I wake up, I might want a breakfast sandwich or a protein smoothie, but there are other times that my partner will make me a breakfast consisting of something like hash browns, eggs, bacon, and salsa – no matter what we do, I try to keep breakfast no more than 30-40 carbs because that feels like a sweet spot for my blood sugar levels, whether I’ll be exercising in the hours after eating or even if I’m just lounging around until the afternoon.
Lunch on a weekday: I almost always have a salad or a sandwich. I like to load up my salads with lots of extras – tons of veggies, feta, bacon bits, croutons – and always top them with a protein like hardboiled eggs or chicken. If I’m having a sandwich, I’ll almost always eat it with a side of baby carrots or veggie straws (and if I’m in the office, I might indulge in a buffalo chicken wrap which comes with house-made chips – so yummy but much higher carb compared to what I’d make at home). I will eat an apple or any other fruit I have on hand for something sweet. My blood sugar is usually good after lunch, but if I see it going up too quickly or if it stays higher than I’d like it to for an extended period of time, I’ll combat that with a walk in my neighborhood or around my office suite.
Lunch on a weekend: Admittedly, it’s almost non-existent. If I have leftovers from the night before, I’ll eat that, or maybe my partner and I will split a box of frozen samosas or share a cheese plate so we’re not totally starving by dinnertime. It’s just what works best for me since all of my weekends are totally different in terms of our plans.
Dinner on a weeknight: I like to either meal prep on a Sunday night and have whatever I make carry me through the first few days of the week, or I’ll make something on a Monday evening that will produce my dinners for the next few nights. I’m a semi-lazy cook, so I like tossing veggies, starches, and proteins on a sheet pan and roast everything up (I love recipes from this website). And I have a sweet tooth, so dinner is often followed by a single serving of ice cream or a chocolate-covered frozen banana. My carb intake at dinner hovers around 45-60 grams of carbs, which I find works well because I get busy in the evenings catching up on chores around the house or running errands. The extra carbs help me stay level (and full).
Dinner on a weekend: I enjoy whenever my partner and I have a chance to make food together, because he’s a great cook and very conscientious of my diabetes when making something to eat. He helps me carb count and if we’re going out somewhere to eat/ordering takeout, he’ll offer to split higher-carb dishes with me so I can still have them without totally wrecking my blood sugar. I don’t really place limits on my carb intake for meals out because I love getting sushi, flatbread, and other high-carb menu items – I just try to keep an eye on my blood sugar levels in the hours after a meal out so I can stay on top of highs.
Snacks: I’m a grazer through and through, meaning that it’s hard for me to resist the temptation to snack on foods in my pantry throughout any given day. So I try not to keep bottomless bags of anything in my home, though I do keep things like bags of light kettle corn and single-serving snack bars on hand. But I’m also a sucker for a bowl filled with chocolates like Reese’s or Ghirardelli squares which I will shamelessly help myself to, never having more than a couple in one day because ~*balance*~ matters. Grazing can really screw up my blood sugar, though, so I try to be smart and time it so any snacks coincide with periods of higher activity (such as before I vacuum or head out to run errands).
Drinks: I try to stay hydrated on a daily basis. Besides plain water, I drink Powerade Zero to get in extra electrolytes and I’m an absolute sucker for fizzy and carbonated drinks as long as they are carb-free. I do drink beer/wine/cocktails from time to time that definitely have extra carbs, but I have learned over the years how my blood sugar will respond to a given alcohol and plan accordingly around that.
So, that’s it – an honest explanation of what I eat in a day as a person with diabetes. Some days I am more balanced and “healthy” than others, and some days I just go to town and whatever I like. My relationship with food will never be perfect because my diabetes undoubtedly influenced it, but that’s a post for a different day. For now, I’m off to have a snack to keep my blood sugar (which is 113 mg/dL as I write this) steady throughout my evening workout routine.
Experience a bad diabetes day? Been there, done that – a countless number of times, really, in the last 25 years.
Most days with diabetes are “good”; by good, I mean predictable and smooth, with my numbers staying in range and absent of pod failures or inaccurate Dexcom readings. The bad days, as you might expect, are the polar opposite. Bad diabetes days are defined by rollercoaster blood sugar numbers, the ensuing side effects ranging everywhere from irritability to frustration to enraged and to downright exhaustion (just to name a few likely outcomes). Bad diabetes days happen much less often than the good days, but there’s no denying the emotional toll that they take. So what possibly keeps me going on the days that I feel most defeated by my diabetes?
Honestly, it’s the knowledge that it’s temporary. The phrase “this too shall pass” comes to mind when I think of a bad diabetes day. It’s a great reminder that as insurmountable as some bad diabetes days may feel, it won’t last forever, and the opportunity to try again will greet me the next day. To adapt from another well-known adage, the sun will rise in the morning, and I can try again and have faith in my knowledge that not every day with diabetes is bad.
It might sound trite or even a little eyeroll-worthy, but it’s the truth, and it goes a long way in comforting me throughout the days when diabetes acts up at every twist and turn.
Hugging the Cactus 