As people with diabetes living in the 21st century, numbers rule our lives. The first number that comes to mind (other than weight, which for me should be my morning fasting weight -- and which should be much lower than it is) is blood glucose level. My morning reading tells me what I should have for breakfast: if it's high, I look for something with fewer carbs; if it's low, I start running for the fruit bowl. (Which might be the exact opposite of what I should be doing, considering that if I've been running high for several hours, a serving of fruit may hike me further in the short term, but will bring me back to normal by the end of the two-hour postprandial period. Then again, my diabetes is diet-controlled; food choice is critical.) If you're on insulin, that blood glucose check might tell you either to grab some sugar quickly, or to administer a correction bolus.

And speaking of food... there are more numbers to consider. Caloric value. Carb count. Carb distribution. Glycemic index. Protein count. Fat count. Fat distribution. Micronutrient analysis. That 100-gram banana is about 95 calories, 20 grams carbohydrate (almost all sugar), negligible protein and fat, and about 400 mg potassium. The 6-oz container of nonfat Greek yogurt is about 120 calories, 18 g protein, 16 g carb (again, almost all sugar), about 100 mg sodium, and I'm thinking about 200 mg calcium? The 13-g serving of flax seed is about 60 calories, 3 g protein, 4 g fat (about 1 g of which is heart-healthy Omega-3 fatty acids), and a couple of grams of carbohydrate (with fiber). And there goes breakfast. (Well, there would go breakfast if it weren't Passover. I couldn't find Kosher-for-Passover Greek yogurt, and flax seed is off the menu for the holiday.)

Then there's blood pressure. Mine is higher than it should be, so there's a pill with numbers of its own: prescription number, strength, dose frequency, price, and co-pay. Most of us will have similar numbers for antidiabetic pills, insulin, or both, plus any other medications our doctors have prescribed for us. Add to that the numbers of other supplements we might be taking. And for many of us, medications are taken on a schedule -- a clock. More numbers.

Then the less-frequently-seen numbers of our care. HbA1c and fructosamine levels, averaging our long-term and intermediate-term blood glucose levels, cholesterol levels (total, HDL, LDL, and triglycerides), c-peptide levels, c-reactive-protein levels, metabolic panel results, and the numbers from whatever other tests our doctors order up to gauge the state and trend of our health.

Add to this the numbers of the daily lives of everyone not blessed with malfunctioning glucose metabolisms -- cost of food and gas, rent and utilities, our salaries or other sources of income, our work and play schedules (and those of our families)...

One almost needs an Excel workbook to keep track of it all.

And rhetorically punning back to that title... if your slice of pizza contains 314 calories, do you need to square bolus?