Search Results

In the past month, I've really gotten off track with my life. School and work seemed to be picking up, so I set a few things on the back burner (not to mention that I had a flare up with my other health conditions). The things that got pushed to the back were really major pieces of my diabetes management.

For one, I stopped working out in the way that I had been leading up to mid-March. Before Spring Break, I was working out at least twice a week (jogging 1.5-3 miles on the treadmill). But after Spring Break, life got in the way so I didn't make the time to add those workouts back into my schedule. I made all sorts of excuses: I was too tired, I wanted to go out with friends, I hadn't watched TV in forever, I had to study. Sadly, I think I've worked out a total of three or four times in the past month...that's just really disappointing.

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (0)

As people with diabetes, we are tasked by our medical teams with conducting our lives in a manner such as to minimize or mitigate the destructive effects of our medical condition. A lot of press is given to the concepts of "patient compliance" and "patient adherence" -- enough to raise the blood pressures of many of us past the levels covered by our antihypertensive, renal-protective pharmaceuticals. The idea of being "a diabetic in control" (or "out of control") has also been known to raise the hackles of a number of the T1s among us, whose blood glucose levels vary with the tempo and dynamic (but none of the grace) of a Mahler symphony.

Like the four movements of a symphony, or the members of a string quartet, the cornerstones of diabetes self-care are:

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (0)

It's my time...to plan phase 2 of my healthcare team.

I'm a girl. A 21-year-old girl. A girl who has spent the last year listening to friend's talk about engagements, attending weddings of high school pals, and buying baby shower gifts for my already-coupled friends. Sometimes it feels like everywhere I turn, someone else is getting engaged or married or growing their family.

All that means that my mind is constantly confronted with the fact that potential coupledom and familyhood is in my future. That means I spend a lot of time thinking about this future, with these couples and families of my imagination. My mind trails in daydreams to consider the kind of guy I want to marry, getting pregnant, and growing old together.

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (0)

There are enough issues with the data from our diabetes devices to make the average PWD's head spin.

First off, there's the sheer volume of it. Consider that the average glucometer burns through 1500 readings a year -- which hikes up somewhere closer to 6000 if you have type 1 diabetes and don't have a continuous monitor you can rely on. Then there are the carb counts, food data bases, multiple basal rates, special basal rates, bolus wizards, special bolus calculations, and the smartphone calendar alarm to manage them all. Those of us with type 2 diabetes may not have all the insulin data to collect, but we have instead the blood pressure data, and along with the caloric impact of the foods we eat, we have to capture the fat distribution and the sodium levels. For all of us who exercise regularly, there are the heart-rate monitor data, the treadmill, elliptical, and cyclocomputer statistics, and the rep charts for weights.

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (2)

I'm staring at my logbook right now. I have no idea what to do. My averages are still above 200, although my baseline numbers are generally running between 160 and 180. Yet I'm still seeing numbers like 302, 264, or 270 crop up.

I raised my Lantus to 33 units last night and I woke up at 96 when I'd gone to bed at 224. I'm hopeful that 33 units might be the golden number with all this. If I could get my basal numbers to drop back into a normal range (I'm looking for under 150 at the moment), then my post-meal numbers wouldn't be spiking so high. Plus I could keep working on the post-meal numbers more extensively if those basal numbers dropped.

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (0)

Blogging has become quite difficult these days. Not only am I pressed for time, but I also don't seem to have the correct mindset to talk about diabetes. Maybe I've been doing this too long? I just can't find anything WORTH blogging about that pertains to anything diabetes related. My priorities have shifted.

Work is fairly consuming while I'm there. I don't tend to focus on it once I hit the apartment door, but I do know that the stress is there. I am spending quite a bit of my time in the office, driving to/from work, or spending a few moments here and there at home checking email or organizing for the next day. I don't think I've adjusted to this schedule quite yet.

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (6)