A coworker stumbles through the business doors red nosed and tissues in hand. Another coughs from the back room, jostling between customers and the sink to wash up her hands. The signs of a sickly winter world suddenly blare like sirens in my ears. It is all I can think of. My lips tighten like a drawbridge
keeping out invaders. My general stance shifts away from the cues of infection. I consciously try to avoid contact at all costs. To no avail....

I hate being sick… and so does my diabetes routine. “Your blood sugar is going to be hay-wire”, comes from my inner diabetic voice. “You will definitely need to test more to stay on target.”

It starts with an achy feeling all over and that dull pounding in the head. These are the beginning physical signs that I am getting sick. I have done my best to avoid it this season. It started with a flu shot at the school clinic. Complemented by near O.C.D. hand washing and personal isolation from the infected.

So now I am attacking it from all directions, the best way I can. Vitamin-C tablets to start, followed by pseudoephedrine to combat unwelcomed symptoms and even some homeopathic wares to fill in around the edges. I am trying a new technique also. I plan to eat very few carbohydrates so there will be less room for fluctuation of my numbers. I expect some unwarranted movement while my body fights off the little bugs, but this way I can be sure of where a spike in blood glucose has come from.

I nearly made it to February without getting sick. Not bad I guess, since half of my social and business interactions seemed to involve a cough, sneeze, or general funk surrounding the person I was near. Do you notice wild swings in blood glucose while sick? How do you combat the winter world of sickness?