A Day In My Life

I think that no matter if a non diabetic reads this blog, each and everyone of my posts, that there is still no way for them to comprehend what living life is really like. Someone who reads this and doesn't have diabetes, asked me a question the other day and that question is what inspired me to write this post the way that I am. This is an average "D" day for me.

5:30am alarm goes off: I roll over and down my thyroid med with a bottle of water then go back to sleep. ("D's" are at a 50% higher risk of developing thyroid disease. It also helps that it runs in my family. Thanks mom for those great genes!)

7:10am I wake up, check my BG and bolus accordingly for breakfast.

7:30am I eat my breakfast of blue berries and Trader Joe’s multi grain oat meal or an egg and cheese on a multi grain high in fiber, (cause fiber helps keep a diabetic in even better health!) English muffin with an orange.(I've found sticking to these two breakfast options help keep my morning at least on track, for the most part) 

8:00am take my harmon pills for my dysfunctional pituitary gland that decided 2 years ago, (Holy cow it’s been 2 years already?!!!) to stop producing the harmon that sends the signal to my kidneys so that they know when to stop producing urine and I don’t pee 14 Lt in 24 hours. Yes, I did just say 14, that is correct, that would be the amount of seven 2 liter bottles of soda. Yup, that’s my weirdo body for ya! Yippee!  

8:45-9:00am after getting settled in at work I check my BG, usually no extra bolusing needed.

10:00am  I check my BG again, tend to run low and have a small snack.

11:45am Check BG, calculate carbs and bolus accordingly.

12:00pm eat lunch (not as routine as breakfast. At least not for now, when pregnancy happens that might change. I hate eating the same things over and over and over again. Except for breakfast, not sure why. I LIKE variety!)

1:00-1:15pm check my BG and correct however needed if needed.

2:30-3:30pm usually check BG again and bolus/eat snack to correct things if needed.

5:30pm check BG. If  I'm at 250 this is too high for my 2 ½ mile walk so I bolus accordingly and walk it off. If below 100 eat snack and go walking. Either way I always set my temp basal on my pump, to 60% for 30  minutes if I'm above 95, and at 55% if I'm below 90. This helps to keep from dropping too much from the walk. If below 80, eat snack and skip walking. Skipping part is happening too often lately, but not always from the lows. Got sick, then it got really hot out. I need to have hubby bring my stationary bike in the basement from the garage so I can do that when it’s too hot or raining.

6:15pm get back from walk don’t check BG unless I feel low, and start dinner.

Somewhere between cooking dinner and actually eating dinner is usually when I end up replacing the reservoir with the insulin in my pump. About every 5-7  days.

6:30-7:30pm check BG before dinner, calculate carbs and bolus accordingly.

8:00pm take more harmon pills again. 

8:00-8:30pm check BG and, well by now you should know the drill. Treat high or low accordingly if needed.

Sometime between dinner and bed, usually right before I shower I change my site on my stomach or side or wherever I have it and give the spot a nice thorough cleaning. I  Usually I change it 4- 5 days, less often that what a doctor or nurse would say I should. But who is the one paying for supplies??? Not the insurance co., at least not enough. And if it’s not infected or itching so bad that it's driving me crazy and I’m getting the insulin I need then I think I’m good to go.

10:30-11:30pm Check BG before bed and take care of whatever high or  low I may have.

1:00-4:00am may wake up and check BG if feeling high or low.

This is just an average day. If you follow my blog closely though you know that I have not so “average” days quite often. Highs and lows like roller coasters, site failures, pump malfunctions, and the odd ball stuff that is unpredictable and things that just cannot be expected. Like when I came out of the bathroom stall at work the other day and the handle on the stall caught my tubing on my pump and yanked my site out. That really ticked me off good since I had just replaced it the night before. Bye bye money down the drain!  Weekends are always different, add summer activities like swimming which require removing my pump. Then I have to bolus before removing the pump to replace my basal insulin that I'm not getting while not wearing the pump and then go back and check hourly and bolus hourly to keep up with not having my robot part attached to me that is keeping me alive. I have to be sure that I have a cool dry place to store my pump as well, so if needed I have to take along a couple of ziplocks and a little cooler to store my robotic part in. So even on a "good" day, it only stays good because of all the self management. Any easy "D" day, is maybe not so easy in a none "D's" day. But 5 years, it's a lot longer than you might think, so I honestly can't really remember life before.