“Hi, how are you today?” Is what I’ll be asked the minute I walk into work this morning.
And “Haha, no too bad thanks.” Is my boring, stock standard reply that I seem to give every other day.
However, the diabetes translation of these words actually goes something like this:
Well, I wanted to have an early night yesterday. My blood sugar level was a perfect 5.3 at 9.42pm. I so badly wanted to go to bed and not think about numbers for 8 whole hours. But I couldn’t. That’s just one of the realities of having diabetes. I can do so, sometimes. But at the moment, I just can’t. I have absolutely no confidence in my night time glucose levels at the moment, which means that I can’t treat myself to a whole uninterrupted night’s sleep. I had to set my alarm last night, so that I could test my blood sugar levels during the night just to make sure.
I was startled awake at 12.30am by my favourite blaring noise that came from the alarm clock on my iPhone. My blood sugar level was another perfect 4.7, and I was able to quickly go back to sleep.
I woke up again at 2.11am, feeling a little shaky. I wanted so badly to ignore it, and drift back off to sleep. I could not be bothered opening my eyes and turning on the bright light of my bedside lamp in order to test. But I had to. I activated one of my diabetes superpowers and forced myself awake. Another perfect 4.5. I was convinced I was hypo, and had to test again just to be sure. Nope, it was 4.7. And with that, I was able to drift back off to sleep again.
I woke up next at 3.54am, feeling shaky once again. This time I was 3.1. I had to work out how many marshmallows I would treat my hypo with, and carefully measure them out onto the palm of my hand. If I don’t do this, my hypo-hangry brain will completely forget how many I’ve eaten once I start.
For the fourth time that night, I had to drift back off to sleep. And for the fourth time that night I was woken up, this time by my 5.50am morning alarm.
So, all in all, I had a crap night.
That’s what “not too bad thanks” really means, if I were to answer your question truthfully today.
Thanks for sharing your experiencences. It helps to hear how others deal with Mr. Diabetes and to learn new things as we live our lives with a disease that can kill us if we are not careful and diligent.
I was diagnosed 54 years ago and the rural doctor I went to gave me a large glass syringe with a big needle and a whetrock to sharpen the needle with and a bottle of insulin. The nearest thing to a glucometer was a glass tube to put urine and a tablet in. I then compared the color in the tube with a few colors on the tablet box. Obviously it wasn’t very accurate. So I am grateful for the changes we have access to.
The best tool we can have to deal with diabetes is our attitude. Most of us know other diabetics who refuse to do what it takes to handle diabetes. Yes, there are ups and downs and sometimes we make mistakes in judgment. But with a good attitude about our situation and a commitment to making the best of it we can do well.