Diabetes “Mistakes”

August 27th, 2012 by Amy Gonsalves Leave a reply »

If you’ve ever sat in a class and heard the teacher say “there are no stupid questions” and thought in response “there are at least some we don’t need to listen to someone else ask three times,” let me phrase things a different way.

There are relatively few ways to screw diabetes up.

And they are sort of a humungous deal when you DO screw them up… so nearly every other little thing is, joyfully, a little thing.

I get the sense that maybe some people are hesitant to share ways they’ve tried (on purpose or not on purpose) something new with their diabetes management.  I hate that; so I’m sharing some of mine, just from this weekend.

And I call myself an expert. 

First off: these are in no particular order.

Secondly: I’m okay with you eye rolling at various things (Lord knows my eyes roll all over the place, at myself) but appreciate your non-negative responses. ;)

Thirdly: why don’t I start.

1. I forgot that I ate a bunch of figs last night with my dinner (and bolused for them) so when I was high later I couldn’t figure out why (I remembered only eating a salad).  It took me about 45 minutes to remember and realize I have no idea how to bolus for a fig.  (The sizes are all so different and what the online place said always seemed really high for the amount of fig actually in my hand.)

2. I almost forgot to put new strips in my running belt.  THAT would have ruined my run that turned into a bit of an adventure… I have more fun on adventures when I have my meter.

3. I forgot that my doctor changed my basals last week and was really irritated that when I woke up late and I was high.

3a. I’m curious if my promising my doctor “Even if I don’t eat I don’t go low” was a figment of my imagination… but can’t really promise anything as I’ve been waking up high and bolusing between 1-3am each night.

4. Debatable issue: whether I should have even listened to my doctor when she was changing my basals… I decided to let them go for a week and then see if I want to change them back.  (Because I upload my pump data, I know I have them saved!!  If you haven’t saved your pump data: DO IT RIGHT NOW.)

5. I think I’m on at least day four of my pump site.  I wanted to change it the other day but lazed out and kept it in.  I’m still here so I guess it’s still good.

6. I wanted to change my sensor yesterday when I put on my run belt and it smacked right into the site.  I left it in, ran with it in, and have since kept it in.  It’s not the most accurate location, so today is probably the last day.

7. I have a bright red sunburned splotch on my arm because I didn’t want to mess with the pump site on my arm.  That’s silly and I should have sprayed it; seriously what did I think would happen if I got sunscreen on the site?  Nothing. The splotch looks silly.

I’m sure there are more “mistakes” I made in the past (count them) TWO days.  And I’ve had diabetes for 24 and a half YEARS…so you can imagine the number of “mistakes” I’ve made.

In general, I think the only diabetes mistakes that count are the BGs you don’t check and the medications you don’t take.  Everything else is learning and experimenting and LIVING.

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