Late to the Party

I really wanted to participate in D blog week. You know, be a better citizien of the online diabetes community. But my "want to" got swallowed up in other aspects of life, and I didn't ever get around to it. Actually, that's not true. I wrote a post the first day, then promptly lost it. Anyway, I have really enjoyed reading everyone's posts, so I thought I'd try to catch up with an abbreviated version of the week's topics.

What is a Typical Day? - Although my A1C is decent (usually around 6.5), there is no typical day, and my standard deviation is not very standard. Diabetes tends to be randomly unpredictable, and also morphs over time. The trouble is, it's hard to separate what is day to day unpredictability and what are truly trends. That is especially true since I also have trouble making myself sit down to analyze the data. But either way, diabetes is always playing a tune, either in the background, or blaring into the foreground.

How to deal with lows? - Sometimes I'm very measured and disciplined with eating glucose tabs or a cliff shot block and waiting. Other times, I wind up raiding the pantry for things like cake frosting or molasses, and chase it with orange juice. If that doesn't make me feel better, but I know I've already overtreated, peanut butter is the ticket. I can't remember what my lowest low has been (upper 20's I think), but I have never passed out in 17 years with D, so perhaps I inherited the "no pass out" gene along with the T1 gene. My glucagon is long expired, so hope I don't need it.

Best Supporter? - That's easy. My husband is the absolute best at balancing loving concern with letting me handle it. I cannot tell you how grateful I am for him. I really struggle with letting non-D folks in on what it is really like living with D, and tend to put on a brave face with most. I also do that with family members who have overreacted in the past. But my husband sees my not-so-brave face, and still manages to stay balanced. Amazing!

Carbs? - Absolutely, in moderation. Nothing is off limits, but some things are not for the best. Keeping it to 45 grams per meal or less is what works for me, and I do that for most of the day. But I'm afraid my pump has given me a little too much license in the snacking department. My after dinner snack-bolus-snack-bolus fests are the bane of my control, but I have yet to chase that monster back into the closet. So total carbs have been averaging 165 per day of late. Still fairly moderate I suppose.

Exercise? - This is weird, I know, but I love it! Running, walking, and more recently swimming and biking. It's all good. It is an escape, a chance for my mind to wander, for me to pray, and to just feel alive. I love experiencing changes in the weather, and have been known to purposely run in the rain. I often take my most active dog along, and love to watch her senses come alive as we stalk squirrels, or she drops to the ground to roll in the cool grass. I've done lots of 5K's, a couple of 10K's, a couple of (very slow) 1/2 marathons and 1 triathlon so far. It's not easy trying to balance the insulin/carbs/exercise/all other X factors equation. Sometimes I fail miserably and wind up in tears as I cut a run short to treat a low. But part of the appeal of exercise is that feeling of transcending diabetes in order to do it.

Thanks for indulging my tardiness, and I look forward to reading more of everyone's posts.