Day 8, and what a week it has been. I started this excursion a week ago today and I feel like the impact is real and effective. Today, I want to talk about things that don't go so well, and how I deal with them. I'm pretty sure that I've discussed this before, but I think it's still important to talk about this.
As I have said in the past, diabetes is a life-long disease. I will never not have diabetes, unless there is some miracle cure, and I'm not holding my breath at this point. What this means is that no matter what happens on a single day, I still have to keep track of things. Truthfully, I have some days where my blood sugars are bad, not deathly bad, but just bad. What do I do in the situations where my sugars are bad, and it seems like there's nothing that I can do to improve it? I let my body take some time to react. There's a certain amount of relaxation that needs to take place in order to get prepared for the fact that there is a combination of insulin resistance issues as well as insulin production issues. I've stated before that there are differences between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, but in the end, many people still have insulin resistance even though they are classified as a Type 1 diabetic. Some people (like me) have issues with sporadic or time-based insulin resistance, and at those points, there's no amount of insulin that can fix a bad situation when insulin resistance is involved. In general, I try to do corrections every 2 hours when I'm seeing times of insulin resistance, though if my glucose level has flat-lined (hasn't gone up or down) and it's insulin resistance, I am usually comfortable with delaying just a bit until there are fewer unknowns to cope with.
Another issue that I've recently noticed is that my set Insulin On Board value (current amount of insulin supposedly in my system after infusion through the pump) can sometimes be incorrect. This is known because of performing basal block studies and knowing that the basal rate is correct, which I've been getting much better with, indicates that my Insulin On Board setting (currently 3 hours) is incorrect. Having those values incorrect can be scary, as if it's very much too short, it can cause issues with injecting too much insulin which can lead to hypoglycemia which is very scary.
Why do I bring these things to your attention, dear reader? Because life isn't all roses and daisies, but learning from those things that cause a disturbance can lead to improvements in in your overall feeling about the situation. It's very similar to how sports teams will review game film of all performances, both good and bad. You learn things from good situations, just like you learn things from bad situations. Does this mean I won't make the same mistake or have the same issue again? No, but I'll now to have a level head and realize that there are things that are sometimes unavoidable.
As I have said in the past, diabetes is a life-long disease. I will never not have diabetes, unless there is some miracle cure, and I'm not holding my breath at this point. What this means is that no matter what happens on a single day, I still have to keep track of things. Truthfully, I have some days where my blood sugars are bad, not deathly bad, but just bad. What do I do in the situations where my sugars are bad, and it seems like there's nothing that I can do to improve it? I let my body take some time to react. There's a certain amount of relaxation that needs to take place in order to get prepared for the fact that there is a combination of insulin resistance issues as well as insulin production issues. I've stated before that there are differences between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, but in the end, many people still have insulin resistance even though they are classified as a Type 1 diabetic. Some people (like me) have issues with sporadic or time-based insulin resistance, and at those points, there's no amount of insulin that can fix a bad situation when insulin resistance is involved. In general, I try to do corrections every 2 hours when I'm seeing times of insulin resistance, though if my glucose level has flat-lined (hasn't gone up or down) and it's insulin resistance, I am usually comfortable with delaying just a bit until there are fewer unknowns to cope with.
Another issue that I've recently noticed is that my set Insulin On Board value (current amount of insulin supposedly in my system after infusion through the pump) can sometimes be incorrect. This is known because of performing basal block studies and knowing that the basal rate is correct, which I've been getting much better with, indicates that my Insulin On Board setting (currently 3 hours) is incorrect. Having those values incorrect can be scary, as if it's very much too short, it can cause issues with injecting too much insulin which can lead to hypoglycemia which is very scary.
Why do I bring these things to your attention, dear reader? Because life isn't all roses and daisies, but learning from those things that cause a disturbance can lead to improvements in in your overall feeling about the situation. It's very similar to how sports teams will review game film of all performances, both good and bad. You learn things from good situations, just like you learn things from bad situations. Does this mean I won't make the same mistake or have the same issue again? No, but I'll now to have a level head and realize that there are things that are sometimes unavoidable.