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Managing Type 1 Diabetes

 

     I am a type 1 diabetic. I was diagnosed when I was 11 years old, and I have been working on managing my blood sugar ever since. Most of the time, I don’t have to worry about managing it, because I have the most wonderful pump in the world, the T-slim x2, which integrates insulin management and blood glucose monitoring all in one handy device connected to me.

       My life has truly gotten a lot easier, as they promised, since getting the pump. I can say that from experience, because I did the conventional shots and finger sticks for six years. But, for all the convenience of less pokes in a month or even a day, I still have diabetes.

    I describe managing blood sugar with diabetes to driving from the wrong side of the car. It is definitely possible, but obviously harder than usual. For the most part, managing is so second nature to me after 9 years of dealing with it, but sometimes things pop up that remind me just what I am dealing with.

    I got a dog, and well, now I am taking her on walks every day. I have long needed to go on walks for my health, but I hated the long stretches of time, perfect for brooding and bored thoughts. But now that I am walking both for my and the dog’s health, on good days, I walk for 30 minutes twice a day, going about a mile each time.

    Naturally, all this exercise is bringing my blood sugar down, but in a hard to manage way. I have a peculiar reaction to exercise some people experience. After I exercise, exactly 24 hours later, my blood sugar drops. I try to walk at consistent times, and therefore, since getting the dog, I go low nearly every time I walk after dinner. It has become a near crisis several times.

    Finally, I looked it up online, and it appears that since I walked after giving myself a bolus for eating, the exercise made my body metabolize the insulin a lot faster. So, I would go low, and often, spike pretty high while sleeping at night. The low/high cycle is very hard to manage, like a runaway horse. It is just hard to get it back in control. I am trying to reign in my runaway horse, and I am starting to succeed. A little. I decided to walk before eating dinner, which should help with the lows.

    It is these times when I am very grateful for the times when my blood sugar is easier to deal with, and a little more straightforward. I get to make and break habits, finding just how hard they are to master. I’m also glad to be healthy and care about being healthy, because a lot of people in my situation don’t care. A surprising amount of the difficulty comes from what I eat for breakfast, for lunch, dinner or a snack. It all shows up in my blood sugar. 

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