Calvin Klein
I’ve often joked about calling my insulin injections “stabbing.” It’s something between a defense mechanism and how I choose to cope with the fact that Diabetes and I are stuck with each other. But when you think about it, in any other context, I would be considered suicidal with the number of times I’m “stabbing” myself each day. Granted, I’m doing these injections and blood tests out of necessity. But the way things are going, my fingers are about to go on strike.
Think about it. A tiny needle poking your finger with the goal of drawing (a teensy, tiny) drop of blood for the sake of preservation. Madness. With the warming weather, I’ve been doing more activities outside including golf and hopefully running on a more consistent basis. As fun and rewarding as physical activities are, I have to be very careful with my blood glucose levels before, during and after. Unfortunately this means I have to poke my fingers 3-4 more times than a “normal” day with Diabetes. As a result, I’ve become obsessed with trying to figure out how my body reacts to each outdoor adventure.
Weight lifting, not surprisingly has very little affect on my before/after levels. Pounding out nearly 11 miles on the bike also has a somewhat minimal net change. Golf is still an ongoing endeavor, so I plan bring my FreeStyle and a Gatorade out for my first few rounds and closely monitor how things are going. The difficulty will be to determine if my mood on the course is a result of a low blood sugar, or my crappy play. If it’s the former, there’s an easy fix to that. The latter however, is what keeps me up at night.
My obsession with control noticeably taking a toll on my fingers. As of this post, I can count 1, 2, 3, 4…..36 visible prior spots used for a blood test. I’m sure I forgot to carry a 2 or didn’t factor out the greatest common denominator or least common multiple in that count, but you get the idea. It sucks that these are the types of things I (we) have to go through to live a healthy life. Besides tattoos, most “healthy” people would rather have nothing to do with needles. I’d like to think that I am (we are) just tougher than the average person, that I (we) have that drive to do whatever it takes. People that find out I’m Diabetic for the first time ask about injections and blood tests and often say that they could “never deal with needles.”
My response comes from a ‘survival of the fittest’ mentality: If you’re life was on the line, you’d be surprised what you can do.
Your comment…. My response comes from a ’survival of the fittest’ mentality: If you’re life was on the line, you’d be surprised what you can do.
You’re SO right! When my daughter was diagnosed, I remember telling the nurse I couldn’t give her the injections and she looked at me and told me if I wanted to leave the hospital with her then I would and if I didn’t give her the insulin then she’d die! As a parent, when you hear that, you change your entire way of thinking and it becomes “ok what can I do to keep my child alive and safe from complications of this horrible disease”.
BTW, read your “Story” and my oldest daughter is a Hokie fan!
We’re in VA too!
When I was first diagnosed at the age of 8 it was one shot a day and no testing of bloodsugar it was not an option. My life was soooo much easier, but I am sure my A1c’s were 10-15 for 30 years or more. Then I moved on to MDI, and omg the yips of shots was awful. I did not do my own shots until I was in high school, my poor mother I was attached at the hip. I still never got to a comfort zone with shots, but having the pump removes that one thing that was very hard for me all my diabetic life. A few times I did a shot while pumping, I still had the yips.
When I am out golfing my game is soo good when bgs is in range, and man my drives are killers, but then, bam without notice I drop, stop to test, then have many holes of awful strokes, it just pisses me off. Like with anything with this disease I always wonder how different my life and yes golf game would be.
I have taken finger poke vacations and use the palm of my hand for testing below the thumb, a bit more work, but my fingers heal a bit.
When you stop to think about it, the “treatments” we use really are quite primitive aren’t they?
Stab yourself to collect a blood sample to check, squirting some “stuff” (insulin) under your skin to manage BG’s? Really? Is that the best that they have to offer us?