As a diabetic, every daily task has more planning and work involved than the average person. You have to be more aware of what is going on including the amount of food you are going to eat, how long you are going to be eating in between meals, and even how much stress and physical activity you are going to be having. You even have to think about what your schedule is for the next three days and what type of outfits you have planned out so that you can make sure your pump site won't interfere with anything you already have planned.
A typical day in my life contains a few extra steps than the average person. Here is an example of a typical school day for me:
As you guys can see, my day has many extra steps that most people would not have even thought about. Even something as simple as having to run the mile in weights, can throw off my entire day because I could have given too much insulin not taking into account the extra activity.
Although Diabetes takes some extra planning, it has also taught me how to be prepared for any circumstance because forgetting one simple thing like my PDM can cause my entire day to be thrown off and my blood sugars to be very uncontrollable for the rest of the day. Diabetes has taught me over preparedness which means that I might be carrying a few extra unneeded things around during the day, but I have learned that it's better to have too much than not enough.
A typical day in my life contains a few extra steps than the average person. Here is an example of a typical school day for me:
- Wake Up!
- Check my blood sugar and calibrate my CGM on my iPhone.
- Get dressed and brush my teeth.
- Figure out what I am eating for breakfast (and how many carbs it is). Give insulin.
- Eat breakfast (Sometimes I do this in the car if I am running behind).
- Pack a somewhat healthy lunch, and make sure I pack a back up sugary snack incase my blood sugar drops!
- Make sure I have all of my homework, physical therapy clothes, and extra diabetes equipment incase something breaks or expires.
- In order to condense this step, I carry what I call my "Diabetes bag" around with me. In it contains test strips, lancets, my poker, insulin, back up syringes. an extra insulin pump, a granola bar, an extra CGM, my PDM, and my cell phone (which shows my blood sugars).
- I get to school.
- On a day where my pump expires, I typically have to leave class and go down to the office to change it which take about 10ish minutes.
- I then go to lunch. Here I have to count my carbs, and give insulin.
- Next I finish up the rest of the school day.
- Right now I go to therapy after school, but I usually have to eat a snack before I go so my blood sugar doesn't go low while I am there due to the increased activity.
- Once I am done with therapy, I typically go to babysit for a few hours.
- I finally get to head home at around 5:30!
- Once I am home, I usually eat food with my family and continue the counting carbs and giving insulin protocol.
- After this, I head downstairs and work on some homework or relax and watch some T.V. before bed.
- Bed Time!! Before I go to bed, I have to check my blood sugar again and calibrate my CGM.
As you guys can see, my day has many extra steps that most people would not have even thought about. Even something as simple as having to run the mile in weights, can throw off my entire day because I could have given too much insulin not taking into account the extra activity.
Although Diabetes takes some extra planning, it has also taught me how to be prepared for any circumstance because forgetting one simple thing like my PDM can cause my entire day to be thrown off and my blood sugars to be very uncontrollable for the rest of the day. Diabetes has taught me over preparedness which means that I might be carrying a few extra unneeded things around during the day, but I have learned that it's better to have too much than not enough.