Friday, February 20, 2015

You're Doing Your Best (without driving yourself crazy)

It's -17 but feels like -27 with the windchill. While we can all clearly see on our calendars that we are more than half way through February however, it seems that winter is still going on strong and spring seems like it's a distant dream.  I have read a few things about the 'winter blues' that people get when the weather is cold and we get less daylight to enjoy (not that we can really enjoy it because it's FREEZING).  While, I must admit I feel the winter blues, I can imagine it is worse for some more than others.  I still get up every morning and get myself to work and the gym and run my errands.  While, I feel like spring is going to take its sweet time, I have a vacation to look forward to in the near future.

Today I was feeling pretty good about the success I have had with my healthy food choices & workouts.  I have really stuck to it, despite having moments where I wanted to cave, mind you I work with children who have access to candy.   I have been doing really well, keeping track of my food intake in a journal as well.   While it's been hard work and to be honest managing diabetes along side all of this has been difficult. I have been better at working out/eating healthy than keeping up on my diabetes.  I am checking and all that is required but I have made little effort into switching around basals etc. in order to get the most out of my pump - however, all in time everything will come together.  I am doing the best (without driving myself crazy) I can at the moment.

But, I think this is a lot of people's norms. Doing their best without driving themselves crazy.  Diabetes is one of those diseases that can give you OCD (I made that up, but I think it's true) You could literally spend your entire day focused on your diabetes and still not figure out what's wrong with your blood sugar.  It seems like a really easy process. Eat, take insulin, exercise, eat something to maintain blood sugar, blood sugar goes high, take insulin.  But, in reality and every diabetic knows, that a diabetic's Tuesday is never the same as a diabetic's Wednesday.  Everyday is different.

I think at this moment, on this cold (maybe warm depending where you are p.s if so, can I come over?) day, take a moment to tell yourself that you're doing the best you can without driving yourself crazy. You're working hard being a pancreas - a job you never asked for. If you're a caregiver, give yourself a huge hug and know that you're doing the best you can without driving yourself crazy.

Kayla

1 comment:

  1. I really like this sentiment. I've been feeling a bit guilty with regards to my lack of attention to my diabetes control (especially the food choices part), but your blog has reminded me that we can't be superman/woman.

    At the moment I'm swamped with my masters, tutoring high school kids to save some money, running a local diabetes NPO, taking an extra language at varsity, training for multiple races, and still squeezing in studying to get into medicine. I'm also on a pump, and give insulin as I should but my testing has gone out the window. I know my HbA1c has risen by 0.3 but I feel that my diabetes is just going to have to take a back seat for a while otherwise I might explode.

    Thanks for the perspective

    P.s I really would love to order some Tshirts from the T1d memes store to collect in Vancouver for when we're at YLD training because you don't deliver to South Africa. Would that be possible?

    Kerry :)

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