Ups and Downs - a day (or two) in the life of a diabetic

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It's okay, Curtis, I promise this entry will be much shorter. There will be many more lengthy entries this month, though, so brace yourself, do some stretches, and be sure to manage your fluids during NaBloPoMo. I had sort of a hard day yesterday, and a portion of that was because of my diabetes. My blood sugar was 391 last night on the way home – ironic since yesterday was the first day of American Diabetes Month. I can't remember the last time my sugar was that high. And after taking a shitload of insulin (and crying a lot and generally feeling like hell), my sugar was still 361 over an hour later. It made for a long night. It's a “chicken or the egg” thing where I feel crappy and stressed out because my blood sugar is high, and if I'm stressed out and sick it makes my blood sugar high. Wheeee!

I could write pages and pages about all my diabetic pet peeves, but the crux of the matter is that it's not a lot of fun, but it's also not the end of the world. I've been doing this for over 21 years. Just reading what I typed boggles my mind. I've checked my blood sugar over 40,000 times (and have the gross fingertips to prove it). I can tell you the carbohydrates in most food. I am lucky that my low blood sugar wakes me up without fail so I can just give it my best guess and go to bed without worrying I won't wake up again. For the most part, while inconvenient and expensive, diabetes hasn't hindered my life that much. And yet for all my trying, I still have days like yesterday – days where it was already an amazingly shitty day and on top of all that my body decides to freak out. It's enough to make one very very tired.

Just when I start to feel really down, like the world is out to get me, I have a day like today, when it's not so bad. My sugar has been between 100 and 125 all day and I've felt relatively "normal." If I can just keep this up for another five years of so, I might could get implanted with a glucose-sensing RFID chip. The cows and I will have a much higher quality of life.