You often hear women talking about work/life balance, but part of my struggle with my diabetes is balancing my work life along with tight blood sugar control. Yesterday and today were important days at work because I had a big client event that I was running. In years past, event days are a nightmare for several reasons, but to make matters worse, high blood sugar usually accompanies “event days” for me. There are several reasons for this, not the least of which is stress, which can sometimes drive my numbers into the 300’s. I also tend to not test as much during my events because I am so busy catering to the every need/desire of our clients, that I quite simply don’t ever think to stop and test. Along with that, I also tend to forget to bolus for the food I eat because I don’t want to yank my pump out in front of clients and I don’t have time to get up and go to the restroom to do it (I don’t have a remote for my pump yet, but I’d love one!).
But, this event was different. Rather than coasting through our client dinner last night and roundtable discussion today in the 200-300’s, I managed to stay under 180 over the course of both days. This is a MAJOR victory for me, and I rarely say this, or even think it, but I am proud of myself for actively improving my control over what is typically a blood sugar free for all.
The first change I made is something I’ve been working on for the past month or so, and that was that I was less stressed than normal. I wasn’t as stressed because I think I’m actually doing a good job of managing my stress better now than I have in the past. I focused on this initially because of the effect that stress has on my blood sugar, but I also now realize that there is just no need for some of the stress I used to feel because I always work hard to make sure I’m prepared.
The second change I made was eating absolutely no carbs the past two days. I don’t typically eat much at events since I’m “on” the whole time, but this time I really made an effort to not eat carbs since I don’t like to have to pull my pump out to bolus. This seemed to work perfectly.
I wish I could say that I also tested more often than normal, but that was just not the case. I did test before and after each part of the event, but just couldn’t find the time to do it in the middle. Something to work on next time!
It was interesting, because the event that I was working was a women’s event and so naturally, they touched on work/life balance issues. It’s funny that during that discussion my mind jumped to how I’ve been working so hard at trying to balance my life with diabetes. I think lately I’ve been pretty good at balancing both, and am pleased that I am seeing results for my hard work!
I can't imagine someday throwing Baby B. into this whole mix, but I'm sure when the time comes, I'll figure that out too...
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It's definitely a struggle to balance, and I agree, it's hard to imagine throwing a baby into the mix. I wonder all the time about how I'm going to manage. I've been testing up to 15 times a day and I'm definitely seeing results, but I'm also seeing more lows, with adds a different kind of balancing act into the mix.
ReplyDeleteI giggled at you forgetting to bolus because I do that too! ;)
ReplyDeleteLadies, you'll manage throwing a baby into the mix just fine :) It's funny how the priorities change overnight and no matter how important x, y or z seem, nothing is as important as testing and keeping those sugars stable. Um and I hate to tell you this but your life won't be balanced while your pregnant, I tell you that as a T1. You may feel like diabetes has kind of taken over (and realistically, it kinda does - you'll have a heap of appts etc, far more than your *normal* friends) but OMG the reward is fabulous. Even when "it" is teething :)