Some people see a Type 1 Diabetic and go, “Oh, she’s got that shot thing.” Or they’ll see me touch my pump and go, “Oh! Forgot you had that! Must be hard. Wow.” Then walk off or talk about how they had diabetes and cured it with cinnamon. There’s a lot more that goes into it than people realize. I don’t just glance at my pump a few times a day. For example; If I forget to give myself insulin for basically anything over 20 carbs, I could end up in the hospital with a blood sugar of 400. This is not just a thing I need to ‘watch’. Yes, I need to watch my blood sugar, but I need to know what my blood sugar is before eating, after eating, when I haven’t eaten anything. I need to know exactly how much insulin I need to take, and more. A lot of things go into this. I have decided to write about a day with diabetes. This is yesterday:
I wake up and see my moveable ‘diabetes table’ I need for the night. I have my Dexcom, (My CGM: Constant Glucose Meter) my glucose tablets, my BG kit, (Meter, Lancet, and test strips.) and a few other things I may need during the night. I grab my BG kit and open it. I take the lancet and prick my finger. Feeling like Sleeping Beauty in reverse. Wake up, THEN prick your finger. 
I squeeze my finger so enough blood can fit in the test strip. I wait for it to read, but it doesn’t. It says I didn’t squeeze my finger to death enough. So, I sigh and prick my finger again. (I sigh because each test strip is $1.00) I prick again and insert the blood. Not enough again. The third time works, but It’s only 9:30 and I spent $3.00 already. I calibrate my CGM (Dexcom) for the first time that day. I need to do it twice a day. I stand up and plop a Vitamin D gummy in my mouth (they found out that I don’t have enough Vitamin D in me, so I need to take a little gummy twice a day).
I walk down stairs and have breakfast. Now I need to calculate for everything I eat. Unless it’s carb-free. Not many breakfast items are carb free, so I need to take insulin. Because I have a pump, I take it out and type in the number of carbs I am going to eat. I have to do it a while before I eat, because if I take the insulin while eating, the sugar in the food will get to me faster than the insulin will, so I need to take the insulin before the food. I also helped my sister eat an entire carton of strawberries.
I hear we’re going on a bike ride. I go to my room and unclip my pump, replacing the site with a little closed-in clip so water doesn’t get in. I take a shower and get dressed. Now, think of getting dressed with a pump. ‘No biggie,’ your brain is telling you. No, I have tubing. So, I would have to awkwardly change, holding my pump half the time. We go to the place we bike. I hop on my bike and shove my pump as far down in my pocket as I can. I ride through the wind. I love biking, but when you’re ‘riding through the wind’, your pump may fall out of your pocket, smash on the ground, rip your site out in the process, causing around $500 dollars of damage. So I’m carefully riding through the wind, hoping I’m not gonna break my pump on the side-walk. (I also shoved my entire bag of diabetes supplies into my mom’s bike basket. She gave me the death stare).
We park our bikes and walk down the street to a local tea store. My pump and Dexcom go off, usually causing everyone in a ten-mile radius to stare, wondering what the heck is wrong with me. It says I am low. I need sugar. I went low because I don’t need as much insulin as I usually do when I’m exercising. I ordered a chocolate croissant. (Yes, I can eat that.) I ate it as quickly as the deer eat our apple trees. They bring out our tea and I wait for it to cool.
I’m gonna skip through to later. The rest of the day is just gonna bore you to death, so I’ll skip to bed time. When I get ready for bed, I change in the weirdest way possible. If you’re waiting for me to change, you’ll be waiting for a while. It takes me a while to change, because I have to awkwardly avoid my pump from falling off and scraping my Dexcom site. I calibrate my Dexcom and pump for the second time that day. (You calibrate every 12 hours). I pop another Vitamin D gummy in my mouth and brush my teeth. (I actually ate the gummy after brushing my teeth, but that doesn’t’ make any logical sense, so I switched it just for you.) I move my diabetes table to my bed and put half my room on it.
I lie in bed ready to sleep an- BEEP BEEP BEEP. Zzzt Zzzt Zzzt. I kinda lay there pursing my lips looking at the ceiling hoping I’ll just magically get rid of the low. The pump and Dexcom light up my ceiling. Like a full moon right outside my window. I sit there until I decide to do something about it. I walk down stairs like a dying cat and open the fridge door. I take out a juice box. It has 8 carbs in it, around how much I need for a low BG to go up for me. I drink and walk by my mother who is sitting in a chair, and I give her a thumbs-up while slurping the juice box. I walk to my room and toss it in my mini garbage. I lie in my bed and fall asleep. What happens during the night is a whole different story…
Okay, sorry for the boring parts, but I just wanted you guys to see a day of my life with diabetes. This is all pretty normal to me, and I can’t really remember a day without it. I’ll start posting fun stuff now…like…well, you will just have to find out. I hope you learned more about diabetes through this post. Can’t wait to hear from you!
-Charlotte ❤
SugarTalesForT1D 