Slave to my insulin!

I needed to clean my house, so, I jumped right in to the hovering. Low (pun intended) and behold about 15 minutes into the project I’m sweating and I’ve got the shakes. I’m annoyed because I have to get the job done before the school collection run and now I have to take time out to treat a hypo.

I have never let my diabetes stop me from doing anything; I’ve travelled, worked, got married, had children. I did not climb any mountains but I didn’t want to. But when it comes to the blasted house cleaning, diabetes gets in the way every time!

In the end I would try to synchronise the vigorous house cleaning with blood glucose testing time, which would also coincide with two hours after a meal and thus lessen the risk of a hypo. But, that just resulted in needing to sit down and have a snack before I started.

Now I don’t know about others but if my mind is geared up for a bit of cleaning I would just as soon get into it than to sit around thinking about it (cos then I run the risk of putting it off altogether).

I felt I would never have the upper hand in blood glucose control.

However, that all changed when I got an insulin pump. An insulin pump is kind of like the intravenous drip you see hospital patients with. The pump is programmed to deliver insulin at different speeds throughout the day (known as a basal programme) and the speed can be as little as .025 of a unit per hour.  And if you need to have more insulin you can dial up the required dose and make the pump give you that insulin all at once, for example like with a shot to cover the carbohydrate in a meal.

 I feel I have more of the control. I know I will never be able to predict what stress and hormones do to my blood sugars but the problem of how the insulin is behaving in my body has been simplified.

So now when it’s time for a bit of cleaning I have the option to either suspend my pump (stop insulin delivery temporarily) or reduce my basal rate by a percentage. No need for snacks unless I’m in the mood for one.

Sometimes, I still feel like I’m a slave to my insulin especially when I get the estimates wrong but it’s not as often and not as frustrating because I use that information to make the next estimate more accurate J