Diabetes Blog Week – Accomplishments Big and Small

We don’t always realize it, but each one of us had come a long way since diabetes first came into our life. It doesn’t matter if it’s been 5 weeks, 5 years or 50 years, you’ve done something outstanding diabetes-wise. So today let’s share the greatest accomplishment you've made in terms of dealing with your (or your loved one’s) diabetes. No accomplishment is too big or too small - think about self-acceptance, something you’ve mastered (pump / exercise / diet / etc.), making a tough care decision (finding a new endo or support group / choosing to use or not use a technology / etc.).

Contrary to my petition, I’m actually most proud of my breakfast BG’s. The development is relatively new though. For the last 9 years, I have had issues with high after breakfast BG’s. They have routinely been in the high teens and low twenties. I have played around with basal rates and carb ratios and nothing seemed to work. I started eating the same thing every morning so that I could attain some level of consistent data to analyse. Nothing had seemed to work.

About a month ago I decided to try giving up caffeine. I had recently gotten back into reading blogs which of course led me to start writing my own again and quite a few of the blogs mentioned that they had to bolus for caffeine. As I’m trying to get my BG’s back in shape for pregnancy, I thought I should try it. It worked for about a week. The high teens came back. It then occurred to me to try giving myself insulin 15 minutes prior to eating. I know most of you are going “What? Isn’t that what everyone does already?” But no, I don’t. I usually wait until I’m finished eating and then give myself insulin. For the most part it worked so I never considered changing my ways. I was always scared that I would not eat enough for the insulin I gave myself and end up having a low. With breakfast it’s different though, I eat the same thing every morning (well except for the occasional treat like Mother’s day Brunch), two pieces of multigrain toast with light peanut butter, a small container of low fat yogurt, and a fruit. So I decided to try inserting the insulin beforehand and it worked.

For the last two weeks, I have had perfect BG’s after breakfast. They have been consistently within 2 mmol/L of my pre-breakfast results. Getting this great control has been my most amazing accomplishment. Yay Me!

(And yes, I am back to drinking coffee ;-) )