A while back I had written about diabetes not having one single treatment option. It is NOT a linear disease! It is very individual! By that, I mean that I don't only start to go up when I eat something and do not correct properly. I also don't only drop when I haven't eaten or when I have had too much exercise. I want to take some time this month to describe to you how individual my disease is.
I am considered a "brittle diabetic." Basically, that means that everything affects my disease (and it doesn't always affect it in the same ways). For example, if I have a bunch of homework and I don't think I will be able to get it all done my diabetes will go absolutely insane. Sometimes that means high blood sugar until I can finish the homework, sometimes it means dangerously low to the point that I can't even go to class. It's unpredictable.
As mentioned, school affects my blood sugar. So does food, sleep (or lack of), pain (emotional, spiritual and physical), happiness, pretty much every emotion, stress, fatigue, illness and pretty much everything else under the sun. Some of the biggest things that affect my blood sugar are pain, illness and emotions.
Pain has always had a huge affect on my diabetes. I take a little longer to heal than "normal" people (non-diabetics), and even a small paper cut can make my sugar go high for several days. Ibuprofen or other pain reliever can make my sugar go down. I just have to keep taking it until the cut (or burn, or bite, or whatever else) is completely healed. Emotional pain can put me on a seemingly eternal roller coaster until I get over whatever is the problem. Occasionally, this is very dangerous as it can last for several months.
I have a compromised immune system because of this disease, so I get sick very easily. Illness can make me do all kinds of crazy things. It can produce a roller coaster, consistent highs (that is most often the case) or consistent, dangerous lows. Once again these problems are not resolved until the sickness is gone.
Emotions hate me. I am convinced. Because this has the absolute worst affect on my blood sugar and it isn't something I can just take a pill for or get insulin for to fix. I worked at a very emotionally trying store for seven months and it almost killed me. It took me three months after I quit my job there to fix my diabetes problems, as I wasn't quite over the problems that came it with. That point in my life caused me to be very depressed and that made an in-explainable, unpredictable diabetes ride.
It is difficult to explain in detail everything that can affect my blood sugar, because EVERYTHING CAN AFFECT MY BLOOD SUGAR. Everything can cause a high or a low. Even anticipation of highs or lows can cause my sugar to head in that direction.
Managing diabetes is not easy because of this. But it is doable, and I've had a wonderful support system in my family and church and God has blessed me beyond all belief.
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