A day in the life... with diabetes: Diabetes blog week-- Day 1

Well, to explain the beginning of my day we have to revisit the night before when I take an itty-bitty amount of an old-skool anti-depressant that makes me drowsy so I can sleep... You need to know this because the beginning of my day is usually spent in a bit of a slow fog. Which means that mornings are scrunched for time, but a bit slow, because I usually end up sleeping in more than I meant. Inevitably what insues is:

1. Go to bathroom and wash face, take puff of Advair inhaler (only during allergy season), rinse mouth to avoid the side effect of thrush and brush teeth... if I'm actually a bit early in my schedule I may decide to put on mascara
2. Get dressed, which usually entails having to figure out how to untangle my insulin pump tubing from my bra strap and/or any other piece of clothing it decides to wrap itself around in a completely uncomfortable way
3. Pack my bags (I know, I should do this the night before!)
4. Race through the kitchen and grab a breakfast pita/granola bar/fruit and juice box
5. Walk to transit (either subway or streetcar)
6. Sit down to ride to placement or class, test my blood sugar, eat, bolus, take anti-depressant and maybe painkillers (over-the-counter or perscription for joint pain)
   
7. Start the day

What follows depends on the day and what I am doing, but tends to look a bit like this:.

• I test my blood sugar and eat lunch around 1pm. To be honest, I eat a hefty lunch. It is my biggest meal of the day. So...
  
• I test my blood again in the afternoon. It's usually fine, but sometimes hefty requires an extra little bolus.
  
• Around 5pm or 6pm I usually end up walking home from downtown, where class and placement happen. It's about a 45 minute walk. Sometimes, depending on how I'm feeling I test my blood sugars toward the end of the walk or when I get home.
  
• Some days joint pain is worse in the evening, so maybe more painkillers or a nap. When pain is bad, inflammation is bad and blood sugars are bad, so I end up testing and correcting more throughout the evening.
  
• Otherwise, I usually (check my blood sugars) have a snack in the evening and sit at my computer and do school work.
• Around midnight I have my shower, check that my site is ok after (and check that I've reattached it before bed! It happens that I forget-- though I've always remembered once I get into bed and move to place that technical appendage just under my pillow...)
  
• I take my smidgeon of groggy pill, a multi-vitamin and eventually fall asleep... zzzzzzz

And voila! That's the average weekday for me this year.

PS- to read about the idea of Diabetes Blog Week, please see Karen's Bitter-Sweet Diabetes Blog

PPS- to read the posts of other participants, please link here: Participant List

PPPS- Mid-afternoon UPDATE: oh, and today's day-in-the-life also included buying supplies... Two boxes of infusion sets, a box of insulin cartridges, some skip prep... all to last about two months = $441.46 CAD... I'm lukcy in that I get the money back from the provincial government eventually, but sheesh!