Every Day is Different

It's sort of crazy to think about, but it's been exactly four weeks since I left the US.  This means I've gone through 4 CGM sensors, 8 infusion sets and reservoirs, approximately 200 test strips, and far too many glucose tablets.

In these last four weeks, I've been trying to assess what needs to change in my day to day diabetes care.  You would think that this should be pretty straightforward, that as someone who has had diabetes for 19 months, I should be able to determine what steps to take to keep my numbers in check.

Since I wrote these posts, I have gone low too many times.  Perhaps others diabetics find this normal, but I rarely went low more than twice a week, if that.  I find myself in a tricky spot, though because every day is different here.  It probably doesn't help that the battery in my food scale died shortly after we arrived and we haven't yet found a replacement for it.  Thus, all of my boluses are guesses.  Sure, I'm a pretty educated guesser when it comes to this, but it would help if I could have this tool to have a more accurate carb count to tell my insulin pump.

I am also rarely using temporary boluses.  Part of this is because I eat things like gelato pretty frequently when I'm walking around the city.  I use sweet treats to help keep my numbers up even when walking all over the city.

But then there are days like today when I unexpectedly had to walk at least a kilometer more than I usually do because of some protests blocking my bus's typical route.  Since I didn't know what bus would be running where I want to go, I just walked.  Fortunately I'm able-bodied and my bag wasn't too heavy.  I thought for sure I'd go low, especially since I thought I might have overbolused for breakfast.

But it didn't happen.  When I tested about an hour after arriving at my office, I was in the 130s.  Strange.

Lately, I've been lower than I like to be right before bed, which drives me nuts.  I often don't want to eat anything else or am so tired of the flavor of glucose tabs.  I've also been a bit higher than I prefer when I wake up in the morning.  I know that all of this might be fixed if I was just willing to do some basal testing, to see if my rates are ok for my current lifestyle.  But then every day is different.  Who knows if my bus is going to come?  Or if I'll be deviated?  Or if the tram will stop for no reason?  Or if I'll take the bus which drops me off at the bottom of the hill or the top?  My activity level is just so varied right now.

Once again, thank goodness for my CGM, because I think I'd be in trouble without it.

We'll see if things level out, or if I can spot some patterns in my CGM data when I next upload it to Carelink.  I'm trying to remind myself, though, that things could be much worse.  The lows could be sneaking up on me in the night rather than right before lunch or bed.  That I could be getting lots of stubborn highs.  None of these things are happening, and so I'm grateful for that.

I love that every day has something new to offer.  I guess life in Rome is sort of like diabetes in that way, every day offering something different.  If only one didn't play with my health.