Good Morning, Sunshine!

Diabetes is one of those things that I find people are scared of. I was in the washroom doing my insulin at work one night and a lady who appeared to be about 40 walked in and right off the bat, knew what I was doing. She proceeded to tell me that needles terrify her and that if she were a type 1 diabetic, she would never take them. I explained to her that I almost died as a result of not knowing I was diabetic and ignoring my symptoms, just the same as if I were to abrupty stop taking my insulin. Intrigued by what I was doing, she continued to ask me how I can just stab myself in the stomach and be okay with it. Lately, Ive had a lot of people ask me about my diabetes and how I manage it from day to day. Instead of explaing over and over, and telling people that I just take my insulin when I need to as well as scheduled meal times, I wanted to do an actual walk through a particular part of my day, the morning, so people can feel and experience in their minds what its like to walk in my shoes.

Your alarm goes off and you wake up, Its 6:45 in the morning and you're exhausted. You hear your favourite song "Rain is a Good Thing" by Luke Bryan blarring in your ear from your phone and you roll over and turn it off without realizing. You sleep for another few minutes, and then your 7:00AM alarm goes off, this time, to "If I Die Young" by The Band Perry. You have a few alarms set because as a diabetic, you can be so tired for no reason and end up sleeping through the first alarm. The sun peeks through your blinds and engulfs your room as its own way of saying "Good Morning", so you get out of bed and automatically feel your entire body quivering from your nose to your toes. Your arms feel the worst, like you're sitting in a vibrating chair and cant change the settings, so you immediately sit up and reach for your glucose meter beside your emergency night time candies, crackers and sugar packed juice which was set out just incase of a low blood sugar spell in the middle of the night. You unzip the pouch, insert a test strip into the meter until it turns on and promptly asks you for a drop of blood. You begin to prepare your lancet. You pull the cap off, take out the colourful needle and walk down the hallway to throw it into the sharps container thats in the corner of your dining room cabinet that has its own designated spot for all of your diabetic belongings and "overstock". You add a different colour needle to the little lancet device, and put the cap back on, making sure that the lowest puncture setting is set for your girly little fingers. You massage your hands and fingers to get the blood pumping through them, and then push the hole in the cap of the lancet against your pinky finger the best that you can, and press the little unpleasant blue button to release the needle quickly, and almost painlessly, into your finger. It stings a little, kind of like an elastic being pulled on, and let go of onto the end of your finger, but it immediately goes away. The blood starts to slowly come out of your finger and you grab your meter and catch the blood with the little test strip. Your blood sugar reads 4.0 on the dot and you know automatically that any lower could cause you some trouble. You walk over to the kitchen, pour yourself a bowl of Kellogs Vanilla cereal and add 1% milk. You quickly glimpse at the nutrition facts to jog your memory as to how many carbs you are taking in, and savour every last bite because the vanilla has such a sweet taste that you do not get to taste to often in the day. You grab your glucose metre again and check your blood sugar. Its 6,5. Not too bad for just eating. Its 7:30 now and its time to take your long acting insulin, Novalin, the slow release insulin that keeps your sugar down throughout the day so you don't get random sugar high peaks. You walk back over to the cabinet, reach into the box of 100 needles, and grab one. You pull the thin, green sticker off the top of your 4mm needle case, and carefully twist it onto nova nordisk insulin pen so that you don't bend the needle even in the smallest way. You dial the pen to 27 units and you lift up your shirt and feel around for the most comfortable spot thats not too tender. You pull off the little clear cap that keeps the needle safe from any kind of pressure, then carefully take off the slender green one that barely covers the actual needle itself. You count to three, and fast, but with an extreme amount of caution and particular angling, pierce the skin of your stomach with the needle that is no longer in length than the nail of your pinky finger. You slide your hand up slowly to the top so that your thumb is pressing the opposite end, and push the little cap so the insulin is released inside of you. At first, your stomach feels warm where the insulin is spreading, then the insertion site of the needle starts to sting a bit. Once the cap is fully pushed in, you leave the needle inside your stomach for about 10 seconds so that you receive every drop. You pull it out at the exact angle you inserted it in so that there is minimal bleeding, and immediately the tiny little hole starts to sting a bit and a clear liquid, the insulin, secretes a small amount from it. You dance around, jump, skip, whatever you need to do, and wait for the insulin to be disributed to other parts of your stomach and  be less dense in one particular spot since its more of a throbbing pain now. You put the clear cap back on the needle and twist it off and throw it into the sharps container along with all your lancets. Its 7:40 and the bus comes in 15 minutes. You head to your room, plug in your straightener and throw on your uniform as it heats up. You start to straighten your hair that you washed in the shower the night before, being careful not to burn yourself as diabetics have a very difficult time healing from burns. Its then 7:50 and you hear the tractors and combines outside your window more vividly, and you know the everyone is starting to begin their day as well. You grab your things, throw on your backpack, and put your glucose meter and insulin pen/needles in your giant purse and head back to the kitchen. You woke up with a lower than normal blood sugar level this morning so you pack a few granola bars from the snack cupboard just incase your sugar drops before you get the chance to eat your lunch. You run out the door now that its 7:53, barely having enough time to put on your shoes, and jump on the bus where you finish off getting ready by popping in those head phones and listening to the knew Tyler Farr & Chase Rice songs you just downloaded the previous night to drown out the sound of screaming kindergarteners and obnoxious preteens, and finish doing your makeup. You then continue about your day being a normal teen who just so happens to have to stab themselves in the stomach or finger a few times a day. No big deal, right?

Of course, my mornings aren't always as perfect as this. There are days where I forget to take my slow release insulin and end up taking it at school, or wake up late and have to go toschool with low blood sugar because I dont have time to eat. Every single day is different. My afternoons and nights are not the same as my mornings, as thats when I'm the most active. The only thing thats really changes is my low blood sugars and my need to drop what I'm doing to grab a quick snack and check my blood sugar. Exercising can be a little challenging from time to time, which I will touch a little bit more on in a different blog post, but it definitely can lead to a low blood sugar that you can't notice. Besides episodes like this, my diabetes is managed just about the same way throughout the day. Its easy, just takes a lot of getting used to, a lot of time, and definitley routine and strength. I never once thought in a million years I would be giving myself needles on a daily basis, especially since they were my biggest fear as a child, but here I am now. Diabetes isn't changing your entire lifesyle for it, its making it your lifestyle. Its not hard, just takes a lot of practice and support from those around you!

Jenn :)