Learning to take care of the diabetes is a lot like riding horseback, it has more than one thing in common besides being a pain in the rear.

I learned to ride and the one thing that was hard to forget was learning to fall off, and no matter what, you’re going to fall off so better learn how to land.  Now that was not something I meant to practice, but it happened and each was the learning experience I needed for the next one to try and fall and roll because falling from that height was always painful and had its own learning curve.

It is the same with diabetes, our diet, what to eat, how to be, the stuff that comes with it.  The hardest part for some people, the diet and sticking to it.  Remembering the lessons with the horse, you’re going to fall off.  Same with the diet, you’re going to flub, cheat and do a lot of things with it, and that is normal.  Learning with this is realizing that just because you may be off a bit on the diet does not mean you’re not on one or the fact you can just keep going and adjust.  So in a way, you’re not practicing to fall off either, but figuring out how each sudden remembrance of gravity and how far up you really are and the fact the ground is a lot harder than you remember is the same learning curve only you don’t have an animal to curse out for your mistakes. (unless you’re married and that you’re on your own with)

Now Type 1’s have a little flub room sometimes by adding extra insulin, Type 2’s have it a little harder if they don’t take insulin and are on the stricter diet regiment.  Learning how to flub and get away with it or learning what to do if it happens and keep going realizing that it is pretty normal and not the end of the world.  The idea is to keep going and adjust. 

To learn about that adjustment of flub and go, you go to pay close attention to how your feeling and how you feel when on a reg plan, that way you can get to where you want to be ad adjust to get back on track with feeling right and knowing what you did and not hide it.  Hiding it does not do anything, so take care of it.  Want something not in your plan, expect to make adjustments.  A run, a shot (not fun but part of you now) extra protein, less carbs someplace else.  It’s not easy but it is what it is.  This way you’re not rally flubbing, but you’re taking care of what you need to and still there, you’re making adjustments to your original plan. Sounds easy and a first it is not, but once you start it, you just do it automatically and know when you do it.

I always have to make these adjustments when I get really hungry or start a meal a little bit low.  I take my BG right at the first of the meal and be pleased or give me a number that I know I got to eat and I forget to bolus.  Two hours later, my body reminds me of what I did and I got to adjust. It was a mistake, but I got to move on and realize that it is part of who I am now and do better next time, I’m rolling right on to the next part.

Can someone do this for you?  Probably, but they don’t know how you feel, and that is the whole part of the equation that is important.  If you’re new to this, you’re going to be able to tell a lot of things just by the way you feel. Saying to yourself that you messed up and just keep going on your mess up because you are mad, we have all been there, but stop, adjust and get back on track.  I know, easier said than done but once you start and learn it, it just comes normal, trust me.

Last night and today was horrible.  I am glad I took my diuretics like I did.  I was in the bathroom a lot and it took all of last night and most of my day today but I pissed away(literally) about 7 lbs.  I’m at 141 lbs right now and still going to the bathroom regularly so I somewhat expect to be back around the 135 mark maybe tomorrow or this weekend.  I don’t want to ever be off these things again, unless they are not working.  I still have a bit of fluid in my legs and in the lower abdominal but I know for a fact my jeans fit a lot better than they did yesterday. (I could not put my wallet in my back pocket yesterday or put my hand in my front pockets because I was so swelled up with fluid.)  With major kidney damage and a bad heart, I need all the help I can get.  I know that I will be on dialysis at some point, but until then I got to make sure that I don’t swell up like that.  Will have to talk with my doctor about it and really figure out if the drugs need to be off for a week for the renal panel or not, because I suffer greatly.

I have a feeling that my heart doc and my kidney doc are getting together, I have a appointment for my heart doc next week because of this trouble and I know I am not done with the kidney doc yet, as soon as I get the renal panel tests back, they will call me back in. So I got more than a few appointments going, plus will see my endo and my GP in two weeks as well.

I have enough air miles to go to a friends in Florida in March, but if I did not have a calendar full of appointments next month, I would have gone earlier, especially with Daytona coming up real soon.  (I can hardly wait for racing season) I look forward to seeing my best friend from high school and his wife and kids, I’ve never met his kids yet, and I got to do that and look forward to it. The only thing that would stop me is getting a job and I just don’t se that clearing up for a while, so I got something to look forward to.

Been an interesting couple of days getting this liquid weight off me and I got a few more to go.  I’m just glad it’s going.

I wish you well

Robert