A Day In Our Life With Diabetes

This week all over the D on-line community, people have united together to discuss different topics related to life with diabetes.

I'm a little late to the party but I thought I would join in on the fun. Each day we will be discussing a different topic related to diabetes. I wasn't sure if I would be able find the time to post each day...but at the last minute I thought "why not"?! I am giving it a go...I am a day late so the topic for yesterday was...

"A Day in The Life"...

Here is just a glimpse of an average day for my family...

My day usually starts at 3:00 am, this is my first blood sugar check of the day. I sleep with two blood glucose meters by my bedside, one for each of my girls.

I always test Miss E first because she usually sleeps through it, even with me wiping her finger with a cold, wet alcohol wipe and poking her tiny finger to draw a blood sample. If her number is too high I have to give her a shot with insulin, if she is too low I give her some quick carbs to get her to a safe number and wait 15 minutes then re-check to make sure her number has gone up.

Then it's off to Lil Miss C's room where I repeat all of the above steps...the big difference with Lil Miss C is that she almost never sleeps through it. If I am lucky I am back in bed around 3:15-3:30 am for some much needed sleep, if I am dealing with lows I might get back in bed at 4:00 am.

We wake up around 7:30 am and I always wake up to some hungry girls so before anything else I am checking blood sugars again...x's two! I prepare breakfast which always includes measuring out their food, calculating the carbohydrates in the meal and then figuring out how much insulin each of my girls needs and then giving them their shots...x's two!

The rest of the day looks a little like this.

Snack time...repeat, blood sugar tests, calculate carbs, administer insulin via shots.

Lunch time...repeat above

Snack time...repeat above

Dinner...repeat

By now I think you get the picture :( Each of these meals or snacks is often different because I have to adjust insulin depending on what their blood sugar is, giving a correction for high numbers and extra carbs for lows. It's always changing from one day to the next. But on those days when the numbers Gods are smiling down on us I say a little prayer of thanks.

Next we move on to bedtime, after baths and pj's we do another blood sugar test and give the girls a snack. Depending on how hungry they are and what their blood sugar number was we may give another shot to cover their bedtime snack. Now we are at the last shot of the day...hopefully! This is when I give them their Lantus and put them to bed. By now they are pretty sick of all the shots and poking so I can often count on some crying (I would too) and sometimes the occasional "I don't want diabetes anymore" moment.

After putting my girls to sleep it is now time for some much needed 'mommy time', checking e-mail, reading my favorite blogs and then just for peace of mind I usually test the girls blood sugar one more time before I go to sleep.

I set my alarm for 3:00 am and start all over.

This is a typical day in the life with diabetes for our family, if you add both of my daughters tests in there I am usually doing approximately 16 or more blood sugar tests a day and about 12 shots a day between the two of them...sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less. I didn't talk about all of the other "normal" stuff that we do in a day...had I done that you may have felt like you were reading a novel :)

Just add reading, playing, cleaning, cooking, errands and so-on. I am not complaining in any way...I am just trying to give you a 'glimpse'. I do this everyday for my kids, but I know that someday my girls will grow up and this "job" that I do now will become their "job" and it breaks my heart to think of that. I would gladly continue to be their pancreas for the rest of their lives if they would let me, but I know that is unrealistic and I know that eventually they will need to do these things for themselves.

So there ya have it! A day in the life with type 1 diabetes...our day in the life, every family does it a little different depending on pumps, shots, sports, schedules etc., etc, etc. I can tell you from experience that every one is different, I have two daughters with type 1 diabetes and they are both so different when it comes to managing this disease, they require different amounts of insulin and react differently to food. No two are exactly alike when it comes to T1D.

Still praying for a cure, and wishing all of my fellow D-moms, D-dads and PWD's a wonderful day and many blessings!