Day in the Life...By the Hour

You may notice that this is the second part of my first installment. After reading several other D-Blogs today, I decided that a breakdown of my day was in order. It may not be "typical," but it's as close to routine as I sometimes get. As always, Your Diabetes May Vary because mine does every single day, no matter what I do.

6:15 a.m. Alarm clock screams at me. Volume bars get pushed down (my makeshift Snooze) and my head drifts back to the pillow, craving more sleep before the hectic Monday begins.

7a: Pull myself out of bed. Dog is there to greet me with a lick on the face. I pet her, slip on my sandals, and move out of the bedroom to do a BG test. It says 124 mg/dL, down slightly from the 136 at bedtime shortly after midnight. Nice. Ready to roll!

7:30a: All showered off, now ready to throw on the work clothes. First, I head to the computer out in the upstairs living room to check the day's news so far and send out a few work emails to start the day, then pull out the Lantus Pen for the morning shot of 14 units. Get dressed, check my test strip vial and make sure there's enough syringes and Humalog in my "man purse" before heading out for the office. Today, the wife is driving me in as she has the day off. So that's nice! No traffic nightmares today!

8:30a: Arriving at the office, my phone message light is already blinking and there's nine emails from when I checked at home an hour ago. A few relate to the breaking news item that's pending for later in the day and the rest relate to work deadlines. Grab my first cup of coffee. I think about the BG impact it'll have, but choose not to care as I need the caffeine for a deadline morning...

10:00a: Finished writing and turned in two stories, plus made revisions on others. So now I take a break to watch President Obama announce the newest nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. It's Kagan, and I saw her a week ago on my trip to Chicago! While I'm watching, do my mid-morning BG test: 224. Figures, as I'm now used to the mid-morning boost that comes naturally but also is fed by my already several cups of coffee. About to hit the men's room to correct (as I'm on a pump haitus and am currently avoiding the upper body areas), but the news distracts me and I get sidetracked.

12:30p: My head is pounding. Taking a look up from writing, I realize that it's lunchtime and that I'm hungry. It also dawns on me now that I hadn't corrected two hours earlier when I should have. BG Test: 206. Fine. Not high enough to make the head pound, so it may be a simple stress-enduced mind jab from the day's happenings so far. Whatever. Still writing a work-related blog for the day, I decide that it's time for lunch regardless. I'll correct and take a lunch bolus, before scarfing down a fruit cup in my desk and bag of chili cheese Fritos from the vending machine. Of course, my breaking news story is about to go up at 1 p.m., and something catches my attention and distracts me.... (again).

2:45p: Headache went away, but now there's that sweater-mouth feeling indicating the sugar is High or Going Higher. Again, I realize that I've not corrected from earlier. Normally, I'm not this forgetful. But sometimes, a journalist's deadlines just come out of nowhere... Swearing under my breath, I test and see a 212 - that's a lie, I know it. Mr. One Touch UltraLink is trying to trick me. So, I'll wait...

3:30p: BG = 345. A-Ha! I KNEW it! Fine... Off to men's room to correct. 8 units. This time, nothing distracts me and the injection goes into my behind. I hope it orks and doesn't screw up. We'll see. Read some D-Blogs to calm down, and move on to a little more work before the day ends.

5p: Test shows 101. Perfect. Cut out from the office a bit earlier today, just in time to go out and mow the grass before the approaching storm sets in. Somehow, a sleeve of saltines finds itself into my hands... I snack on them, rationalizing that the grass cutting will level it all off.

6:30p: Though it's not a daily ritual, the lawn mowing needed to be done today. However, a Low interfered and forced a task-swap with Suzi while I went inside briefly and tested (a 48). Apparently, the correction worked and is still working from earlier. Munch on some Royal Rolls Fruit Candy that I got from my aunt for Christmas (a roll of six are 18g, so I eat them all.) Then, off to trim the sides with the edger. At least all the outside work is done before it rains.

7:30p: Pre-dinner test is now 165, so I'm nice and corrected from earlier. Time for second round of Lantus today, this time 10 units. Where to inject, where to inject..? Need to remember where the day's injections have already gone, so that I can appropriately rotate sites. I choose: a right leg site. Those usually work! And, it's dinner time! Heated up BBQ chicken breast from the other night, mixed veggies, three dinner rolls, and 1/2 cup of applesauce. Total carbs: 70g. Since I am on a 1:10 insulin unit to carb ratio, it's easy math this time (7.0 units). Plus, I'll grab my four daily pills from the plastic day-of-the-week pill case on the microwave since they evaded me before leaving the house this morning. Then, I'll let the insulin and food mix and hang together for a few hours.

10p: It's May. Time for a Law & Order sweeps episode! Dun dun! Sometime near this time, I usually plan on an evening blood test as I settle in for my last prime time show of the evening. Hopefully, I avoid the evening snacking that sometimes happens despite my best attempts. Usually, I'm be running a little higher in the 180s to low 200s or so if I calculated the dinner carbs and bolus correctly. But even if a tad higher, it'll come down by bedtime and be all good. Either way, I'm ready to watch Jack McCoy and Crew kick some legal butt. We make sure all the D-Supplies are sorted and on a commercial break I do a test, only to see the BG Verdict come in at: 51.... Dun Dun! Guilty... Guess I'll have to eat some more Royal Rolls this evening, after all. The D-Dance throws me a curve ball! Oh well. I'll do a little dance... get down tonight. Still going strong.

This next part is a predictive look into the future - an educated guess, based on experience:


Sometime around the Midnight Hour: After the evening news and Jon Stewart, a night-time test. Hopefully, the candy did the trick and my BG has settled into a safer level. If it's 180, I'll call it a night. If still too Low, a piece of toast with PB to get me through the night. May take in Keith, Rachel Maddow, or Hannity depending on what the mood says at this hour. Then, will hit it and get up for that 3 a.m. test to make sure before it all starts again.

This is a typical day, plus or minus a few unique aspects that happened today. Regardless of what is happening, the blood tests and injections only take a moment. A few brief seconds of of my time that really don't take away from anything. That's true. But the consequences, the emotional aspects, the mind-games and fluctations that are tough to predict each day no matter how similiar your actions are from the previous one, all throw your clock and daily routine off. It's never the same. At least not for me. And now you know. Take it as you will.