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Here’s the thing; there’s no such thing as complete control of diabetes.
There is always something waiting to knock you off course. The solution is not to give up but to play the odds; try and improve your control whilst accepting that you won’t be able to ever fully and finally master it.
I’ve been thinking about how to improve my control recently in little but manageable ways and for me the following tweaks seem sensible;
1. Keep a record – previously I didn’t log and analyse my blood sugar results and my insulin levels (other than as stored in my meter). I couldn’t really see the point; no one ever looked at these things (certainly I’ve not had a single medical professional ask to see my meter in the last 20 years). But now I realise that the point is that the recording of the information in and off itself helps you to keep on the straight and narrow. I use an iphone app called ‘Diabetes Connect’ which is free and about the best one I could find. It provides statistical analysis of blood sugars with highest and lowest readings displayed plus average blood sugar reading over 2, 4, 6, 8 weeks, an estimate of HbA1c and a graph showing the distribution of your blood sugar readings.
Each time I enter a blood sugar reading it means I’m thinking about not messing up my control and my bloods; this makes it easier to say ‘No, I won’t eat my children’s left over fish finger because I know it will show up when I test in an hour or two and I’ve had a perfect score all day.’ I find that little bit of self-imposed big brother is watching/your meter is watching really helps push me over the line into virtuous behaviour. I can also see that last thing at night I have a clear pattern of stable bloods; even if I go to bed with a 5.2 I know I’ll wake up with something pretty close to that. That means I cannot kid myself that I need a carby snack to get through the night. Night time hypoglaecemia is a real problem and worry for a Type 1 but if the facts are there and your basal is right then you don’t need to self-sabotage to address a fiction (that you will go hypo).
2. Exercise – everyday This is bad news as I’m lazy. But if I want steady flat blood sugars I need to do a short amount of anaerobic sprint type exercise every morning. I do some stretching, a minute and a half of plank (heading for 2 minutes and up), and then sets of 20 second bursts of exercise whether sit ups, press ups, burpees or whatever; just so that your muscles get a shock and you get out of breath.
3. Don’t have a lie in without taking morning insulin – this is bad news as well. I love a lie in at the weekend but if I do this my liver kicks in and by 9:00 or so my blood sugars are rising. If I take morning basal and a small bolus at 7:00 am all is well.
4. Don’t think that any food will be ‘free’ in terms of insulin; your liver will always release glucagon when you eat; even if you are just eating whipped cream. So there has to be some insulin to deal with that.
5. Don’t drink beer – I hate this, I like beer but every time I try and have a couple of pints it just totally throws my blood sugars; big highs, random drops; it’s a nightmare. My record keeping has confirmed that for me when I’ve tried to do this a couple of times of late. I might as well be drinking pints of coke and randomly injecting insulin. That’s the same effect it has.
Reading those back that’s a bit depressing (albeit not very; none of this is really too tough and far better than dealing with those fun complications Mr. Diabetes has lined up for us) but as Eddie said it may not be easy but it’s worth it. Die with your boots on.
How about you lot? I know most are Type 2 but do you have any little tweaks that you use to help your control? Tweaks that is; I really don’t want to know about Eddie and twerks…
Best
Dillinger
There is always something waiting to knock you off course. The solution is not to give up but to play the odds; try and improve your control whilst accepting that you won’t be able to ever fully and finally master it.
I’ve been thinking about how to improve my control recently in little but manageable ways and for me the following tweaks seem sensible;
1. Keep a record – previously I didn’t log and analyse my blood sugar results and my insulin levels (other than as stored in my meter). I couldn’t really see the point; no one ever looked at these things (certainly I’ve not had a single medical professional ask to see my meter in the last 20 years). But now I realise that the point is that the recording of the information in and off itself helps you to keep on the straight and narrow. I use an iphone app called ‘Diabetes Connect’ which is free and about the best one I could find. It provides statistical analysis of blood sugars with highest and lowest readings displayed plus average blood sugar reading over 2, 4, 6, 8 weeks, an estimate of HbA1c and a graph showing the distribution of your blood sugar readings.
Each time I enter a blood sugar reading it means I’m thinking about not messing up my control and my bloods; this makes it easier to say ‘No, I won’t eat my children’s left over fish finger because I know it will show up when I test in an hour or two and I’ve had a perfect score all day.’ I find that little bit of self-imposed big brother is watching/your meter is watching really helps push me over the line into virtuous behaviour. I can also see that last thing at night I have a clear pattern of stable bloods; even if I go to bed with a 5.2 I know I’ll wake up with something pretty close to that. That means I cannot kid myself that I need a carby snack to get through the night. Night time hypoglaecemia is a real problem and worry for a Type 1 but if the facts are there and your basal is right then you don’t need to self-sabotage to address a fiction (that you will go hypo).
2. Exercise – everyday This is bad news as I’m lazy. But if I want steady flat blood sugars I need to do a short amount of anaerobic sprint type exercise every morning. I do some stretching, a minute and a half of plank (heading for 2 minutes and up), and then sets of 20 second bursts of exercise whether sit ups, press ups, burpees or whatever; just so that your muscles get a shock and you get out of breath.
3. Don’t have a lie in without taking morning insulin – this is bad news as well. I love a lie in at the weekend but if I do this my liver kicks in and by 9:00 or so my blood sugars are rising. If I take morning basal and a small bolus at 7:00 am all is well.
4. Don’t think that any food will be ‘free’ in terms of insulin; your liver will always release glucagon when you eat; even if you are just eating whipped cream. So there has to be some insulin to deal with that.
5. Don’t drink beer – I hate this, I like beer but every time I try and have a couple of pints it just totally throws my blood sugars; big highs, random drops; it’s a nightmare. My record keeping has confirmed that for me when I’ve tried to do this a couple of times of late. I might as well be drinking pints of coke and randomly injecting insulin. That’s the same effect it has.
Reading those back that’s a bit depressing (albeit not very; none of this is really too tough and far better than dealing with those fun complications Mr. Diabetes has lined up for us) but as Eddie said it may not be easy but it’s worth it. Die with your boots on.
How about you lot? I know most are Type 2 but do you have any little tweaks that you use to help your control? Tweaks that is; I really don’t want to know about Eddie and twerks…
Best
Dillinger
and the exercise?...Yep,I'm a bit lazy too! 
, but don't forget I'm talking from the perspective of a T2 and don't have to worry about low BG.
