New Year's Resolutions, and all that Jazz!

This morning I had a small, but miraculous, breakthrough! But before I share it I will explain its birth.

As per usual, with the start of a new year, my brain went into New Year’s Resolution over drive. I am that person, every year without fail, who vows to improve every last detail of themselves: mind, body and soul. Needless to say that by January 4^th I have fallen off the wagon spectacularly. So this year I decided to try and be a little more resolution-savvy. And so far so good: it’s January 10^th and I’m still strapped in!

My first resolution has had a fairly obvious, but not immediately to me, effect on the second.

1.     To turn off electronic items at 9:00pm

2.     To record my blood sugars, on paper, every day.

The first I decided on as I am always exhausted. This is partly, admittedly, down to my badly-controlled sugar levels, but it’s also due to the fact that I am just very bad at relaxing, I can’t for the life of me switch off. Ever. So reading an article in Zest magazine (I am an avid reader in spite of the fact I barely ever exercise!) and then a similar article in My Diabetes Digital (an electronic diabetes magazine I have just discovered) about the benefits of not over-stimulating your brain before bed, I decided to give it a whirl. So far, the biggest side-effects have been a) scarily vivid dreams (is that a good sign or a bad sign?!) and b) a general attitude towards trying to have a more healthy outlook on life. The latter has, in turn, led to the somewhat knee-jerk reaction of deciding to leave school at a decent time each night. The chain reaction continues… It turns out that leaving school before sunset has quite a positive impact, not only on my board game prowess, but also on my sugar levels…

I mentioned in my last post that I was reading a book by (my new guru) Dr. Gary Scheiner, Think Like a Pancreas. While I haven’t actually read much more it has unwittingly turned into my bible. My second resolution came from statistics quoted in the book (Ok, so not really statistics, more like subjective jargon, but still…): “It’s a fact: people who keep written records have better glucose control than those who don’t.” To be fair, the guy is a doctor… And it was enough to inspire me. According to Scheiner, “successful diabetes management requires proper tools, self-care skills and the right attitude. One or two out of three won’t cut it – all three are necessary.” And the more I think about it, the more I’m inclined to agree.

The first of these I have: a fairly decent set of tools, i.e. a blood glucose meter and insulin pens, a medical team that tries to be helpful, a magical app that saves my brain from calculating ratios every time I eat. I hope, soon, to add a pump to this list. The others were somewhat lacking. I made the assumption that inputting my data and printing it off before my appointments were sufficient to help me keep afloat. It turns out they’re not. When I initially read Dr. Scheiner’s comments about record-keeping (“If you’re sitting there saying, ‘No need. I can just download my thingamabob to the computer. It keeps all the information for me.’ Sorry, bud. At this point there is no good replacement for written record-keeping system.”) I all but sneered. Yeah right. Why would writing stuff down make the least bit of difference? Well. It would seem it does. So why have I been so keen not to do it all my diabetic life?! Why did I not see this before?

It turns out that writing the numbers down, with a pen on paper, works like magic, if you actually do it. And, funnily enough, getting home at a decent hour has a startlingly positive impact on my attitude towards doing this. Who would’ve thought..? Anyway, I started my resolution early, at the end of term last year but in true me-style, couldn’t quite get my arse into gear until the new year was officially upon me. Since then, I have gone through a what’s-the-point-there’s-nothing-to-see-here-phase to this morning’s epiphany.

I have been recording my levels using a daily logsheet adapted from one that Scheiner provided in The Book. Initially I was just getting disheartened. The numbers were all too high and the patterns, over night especially just seemed non-existent. It was then I decided to return to The Book’s guidelines for Fine-Tuning Injected Basal (long-acting or baseline insulin) Doses, paraphrased below:

1.     Have a fairly low-fat dinner and take insulin.

2.     Test blood 3 hours after dinner. If >80 and <250 continue with experiment.

3.     Check blood in the middle of the night and first thing in the morning.

For the first few nights back in Korea, I couldn’t bring myself to set an alarm for 3am. So I made do with toilet-trips when they occurred.

Night one

Before bed: 78

4:30am: 98

Waking: 162

An overall rise of 84mg/dL. Not too hot.

Night two

Before bed: 125 (perfect!)

4:00am: 288 (at which point in injected 4 units of insulin)

Waking: 122 (perfect!)

Without the 4:00am test and insulin, I would have woken up sky-high. As it stands, with the correction dose, my levels were perfect.

Night three

Before bed: 136 (pretty good)

2:30am (with an alarm, which surged adrenaline through my body and made me drop my testing paraphernalia all over the bathroom floor!): 77 – far too low! I had a carton of mango juice.

Waking: 113 (perfect!)

So. The mystery of my erratic overnight blood sugars may, for now at least, be partially solved. Last night’s readings show a dip that shouldn’t be there. So tonight I am going to adjust my basal dose accordingly, by decreasing it by 10%, and see what good that does.

The third of Dr. Scheiner’s top diabetes tips I am currently working on: the right attitude.  This, apparently, consists of: determination, problem solving, persistence, discipline and acceptance. I’ve still got a fair go with that one. Did I say that I was NOT trying to improve every last detail of myself. Maybe I was a little hasty… So while I wait for the angel’s halo to be delivered along with my recently-ordered Carcassone Extension pack (to help bolster the board game prowess further!) I am left repeating Scheiner’s serenity prayer (slightly hysterically): Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.