Hello friend! How are you? I hope you are feeling good and showing up and putting diabetes in its place every day.
You know I’m nosey and need to be all in your business. So, go ahead and let me know what you’ve done well at over the last week.
NEWS FLASH!!!
If you don’t have anything good to report then you might be just who I am about to talk to today.
Success in diabetes is a journey. A hilly, wild turning, high hills and low valleys kind of journey. It is for these reasons that we must employ one of the most important of my 6 Steps To Overcome Diabetes Overwhelm. The step I’m referring to is P-A-T-I-E-N-C-E!
I think most of us have heard the saying, “patience is a virtue,” but what does that really mean? One interpretation according to EnglishClub is, “The ability to wait for something without getting angry.”
Has diabetes ever made you angry?
I don’t know about you but diabetes has brought me to my knees in tears and left me feeling frustrated beyond belief. There was a day when I was just learning how to interpret my son’s blood sugars. It’s one thing to test, another to log the numbers and a whole other thing to understand what it all means.
Well, I had to learn stick by stick (at his expense but for his benefit) and one day at a time. There were no shortcuts.
I always felt terrible because I believed my son shouldn’t have had to endure high blood sugars until we finally hit the sweet spot. Don’t get me wrong his numbers weren’t always high, but when you have just upped your long acting insulin, our Endocrinologist taught us it usually takes about five days to really see how effective the dose is.
My son would wake up high, which would lead us to giving a correction dose with breakfast. However, the worst part for him is that I normally have him eat an all protein breakfast when he’s too high. He loves his carbs and usually doesn’t want any part of my all protein plan.
To keep the story moving, I’ll just say we had a variety of numbers. I think the glucometer rollercoaster is what stressed me out most. I felt judged every time the number wasn’t ideal. I judged myself for not knowing more, for not managing things better, for letting him finally have that cookie but after that blood sugar…. realizing, “Whoa, wasn’t that a bad idea.” I had to learn through trial and error how to dose foods without labels. Shoot, I had to learn to dose foods with labels because some things just respond differently in his body and others are not labeled correctly.
I blamed myself when I didn’t wake up at night to check him. Had I checked him and given a correction we could’ve prevented the high number. Can you believe sometimes that’s not even true? There are days when I’ve done EVERYTHING RIGHT and he STILL has some jacked up numbers.
I think you’ve experienced this too? Am I right? You did everything right only to feel defeated when the numbers didn’t back you up.
There were many more things I held over my head. There were many more times I didn’t allow myself to celebrate the wins. The GOOD THINGS! This process cannot be won with an all or none attitude. So, when I ask you to “TELL ME SOMETHING GOOD” (in my Chaka Khan voice), I mean it!
You have got to be patient with yourself. Be patient with this process. Be patient with your family members who love you but have no clue. Be patient because patience enables you to slow down, breathe, and accept that this isn’t a perfect process but you are learning new things every day. This will get better.
Be Patient! As long as you are doing what you should be doing, you will get better as you go along. If for some reason you are not in a great place and you need help getting there. I am here for you. Don’t waste another minute. Email me, so we can discuss it.
Be well & test often,
Carmella J Bell, MS, LMFTA
The Diabetes Strategist
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