BOOBS, BLOOD SUGARS, and LIFE

In Memory of Marita Carter (My Grandmother who died from Breast Cancer)

Two weeks ago, or so, it was the day after our Endocrinology appointment. The day after the 6.7% A1c. The great A1C with the "minimal lows". You know the one I told everyone about after Sara asked why we don't share our A1Cs. I posted it on my blog (Jen just posted it) and I now have it on the sidebar like Lora. I followed Heidi's lead and posted it on FB. In turn, Laura followed suit in posting Nate's latest A1C.

Literally the next day, the following day, the very next day...

I am running. It is raining. In order to run while Joe is in school I put my cell phone into a plastic sandwich baggie and I slap that puppy into my tummietote. I am in the middle of schlepping through a soggy, squishy, splashy mile-one when the phone starts to ring. Yep, it is the school. "Hi Reyna, everything is fine...your Joe has had 4 lows today...just wanted to touch base..." I wrapped up the conversation with his school nurse. She had handled everything beautifully, as always. I zip the phone back up in the baggie and off I go.

On my run.

As my feet hit the pavement rhythmically, while the rain pelted my hair sprayed-shellacked Tallygear headband contained doo, my mind started to wander. Here we go again. The lows. I know weeks of setting changes will most likely begin. The backing off on the insulin. The subsequent highs. Then the choking-up on the highs to achieve euglycemic-palooza once more. This is life with "d". Nothing is concrete. No "one-dose" of insulin consistently works day-in and day-out. The blood glucose is a moving target...always changing. Elusive.

Have you ever thought that blood glucose levels are like boobs? Yes, this is where my mind wanders when I don't have a running partner and am unable to listen to music due to the down-pour of rain.

Seriously. Yes, stop doing the double take.

Say it with me "Blood Sugars are like breasts!" Right when you think you have the insulin doses, ratios, basals, correction factors all set. The numbers go and change on you. You put a lot of sleepless nights into those settings. Endless hours of glancing at logs trying to tweak a ratio here or bump up a basal rate there. You study the strength of your correction factors morning, noon, and night. You have invested yourself into those numbers and then they go and change on you?!

Kind of like boobs...

Right when you think your breasts cannot possibly change again, they do. And. It is after you've purchased the "girl wrestlers and wranglers" for every occasion. The blacks, the "nudes", the T-shirt bra, the jog bra that doesn't allow the little rascals to make a getaway south; yep you've spent some serious dough to keep those gals looking good at that particular size that you think they have settled on. I mean hell, I have gone through adolescence they were "C's". They resided in a different area code than my bod while breast feeding. They then deflated like a pin-holed party balloon to a "B". My other half would say "yeah right, bee stings maybe". Ahemm...OK ... to "full A's". And now who knows what tricks hormones are playing on my body, but "they" seem to be on the move again. Frustration ensues. I have spent a small fortune to purchase proper undergarments and really? Again?

I guess that is life. Never really thought of it this way, but don't get too comfortable in your insulin pump settings or your bras or anything for that matter; nothing is stagnant.

A day-in-the-life of the flexibility that is needed to roll with the fluidity of matter. Yep, I am feeling "deep" this morning...boobs and Blood Sugars.