Oh, the judgement, sideways glances and assumptions I’ve encountered over the past week about the diabetes shortcuts I take. Seriously, if there was a diabetes heaven, St Peter wouldn’t be letting me in. Apparently, I am a ‘bad, bad diabetic’ in so many ways. The diabetes police have been making that very clear.
Interestingly – and not surprisingly – none of that judgement has come from other PWD. Instead, I’ve received understanding nods and similar tales. Extensive polling (N=4) has shown that my short cuts are pretty typical.
A discussion about lancet devices in a meeting the other day had me wondering whether I should curl up under the desk and hide, or admit to my reality. Which is this: I check my blood sugar somewhere between six and 12 times a day. I don’t change my lancet every time I check my BGL. I don’t change it every day. Damn, I don’t change it every week. I change it when the little pinch that usually accompanies the lancet going in turns into pain resulting in expletives.
When it comes to pump line changes, I am clearly not the model pump user. I don’t do a full line and cartridge change every three days. I refill my cartridge and sometimes reuse the same line when I’ve got a new cannula in. And sometimes the recommended three days stretches to four or five. I make an educated call based on the fact that there is no pain or redness around the site, and my BGLs are not climbing into the stratosphere.
I can explain in one sentence why I take these shortcuts: It makes things that little bit easier.
Don’t think for a minute that I don’t know that it is recommended that I change my lancet each and every time I check my BGL.
And I am very aware that it’s advised that I change the cartridge in my pump every time it runs out of insulin.
Diabetes is boring. It is tedious, dull, dreary, monotonous, mind-numbingly tiresome. The Groundhog Day that is diabetes never ends. And I live it every day – without Andy McDowell’s gorgeous curls.
I make no excuses for taking short cuts where I can. I make no apologies for saying ‘that’ll do’. Because I am actually doing a pretty damn fantastic job, really. Even if the numbers aren’t perfect, even if there are days when that number of BGL checks is below what I’d like, and even if there are days when I wish diabetes would just. Freaking. Go. AWAY.
It’s never enough. It seems that the positive things I do (regular BG checks, counting carbs, bolusing insulin, basal checking) get ignored by the judge(s) and jury because of the short cuts I take; the short cuts which really aren’t negatively affecting my diabetes management. I could argue that the short cuts are actually positively affecting my management, because the tiny steps I save make the monotony that little bit more bearable.
When is it enough? When does the judgement from others and the guilt from ourselves disappear? What does it take for ‘that’ll do’ to become ‘that’s brilliant’?
13 comments
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February 23, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Caitlin Syrett
I’m a PWoD (Person Without Diabetes), so I really want to know more about this “blousing insulin” technique you speak of…
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February 23, 2012 at 1:58 pm
Renza
Thank you, Ms Caitlin, well-spotted. Amended.
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February 23, 2012 at 1:56 pm
mairi-anne macartney
dont beat yourself up (or the P without D)… although I would probably give them all a beating!!!!!… We do even more shortcuts than you!.
So smack me on the bum and call me naughty……..
we do what we do… TRUST ME P without D and some with D have no idea what you personally have to deal with ..
As quoted “may the person without sin cast the first stone
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February 23, 2012 at 2:39 pm
Helen Edwards
Hear yea Hear yea – working in diabetes is so crazy when you have it! And people keep asking, oh how often do you change your lancet etc etc LOOK at these pictures from the companies who MAKE the needles and finger prickers showing how much you will DAMAGE yourself if you reuse the needle…..far out, live in the REAL world – that is the world in which you Renza, I and many others actually live in and it ain’t perfect that is for sure 🙂
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February 23, 2012 at 6:12 pm
Aaron
Ha! So by changing your lancet improves your diabetes control!
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February 23, 2012 at 10:27 pm
Auntly H
Brilliant! (if you ask me.)
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February 23, 2012 at 10:45 pm
Brooke
i do exactly the same things, reading that was like reading my thoughts and my life on the page. i test the same amount and i even got told to slow down and ‘have a break’ they are on my back about lancets and hypos and you cant drive you cant do this and such but then i get scolded for something i think i should and you should be praised for. they dont realise they make things worse.
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February 24, 2012 at 3:37 am
Johanna B
Love this post. I change my lancet when it leaves a bruise. I don’t remember when I last bought a box of them.
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February 24, 2012 at 7:27 am
Emily S.
I hate changing meters/lancers, because it means I actually have to buy lancets!! I change my lancet when it A) hurts, or B) when the cap over the lancet falls off and it is “exposed.”
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February 24, 2012 at 8:12 am
Kate
We’re supposed to change our lancets??? 😉
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February 24, 2012 at 12:52 pm
Lisa
I think it will all only change when the number of Practitioners with D outnumber those without. Let’s all be realistic for a moment…..We all take the shortcuts you’ve outlined. We all probably have a couple of our own as well….. But… if we are keeping our numbers ok, what right does anyone have to say we are doing the wrong thing? If I can send a little less money to the lancet-making companies- I’m going to do it- I might need that money for some other facet of my D-management.
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February 26, 2012 at 2:16 pm
Jeann
I think we are all human and take shortcuts. I am only a ‘newbie’ pumper but I have forgotten to change lines after 3 days a couple of times and suffered no ill effects. Those 3 days go by so quickly. And I use the reservoir twice…no effects. But I do change my lancets daily regardless of how many checks I have done.
So, Renza, when I read all the comments you are not the sole rebel you thought you were!
As you wrote,diabetes is never ending, and sometimes WE want to exert a bit of control and if going against the ‘recommendations’ gives us this control, so be it.
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May 15, 2012 at 6:12 pm
Back patting and not backing down « Diabetogenic
[…] We don’t pat ourselves on the back enough when it comes to diabetes. There’s lots of ‘I should be doing this more’ and ‘I need to do that more’. But not much, ‘Hey! Well done, me!’ or acknowledging that ‘that’ll do’ is actually, ‘that’s brilliant!’ […]
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