On the day I was diagnosed with type 1, the endocrinologist I saw told me to eliminate stress from my life. He said this with the nonchalance of swatting away an annoying fly.

Easier said than done. We all go through times when stress plays a major role in our life. Sometimes it’s barely there and other times, our stress levels just seem to go up and up and up!

Right now, it feels like stress has infiltrated just about every part of my life. The next few weeks at work are so full that I am almost afraid to look at my diary. There are days where eating, breathing and sleeping will be optional (and highly unlikely) extras. The stress and busy-ness is already resulting in less and less attention being spent on the sorts of things I like to do to feel that I am managing my diabetes the way I like and is being reflected in roller-coaster like BGLs.

There’s a kiddo’s birthday and birthday party looming. (I’ll admit right here and now that I’ve taken the easy way out by jumping on the idea of a Hawaiian themed party simply so I can order in pizza.)

There’s a house auction on the horizon that has made me slightly manic in the way I’m insisting the house looks like a museum. Our poor daughter complained to her school principal that she was told off for sitting quietly on her bed reading. She was telling the truth. The ridiculous cleaning and polishing and scrubbing and sweeping and dusting sends me low, reminding me why we usually have a cleaner to do this BGL-lowering activity.

There’s packing and packing and packing to move into our new home.  The results of this on my BGL vary widely – sky rocketing when I start to THINK about what needs to be done or bottoming out when I start to DO the things that need to be done.

There is cataract surgery on the horizon – just thinking about that sends my BGLs into the stratosphere with stress and anxiety!

And there’s Christmas. Which I am considering postponing until February.

How wonderful it would be if our lives were spent relaxed, balanced, calm and without any things that cause a variance in our stress levels. How wonderful it would be if the stress levels in our lives flat-lined and was reflected in smooth, balanced CGM lines without peaks and troughs.

All I can hope for is that once birthdays are over, houses are sold (fingers crossed) and new houses are moved into, the World Diabetes Congress is a success and once cataracts are removed that I’ll be able to settle down and enjoy some down time. Of course, that will be just in time for the beginning of the school year. When it will start all over again! Deep. Breath.