In my endo appointment the other day, after we’d finishing working through my pathology results, I wanted to speak about the mythical pre-bolus.

I say mythical because, seriously, the day I work out how to get the whole pre-bolus thing right is the day I see a unicorn walking up a rainbow while talking to a phoenix. I have hope this will happen one day.

My endo is one of those rare beings who understands the absolute intricacies of pumps. She knows a lot – from simple button pushing to complex things that make my brain hurt. When I started talking pre-bolusing, she brought out graphs and charts to help us work through my questions.

I mentioned that eating lower carb certainly helps avoiding post-meal spikes, but I was having trouble getting my morning coffee dose right. I know exactly the number of carbs in the milky-latte-with-one I order, but the timing of the bolus is critical to avoid a post-caffeine spike and ensuing plunge.

‘Plus,’ I added. ‘It depends what is going on with my glucose level as I start to drink. If I’m already dropping, which may be happening at that time of morning, and I bolus too early, I’ll end up hypoing, so I usually wait until about five minutes before I order my coffee. But if I’m above target, I need to bolus at least 15, but more like 20 minutes before ordering. If I’m steady and in range, somewhere closer to 10 is more like it. Maybe 12…’

Just drink the damn coffee!

I heard myself going into such detail and suddenly, I realised how bloody boring I sounded. My poor endo had just endured a 10-minute monologue from me on bolus dose timing to cope with my over-priced morning coffee from the hipster coffee shop next to work. I couldn’t help wondering if this really is the best use of the time and expertise of a most excellent endocrinologist? Also, I was embarrassed at presenting this first world problem as such a pressing issue.

She showed me some graphs, and drew a few others for me to think about. We spoke about timing and strategies and things to consider before pressing the bolus button.

But then she stopped and said, ‘You know, you can think about all these things, but you can also not worry too much. Obviously it’s up to what you want to do here, but thinking about things in ‘minutes’ before your dose…you need to decide if that really necessary.’

And then it hit me. The over-analysing and over-stressing and excessive scrutiny. What for? I’d just seen an in-range A1c that suggested I’m managing just fine with what I’m doing. Was the angst of blousing twelve minutes versus 16 minutes prior to my morning caffeine jolt really worth the calculations and the strain?

We are often critical that our HCPs put unreasonable expectations on us with what they demand we do to manage our diabetes. How refreshing to have a diabetes HCP who actually suggests that we breathe and take a step back for a moment to decide if a particular undertaking is absolutely necessary, or if it is just adding unnecessary pressure to our already highly-pressured diabetes selves.