Day 2 of #HAWMC: Sharing

Today's challenge is about sharing. The Diabetes Online Community, or the DOC, will share everything there is to share about diabetes. For as much as we hate this blasted disease we are more than "happy" to tell our stories, share our great ideas and talk about diabetes. Just ask my kids..."Mooommm!! That's all you EVER talk about!!" For this post, however, it's sharing links to our old posts that would help newly diagnosed diabetics. So I'll share our links and/or helpful phrases because...well....that's all I ever talk about!!

Helpful things for the newly diagnosed:

1.

Yes, I know...hard to believe, and I would NOT have believed it myself when my first daughter was diagnosed. By the second daughter's diagnosis...I know this to be true! 

2. Sleep as you know it will cease to exist. Remember having a new born baby in the house? That's a piece of cake compared to the sleepless nights of D-rents (that's Diabetes Parents for those who don't know the lingo).

3. Diabetes is NOT an exact science...don't let anyone tell you differently. They main thing to remember here is don't give up!! Take each day blood sugar number by blood sugar number. Treat, bolus, whatever you need to do but move on. Giving up isn't an option anyway...diabetes will still be there. 

4. Diabetes isn't all rainbows and unicorns. Diabetes isn't all doom and gloom but I will share with you one of our most read blog posts to date. It is a post that no one likes to talk about but everyone sure does get. It's Diabetes: the ugly side. 

I could go on but I'll stop here as I think this would overwhelm any newly diagnosed diabetic or caregiver. Just know that YOU are not alone.

Sleep is good for you...What's that?!?

Ever notice how articles or reports touting how getting a full nights sleep can help cure depression, lead to healthy weight management, better outlook on life or help you rule the world? Okay maybe sleep won't help in all those areas but you know what I'm talking about. Every time I read those articles I laugh to myself. Really? How I would LOVE to get a full nights sleep, uninterrupted. But my life is a D-rent x 2. There is NO uninterrupted sleep! There is blood sugar checks at midnight, 3am and 6am if not more. There is the constant worry of me thinking I've heard the CGM alerting only to realize it's my fuzzy brain and ears playing tricks on me. I literally thought I heard her CGM alarming one night two different times. Both times I ran upstairs to check her pump and nothing...ugh!! Then the nights blood sugars are running beautifully and I worry they will go low only to have them run high. It's a worrisome situation to be in when you are so tired and need to make a rational decision on how to treat your low/high child and then second guess yourself on how you treated which can then result in a low/high later. I'll admit it...I tend to run one higher during her sleep hours because she has a tendency to plummet at night. I'm not talking in the 300's but I will run her in the 190's. Anything below a 120 and she will crash and burn and that's with NO active insulin!

Sleep is overrated anyway, right? We can sleep when we die?! There are days I feel like the walking dead but then that is what caffeine and concealer are for! I'd like a nap or two but the VERY active 4 year old rarely permits it and I've got a house to tend to and things to do...no rest for the weary, wicked or the wickedly weary sleep deprived D-rent. Just know that if you fall into the above category I feel ya! That and if you hang around long enough in this house, usually after 10pm, there's a whole lotta slap happy going on. AND I wish you good BG's and wonderfully peaceful uninterrupted sleep in 3 hour intervals.

What we SHOULD look like...

What we REALLY look like!!