My Insulin
I'm learning to love these babies.
I'm on Lantus - 24u per night and NovoRapid 1u:10g carbs. I operate on what Kerri calls a SWAG Bolus. Which means a scientific wild ass guestimation of how much insulin you should take. I have been making a real effort to weigh and calculate my carb count but I find it hard when I haven't cooked the nights dinner. I live in a flat situation so we each cook a different night. Makes it tricky but I try. This usually involves looking at the packets/recipes others are using. I'm sure my think I'm weird but they're not too bothered about it.
The Novopen also holds a place in my heart. It's about 9 years old! And was the very first pen I started using :) You can't quite see it in the photo but it is a silver pen with a green (ish, the paint has come off!) top. So in reality it's a combination of two pens! The silver pen has always been for my novorapid, but the green pen I used to have was for my old Protaphane, my precursor to Lantus. I haven't always used this pen and I'm not sure when the lids became switched! I vaguely recall my green pen dying on me. Anyhow, my friends would call me pretty chronic for losing things. And so, unsurprisingly, I have lost various pens over the years. When I lost my most recent pen a couple of months ago, I went back to using this old pen. I'm hoping to get a new one when I go next go to the hospital. But it is always nice to have a back up :)
My trusty AccuChek Performa.
This is my second meter, I can't recall my other one. It was AccuChek though. It was blue and white if I remember correctly. I haven't always been good at testing my blood sugars, I went through years of burnout. Somehow between being an adolescent and young adult I really put my body through hell. I would not test for weeks at a time. Then perform crazy guessing games with how much insulin to take. I ended up in hospital with DKA and still I didn't learn my lesson! I think I'll write about my DKA experience in another post but a year and a half later I returned an HBA1C of 11 so I still wasn't managing that well. BUT. As I said before, I'm making a real effort now! I test 4, 6, 8 or 10 times a day and taking food diaries to show to my CDE. I recently had a HBA1C blood test so I'm looking forward to seeing what that is. Slightly scared but I know it will be lower than last time.
As well all know, there is one other thing that comes with a meter. Copious amounts of test strips!
Since I started testing on a way more regular basis I've noticed I am chopping through these things! My strategy for dealing with them is to keep them inside my meter bag and empty them out periodically. If you come into my room, you're likely to find a pile of them (see above photo). It seems that emptying them out and then putting them in the bin are two different steps.
I'm happy to finally be taking control of my diabetes. And learning to love it as well :)
