It's Just Maintenance!

I once had a friend who became one of my heroes when she systematically dirtied all her dishes, cups and glasses, pots and pans, silverware and cooking utensils, took one look at the mess she had made, and then boxed it all up and lugged it to the curb. I would never do something like that myself, you understand. I can't afford it, for one thing. But I'd get tired of living with it all long before I was through the process. Still, it's the kind of thing we might dream of doing when we're tired of being "good."

The Best Laid Plans...

Some things can be planned and some resist you like a two-year-old full of birthday cake. And you can't always tell which are going to be which.

One thing that seems to be working pretty well for me right now is coming home after I shop at my favorite grocery store and remembering to do their online survey. I've mentioned this before because, while I have a few friends who are so much better off financially than I am that it really doesn't matter (within reason) how much they spend -- on groceries or anything else -- most of the people I know have to count their pennies more or less.

I'm not sure when the store implemented the practice of offering a five-dollar coupon for filling out the survey. I mean, by the time I spend an hour reading labels at the end of a long day and go through the process of checking out, I'm pretty brain dead. So past the perfunctory "thank yous" I trade with the cashier, there's little real communication going on at that stage.

The Adventure Of Low Blood Sugar

Those of us who have diabetes may get a lot of finger-wagging from medical professionals, family members, and even friends about high blood sugar. And it's absolutely true that if we're not managing our condition, if we're eating more than we should, forgetting to take our medication, or eating the wrong things, our blood glucose will be high and our risk of developing complications -- like blindness or strokes or heart attacks or neuropathy (which can cause us to lose an arm or a leg) -- are greatly increased. So I take this really seriously and try very hard to keep my numbers down where they belong.

But since 2008, when I was first diagnosed, I've had a number of adventures with low blood sugar, which can come on fast, is sometimes no fun to deal with, and can be dangerous itself. Low blood sugar can occur if we get busy and forget or don't take time to eat. It can occur if we accidentally take more medication (especially insulin) than we need. And it can occur if we exercise even moderately for a half hour or more. And those are just a few of the examples.