June is always a super intense and busy month for me at work (Summer Reading Club is both the best and worst time of year), so simple and easy is the name of the game when I’m trying to plan recipes. But it’s also the time of year when I’m mostly running on fumes and coffee, so even that doesn’t always work out.

What if medical technology just worked? and other dreams

The beginning of the month was also extremely frustrating from a diabetes management perspective: I had six straight continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) fail on me within 24 hours. As you can probably imagine, this was extremely frustrating and discouraging. For me, CGMs have been one of the best tools to help me get to remission and not having access to accurate numbers outside of fingersticks was really difficult.

Also, while I was able to get free replacements, the replacement process takes time, so I was missing numbers for almost two weeks.

That being said, I’m proud of the way I kept going despite all of the frustration and uncertainty. I would have handled all of this a lot worse a few years ago, while now I was able to acknowledge how upsetting I was while also sticking to what I know works best for me. I had some wacky numbers when I finally got a working monitor attached, but was able to get back to a more normal average midway through the month.

I am going to try a tip I read about: applying the new CGM a day before the old one ends, but not scanning it until the old one expires. This is supposed to allow the application site time to calm down and make it less likely that the monitor will fail within the first day or so. I’ve only applied one using this method, but I will say that it seemed to calibrate much faster!

Summertime and diabetes

It’s finally summer around here, which is always a mixed bag for me when it comes to diabetes management. On the one hand, it’s peak garden season, which means I’m outside a lot and at my happiest.

On the other hand, heat and humidity have a real impact on the body, including how insulin-resistant you are. I’ve definitely noticed this for myself and try to work outside mostly in the morning or evening, when it’s cooler, as well as staying hydrated.

Sunburns can also have a major impact on blood sugar numbers, although I haven’t experienced this personally. I have seen inflammation affect how my numbers look, though!

In the context of sunburn and diabetes, this stress response can make blood sugar management feel more difficult and unpredictable, especially if you already struggle with fluctuations in their blood sugar level

The degree to which different systems and functions within our bodies are interconnected and dependent on each other fascinates me. As much as I groan sometimes about being forced to live in a body (awful!!) it’s also amazing to think about the complexity of all the different moving parts.

While it’s easy to dismiss diabetes management as “eat less sugar,” points like this help to make it clear that there’s so much more to it than that. It can feel overwhelming at times, especially when there are so many small choices that might have a large impact on blood sugar numbers. But, personally, I also find it empowering to know more about the factors that affect what I see day-to-day.

July

Next month is going to be another busy one, but hopefully with a little more time to rest. The weather tends to be even more hot and humid in our area, which I’m not looking forward to. I’ll probably be canning some tomatoes from the garden and frantically picking green beans.

Until next time, stay cool and drink plenty of fluids!