May Already?!

Decaf coffee at Amsterdam, Alcalá.

How is it May already?! This means that year abroad is fast coming to an end, and the closer to the end I get, the more mixed up my feelings about it ending become. Before I left for my final leg of year abroad, I wrote that I was glad it was only a year so that I could get my diabetes back on track. That was at the start of April, and I think I take it back. For the first time in...forever...I have logged a whole months worth of sugar levels, insulin doses and food in-take! The whole month! More to the point, my average blood glucose level for the month of April is 6.7mmol/l!!! I know this is only according to what I've logged, and not through a blood test, but nonetheless I am incredibly happy with this number!

Throughout April, I made some changes and I am going to continue them through May to see if I see similar results. Before I begin to outline what these changes were, please remember the following: your diabetes may vary, full disclaimer here! Capeesh?!

Ok...

The biggest change I made was swapping my lunch and dinner round: I had my carbiest (is that a word?!) meal at lunch time and then went low-carb in the evenings, theory being I have the rest of the day to help work off the carbs eaten around midday.

As well, I forced myself to get up in the mornings, even on my days off, for the sole purpose of eating breakfast. Eating breakfast has meant I snack significantly less, and getting up in the mornings has led to more productive days, that's for sure. I never, ever thought I would be a morning person, but there you have it. Even when I don't set an alarm now, I seem to wake up automatically at around 9.30am! 

I also completely cut out the caffeine. Not even the occassional cup of regular coffee. I've slept better and no longer get a sugar-spike after my morning cuppa. 

Finally, I got stricter with my hypos: as a result of the impromptu heatwave that hit Alcalá/Madrid at the start of April, I was hypo-ing a lot, so along with reductions in both basal and bolus insulin (with a little help from my DSN back in the UK) I tried my very best to make sure I don't over-treat a hypo. For most of the time I stuck to what I've been taught as the 15/15 rule: 15g of fast acting carbohydrate (my current choice being fruit juice) and then waiting 15 minutes, checking again before re-treating the hypo. This has been both good and bad - it's been good, as I've noticed that my levels don't rebound where I've over-treated. However, hypos are no fun whatsoever, and I want out of them as quickly as possible, and I was very impatient when it came to waiting it out.

But all in all, April was a good month diabetes-wise. Here's hoping it continues into May!