Patience.

Summer 2013 - NYC.

I like to think I'm a pretty patient person.

In the context of diabetes, however?!

I don't have any. Which is a problem, as you need a lot of patience when it comes to living with diabetes.

First, I get incredibly frustrated when my blood sugars just don't play ball. Instead of taking the time to figure out what's going wrong when, I get angry, make a face at the number flashing back at me on my meter and want to throw it against a wall. If I've eaten something to warrant the number or have missed a bolus, I can deal with it. When I can't explain it?! No patience for that!

Then there are the hypos. 15 skittle sweets. 4 jelly babies. 4 glucose tabs. 200ml juice carton. Wait 15 minutes. Test again. When I'm low, I want that low feeling to eff off, which means I want to eat everything in sight until I feel like a functioning human being once more. 15 minutes is a long time when you're hypo. No patience.

And on the other end of the scale, hypers. When I start to feel the symptoms of a 19 set in I take a correction bolus. When I check an hour later to see I haven't budged, and the thirst, tiredness is taking over, I rage bolus the crap out of that! Results of which are usually a hypo. Again, no patience!

This is something I need to work on. I'm never going to be able to explain every number that my meter shows me. No matter how much I would love to have that magic ability! And I would most definitely reduce the number of rebound high and low blood sugars I see if I learnt to wait for the glucose tabs/insulin to take affect!

Patience is now another target added to the list.