For most people, when you’re about to have a meal, you set the table, cook up some food, sit down, and eat. Pretty simple.
For Type 1 diabetics, there are a few more steps.
First. Figure out what to eat, making sure it’s a healthy choice, hopefully covering all the food groups. Second, figure out how many carbs are in what you’re about to have. Third, test your blood sugar – prick your finger, draw blood, stick the blood into the test strip and wait 5 seconds to get the reading.
Based on the number on the screen, determine how many units of insulin are required (or not required) to offset a reading that is too high or too low (a “correction” amount of insulin).
The next step depends on how you give yourself insulin. For those that are using needles and fast acting insulin, do the math to figure out how many units of insulin are required to offset the food that is about to be consumed. Then, add that number to the correction insulin. Dial it in to the “insulin pen”, then pinch the fat somewhere on the body, and inject the insulin.
Since I’m on an insulin pump all I need to do is enter the carbs into the pump and it will automatically calculate the amount of insulin I need, also taking into account any correction insulin.
Once you’ve been a diabetic for a while, all of the above steps are second nature, but, next time you’re about to eat, take a second to think about us. Know that we can never just sit down and eat.
That’s the real deal with diabetes, one sugar cube at a time.
