Living With Type 1 Diabetes: Dear Loved Ones, Thank You for Not Holding a Grudge

What a weekend. After 21 years with Type 1 diabetes, you’d think I’d be used to these blood sugar swings, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I had a 330 blood sugar brought on in part by stress and PMS. I’d had a low of 37 the day before. These wildly crazy swings tend to make me feel like a newbie, but I’m not!

My husband had been the one to catch my high blood sugar in the first place, watching me get angry at a new curtain installation that wasn’t going my way and then grabbing a water bottle and chugging it down, reaching for another immediately after and chugging away. I was oblivious to anything other than the wrinkled new curtains and the maddening little balls of lint that were on them from the factory. I tend to get overly hostile when my blood sugars are high, and my husband was witnessing just that.

He gently said, “Maybe you should stop and test your blood sugar? Maybe you are high?” I’m pretty sure I grunted but then I obliged. When I saw the 330 staring at me, I grabbed my insulin and took a correction shot. He asked, “What was your blood sugar?” I sort of growled back “That isn’t how this works!” I refused to say the number out loud, angry then at the high blood sugar number instead of the curtains. I was still too irritated to be nice and sadly I stormed upstairs and took a shower.

After the shower, my blood sugar was dropping nicely, and I went downstairs to apologize. I told him how high I’d been and that I was thankful he urged me to test. I felt terrible for the way I’d been acting.
He said it was fine (as he always does because he is amazing!) and told me that he was sure I was high because of my mood and all the water I was chugging. He said, “The way you drank your water was perfectly normal…if you were at a frat party and it was beer.” We laughed. I am so thankful that he knows how to handle me and when to back off when my blood sugars contribute to my mood.

Having diabetes is hard. It isn’t only about what you eat. It’s about hormones and stress and stupid new curtains and all kinds of factors that you just don’t always see coming. My husband deserves a medal. He deals with the worst of me sometimes and instead of fighting; he simply helps me get through it and doesn’t hold a grudge. Our loved ones that deal with diabetes daily and support us without faltering (even though they don’t themselves have it) are our most important weapon in battling diabetes. We couldn’t do it without them. Thank you to all of you out there, comforting and loving us despite the blood sugar related mood swings.