Summer 2009
Hi, I’m Mouse, and I’m an addict. There, I said it. I may as well get things straight on my very first post.
I’m addicted to my yard. Grass. Dirt. Flowers. At the first whiff of freshly mowed grass, I’m intoxicated. I’m like a junkie anticipating a good fix when I see fresh dirt to be dug, weeds to be pulled, hedges to be trimmed or perennial beds to be cleaned. I pull my weeds. I pull my neighbors weeds. I even pull weeds in public places. This is a serious addiction! My husband can’t take me anywhere that I might see a weed to be pulled, lest he be embarrassed!
Since I live at a Children’s Home, situated on 64 plush acres of beautiful central Tennessee farmland, it looks like I’d get my fill of yard work. There is no end to the need for gardening services around here, and I’m happy to oblige. It’s a garden junkie paradise! I’m out of bed and on the mower before daybreak and only quit when I can’t see what I’m doing at night. It is total heaven for me….living in such a place. It is my own garden of Eden.
Unfortunately, in all gardens of Eden, there are a few snakes. I’m not talking about the little slithery kind….although I do see my share of those. I’m talking about the diabetes kind. The ‘snake’ in my paradise is diabetes. I’m insulin dependant. Type 1. That means life is a delicate balance between food, exercise and insulin….and, you guessed it , gardening is exercise!!
I can’t count the times already this spring that I’ve been ‘bottom up’ in a flower bed and covered in mud, only to feel that familiar feeling of an oncoming low. Standing up to assess the situation, I feel the tell tale sign-- that someone has cut off the tips of my fingers and the life is draining out of my entire body. I see it snowing, and, even in my foggy brain state, I know it can’t be snowing right now….I’m in the garden planting flowers! Struggling to clean off a small spot on a finger to test requires super human effort. When my meter blinks back a sweet little 52, my next job is to clean my hands well enough to find my glucose tablets. Sometimes kind neighbors come over to offer assistance. If I ever sit down, or even slow down, they go for the glucose . Poor diabetes educated folks….so used to my lows.
Sitting in the dirt, sucking down my glucose, I feel like a junkie for sure. I’ve never been one, but I look like they look. Glassy eyes, exhausted body, can’t move, can’t think, insulin and sugar bouncing around in my body so that I feel like a human pinball machine….. So close to the weeds, yet I can’t go after them! Frustration. Why does diabetes have to slither up and bite me when I’m minding my own business??
I suppose that since this is my first summer on the pump, I have lots to learn. It doesn’t seem to be much easier to ward off lows with the pump than it was the shots…..I still hate paying attention to myself all the time…..but I suppose I need to become acquainted with my friend the “temporary basal rate." Either this, or not work outside so much. What????
Okay….so where is my pump manual so I can start reading??
