With this pregnancy, came a disease that has rained on many of my relatives’ parades. My doctors had been keeping an eye on it for years and it wasn’t threatening to explode… But then baby happened and here it is: I have diabetes. Like the “give myself injections every day” kind of diabetes.
I am not going to lie- I was really afraid at first. All I could think about was the terrible things that could happen to the baby. And we all know how scary the Internet can be when you google medical conditions. I was going to have go make some pretty serious changes to my lifestyle.
First was getting used to stabbing myself with needles. In addition to the four daily injections, I had to check my blood sugar an hour after every meal. Needles! Sure, I’ve stabbed myself a zillion times on accident while embroidering and sewing, but this is different. Medication was going in! Blood was coming out to be measured! Turns out – injections were only scary before I started giving them to myself. It rarely hurts. I generally inject close to the same site in my stomach every time. It gets a little discolored, but nothing too major. And the finger pricks for the meter were a piece of cake once I figured out that my ring finger consistently bled and hurt much less than the other fingers. Remembering to do all of these things took some finagling though. I ended up using an app called Glucose Buddy. I could keep track of meals, injections, readings, and I could even set alarms so that I could remember to do the injections and readings.
The second hurdle – and one that no technology could solve – was the change in my diet. I really thought I was doing okay. Not eating sweets, more whole grains than not, avoiding sweetened drinks. But once you have to avoid all sugar all together, with the exception of two small servings of whole fruit a day, you begin to see the painful flaws of the American diet. This is still a struggle for me. Because not only do I have to be incredibly selective of my food, but I have to eat six times a day. Not four, sometimes five times a day. SIX times a day. And every one of those meals has to have a specific balance of carbohydrates and protein. Top that off with the no lunchmeat situation, and you have one very disgruntled and never hungry Mimi. Some days are easier than others, but I’ve lost weight while pregnant (this is OKAY! according to the myriad of doctors who have examined my situation) and I am feeling so much more healthy than I had before. So good, that I might try and keep up this lifestyle one the baby’s born!
I’ve got a lot to stay on this topic, but I don’t want to overwhelm either myself or you with it. Let’s save some for another day.
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