I've got a touch of the Diabetes Burnout, folks.
It's horrible timing, too, for me to not be testing as often - as I mentioned yesterday, I'm not consistently feeling low symptoms the way I used to. I'm still wearing Jim all the time, so I think that somewhere in my mind, I'm softening it for myself: "It could be worse." The problem is, it could also be a lot better.
I talked about getting back on the horse (or unicorn, if you prefer) a couple of weeks ago, and I had hoped that writing a blog post about it would be the accountability nudge I needed to ramp things back up.
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| "Seriously, Kim, I'm right here. Ready when you are. Aaaaaanytime now." |
But it didn't work. I'm still not "feeling it" when it comes to the super-attentive self-care I once had. I'm still doing the necessities - taking insulin (though not usually 15 minutes before eating anymore - something changed, and now doing that makes me go low before eating), taking pills, and doing a fasting BG check.
Past that? It's a bit of a jumble. It's "Jim is probably right". It's "I'll test in 10 minutes", but I space it off, and 10 minutes become a few hours. It's "This looks like 65 carbs. Yep." It's "I'd rather eat something right now to head off this low, than take 20 seconds to pull out my pump and decrease my basal rate". There is slackery of epic proportions going on here, and when I start to think about where I was a few months ago, and where I am now, it's a bit of a downer.
When you then throw in my wish to start a family sometime in the near future, it transitions from downer to "What the heck are you doing?". Except that my response to that right now is: "Meh."
I haven't had any ODST requests thrown my way lately, and I'm embarrassed to say that I'm a little glad for that. How do you comfort, guide, or otherwise advise someone else who is struggling, when you can't even get your own sheet together? (And by "sheet", I mean a logbook, of course. Wait, no I don't.)
Then last night, while at dinner with friends, I mentioned wanting to have a party (and cake, dammit) for my 25-year diabetes anniversary coming up in April - to which I was met with blank stares. No one seemed to get why I'd want to celebrate that, much less with cake. I don't expect everyone to understand this whole diabetes thing, but it wasn't the response I expected. The whole thing left me feeling a bit down.
I've got an appointment with my P.A. tomorrow (who plays the part of endocrinologist for me), and I'm hoping she has some ideas - because I'm all out.
i think we're all feeing burnout right now. I know I am, did a few posts last week about it. But we can do it :) *hug*
ReplyDeleteCount me as part of the burnout club as well. Especially this week, after 5 infusion sets (and I'm on vacation, so that's out of a limited supply...) and at least ten hours over 300, I have no interest in attending to this disease. If you get any good tips from your PA, please pass them along!
ReplyDeleteWe've all been there and know how you feel, Kim. This is definitely the best place for you to tell us how you really feel :o) We understand and will help you through this. It's difficult. We all know it has happened before (and we've somehow gotten past is) and it will happen again (and we'll move through it once more).
ReplyDeleteHugs to you. We're here for you :o)
I feel a burnout coming on and I'm 18 weeks preggo. BAD time for burnout. Luckily, I have an endo that makes me send her readings every other day, so if I slack off TOO much, she'll read me the riot act.
ReplyDeleteAnd I celebrate my anniversary EVERY year. It's another year I've lived with this thing in my life and I am still a fully functioning human being. I have a friend that celebrates with a hot fudge sundae. :)
Kim-
ReplyDeleteWe'll all come eat cake with you! ;)
And burnout sucks. I've had it for the last 2 (ok let's be honest) 3 years. It's so much easier to go with the burnout. I mean, I always did 3-4 tests per day, but didn't really care. Like Kerri was talking about, I had some hardcore apathy going on. It's so much easier to just pretend you don't have D, or that it's not that big a deal.
Until I found the DOC, I didn't know what I was going to do. I was at the end of my rope. Now, I'm trying to get back on the unicorn. :) But D is so much more frustrating when you actually care what the number on the meter says.
Hang in there, Kim. We're all here to listen.
Thanks for all of the comments and support, you guys. All of it helps. :)
ReplyDeleteOh gosh, I am so freaking burnt out lately too!!! I hate to admit this, but I've fallen into a very bad habit of doing a fasting BG check, but then bolusing off the numbers on my CGM until late afternoon. So. Not. Good. And I don't think I've eaten a single thing with any nutritional value in over a week.
ReplyDeleteI keep telling myself I'll start over on Saturday when the New Year is here. I really need to hold myself to that! Maybe we should make a "Stop Slacking" pact???
Karen - I'm in. Let's do this! *high five*
ReplyDeleteCelebrating is what it's all about! I had a big outing for World Diabetes Day. Some friends and I got donuts and juice. They were confused but supportive:)
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your 25th, that's a huge deal. I think it's okay to take a responsible but relaxed week every now and then... 25 years is a long time to be "on". Hope you're over the hump now!