Ready For Takeoff

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Craig: I'm Craig Stubing and this is Thicker Than Water. It's been one month since my Aunt Laura was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Right from that first appointment, the looming issue was her upcoming family trip to Arizona. She wondered if she would feel comfortable traveling so soon after her diagnosis when she was still getting used to living with this disease. Now here we are the week of her trip.

Happy one-month diaversary.

Laura: Woo woo.

Craig: If you realized, you have it on your calendar. That's been a [crosstalk].

Laura: I didn't add it on my calendar. I knew it was the 18th and my husband said, "Oh yes, it's your anniversary today." I did say that I was cleaning out all emails and I was back in November and I thought, "Oh, back when times were easier," but hey, it is what it is.

Craig: Does it feel like it's been a month?

Laura: I feel some days that like it's been longer than a month. Maybe because now the routine of the shots.

Craig: Tomorrow afternoon you leave for Arizona.

Laura: Yes.

Craig: Are you as nervous now as you were a couple of weeks ago?

Laura: No. I think last week I told you I felt better. As weeks have gone by, I'm fine with testing my blood sugar. It's not convenient to have all the things I need in order to do that and then it just became the worry about traveling with the insulin and giving myself the insulin shots when I need to do that. At this point, it's like, "okay, I can do this."

Craig: Will a vacation actually help you relax the way a vacation is supposed to or are you just going to be really stressed?

Laura: I think I'm going to be a little more stressed on the flight only because I'm trying to figure out with the timing of the flight, I really should eat while we're flying there. The diabetic nurse told me it shouldn't be that big of an issue because it's only two hours and if I can keep my base all at the same time, so 9:30 here, 7:30 there, that'll help. I mean I haven't been a diabetic very long so I don't even know if my body knows what the heck is going on.

Craig: I guess that's the other interesting thing. It's like you sent me like your log of your blood sugars last week and they were so good and I don't know if you understand how good they are.

Laura: Both the doctor and the nurse have told me, "You are really hitting this great. I mean we're not worried about you." You got to understand I'm not doing any extra insulin at meals. I'm following 30 grams of carbohydrate each meal and I'm just giving myself the insulin that they told me to give me.

Craig: Are you giving more or less insulin based on your blood sugars?

Laura: I don't do that, I just do two units at each meal, that's it.

Craig: I think you're just still so fresh in this honeymoon period, your body's just compensating for you. It's like you've got this co-pilot that's kind of just helping you.

Laura: The other point with the vacation is, I'm probably not going to eat out a lot because it just seems overwhelming to me and since I can't give myself, I mean I probably could give myself insulin but I'm not going to, I have to be very conscious of what I'm eating.

Craig: You're not going to the baseball game and have a hot dog and popcorn and Cracker Jack and an ice cream.

Laura: No. If I go to a ballgame, I will probably have a hot dog, which will be my 30 carbs combined. Maybe a couple of fries from somebody or something but I also know that if I go over, that's okay. I mean, I can't pig out and go over that would be bad but if I'm go 35 or whatever, it's not going to be the end of the world, it's vacation week. I'm thinking if I'm high some of that week, they're not going to count that as being my true blood sugar. Do you know what I mean?

Craig: Yes, I don't think the doctors are going to look at it and think like, "Oh my God, I can't believe this. What was she thinking?"

Laura: I'm not going to do that.

Craig: Is there part of you that wants to just try and be like, "I know it's two units for 30 grams of carbs, what if I have two hot dogs?

Laura: No [crosstalk].

Craig: No?

Laura: No.

Craig: Why is that? You're just-

Laura: I think it's just, I don't feel like I know enough yet about what the current relationship is to the insulin. Once I feel like I have a handle on that, then I think I'll be fine. I know there's formulas, "if your blood sugar is this, before your meal," and then you're going to compensate for that and then if you're going to add an extra carb, then you're going to add for that. Right now, at this point, I'm not worried about all that extra stuff, I'm just fine. Down the road, I know I'd like to, and maybe this is my age, but I don't think I'm going to be adding a lot to my meals because already I feel like I'm eating enough but at this point, I think it's overwhelming. You've been a diabetic for so long that it's so easy for you. Do you know what I mean? And I think other diabetics who have been diabetics for years, it's part of their daily life. You know, there's thought in it, but it's not this newness and I'm still new, I'm still too new.

Craig: It's like driving a car. It's like you can get in and out and you can start the engine, put the car in reverse and do it without thinking about it but when you first start driving, each one of those actions was really nerve-wracking and you had to think about, "Okay, am I pushing the breakdown, now I turn the key" and now it's just so easy.

Laura: The first week I was so intent on 30 carbs, 30 carbs. Now this week I was willing to try something I wasn't sure, how many carbs, not huge I don't want to become lackadaisical. I still think I'm the kind of persons who's always going to think it through before I jump in. You know what, after 10 years we have a conversation and I may be like, "What was I talking about?"

The goal is to keep your blood sugar within certain ranges. To me, at this point, that's what I'm doing and it's working so far so let's just keep on course and then if the honeymoon period ends and then all of a sudden my blood sugars start going up, hopefully, we'll catch it right away.

Craig: Within those first few days you'll see because you've been so regimented that, "Oh, this, something has changed."

Laura: Right and it will be easier, I think for me to identify it. I've been doing the same, eating, nothing's changed and this is what's happening. It's kind of like when you do a lab studies, you have that control group who's going to stay the course.

Craig: Except in this case you're the control group.

Laura: I think it also helps me feel better knowing that I can control this. There's a lot of power in being able to say, "Well, if I do this and I do this and I do this, then I'm within range and everything's gone fair. I feel good, I'm eating well, this is all good." Don't mean I still don't worry.

Craig: Are you worrying a lot?

Laura: No, I don't think I worry a lot. I think we'll have the other conversation another time, but I did write to my doctor this week saying, "Look, I feel like I'm understanding the relationship between the food and the insulin and my activity, but what's driving me crazy is trying to get the things I need in order to take care of my management." That's a whole another conversation, but I'm just saying in order to get ready for this trip, I wanted something and I should have been able to get it within two weeks after I was diagnosed and I'm still not able to get it.

Craig: On the next episode of Thicker Than Water, aunt Laura goes to Phoenix and gets what she needs.

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Thicker Than Water's a production of Beta Cell and it's produced by me, Craig Stubin. As always, a very special thanks to my aunt Laura. This amazing cover of Lean on Me is by the extraordinarily talented Nina Ragonese, be sure to check her out.

If you haven't yet, subscribe to Beta Cell, wherever you listen to podcasts to get all of our shows downloaded automatically onto your listening device as soon as they're available and while you're there, leave a review on Apple podcasts, it really helps other people find the show. If you love Thicker Than Water or any of the Beta Cell shows, you can support us on Patreon there you can get bonus clips, as well as our brand new supporter-only show, Out of Range After Dark.

I'm Craig and this is Thicker Than Water.

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