Don’t check incessantly
Everybody is different, but I find that it can take a couple of hours after injecting before I notice a significant drop in my sugar levels. When I was first diagnosed, I would get frustrated that my insulin was not taking immediate effect, and inject an additional dose too soon, leading inevitably to a hypo. Now I have learnt to wait at least two hours, but I still find myself restless and on edge while I wait for the insulin to take effect, so I try not to keep checking my sugar levels during this time (unless I feel myself start to go low). I’m often amazed by how psychological my high glucose symptoms can be – it might be that I started to feel better just 20 minutes after injecting, but when I check my Freestyle Sensor later, I realise that my sugar levels didn’t start to come down until an hour later. Losing the worry associated with an alarmingly high reading made me feel better, even before my glucose levels had changed.
Yoga and meditation
Having high blood sugar makes me feel shaky, and simultaneously lethargic and jittery. Generally, when I feel like this, the last thing that I want to do is something strength-orientated, because my mind is flickering all over the place and my muscles are in spasm. However, if I take deep breath and do it anyway, I find that yoga brings a stillness and sense of being grounded, which can ease the agitation brought on by high blood sugar. In addition, meditation centres on recognising and accepting your current feelings. Acknowledging that I feel fidgety and anxious, and subsequently accepting it makes the feeling far less overwhelming.
Spend time with family/ friends
When my blood sugar is high I tend to get frustrated with myself; I feel inadequate and incompetent for not being able to manage something which most people’s pancreas does without them thinking about it. I often feel as though everybody around me can see my failure and disapproves of me, when in reality I am projecting my internalised disappointment onto others. I feel the urge isolate myself, as a form of self-punishment. Yet fighting this desire to be alone and going out with friends or family diminishes the frustration instantly. The people around me do not have x-ray vision, they cannot see how many mmol/L of sugar I have in my blood at a given time. And even if they could, they wouldn’t judge – the only person judging me is myself. Having fun is a great distraction, and realising that those around us don’t judge us can help us to be kinder to ourselves.
Don’t be afraid to take 10 minutes out
Sometimes glucose levels scuttle upwards in the office, and it can be incredibly claustrophobic knowing that I have to stay at my desk and act like nothing is wrong, especially when the quivery restlessness makes it impossible to concentrate on work. At the point where you can get nothing done, it is better to ask for 10 minutes out. Go for a walk, get some fresh air, clear your head. I have never come up against any resistance from my employer; they have always been happy to make allowances to help me cope with my diabetes. It isn’t always an easy thing to ask, but having diabetes is tough, so believe in yourself and the fact that you deserve to have certain allowances made for you.