Perhaps it’s human nature for us to only notice the bad things in life. Bad things cause us pain. No one likes pain. But we don’t often celebrate the small victories we make along the way. The last few days I have had a few close calls with potential dia-catastrophes or annoyances, which made me appreciate the little wins when it comes to diabetes.
Over the last few days, my good day with diabetes involved:
rolling my tights or skinny jeans down without ripping out a pump site in my leg
having a hypo right after conducting a research interview, not during
my pump screaming low battery on a site/insulin cartridge change day
realising my pump line is caught in a door knob before getting it ripped out
remembering to bring along more test strips so I’m not left with only one for the day
finding my misplaced pump clip at the bottom of my gym bag
catching my pump mid dive after it decided to check out the toilet bowl
wiping off blood on the gym equipment from my last finger prick before anyone realising
not finding random blood trails from my finger pricks on your clothes
when my correction for a 16.7mmol/L BG worked (YES!)
not finishing my noodles at dinner but still coming up at a good BG before bedtime
being able to sleep through the night without a hypo after a bad few nights
my boyfriend reminding me that my pump is not hooked on
the ability to consider trying a combo bolus for Indian food later this week (YUM!)
showering without worrying about ripping a site out in my tummy
Obviously though, the biggest victory that we may take for granted is simply having access to insulin. Not to mention the advances in diabetes technology that has helped us manage diabetes to fit in with our lives not vice versa. Next time I’m having a downer of a diabetes day, I’m definitely reminding myself of those!
Dr Ashley Ng 
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