Does This Meter Make My Snorkel Look Fat?

I'm a few weeks behind, I know I know. But my recent trip to Puerto Rico inspired me to write a short post about traveling with diabetes. Here's the summary: it's a bitch.

First of all, if your insulin gets hot, it goes bad. Which is really convenient if you're going somewhere like, say Puerto Rico. Now granted, most of the time your insulin is living in the well-air conditioned hotel room, so there's nothing to worry about. But that can bring on a host of problems as well. (Flashback to my sophomore year of high school when I left France to go to Amsterdam and realized ALL of my life-saving insulin was packed neatly in the mini fridge of my Paris hotel room... I'll ruin the ending for you- one $250 overnight shipment later, I survived. But barely.)

Perfect segway into the next hassle. The AMOUNT of insulin being used on vacation. Now, I'm FULLY aware that this pain is self-inflicted. But come on people, it's vacation. Whether you're studying abroad in Italy and dining on wine, pasta, and tiramisu every day (ahem, theoretically...) or vacationing in Puerto Rico and sampling every form of mofongo, fried fish, and guava-fruit-anything (once again, theoretically,) the fact is, you're eating differently, and probably much worse than, you eat at home. Cue the insulin pen dial. Crank that sucker up. I'm not here to eat salad.



There's plenty to gripe about in regards to this topic (and I'll most certainly add to this in the future,) but I'll end this post with a third and final hassle. Booze. In this case, rum. When you're on an island where rum is added into every thing you drink whether it's your morning coffee or afternoon fruity drink, handling your blood sugar can be difficult. The ironic part is that you're so drunk you don't notice or care.

That wasn't a joke. Really.

When you start your day off with a 10am tour of the official Bacardi distillery (free samples, what what!) and make it into town 4 hours later with only a strong mojito and 4 mixed drinks in your system, you're not really thinking about your blood sugar. Your thought process is something like, "Heyyyyyy muchachos! Someone give me some paella with something fried and a side of rum with a mini-umbrella. Tengo hambre! What's diabetes? Holla."

 

Why is this a problem you ask? Well, in the long run it's not. When in San Juan do as Pitbull does. Or something like that. But when you're a diabetic even a little bit of alcohol seriously screws with your system, so the short term implications involve a series of too low and too high blood sugars that will crank your hangover up to Dante's 7th layer of hell status.

So moral of the story? Keep your insulin cold, your empanadas hot, and your endocrinologist on speed dial.

When You Hear Hoofbeats, Think Diabetes.

One of the most frustrating things about being a Diabetic is that when you get sick, your blood sugars go haywire and everything spins out of control. A common cold can send your Diabetes into a downward spiral and give you crazy numbers for days.

On the other side of this really fun spectrum is the fact that a lot of common health problems or aches and pains you have are caused BY Diabetes. So because of that, every Diabetic has to deal with that elephant in the room: Type 1 Diabetes. You can't have ANYTHING medically wrong with you without medical professionals or the people you're close to asking if it's because of your blood sugar.

And this pisses me off. My poor parents have gotten the worst of my backlash from this. But the truth is, sometimes a headache is just a headache. It's a my-blood-sugar-is-100-not-600-every-day-headache that requires Advil, not insulin. Sometimes it's not even a medical problem that raises suspicion: 

Me: I need to pee.
Mom: Have you checked your blood sugar today?

Me: It's hot in here. I'm sweating.
Dad: What are your sugars?


And I get it. Parents worry. But what's really fun is when you actually have to HIDE your Diabetes from health care providers in order to receive treatment for some other problem. I'm talking to you, TCU Health Center.

Every time I have gone into the university health center for some issue, they circle it back around to my Diabetes. This includes holding me hostage, putting an IV in me to flush my ketones (even when there are none there to flush), calling my mother, and sending me to the closest hospital for Diabetic Keto-Acidosis.

Seriously, y'all. I can remember 3 instances where I went to the on-campus clinic and my Diabetes was blamed for my health issues. Those 3 times I had the flu, Pink Eye, and a sinus infection consecutively. Rather than focusing on these issues, the doctors hounded me about Diabetes and created imaginary disease-related problems.

While it's good to be on top of things, the problem is that it makes me wary to even inform them of my Diabetes on future visits. 

This past semester I sprained my ankle really bad and as I was filling out the paperwork in the waiting room I got to the line that reads, "Do you have any chronic illnesses?" Nah.                                             


















Call me paranoid, but I knew that these crazies would probably find a way to blame my Diabetes for my sprain. Something along the lines of my Diabetes ran up behind me, twisted my ankle, and voila! There's your problem.

Now, I won't be stupid about it. Health care providers need to be aware of chronic illnesses in their patients. But they also need to be aware that people with these illnesses can have other, unrelated things wrong with them.

So when you hear hoofbeats, it's really not always horses. Every now and then you get diabetic zebras.

Here, Drink This

One of the best things about having a chronic illness is that everyone seems to have a "cure." You will always meet someone who has a brother who has a girlfriend who has a squirrel who has a diabetic squirrel mom and here's what SHE did to cure it. 

The sad truth is, until scientists can "fix" our pancreases, we will never be cured. We can control this annoying disease and live completely normal lives. But we'll never be cured. Ever.

Not that that stops people from giving advice. Most of it is given out of love, concern, and pure faith that their technique works. It's almost NEVER given out of spite. Here are my top 3 favorite "cures" that have been offered by loved ones lately. While they won't "fix" my pancreas, they at least brought a smile to my face.

#3 Pickle Juice

This one is one of my favorite because of its source. This cure comes from the padre of my best friend, Lexy. When we moved in together freshman year of college, her dad found out I was a Type 1 Diabetic. At some point when she went home this is what she was told, "Your friend with Diabetes. Tell her to drink pickle juice and it will fix it. My friends dog had diabetes and he drank pickle juice and is cured." We still laugh about that to this day. Gracias, Armindo! I do love pickles.

#2 Gastric By-Pass Surgery



First of all, that's a brave soul to tell a curvy, 22-year-old that she needs weight loss surgery.

OK, so he totally didn't mean it like that. (Trust me, I asked.) But still.

The person who gave this little (not-as-sweet-as-the-pickle-juice-gesture) tidbit of advice is one of my dads closest friends and is actually very kind. He told me about this "cure" about 8 whiskeys in to my dad's birthday party a few weeks ago. So I'll let him slide. He said that everyone he knew who had Diabetes and got the gastric by-pass surgery woke up from the procedure without it. 

Maybe he meant Santa Clause and The Easter Bunny. 

#1 Aloe Vera Juice with Whiskey

This one comes from one of my favorite people in the whole world: my gay, Vietnamese, adopted brother. Everyone has one of those, right?

He was recently diagnosed with Diabetes and swears by this "cure." Now, it is a little more promising when someone who actually HAS Diabetes gives you advice, but the fact is that your pancreas is still kaput.

Quang has a bubbly personality that lights up a room, and honestly he could probably get rid of his Diabetes by telling it to go away nicely. A few days ago when he was begging me to try his daily aloe vera/whiskey concoction I mentioned that I'm not a huge whiskey fan. "Not a problem!" he exclaimed, "You like gin. You can use that!" Well now we're talking.



And here's the thing. I actually will try almost anything that is supposed to help. (Well, minus the invasive surgery.) If there's a rumor that drinking pickle juice will do the trick? Sure, why not? And I'm actually looking forward to trying Quang Le's miracle cure. Diabetics follow little tips every day (ie: cinnamon helps stabilize blood sugar.) But when it comes down to it, no matter what natural or alternative remedy comes along, I'm not going to stop taking my insulin. 

But to the people offering up their advice, I truly do appreciate you and your love for this feisty little diabadass. Keep the suggestions coming.