A Day-In-The-Life Of A Diabetic's Wife - Sandy Style

I thought of doing this post as a way for people to get a glimpse into my daily routine to show people how busy our life is, but yet how scheduled it is. We do the same thing everyday to avoid any catastrophes or excess pain for Vince. I won't go into as much detail on the physical help or things I do for him (because of this neuropathy) because that is to hard to put into words. But just remember, a lot of what I help with (like helping his with his pump site change) is due to the retinopathy and neuropathy issues. Also, not mentioned, is during all of the phone calls, i am silently playing detective to see if he is low and not realizing it. I can almost always tell by the tone of his voice and how he acts. Doing this has made me aware of a problem situation time and time again. I won't hold back, so as crazy as it may look or sound, it is real for me.

A typical weekday:

6:45AM: Alarm goes off for me to get up for work. I get ready and check Vince's pump number most mornings. The only time I won't check his CGM is if we were watching it throughout the night, and from that, I can sometimes tell how his readings are by the time I wake up. I may or may not do a finger stick to confirm the reading and bolus him (if I haven't waken him by this point) for a correction. Of course I shove iced tea or soda down his throat if he is hovering on the low side. I make sure his cell phone is next to him as well as the house phone so that he can hear when I call in case he is sleeping. He has been known to sleep through the phone ringing.

9:30AM: I have been at work for an hour by this point and I am thinking about calling him but I know it's too early so I make myself wait. And yes, I think about it almost everyday at this time.

10:00-10:30AM: I make my first check in call of the day. Most of the time I wake him up. I ask him if his sugar is high or low and if either, what he has done to treat it. I tell him if i had to correct him before I left that morning and he was still sleeping, so that he is aware of what I did. I tell him I will call him later. By later, he knows when that will be.

12:00-1:00PM: I call Vince to check in for lunch. I ask him again how his sugar is and if he has eaten lunch yet. You might wonder why I keep asking such details. First, it is in case an emergency happens while I am away at work. This way I will know what his sugar has been doing all day and will be more of a help if a situation arises. Second, I have to admit, I am a paranoid wife, but with reason. But mostly the first reason.

2:00-3:00PM: I call Vince or he calls me before he lays down to take his nap for the afternoon. Again, we quickly go over how his sugar is running and I remind him (for my own piece of mind) to eat or drink something if we know a low could come on within the next few hours during his nap. I let him know if I am doing any errands on the way home or if I will be right home after work. If I will be home late, sometimes he will lay down a little later so he isn't sleeping to long.

5:40PM: I usually arrive home at this time from work and go to the bedroom to find him sleeping with the cat in bed and the tv on (to help him fall asleep) I turn off the tv and tell him I am home. He wakes up and we discuss dinner. After dinner, every other day, we do a site change for his insulin pump.

9:00PM: I normally go to bed around this time. I check to be sure his cell phone is fully charged and that the house phones are on the charges to be sure they are charging through the night. Cant have the phones going dead while I am at work! I remind him to take his medicine and to "be careful" whatever this means, I don't always know, but I feel better saying it and he understands. We have a lot of silent understanding of each other. While trying to fall asleep, my mind begins to run. All over the place. What did I need to write down on the grocery list? What was that I idea for that blog post? What are we doing tomorrow or this coming weekend? Anything and everything. I usually force myself to begin counting backwards from 100-1 to clear my mind and try to go to sleep. I start at 100, instead of say 10 or 20, because some nights, I need all the numbers I can get. It usually works and I can get to sleep. I mention this because I am pretty sure it is stress related ;)

12:00AM-6:45AM: This is normally when Vince is in bed with me. We may or may not have the pump beeping at us through the night. It all depends on how his readings are. Whichever one of us hears it first will take a look and take action if needed. I have to admit, he has gotten much better at waking up and hearing it. The darn thing isn't loud enough...Also, depending on his pain, he may shake or jerk his body around during sleep, but lately it hasn't been to bad.

A typical Weekend:

Saturday is our errand day. We normally wake up and go grocery shopping and run any other errands that need to be done. Then we come home and relax. That is the gist of it, although, of course weekends tend to vary. All of the sugar and pump checking continue throughout the day, just with less phone calls obviously than during the week. Sunday morning, I have to refill his weekly pill box as it is emptied by this point. If I get lazy, then he will just get the pills from the supply drawer, but I don't always like that because he could forget some or drop some and not realize it since he doesn't have a lot of feeling in his hands (other than pain anyway) We try to stay home and relax on Sundays as well, as long as there isn't anything special going on. I try to get things done around the house, although I have to admit, even getting off the couch to do the wash or any cleaning is too tiring some of the time. (mostly a mental tired feeling) I just try to relax as much as possible on the weekends, in order to get ready for a new week.