We are rapidly approaching my birthday season. Many of you laugh, thinking I am hypercelebrating my own day of birth. But I'm not, yo. Not only will I turn 29 on Monday, on March 16, I will celebrate my 20th year with 'betes. Yep. 20 years with a chronic disease and ZERO complications {horn: tooted}. This feat has not been an easy one. Years of trial and error with insulins, shots, pumps, weight, stress, 2 pregnancies and CGM. Effin hard, ya'll. I still learn new things about my disease, and disease state, weekly...and hope to continue to do so throughout my career.
Which brings me to today's post. This weekend I will journey to Austin with 3 of my best friends. We have plans to eat, drink and revel in gluttony. For my non pancreatically challenged friends, all I have heard them express amprehnsion over is weight. Will we gain weight this weekend? Will we look like crap next week from our birthday binge weekend? Where should we eat without being super bad? No, I'm not eating bad today because I'm saving it for this weekend. Must be nice. On top of trying to stay relatively the same weight this weekend, I have to also worry what these activities will be doing to my sugars. Well yeah, that looks awesome...butttt its also 9,000 carbs and my pump only hold 180 units....
In high school and college I drank alcohol {gassspppppsss the audience} and really did so without being too careful. Beer, wine, jello shots, margaritas {Helloooo, I AM in Texas} and good ole whisky. I remember missing insulin injections, not checking my sugar NEAR enough and waking up wondering how I got home. Yeah, pretty dumbsauce. My husband even had one episode of binge drinking in college that landed him in the ICU on a ventilator. Diabetes + alkie-hol is some serious bidness. And if youre going to do it, for the love of little baby Jesus, be smart:
~ Always eat with, or just prior to drinking
~ Check your sugar throughout your occasion
~ Stay away from fruity "girl" drinks {Pina Coladas, Daiquiries, brightly colored drinks}
~ Make sure your drinking buddies know about your 'Betes and the signs, symptoms & treatment of a low sugar
~ Discuss the "rules" with your Endo or CDE...many of us have real life experience with getting shitfaced that we would love to share with you
Alcohol, in spite of containing carbs, will actually lower the blood glucose. That powerhouse of an organ, your liver, has never been told it has diabetes, so it continuously is churning out glucose into your blood stream for energy. Add alcohol to the mix, and it suddenly becomes preoccupied with removing this toxin from your blood...so much so, it forgets to spit out your energy sugar. About half of our basal {long acting} insulin is taken to combat this very sugar. This equals a pretty dangerous scenario. So knowing how to play the game is a must.
So as for my birthday weekend in Austin: I plan on having a great time that includes balancing great food, wonderful friends, a little insulin and some adult bevvies. My poison of choice is Vodka, and if it is Whipped Cream in flavor, SIGN ME UP. I often mix it with diet coke, and avoid calorie laden "shots" as much as possible. A night of shots usually ends with me vomming. No thank you!! So Happy Birthday to me, and more to come on my Diaversary.
Disclaimer: Pinnacle Vodka has not paid me to advertise their insanely good flavored vodkas...but they should.
Sounds like fun. You made me laugh with your 180 units comment. I'm 23 years, no complications. Of course it's not easy, but I find it's not as hard as it is tedious. Like working the line, ya know? The task isn't an ultimate brainer, like surgery or philosophy, it just takes lots of attention and labor to keep going. Enjoy those drinks. :D
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