I was diagnosed three days before leaving for India to teach yoga teacher training. My Endo doctor told me to get a blood glucose meter and test my blood sugar levels and try to keep them around 4 mmol. I remember she tested it and she saw 4.6 and thought it was too high. I was diagnosed before CGM technology was readily available and at a time when many doctors didn’t understand her LADA (Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults) as much as they do now. .
Since I didn’t really know what my situation was and didn’t have the medical support I needed, I created my own idea of numbers that were in and out of range. This mindset led to all sorts of wrong behaviors that not only hurt my body, but created habits that I have to struggle to undo.
At the time, I was blaming myself for not flatlining. I believed that limiting my diet to no more than 7 foods was the only way to maintain a narrow range, combined with the idea that too much insulin was unsafe and harmful. .
Thankfully, medical institutions and their ideas have evolved. When I sit down with my doctor, we discuss TIR (Time in Range). And I learned that as long as it’s above a certain percentage, it’s okay.
You don’t have to worry about HbA1c or daily highs and lows. Freestyle libre lets you easily take a snapshot of the past two weeks to see where you’re at. Then I can make a decision. Do you need to adjust your basal dose or insulin to carbohydrate ratio? Or maybe you need to be a little more calm and leave things as they are.
As I reflect on my own personal journey with TIR and get to the point where I’m okay with seeing spikes and dips, I find myself less and less interested in looking at other people’s numbers. . I’ve realized that TIR varies from person to person, and what I call high may be within range for others, depending on how you think. Diabetes Management has no fixed address. Believe me, I tried to do that.
If you look at someone else and think their management is ideal and yours is terrible, think again. There is definitely always room for improvement, even if it is in another area of your life.
It is absolutely impossible to be perfect while living with diabetes. All we can do is embrace diabetes and experiment enough to find what works for us. And for me it’s ideal.
I would like to express my deepest respect…
rachel