Diabetes Blog – Happy-Medium.net

I have a small vegetable garden in the back yard. This year, I’ve grown lettuce, green beans, assorted peppers, tomatoes and potatoes, and yellow squash. To get to the final goodness of what a summer garden can provide, I have to do a lot of weeding. A lot. Of weeding. A lot.

And naturally, that makes me think about living with diabetes.

We’ll have average days, beautiful days, rainy days, sunny days, and super-hot days. But the weeding still needs to be done. During those same days, we need to remember to test, treat, inject, or whatever we have to do to maintain a healthy blood glucose.

If we go through a dry spell, I’ll need to water everything in the garden. If we go through several days of rain, I have to make sure nothing gets damaged by the extra dampness. If my blood sugar is high, I need to exercise and/or drink copious amounts of water to bring the numbers down. If I’m low, it’s juice, glucose tabs, or candy to the rescue. I have to be ready despite the weather or how I feel.

Sometimes the weeds are the creeping kind, that spread out across the garden. Often, they’re the climbing kind, that wrap around my plants and threaten to choke them before they can bear any fruit. Occasionally, an unexplained illness or a bent cannula can threaten to ruin my diabetes that day. Constant vigilance is required to snuff out all threats to a healthier life.

Why do the weeds want to grow more in my garden anyway? The simple answer is that the soil is better there. It’s been cleaned up and fertilized every spring to help my veggies grow big and flavorful. If I were a weed, I’d want to grow in my garden too. Maintaining a lower A1c is kind of like that too: The better we manage our diabetes all the time, the closer we are to hypoglycemia all the time.

Better soil = Better environment for weeds
Better BG control = Closer to hypoglycemia

But… Just like tending our gardens diligently produces blockbuster crops and tasty, low-carb treats throughout the summer and even into the fall and winter, tending our diabetes with equal diligence allows us the opportunity to continue spending our lives with the ones we love. It allows us the chance to maintain steady pursuit of our dreams. It provides us with an opportunity to grow, blossom, and bear the fruits of a live well lived.

I hope your summer gardens, diabetes, and dreams are all weed free and full of special moments.