You know that movie 50 First Dates, where Drew Barrymore forgets her life every day? Her character, that’s me most days. While I don’t forget my life completely, I do forget a lot of things. I misplace my keys all the time, forget my purse everywhere (at interviews, at work, in the car, once even in a restaurant on East Hastings; not the best place to do so) and I often forget what I’m about to say just milliseconds before intending to say it.
It’s been like this forever. I remember once when I was six years old, I sat at the top of the steps in our house for a good half hour trying to remember why I had gone up the stairs in the first place, retracing every conversation, every thought, every step I made before getting to that forgetful moment. And now, more than 25 years later, I am still doing the same.
My minimalist memory is one of the main reasons why I did not want to switch from needle injections to the pump. While I never once unintentionally forgot to jab myself with a needle (kind of hard to forget something like that) I strongly feared forgetting to refill my pump.
It’s a valid fear. I hear horror stories about it all the time – type 1s forgetting to reload their pump, and having just 10 or less units of insulin to get them through the work day, some opting not to eat any carbs the entire day. (For those of you who don’t know, insulin balances carbs, which are broken down into sugars, going into the system.) But the thing is, I don’t think I could survive on no carbs. I am a carb-a-holic. I love my breads, love my fruits, love my veggies, love my yogurt, love my chocolate – all of which have varying levels of carbs.
Almost two years in, knock on wood, that fate has not yet befallen me. What I have, however, forgotten to do multiple times is remove the old canula that’s stuck through layers of skin – sometimes leaving it there for 2 extra days, which means it’s been in my body for 5 whole days! And oh man, sometimes it’s right mangled and the skin in which it was inserted is angry red, or painfully purple.
Probably not the greatest thing to do, what with infections and all (again, knock on wood, no infusion-related infections yet) but sometimes it just skips my memory. It’s always the last thing I have to do to complete the infusion day process. But it kind of hurts like hell removing that tape-laden sucker, which is doubly secured in place with a further liquid adhesive – seriously, it’s like trying to rip off Duct tape! Youch!
What do you do to boost your memory?
TONIGH’TS AR:
- 5:15 p.m. BG before: 7.4
- Temp. basal: -100 per cent (1 hour)
- Time: 45 minutes
- 6:30 p.m. BG after: 3.9
- Temp. basal: +50 per cent (1 hour)
Tonight’s aqua running was a killer, and I am far too beat to go into details about it tonight, but I promise the next post will be an eye opener – especially for those AR naysayers. Until then, sleep well my friends. I know I will 😀
Oooh see, it did make your BG drop (that is your blood sugars right?) I was worried! I hope you are feeling ok!
Ohhh, you’re getting good at spotting the diabetic idiosyncrasies 😀 And yes, I was okay, thank you. And because of your nice little freak me out warning, I packed along some post ‘AR’ raisins, which always shoot my BG up!
Sleepy-time Princess: Good question about improving memory. Unlike you, I have always had an EXCELLENT memory. But lately I have noticed worrisome gaps. Especially with spelling, which you and I do every day. Ever since I was a kid, spelling has come as natural to me as breathing. I just KNEW how to spell words. Uh, not so anymore. Sometimes it takes effort, and if I don’t put in the effort I mis-spell … unless I look up the word and take the time to MEMORIZE it – which is why I jumped on you today about spelling Agassiz. I don’t think there’s a trick or a drug that will improve memory … ya just gotta exercise it.
It’s werth the efert 🙂
I can’t say I have trouble forgetting. However, switching to the pump I felt it was the opposite. So many times on injections I injected twice because I always forgot that I had just injected. At least with the pump when I forget, I look on the screen to see that I did in fact just bolus.
Removing the old set is just part of the process of putting on a new one. I’m always excited to take it off because half the time it’s kinked and I want to see the kink to justify all those high BG’s.
It only gets worse. All my life, I have possessed a killer memory — until recently. Numbers are my best, phone numbers, Interstate numbers, bank account numbers, it truly is freaky, sometimes, what I can dredge up years after the fact. But in the last few years — I blame age and fading hormones — it’s not been as good. I’ve adopted the so-kill-me-I-forgot stance. But it is infuriating, to open my mouth, start to speak, and draw a blank. Or to go into a store and walk around thinking, what-the-hell was it.
Apparently, I’m told, it’s not forgetfulness, it’s distractedness, which is probably your issue — an active mind all your life flitting around to the many things you are interested in, skating over the boring, less than thrilling, not nice, and frankly aggravating stuff.
The older we get, our mind doesn’t snap around the way it used to, remembering things that we do while we are doing something else, which makes sense because if I don’t stop and watch myself, say lock the truck, I can’t remember 30 seconds later if I’ve done it.
Looks like you’ll need to slow down a little. Damn, eh.