Eye See You…Stress Tips and More…
Last week I had my annual eye appointment. This appointment to me is the most anxiety provoking diabetes related visit of the year. I have been seeing the same doctor for over 30 years now and although I look forward to updates on his dogs and kids (and secretly hoping he never retires) my body and mind go into full out panic mode EVERY SINGLE YEAR.
Did I have too many highs this year that was the tipping point forcing my retinas to change? Is this appointment that means I have the start of a complication?
I check in, pay the copay, sign my annual HIPPA waiver and wait for the dreaded drops. Does anyone else feel like the numbing drops hurt more than the actual dilation drops? Just me? Mmmk…cool.
My appointment was at 2pm. This was taken at 1:44pm. Thank you stress!
By this point my blood sugar is on the rise. Heart pounding, tight chest, clammy feet (maybe from my flip flops but definitely probably not). Eye complications are my biggest fear.
I start to notice the waiting room phone scrolling isn’t working anymore so the drops are doing their job. Check.
Doc comes in and starts chatting away. I carefully glance over at the images of my eye balls pulled up on the monitor to make sure I don’t see anything weird looking other than some hopefully just dust on the computer screen.
He does the eye pressure to look for signs of glaucoma, thoroughly reviews the images, starts asking about my kids, then as my heart continues to beat faster and faster I hear him say….
“I see no diabetes in the eye….see you in another year.” Music to my ears, or eyes in this case?
Like the Gerald and Piggie book I have been reading to my toddlers…“waiting is not easy.”
Stress and fear go hand in hand. When the body senses stress, fear is often accompanied by it. The “fight or flight” bodily sensations will send a signal to the brain and adrenaline kicks in.
Adrenaline doesn’t get along well with insulin-sooo I know exactly why my blood sugars weren’t in range and took awhile to come down.
I wanted to write this post because I wanted to make parents aware that sometimes the reason our blood sugars go up and stay up for a while isn’t because of a concrete visible carb miscalculation, or a sneaking of food, missed bolus, or other easy to trouble-shoot answer.
Hormones are a beast, yet we need them. Feelings are real and some hormones force our bodies to go into resistant mode, just like the cortisol in the morning when some of us may experience the “dawn phenomenon” effect. Here are some hopefully helpful tips to think about as it relates to hormones and managing the stress around it…
How to resist the insulin resistance during stress!
Make a list of all the times you can predict you or your child/teen being stressed. (newsflash, they probably won’t tell you when they are stressed at the moment, AND sometimes moms and dads just know)....is it before a baseball game, the morning of a big exam, right before a flight takes off? Before you make any changes to any rates/ratios etc just observe. See what the blood sugar does. See if you notice a pattern.
Think about your own stressors and triggers. How do you cope, what happens to YOUR body in times of significant stress and/or fear.
Acknowledge! Acknowledge how they might be feeling BEFORE a big stressor trigger.
“I’ve been thinking you might be thinking about that exam you have tomorrow. When I was your age this is what I did to make me feel better.”
Ask questions. “Have you ever noticed that when you have an exam, or a big new or scary experience coming up that your body gets nervous?” I’ve noticed that sometimes I can see your blood sugars have a hard time staying in range. Have you noticed that?
Act on it. If you feel comfortable making changes on your own, you can…
Make sure you/your kiddo are plenty hydrated going into the stressful event.
Set a temp basal/make sure you are in automode of your closed loop systems, or give some extra insulin. (a lot parents are afraid of low blood sugars during times of stress etc, when in fact it is the opposite that is often likely to happen).
Have a balanced meal or snack that will give you energy including one with protein and fat to help prevent an initial spike.
As always consult with your medical team if you are noticing trends and patterns you just can’t get ahead of.
Need some help tackling your day to day stress? Book your free intro session with me today!
