I wasn’t great at science or math when I was in school. I wasn’t bad, I just wasn’t that interested. There was so much fantasy to read and history to learn. I guess the joke’s on me that I now have to practice biochem literally every day.
That’s what having a chronic or autoimmune condition is. You learn how your body works in its unique, broken biology, and you learn how your biology works with the chemical treatments prescribed to manage it. Everyone’s set of symptoms and severities is different. There are parameters, but there is always the possibility of being thrown for a loop. The period right after diagnosis is rife with indicators, but sometimes it takes a while to notice them.
To add a few layers of complicated, our biochemistry changes. It can be influenced by time/age, environment, or an added biological or chemical development -- any kind of stimulus, really. The trick is to find the troublesome patterns and either find a way to manage them or head them off at the pass.
I have gone through this process with a close friend with about two years of Type 2 diabetes under her belt. It’s harder than it needs to be because you never get all the information you need from initial doctors’ appointments, but here are the types of patterns she has discovered:
· Just because you are diagnosed doesn’t mean that optimal control is around the corner. Give it some time.
· A low blood sugar is scary as hell the first time you feel it, and it may take a few days to recover your energy if it’s bad enough.
· Minor high blood sugars induced by the occasional food splurge, and that come down shortly are unlikely to cause complications.
· Being just a little sick will screw with blood sugar.
· Lack of sleep and emotions can affect your blood sugars, mostly in the high direction. Don’t panic. Do what you have to do – exercise, flush your body with water, increase meds – to bring it down.
But it’s not just my friend. Even after 32 years, I still connect diabetes dots that surprise me, such as where my weight crosses the line into metabolic syndrome, which affects both food and insulin absorption. And that it takes two hours for water to be absorbed into my body so I can avoid dehydration cramps.
I always thought I would be happy in a constant learning environment. But biochem still doesn’t particularly interest me. Combine that with the high tech equipment that comes with it now, and I spend my life fluctuating between calling said equipment and certain body parts various four-letter words and seeing how far I can bend the new rules before I break them (old habits die hard).
But you can’t really get away from it. Like many high-level careers, chronic and autoimmune conditions require continuing education. If you don’t keep up, you can’t do your job right.