A little multitasking, anyone?

First, a short follow-up note; I realized that, in my last post, I linked to an article from the BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) that requires payment for full viewing. The little lead-in leaves a person hanging (of course): A woman with an A1c of 7.9 discovers she's pregnant. Well, assuming you don't want to pay for the full article, I'll ruin the suspense: The woman (it's unclear whether she's real or hypothetical) ends up having a baby with a heart defect that must be fixed with surgery soon after the baby is born. It seems the baby is fine in the end, but the case is supposed to be a cautionary tale about preparing for pregnancy if you have type 1 diabetes.

The article discusses a lot of interesting (to me, anyway) data about just what A1c to aim for, ideally before getting pregnant, and about just what the risks are with higher levels. But of course, "risk" is a difficult concept; just because the risk is somewhat higher as your A1c goes above 6.0 doesn't necessarily mean you risk is "high." I certainly wasn't anywhere near 6.0 when I got pregnancy, despite my best efforts to prepare; I did get down that low (and even a little lower) during most of my pregnancy, though. In the end, my diabetes wasn't the biggest factor - it was my apparently familial risk for pre-eclampsia (a.k.a. toxemia; high blood pressure during - and sometimes after - pregnancy). Yes, diabetes does increase the risk for pre-eclampsia, but it's common in other pregnant women, too; in fact, it's not very clear why women develop it.

What I've really been thinking about this week, though, is the extra level of multitasking that diabetes adds to parenting. Figuring out how many carbs are in the meal I'm about to eat, plugging that and my blood sugar level into my pump, and accounting for any other factors, like the walk I went on a few hours earlier, or the sprint up the stairs that I'll probably have to do right after my meal to get a toy or book; all while making sure my daughter eats her soup instead of putting it up her nose, and figuring out when she's going to be ready for her nap or bed before she upends the soup bowl as her definitive signal of the meal's end. And that's on the days I'm not working from home, when I'm also keeping in mind word deadlines. Still, work-at-home days are a relief from all the extra planning that it takes to get myself and my daughter out the door.

I've come up with some time-and-energy savers to help simplify - mostly just by making the things I need more accessible, so I don't have to run around so much or think about where they are. For example, I have three blood sugar monitors: One for my upstairs bathroom, one in my purse, and one in my car. I just got one more, so that's going in my suitcase. The one in my purse is the primary one, so I can keep track of most readings that way. But when I'm elsewhere, I can still test whenever I need to. If I were on one floor of my house and my meter were on another, and I was with my daughter, it would be impractical (sometimes impossible) to reach the meter. I admit I haven't tried to keep a log of my sugars in a while; but my pump now lets me download my readings onto the computer, so almost my readings (which I plug into my pump myself) are recorded together there. This does miss the low readings, which I don't usually plug into my pump (because it would just say 'Hey, idiot, don't take insulin right now!' or words almost exactly like that). I tend to remember the real lows, though.

We also have a diaper-changing station in our living room; I know, nonparents are probably grossed out just by the concept, but it helps to avoid those unplanned-for extra runs up and down the stairs that make my blood sugar drop. I've duplicated lots of little items upstairs and down that my daughter uses a lot, too, like sweaters, shoes (too bad she has one particular favorite pair that always seems to be on the OTHER floor from wherever we are), pain reliever, nail trimmers, and some clothing. We have a phone system with an intercom; my husband's used to the near-nightly buzz with the requests I call in for blanket, water, etc. (This system was his idea - I just hope he's not regretting it, but I think he secretly likes his role as runner!).

You know the old saying about necessity being the mother of invention? Well, as a diabetic mother, I've had to do a lot of inventing. Inventing (and constantly reinventing) seems to be a necessary skill for all parents, anyway, especially working parents; hence the reglorification of the crock pot! If you've got other time-and-energy savers you find useful, I'd love to hear about them!