Bad Diabetic Habits

Today's going to be a honest blog post. Every diabetic has their bad habits when it comes to diabetes, and I definitely have several of my own. So, I thought that since I'm snowed in and have another day off of school I'd share some of my bad diabetic habits with you guys. Here they are:

1. Never changing my lancet.

I feel like this is a habit that almost every diabetic has. You're diagnosed, they tell you to be careful to only use lancets once to avoid infections, and you follow that ruler religiously... for a while. Then you get lazy about it. "Reusing it won't hurt me," you tell yourself. So you reuse your lancet twice, which turns into ten times, which turns into using the same lancet for three months... it's a downward spiral. I'm so guilty of this it's not even funny. But, I changed my lancet today, so that counts for something, right?

2. Being lazy about counting carbs.

This is another thing that when you're first diagnosed you do to the t. You look at labels, and if there's not a label, you look it up online... then you start having to guess carbs because there's no label or information about carbs online. And, at least for me, you just start guessing almost all the time. You tell yourself, "This has about this many carbs and this has this many..." and it just turns into a bad habit that you struggle to break. But, never fear, you can indeed break it! 

3. Never logging anything.

When I was first diagnosed (I feel like that's how all of my sentences have started...) I kept logs of EVERYTHING. I wrote down when I checked my blood sugar, what my blood sugar was, what ate, how many carbs were in it, how much insulin I gave myself... you get the point. I logged a lot of things. Then I got lazy. I was diagnosed when I was eight, and as a kid, writing all that stuff was never fun and I definitely didn't like it. As I got older, I got lazier and lazier about it and eventually quit doing it altogether. There's nothing wrong with not logging blood sugars and carb intakes, but it definitely helps. If you have a high or low blood sugar, you can look back at your log and figure out what might have caused it a lot easier than if you don't log anything. 

4. Poking the same finger every time I check. 

This isn't a horrible habit, but it definitely leads to some nasty looking fingers and probably some scar tissue. It's just so easy to do! For me at least, I tend to really like poking my middle and ring fingers because they don't hurt as badly as my index finger and I've never been a fan of poking my pinky and I'm honestly not sure I've ever poked my thumb. Along with these preferences, I tend to like to poke these fingers on my right hand, although I'm not sure why. 

5. Wiping blood on everything. 

This one sounds really gross, but lets be honest, we all have gross diabetic habits. After I check, I'll wipe my finger off on my meter case, on my pants(oops), on my shirts if it's black or I don't care about it. It's gross, but who actually carries alcohol wipes around with them? And it's just a meter case or my pants or a shirt. It's not the end of the world. :)

Well, there you have it. Now you've heard about a few of my bad diabetic habits and maybe you even have some of the same ones yourself!