Take Care of You for Your Diabetic Dog

When we get that “your dog has diabetes” diagnosis the disease becomes our focus. If you’re like me, my boys were my life so besides work, it was all about them. Getting the Diabetes diagnosis really threw a wrench into our world. Sleep was a thing of the past, peace of mind was gone and it was all about learning all that I could and applying all that I learned. There truly was no rest for the weary.

My biggest mistake in all of this was that I moved myself to the bottom of the list. The huge downside to that was that every fasting number became a stressor and every nuance of management was blown way out of proportion. I forgot to breathe and keep all of it in proportion. I had lost all perspective. Because I was alone with my boys, there was no relief. No one else to help me test, feed or inject. It was a lot for this little overachieving perfectionist! LOL

I will never forget the day that it all snapped into perspective for me. I had just done a morning fasting on Max and it wasn’t a good number, I sighed and my eyes welled up. Just at that moment, Max looked up at me and his eyes were so sorrowful, as if to say, “I’m sorry Mama, I’ll do better”. What was I doing!!! None of this was his fault; none of this was my fault! I needed to stop holding on to every number as if it was the end of the world. That was the day that I realized that it’s just a number, it may be good, it may be bad, either way, it wasn’t the end of the world. And we would have another chance in about 12 hours! And if that one didn’t go my way, we were going to do all of this again tomorrow.

This was the beginning of paying more attention to trends than to individual numbers. There is nobody that has perfect numbers every day. I’m going to say that again because it bears repeating. There is NOBODY that has perfect numbers every day…. Nobody.

Having a few days where your numbers are wonky is to be expected. It’s going to happen. If it continues to happen for more than a few days, now it’s a pattern or trend and looking into what is causing it is a good idea. We have talked in the past about checking the “usual suspects” like is your insulin getting close to time to start a new vial, have you opened a new bag of food, changed your injection site, etc.

Back to you… Take time away every day when you aren’t obsessing about your pup and the numbers. You MUST take care of yourself so that you can care for all the rest. Try to remember what life was like before diabetes. Get back to doing the things that you enjoy, that fill you up and recharge your batteries. I can almost guarantee that if you are less stressed, your pup will know it and they will also relax. Stress doesn’t only affect you, it will definitely affect your pup’s numbers, try it and see. Take some time to breathe and relax and see if your pup’s numbers come down or if they seem happier. We have talked about the bond between you and your dog. As it gets stronger because you are testing and injecting twice a day, they will be even more in tune with you so if you don’t relax for your own sake, do it for your “sugar baby”.

Just for fun, when you are journaling your normal stuff daily, make a note of your mood and stress level and see if you notice a correlation between your stress level/mood and your pup’s numbers. If you do, can you drop me a quick email or post in the comments below so I know how it goes? Until then, move yourself up the priority list and try to find perspective.  Most of all, breathe and try to relax!