Week Nine - Any End In Sight?

I've definitely been trying to focus on One Nice Thing over the last week and it's kinda helped to some degree.  I had a few photos printed up as part of an early... *ahem*'th birthday present and they looked exactly as I'd hoped.  It'll be nice to have those memories on show if I get round to hanging them within the next five years.

Dubrovnik from the city walls

A view of Ambleside in the Lake District

I'm also squarely looking forward to a week off at the end of this week and spending some time not thinking about email and Zoom.  If the weather holds, we've cracked it.

I also managed to have a diabetes clinic appointment over the phone which was a lot less stressful than trying to find somewhere to park at the hospital and be staring at the walls of the waiting room forever.  Nothing too major to report - still work to do to stave off more hypoglycaemia episodes but as I've said in one of these blogs before - I feel like I'm taking the rough with the smooth when it comes to diabetes right now.

My consultant talked about pump upgrades again and is desperate for me to switch to the Tandem t slim pump and basically set myself up with a closed loop system of sorts that would probably reduce the number of lows.  I'd have to give up my funded Libre and then totally self-fund a Dexcom G6 (for about £2500 a year).  I'm going to take some time to think about it properly - it's a lot of money, but potentially a big difference in quality of life.  If you're using it all together and have any insight, I'd love to hear about it.

This flip side of this week's coin is just the relentlessness of everything.  Obviously this situation is tough for everyone in different ways.  I know I've felt it mentally - some days more than others and some weeks more than others as well.

A calendar image that lined up to today's date (if not day) was a happy coincidence

Having something to aim for makes a big difference and I think that's what I certainly feel is lacking.  Most of the time I don't feel too put out by the restrictions - in fact I think it's lead to some positive changes overall that I really want to hold on to.

But there are times when being locked in that cycle of shower, eight hours of video calls, cook dinner, load/unload the dishwasher, TV, bed feels a bit like Dr Strange battling Dormammu in the time loop (yes we've watched all the MCU films).

There are definitely days where I question the futility of that - if all I'm working towards is more of the same, then is there any point in that effort?  Not in a harmful way I should probably add.  I've always tried to put as much of myself as possible into what I do and I don't feel like I want to pull back from that necessarily, but it's taking a toll right now.

I think the trick here again is to focus on the short term 'ends' and the compress the horizon for everything.  It's all an adjustment for everyone and knowing that I don't always handle the internal aspects of things like this particularly well, I should be more conscious of how I approach it.

Bank holiday next Monday so will inevitably forget to post.

Stay safe x