#happydiabeticchallenge - Motivation

Current Tuesday situation:

• Took my kids to early morning swim lessons, they only cried the.whole.time. 
• Dialed in a quick correction bolus right before hopping in my car for work and promptly shoved the pump into my bra (fairly inaccessible while driving). Two minutes later heard the beeps indicating an "occlusion alarm". Well, isn't that convenient? 
• Followed what I thought was my friend's car into work this morning, pulled in next to "her" and yelled "heyyyy gurrrlllll" as I was scrambling out of my seat to walk in with her. The white haired old man installing his sun shade was very confused. 
• The first email I read at work simply said "Could you me the latest?" What in the literal heck people?! Just do a quick once-over before hitting send!
• Realized I forgot to send my sweet mum her mother's day card yesterday - I'm going to go ahead and blame my own motherhood for that. Ironic? Oh well. She'll understand. 

I adore my little office at NASA! It looks down over the entrance to Mission Control and is just one office away from where Gene Kranz sat (Flight Director for tons of early missions including Apollo 11 and 13, nbd). Also I think the desks are still from the 60's but who even cares. 

Today's #happydiabeticchallenge topic is all about motivation. What motivates a Type 1 Diabetic to keep at it? How do we wake up day after day chasing the numbers, prepared for multiple injections, and knowing in our gut that a low or high will probably show up at some point? 

For me the 'what' is an honest-to-goodness belief that I am equipped to change the world for the better. I'm not talking some grandiose scale here, just small interactions with a foundation of kindness. That may mean my daughter learns tenderness and my son learns patience . Perhaps it means being an unconditionally supportive presence in my husband's life and easing any little burdens he feels. Maybe it means working at NASA - advancing science across borders and false barriers. Who knows, it may even mean writing some of these thoughts down to inspire a newly diagnosed T1 to never give up on their dreams. I am motivated knowing these tiny pearls of positivity may emanate out and ripple through everyone I come into contact with. 

The 'how' is really quite simple: gentleness. I will admit this word has not been a part of my diabetes vernacular for very long. But a 40+ hour a week job and two kids sort of forces the issue! Through trial and error (lots and lots of error) I have come to realization that logic is a pipe dream when talking about both kids and diabetes. Kids have melt downs for literally the craziest reasons, one word or look can tip them over the edge. And diabetes? Well, a "simple" day of a missed breakfast, out to lunch with friends, work happy hour, birthday cake and working out takes equations more complicated than calculus. And even if the day is benign with carb counts for everything and fresh insulin in the pump and a well calibrated continuous glucose monitor sensor there can still be curveballs - lack of sleep, adrenaline, hormones, stress, sickness, medicine interactions, phases of the moon (ok, maybe not this one, or maybe this one!). Diabetes is just impossibly complicated to get right every time. Gentleness. 

And when all else fails and you've come to the end of your diabetes rope, just read this little pep talk from the great Captain Jean-Luc Picard:

Maybe this will be motivation to watch Star Trek?!! #diabeticnerd