The past month has been nothing but a love fest at my house. Our new puppy Wilfred has added so much to our lives. Besides the obvious stress relief, Wilfred gets my husband and I walking at least 2 hours a day, usually more. He is such a happy, playful dog. He follows me around like a shadow (which I’m not ashamed to admit- I love!). I can’t help but smile when I look at his goofy face! My husband, never a dog person, has completely changed his ways. 

I’ve been reading Cesar Millan’s book, Cesar’s Way, and one of the main points he starts on is that as the pack leader, dog owners need to be Calm-Assertive all the time. Just seeing all the examples and reading about the benefits to behaving this way got me to change my perspective. As a generally tightly wound person, I’ve been trying to stay calm and relaxed but still in control all the time. Of course I still get excited and laugh loud and talk a lot when friends come over, but I’ve noticed a change in myself and in my interactions with Wilfred.

Even taking Wilfred for a walk has changed my perspective. I love to exercise, but now when I take walks, it’s not just to get from point a to point b. I don’t turn around and come back inside once Wilfred has taken care of business. We keep going! It’s completely about the journey. We are living in the moment.

This has helped my attitude towards my diabetes as well. I’ve always hated changing my pump for no real reason except that I hate doing it. It literally takes 3 minutes and is very easy to do, but I dread it just the same. I’ve noticed that the last few times I’ve had to change my pump, I’ve been pretty neutral about it. I ordered an extra pump inserter and enlite sensor inserter so I don’t have to take anything out of my mobile diabetes kit. That stays in my purse. I organized my supply ‘station’ (one of those plastic, dorm room, drawer sets filled with infusion sets, reservoirs, sensors, test strips, lancets, syringes, alcohol wipes, tegaderm, batteries, an extra meter and adhesive pads) so that everything is be easily accessible and stored in order by expiration date. It doesn’t make changing my pump or sensor fun, but it is way less of a pain than it used to be.

I also noticed that I’m not as angry when I get highs as I used to be. I’d get so frustrated and feel an awful knot in my stomach anytime my meter read something over 250. It’s still frustrating, but I know that it’s going to happen. Instead of getting mad, I go into repair mode and fix it. I give a correction, if that doesn’t work, I check my site, change my pump and correct again. I should probably inject though instead of correcting on my pump. That’s probably what Doc. Peters would tell me to do. I’m taking baby steps. I’ll get there.