With diabetes, preparing for any exercise or activity is never as simple as it should be.

10:30 AM – I actually remembered to start my temporary basal rate adjustment

10:45 AM – Blood sugar is 95 mg/dl with some insulin on board.  Eat a quick sandwich.

10:50 AM – Refill my Gatorade supply, grab a fresh bottle of test strips, and even a pad of post-it notes to write down blood sugars, and stick it all in my gym bag. Feeling very on-top of everything, and impressed with myself for remembering the diabetes stuff, I also grabbed a couple of shirts, a big towel, couple small towels, essential undergarments, socks, shoes, insulin pump strap, and stuck that all in my gym bag too.

10:58 AM – tweet this:

11:01 AM to 11:20 AM – Spend a few more minutes on twitter and reading a cool article on MLB Pitcher, Brandon Morrow, who also lives with type 1 diabetes (found the article through twitter, btw).

11:25 AM – Head to the YMCA

12:05 PM – tweet this:

What a bummer!  I forgot my shorts!

On any different day I could have run over to a nearby Target and grabbed a cheap pair.  But this day I had an afternoon meeting which was already cutting into my time. It just wasn’t worth it. I didn’t have enough time.

I made a lot of adjustments to my diabetes management to accommodate the basketball session (remember that temporary rate and sandwich?), and there was a fair amount of stress and emotion that happened when I realized I forgot my shorts. So I spent the afternoon chasing high blood sugars (part from the diabetes adjustments, and part from the stress and emotions).

Some of that stress and emotion was frustration of having to miss one of my favorite things, some was from having driven all the way there for nothing (and having to drive back home), and some was stressing about what this was going to do to my blood sugars for the afternoon.

Diabetes makes things so much more … complicated.

I couldn’t just write it off as a silly mistake that made me miss my basketball.  Instead, that little mistake kicked off a chain-reaction of diabetes decisions and adjustments that lasted many hours into the afternoon.

You better believe I’ll be checking for my shorts before I leave tomorrow!