Rock, Paper, Glucose?

So there I was, trying to catch up on news events after breakfast via the web. While scrolling through the news, I came across an article on the international Rock, Paper, Scissors (RPS)tournament, which was held in Toronto Canada http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2006-11-13-rock-title_x.htm?csp=34

My first reaction was, 'Oh yea, that's the game my brother and I used to decide who got to ride in the front seat of the car with dad when we were kids. (I use the term 'used' as if we would no longer do that, but I do recall last Christmas when we used RPS to decide who got the last piece of cherry pie - I won). Then I read that the winner of the tournament took home almost $ 9,000 dollars! $9,000!!! I was shocked when I thought that someone who won a game of chance could win that much money. That's all RPS is is a game of chance, right?

While I sat there actually thinking about how many glucose tabs I could actually buy with $9,000 dollars, my Check BG reminder on my insulin pump went off. I had set it to go off two hours after breakfast, because by then I should have come back down to my target range. So, I dutifully got out my meter and strips to check my BG.

Then I go the number. 243 mg/dl! Are you kidding me! I was so mad, so very, very mad. What had gone wrong? I checked my BG before breakfast so I knew where my starting point was. I had counted my carbs perfectly, I even weighed my raisins (which I almost never do). I used my insulin to carb ratio to deliver the exact amount of insulin i would need. I even double checked my bolus in the pump history. How could that happen after all of that work. It's not fair!

My BG really threw me into a tirade (which usually happens when my BG is high). Hey my BG control is pretty much a shot in the dark, right? It isn't that much different from the RPS tournament; it;s just another game of chance right? Well then I'll start my own tournament just for diabetics - Rock, Paper, Glucose (RPG). Yes, I can see it now. We'll pit our inability to control our blood sugars in mono y mono style. We'll eat some carbs, take a bolus, and two hours later we'll guess at what our blood sugar is; whoever is closest to their actual BG wins - or maybe it should be whoever is farthest from their actual BG wins?

Wait a minute...Maybe my control isn't nearly as erratic as I make it out to be. I scrolled through the history on my BG meter and found lots of BGs that were in target. Sure there were some high and lows ones, but for the majority of them I was were I had tried to be.

I often make the mistake of focusing on the high BGs, not the others where I do everything right and my BG is exactly where I want it. That's a natural reaction, but the important point to remember is that the result should not take away from the effort it took to get the result. Eventually, the work will pay off.

So maybe I'm wrong. I can't have a tournament about the 'chance' of diabetes management because for the most part - it does follow the rules. If you eat right, exercise, count your carbs, and take your medication when you need to, you'll be on track for the majority of the time.

So I guess the dream of the RPG tournament died as quickly as it started. That's ok, I was never good at games of chance anyway...