Forgetting for a moment that you are diabetic.....

[rebrascora]

This has happened to me twice in the last 2 days and I can't think of it happening before since diagnosis 2.5 years ago. Occasions where I have just been in the moment and eaten stuff like I used to without thought for carb content or insulin and then had a sudden realization shortly afterwards.

The first was the other day when my sister and I were out horse riding. We were riding underneath a cherry tree on the grass verge in a residential area and it became clear that there were cherries within reach of us, since we were so much higher off the ground than the average person. It was quite easy to manoeuvre the horses under the branches and pick a few. We tasted them and they were pretty good so we stood there a while just enjoying them and for once I had no thought of my diabetes whatsoever. It wasn't until we moved on that the realization hit me....With hindsight I knew that the dozen or so piddly little fruits weren't going to impact my BG levels too much anyway and it was a hot day and I was struggling to keep my levels from dropping too low so probably beneficial. I had been monitoring my levels throughout the ride as hypoing on horseback is not ideal, so it wasn't as though I had forgotten that I was diabetic except for that brief blissful moment of ignorance and innocence in eating nature's bounty on the spur of the moment without the burden of diabetes and making any decision. It was really quite uplifting and joyous and made me realize how significant the impact of it is normally, even though we learn to do it almost automatically.

Not sure if any of that makes sense to anyone else but just wanted to document it as it was actually an uplifting experience that after 2.5 years, I could just forget in that moment.... Makes you wonder how amazing it would feel to be cured!

 

[Maca44]

So you were Scrumping then not done that in years 🙂

 

[rebrascora]

So you were Scrumping then not done that in years 🙂

Holding hands up emoji.... Guilty as charged!
Well actually not really, as these trees were on public land, so not really much different to picking blackberries in the hedgerow on the road side and eating them. They were actually probably flowering cherry trees that had produced slightly better fruit this year due to the rain we had last month. They were those dinky little yellow and pink cherries as oppose to nice big juicy sweet red cultivated ones.... I might have been in bother with my levels if that had been the case.

 

[silentsquirrel]

OH forages for wild cherries. I freeze small bags of stoned fruit, about 50g. Nice with my porridge. Quite sour compared with the commercial sort, so probably not too bad BG wise.

 

[Inka]

Yes, it makes perfect sense @rebrascora Even now after all these years of Type 1, I forget. Sometimes it’s stressful things that make me forget, but at other times I’m just relaxing and enjoying myself - so much so that the little constant diabetes engine that whirrs away in my head all the time, just switches off and I chill and relax for a blissful few moments until I remember again.

 

[rebrascora]

I think it really brought it home to me that it is such a constant pressure or drain on me.... not just with food but you have to give thought to so much of what you do.... so for me, as you say @Inka, just to be relaxed in that very spontaneous moment and forget the very basic essence of diabetes ie putting carbs in my mouth.... was really rather refreshing and in a lot of respects I would rather that happened than that I make a conscious decision to eat something which I ordinarily wouldn't like that piece of flapjack last night. It was nice enough but I resented it. The cherries, for all they were slightly sour and slightly bitter were just a joy!

 

[Drummer]

I used to stop at a particular layby on the first week in August as there are cherry trees and the ruins of a smallholding hidden behind the overgrown hedge - early on there was ripe fruit on the way back from the folk festival in Sidmouth, then for a while I stopped both coming and going and then just on the way there, now all the cherries are gone before the end of July - as the seasons have changed.

 

[Amity Island]

This has happened to me twice in the last 2 days and I can't think of it happening before since diagnosis 2.5 years ago. Occasions where I have just been in the moment and eaten stuff like I used to without thought for carb content or insulin and then had a sudden realization shortly afterwards.

The first was the other day when my sister and I were out horse riding. We were riding underneath a cherry tree on the grass verge in a residential area and it became clear that there were cherries within reach of us, since we were so much higher off the ground than the average person. It was quite easy to manoeuvre the horses under the branches and pick a few. We tasted them and they were pretty good so we stood there a while just enjoying them and for once I had no thought of my diabetes whatsoever. It wasn't until we moved on that the realization hit me....With hindsight I knew that the dozen or so piddly little fruits weren't going to impact my BG levels too much anyway and it was a hot day and I was struggling to keep my levels from dropping too low so probably beneficial. I had been monitoring my levels throughout the ride as hypoing on horseback is not ideal, so it wasn't as though I had forgotten that I was diabetic except for that brief blissful moment of ignorance and innocence in eating nature's bounty on the spur of the moment without the burden of diabetes and making any decision. It was really quite uplifting and joyous and made me realize how significant the impact of it is normally, even though we learn to do it almost automatically.

Not sure if any of that makes sense to anyone else but just wanted to document it as it was actually an uplifting experience that after 2.5 years, I could just forget in that moment.... Makes you wonder how amazing it would feel to be cured!

Hi @rebrascora I did it once. I came to the conclusion that your mind is separate from your body (where the actual issue lies), so it actually takes effort every moment of everyday to remind you of it, what you need to do, although it soon becomes apparent again when you forget to take insulin😉. I am not suggesting people don't suffer from some of the diabetes symptoms, just that the mind is separate from the illness.

That said, I believe there is a connection between the mind and illness and your thoughts and mental state can have an impact of your health.

https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/have-you-ever-forgotten-youre-diabetic.79850/

 

[rebrascora]

@Amity Island I think this quote of yours from that other thread is relevant in this case....

Jenny, I think that morning I got up, I was thinking about when I was much younger, before I was diabetic. It seems a long time ago now, but there was a time when I wasn't diabetic....."

My sister and I had ridden out together many years ago, before I was diabetic and come across a cherry tree in similar circumstances (although on that occasion they were large, dark red, sweet and juicy) and we picked them and ate them from horseback, so the memory of doing something quite unusual that stuck in the mind and was pre-diagnosis, is probably what took me to a place in my mind where I was no longer diabetic for that moment. It is really interesting how the mind works and the impact it has on your thought processes.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Yup I’ve certainly had that once or twice.

But I think many of us just have a background hum of diabetes stuff going on in the lower levels of our minds most of the time. “When did I last eat… when do I eat next… how has that dose worked out… what impact is this activity having on my BG… how is the weather affecting things… what is that sensation - is it BG related etc etc”

I’ve been intentionally exploring some of that ‘in the moment’ stuff recently, and I have certainly noted that many of the distractions that take me out of the ‘now’ are the whirr of thoughts, sensations, and prompts I get on an ongoing basis through the whole day.

 

[trophywench]

Both husbands have at times heard me saying accusingly, 'What are you like? Whyever didn't you tell me I was diabetic, before I just ate (whatever it happened to be)?'

 

[eggyg]

Guilty as charged! Not cherries, I can’t abide them, but Mr Eggy got some old fashioned boiled sweets for his birthday last month. Lemon sherbets and mint humbugs. They were just there the other day as I walked into the kitchen. Before I even thought about it I opened the jar and popped a lemon sherbet in my mouth! Oops! I’m sure in the grand scheme of things one teeny tiny sweet didn’t do much harm but it’s a good job I realised as I may have eaten the whole jar! 😳

 

[trophywench]

Ah - it gets to a stage when the 'sensible' part of the brain intervenes and saves us from ourselves - usually, anyway! probably not once the senile dementia has taken over, though .......