by Alison
Not even a spoonful
8:04 am in Living with diabetes by Alison
I think a unit of insulin is a huge amount. One too many is the difference between me waking up and going to work, or waking up drenched in sweat jibbering complete rubbish and scaring the husband.
Equally, a unit less than I needed for dinner is the difference between a very pleasant evening with friends and an evening spent with my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth and a fuzzy headache while I battle to get my blood sugar down from the ceiling.
In my world a unit of insulin is a big thing, it’s massive. A unit of insulin to me looks like a biscuit, half an apple, a small yoghurt or 5 fruit pastilles.
I generally use between 50 and 60 units a day (although I get really stroppy when ignorant travel insurance companies ask me how many units I use a day as if the answer will give them any meaningful information, but I digress). Do you know what 50 units of insulin looks like? Its nothing. Tiny, miniscule, I take at least twice as much medicine to sooth an irritating cough several times a day.
My daily elixir of life boils down to this – less than a teaspoon full!
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I’ve never thought of it in those terms – how odd; such a tiny amount does so much!
Wow.
What. An. Image.
I never thought of it that way either. I’m on ave. at 40u, maybe a bit less.
Seeing that image and thinking I take less, it still seems like such a Huge amount. (probably because it’s kinda vital, eh?)
Thank you for this Alison! What a great idea. And again, what an image.
Totting it up I put in about 60-ish units a day. Interesting that we’re all fairly different.
Nice mug BTW
Great picture. I thought the mug was neat, then scrolled down to the spoon as I was reading. It always seems like so much, but it’s so little…and so much.
Wow, that’s incredible. It really demonstrates that every drop can make a huge difference.
What a GREAT post! The visualization is so powerful!
Never thought of the insulin dose like this… Little things can make a big difference
Wow, hey I love this! BTW, where can I get a coffe mug like that one…love that, too!
Thanks for the lovely comments guys.
The mug comes from a batch my parents had made in around 1987 to raise money and awareness. The smallest batch the factory would do was 5000 – hence we were selling these things for many years! Sadly they sold out a few years ago and just a rare few remain in my cupboards ready to feature in appropriate photo opportunities.