Every day I must deal with my diabetes. There is no getting away from it and I accepted that a long time ago. I never even think twice about checking my blood sugar a few times a day or taking a few shots a day. It's just a natural part of my life. I have developed a normal routine over the years to take care of myself and to keep an eye on how I am doing.

The basics:
- The insulin that I take with all of my meals is called Humalog insulin. It is what is known as a fast acting insulin and begins working shortly after I inject myself. The dose that I take depends on what my blood sugar is. My doctor calls this a sliding scale. For every 25 mg/dl that I am over 200 mg/dl I give myself and extra unit of insulin. So if I am supposed to give myself 17 units of insulin and my blood sugar is 252 mg/dl, I would raise the dose to 19 units.

In the morning:
- If I plan on eating breakfast in the morning I make sure to check my blood sugar. I then give myself a dose of insulin. My morning shot is 14 units of insulin.

In the afternoon:
- I usually eat lunch every day, so I almost always take a shot in the middle of the day. If I checked my blood sugar and ate breakfast in the morning I don't check my blood sugar before lunch, but if I skipped breakfast then I check my blood sugar. My dose of insulin for lunch is 16 units.

In the evening:
- Before dinner I always check my blood sugar. My dinner dose of insulin is 18 units, basically because that is my biggest meal of the day.

Before bed:
- Right before I go to bed every night I take one more shot of insulin. The insulin I take at this time is different from the Humalog that I take with my meals. It is called Lantus. The reason I take this shot at night before bed is because Lantus doesn't have a peak time of working like most insulins do. It works slowly for a period of 24 hours. This keeps my blood sugar from rising while I sleep and keeps it in check during the day.

Checking my blood sugar is very important to making sure I keep my diabetes in check. Two times a day is probably not enough for most people, but my doctor says it is ok for me since I have such good control of my diabetes. I do take extra tests when I don't feel right, like when I feel shaky and sweaty and know that I might be low. I also check when I feel that my blood sugar might be high, so I I can tell whether or not I need to take another shot of insulin. Constant awareness is the best defense.