Job Interview, Work Life Balance & Diabetes

I have a job interview tomorrow. Assuming I get the job it'll initially add anxiety and stress to my life. I'll have to arrange transport to and from work. I don't have a car. I'll have to work Monday to Friday while training. That'll be awkward for meal planning and meal preparation. Managing my blood sugar and having to explain to non-coeliacs about cross contamination are other issues I have to overcome to stay healthy. Then there's the anxiety and stress of fitting in to a new job and the pressure to do the job right as well as having to be around and get used to new people. I won't be disappointed if I don't get the job for all these reasons.
If I do get offered the job and they want me to do a rotating shift cycle I won't take the job. I can't do shifts anymore because my health is more important than compromising it for any job. The reason I applied is because it's for weekends, Saturday and Sunday. Two 12-hour shifts is fine because I have Monday to Friday to myself. I worked Friday to Sunday 8am-8pm in a previous job and it suited me. Ideally I'd like to condense a work week into a maximum of three days for a better work/life balance. It doesn't matter what three days as long as it's the same three days in a row every week. This job I'm being interviewed for is better because it's two. It means I don't have to give up my weekly routines and can adjust my meal prep from Sunday to Wednesday for my previous job to Friday to Monday when I start weekends. I don't know what I'll do for Thursdays and Fridays of the training period but I'll figure something out if necessary.
The extra money would be very handy, improving my lifestyle, and I could potentially be driving which means more mobility in my free time. Grocery shopping would be much faster too and might give me more time for food prep for an even healthier diet. To make up for walking less I could probably take up a martial art like I've been thinking (and procrastinating) about  for a long time. So there are pros and cons to this job. I'll see which outweighs the other before taking it if offered.
I've noticed my blood sugar lowering now that the weather is colder. The body probably using more energy to stay warm. I've reduced my breakfast insulin from five back to four. I went low before dinner yesterday just from going out and about getting things done, even though I already reduced breakfast insulin to four units and ate my usual late morning fruit snack. Just felt it as I was testing myself. I snacked going to the shop and coming back last night and it worked. I knew if I didn't I'd go low again. I like having something to munch on coming back from the shop anyway so I liked that I had the excuse to snack without insulin. Nothing of any significance on the coeliac side of things but that's a good thing.

Eating Out And Night Walking Sugar Plummet

Visitors came from America during the week. There was a bit of a get together in Ballybunion. We ate in a place called Coast. I had an open tuna sandwich with toasted gluten free bread. There was no reaction, which was excellent. So I might eat there again if ever I need to eat out in Ballybunion in future.
A few days beforehand I went for a quick trip to the shop after supper. I was above 10 when I tested before supper so I took one extra unit of insulin on top of my usual supper dose. What I was looking for wasn't in the nearest shop so I went to where I knew I could get it. As I approached the second shop I could feel that I was low. This was probably less than an hour after my blood sugar read above 10 and after eating supper. I took a few glucose tablets before going in and tested myself outside the shop after I had bought what I needed and a snack to munch on. I was still 3.5 after the glucose tablets so I don't know how low I actually went when it felt like my legs were turning to jelly before taking them. If I hadn't gone out walking while it was dark I might have been above 6 when testing before Lantus three hours after supper. Whatever it is about walking in the dark, my blood sugar always seems to plummet. Hardly ever falls that fast during the day. I also only had one strip to test myself so I had to go by how my body felt for deciding when it was ok to walk home. I'll have to be cautious of going walking during the winter nights.

Blood Tests and Vaccines

I finally got the blood tests back. My HbA1c is gone up to 67. It was 51 in April but I knew it'd go up because it's been harder to control my blood sugar since July, when I suspect my honeymoon period ended. Although I've gotten into a better routine since my last diabetic nurse appointment. I looked through all the test results when I got them in the post and had to google what they were. But the high and low ranges for each were in the results so I could see that everything was in range. There was a little note that the high limit for normal cholesterol was 5.0 and mine read 4.9 I think. But I'm still in range so I'm happy with that. I didn't see any results for thyroid and vitamin D in the results though. There was a urine sample given and the results looked inconsistent to me. There was one reading they weren't able to give me from it. I checked on google and from that it suggested that there could be a kidney issue. The other info I got though, was it was consistent with someone with coeliac disease or other autoimmune diseases. So that made me feel better about it.
The day before the blood test results arrived in the post I got a text from my local GP saying one of the tests needed to be redone and that I was due a flu vaccine. I made the appointment for Monday. It was with the nurse in my GP's clinic. When I was there I asked about thyroid and vitamin D results. The thyroid was fine but there wasn't any vitamin D test ordered. It turns out that they weren't sent my HbA1c result and that's the one they thought they'd have to do. But after I told the nurse I got the result she rang the hospital to confirm it. So I didn't need a blood test. I'll have to ask for a vitamin D test the next time I see the diabetic nurse I suppose. I did do another urine sample though, probably because of the inconsistency in the original result. I got the flu vaccine and she gave me the option to get a pneumococcal vaccine as well. The pneumococcal vaccine prevents pneumonia and bacterial meningitis. I decided to get both, to be on the safe side and to get them out of the way. Flu is only good for a year but the pneumococcal is good for five years.
Oh yes! I also mentioned how the diabetic nurse said in the letter with the blood test results that she called the endocrinologist's secretary to see if I had any appointment pending. There wasn't so she asked me to get a referral from my GP. I spoke to the nurse about this while I was getting the vaccines and she went into my GP's office to get him to arrange it. So I might finally get to see an endocrinologist in the next few months.
My blood pressure was fine and my weight was 81.2kg when I was checked Monday. I haven't been feeling well as a result of the vaccines but that's to be expected. My body is reacting to two pathogens and will build up antibodies to protect me against live strains now. Better that than catching the real thing. My diabetic niece ended up in hospital with flu and had to be quarantined for a while early in the year so that motivated me to get it as well as feeling my immune system went a bit wonky after travelling to Dublin at the end of September. The nurse told me the antibodies take ten days to build up. I hope I'm not feeling under the weather for that long though.
I'll end on one more thing I wanted to mention. I was out and about yesterday and I had to stop and rest at a fairly inconvenient location. I felt like I was low. I didn't even test myself to be honest. I had crisps to snack on just in case and I always carry glucose tablets. I sat on a wall and browsed social media apps for about fifteen minutes. Thankfully it didn't rain. I continued on my journey after that and when I got home later on I tested before supper and was 4.8. That suggested to me that I was low when I felt it. I had a couple of lows at home Monday and I didn't realise until I tested myself so I'm glad I was paying attention to my body yesterday evening when it was more important to feel a low.

Always Read The Label

I went to get a vitamin D supplement at a health food store as I was getting a probiotic supplement there anyway. I never thought of reading the label until I got home. I was reading the ingredients and I saw "rice bran" with "gluten free" in brackets. That was fine, or so I thought. Then I spotted the fine print at the bottom that said it was manufactured in an environment that handles cereals containing gluten. So I didn't bother opening them for fear of cross contamination. I was tempted briefly to try them but decided it wasn't worth the risk. I took them back the nest day and got my money back. You can never be too careful. Always read the label before purchasing if you have coeliac disease!
I never got the blood test results from my last appointment with the diabetic nurse. I don't know my HbA1c. I got a text from my GP's office yesterday saying I needed to get one blood test redone. Don't know why or which one. The appointment for that is next week. I tried ringing the diabetic nurse yesterday but it just kept ringing so I hung up. I was busy with other things today so didn't ring back. I might try again tomorrow. I will probably talk more about it in next week's blog post.
I found that when I went out walking after dark earlier in the year that my blood sugar had a tendency to go low. With that in mind, I had a little snack on my way back from the shop the last couple of evenings to prevent a low. Those two evenings had high readings when testing before Lantus. 15 the first night and almost 15 the next. I needn't have bothered with the snacks. I had to take extra insulin (NovoRapid) because of this. I must allow for the fact that the honeymoon period is over so I don't have any insulin produced by my pancreas anymore in future.