Hack #9: The "Honeymoon Phase" of Diabetes is no Honeymoon

Granted, there's only so much information that can be stuffed into your head when you're first getting diagnosed, treated and trained on how to manage your diet, exercise, and medications as a Type 1 diabetic. But it would have been nice to have known that, when you are first diagnosed with Diabetes - Type 1 or Type 2 - that there is something called a “honeymoon” period where it takes time for your body and insulin dosages to learn how to partner together in regulating blood glucose levels. 
     First of all, it’s a major misnomer. “Honeymoon phase” is a term typically applied to a period of time where everything is magical and easy, like the trip that a newly married couple traditionally takes right after a wedding ceremony. This may be applied to a new job, a new relationship, a new car, or anything that feels new and special. And people will commonly say “their honeymoon phase is over” when reality sets in on something new and the hard work begins. 
     But the honeymoon phase of beginning insulin shots is anything but a honeymoon-style experience. I’m not even talking about the realities of poking your finger several times a day (at least until you get access to continuous glucose monitors, which require you only to poke your upper arm once a week or two in order to attach the sensor to your body), or stabbing your abdomen once or more a day with the insulin injector. 
        I’m talking about the fact that, when many people start taking insulin for the first time, they may experience wild differences from day to day in their blood sugar levels, regardless of the number of units one takes. For the “new” diabetic, this can be frustrating, troubling, and even stressful. In other words, it’s ANYTHING but a honeymoon. And this matters because if one takes too little insulin, then their blood sugar levels in their blood stays too high, which is bad for the eyes, circulation in general, and can feel uncomfortable. For me, I watched my glucose rise over 400, which is the limit of many measuring systems, for many hours before coming back down. This was partly because I wasn’t given rapid insulin initially to help me manage diet-related swings. Nonetheless, it was disconcerting. 
       The opposite situation can be much more threatening: Take too much insulin at a time and glucose levels can swing below 60, or 50 or 40 or more and send someone into a diabetic coma. So while taking too little insulin at a time is a problem for longer term management of diabetes, taking too much is much more dangerous.
       Which is why it took me more than a month for my body to start reacting more consistently to daily doses of long-acting insulin, and for my blood sugar to stay in a more moderate 70-170 zone, as I experimented and learned how to slowly bring my averages down without creating a really low swing. 
       So could we please come up with a more accurate term for that very awkward period of learning to adjust to insulin intakes - perhaps the “dating phase” which many times can be very awkward as people learn to slowly share and read each others’ signals about when they’re happy or mad, or interested or not? That’s my vote.