I’ll Do the Math

Remember back in the fall when Scott K. Johnson and George Simmons created “Lunch with George & Scott” for TuDiabetes’s Making Sense of Diabetes video contest?  (If you don’t remember, I suggest you follow the link above and take 1 minute and 27 seconds of your day to watch this cinematic masterpiece.  Go on.  I’ll wait.)  As Scott and George shared grilled cheese sandwiches across cyberspace, they drove home the point that, “when living with diabetes, taste never comes without stowaway math problems and questions.”

I couldn’t help but be reminded of this unavoidable truth of life with diabetes when I read over a recent instant messaging conversation between my husband and myself.  I was working on my laptop at the local library when a message popped up from Daniel, offering to bring me lunch (what a nice guy, eh?).  Instead of simply replying, “Yes! That would be lovely!” the following conversation is what ensued:

Funny thing is, it wasn’t until I retrospectively considered our conversation that I realized it reads a bit bizarre.  What kind of weirdo asks her husband to weigh her potato chips before packing her lunch?  Oh diabetes, you make me do some strange, strange things — like pile BBQ chips onto a kitchen scale and, calculator in hand, frantically pound out some basic equations before indulging in their smoky, sweet and spicy goodness.