Life is a Balancing Act

It’s been a little over a week since returning from Mexico where Chris from Design4Real.net and I worked at Posada Yum Kin Hotel in Tulum, Mexico on a fun little website update. It feels like a lifetime ago and in some ways it has been for me. This is kind of a weird story for me to write and you’ll find that it is unlike my other posts, being personal in nature. The lesson is simple, life is a balancing act.

For those of us engaging in social media promotion the pressure is on to openly share so many details of our lives, so we can better ‘connect’ with our community. How do we do that and remain true to ourselves? How do we reserve any element of privacy? I’m not a ‘dramatic’ person, how can I keep life’s speedbumps from sounding overly dramatic if I write about it online? Increasingly, we are challenged with what to ‘share’ and what to keep private. Recently, the Zuckerberg’s (of Facebook) faced this challenge on their honeymoon. As a case in point, I am facing this challenge now, as I decide how and what to communicate. My goal? To keep it balanced.

Many of you have been asking about our trip and, for that, I think this little ‘news’ report will be helpful, mainly because I won’t have to retell the story several times which suits me just fine. This post started as a ‘live’ case study about our business project, but on this trip it became, oh, so much more personal.

We had a great time working hard and getting things done. Read about our week at Keeping Your Website Real. But, this story on findng the ‘balance’ actually begins as we headed on our way home. Little did I know that while we were getting things done on our ‘to do’ list and spending a little time at the beach that I had something BIG working against me.

Unknowingly, in the weeks before going to Mexico, I had contracted a bacterial infection. As spring brings in allergies, I believed I was just battling a recurring eye-allergy. Using over-the-counter-meds, I thought it was under control and put the whole matter to the back of my mind.

While we were in Tulum and as we became more active, I became very dehydrated. I struggled to keep up with our quick pace, but just put it off to our irregular schedule. As we traveled home, I was so thirsty; I drank anything I could get my hands on. Since I was dehydrated, I sought out highly caloric beverages with lots of electrolytes, etc. As we had started our travel day at about 2:30am, I believed that I merely had jet lag and dehydration and, once home, would feel better quickly. After I got home, I proceeded to sleep for about 24-48 hours straight through. Lucky for me, mom and my hubby, Tom, took matters into their hands and insisted that I go to the doctor.

What the doc found was 1- the infection, 2- dehydration, and 3- a life-changing diagnosis of Diabetes. Drinking the ‘rehydrating’ beverages had driven my blood sugar levels as high as 636. That’s close to the point of having some serious damage and I can tell you first hand that I have never felt so disoriented and simple-minded. Long story short, it took 4 agonizing days in the hospital to rehydrate and get my blood sugar count in line. Now, it has been another 4 days just to learn how to balance my blood levels.

I was diagnosed with diabetic ketoacidosis, which my doctor tells me means that my body had some type of virus in the last month or two and signaled to my brain that something was wrong. My body ‘killed’ off the ability for my pancreas to create insulin. I understand I am now termed a ‘Type 1 1/2 diabetic’ and will probably need insulin the rest of my life to balance my blood sugar levels.

As everyone says, “this is a life-changing event”. I’m hearing that refrain a lot these days. I feel caught between two country music songs. Toby Keith’s “It’s about me”, set against the track of Tim McGraw’s “My next 30 years”. It’ll take a bit of time to find my ‘new normal’, but I’m getting there.

Things I took for granted, the automatic adjustment of my blood sugars, now require routine monitoring and adjustment. Learning to balance things better. That’s my goal. Sometimes it’s your health, sometimes it’s your relationships -both on and offline. In the end, taking the time to balance it all out, will be for the better.

Life is indeed a balancing act.