Did you know April is Stress Awareness Month?

I didn’t until yesterday. It’s fitting because let me tell you, this spring has been a little rough and April proved to be a trying month. I’m kind of glad to be saying goodbye to this month.

March ended with a bang in the form of a heart attack.My mother suffered a coronary spasm that she first thought was an allergic reaction. Here’s the thing about heart attacks, you never rarely expect to have one… until you do.

My mom is reasonably young, eats great, exercises and had basically no risk factors. After a few days in the hospital, they sent her home. She opted to go to my home first, which was kind of nice because I could keep an eye on her and keep her from breaking her lifting restrictions (it feels mean to tell my mom that she’s not allowed to pick up my cats, but 10 pounds is 10 pounds, regardless of whether or not it’s covered in fur and purring). My mom is doing much better right now, the restrictions are lifted and she continues testing with a cardiologist, you can read a little more about what happened to her on her site.

While my mother was hospitalized, my sister reached out for help with her own issues. She is several states away and still needs prayer and support on her long road ahead. I continue to worry about her and her three beautiful kids until the situation is resolved. But I am proud of my sister for making a difficult decision and showing strength in the face of adversity.

Finally, my identity was stolen. Which has majorly delayed my federal taxes and thus my refund. This process is expected to take six months. Six months.

These three main issues, as well as general life stuff have me distracted and stressed. High stress can lead to a lot of health problems and for me it can mess with my diabetes management immensely. Surprisingly, I expected diabetes to be a whole new source of stress this month, but it hasn’t been anything out of the usual. A change in my insurance program made them decide to give me a new pump and CGM. I’m sticking with the same tech (OmniPod and Dexcom) and I expected to have to fill out tons of paperwork and submit logs like last time and prove that I actually have diabetes to get it approved. But I didn’t have to do any of that. I’m officially back under a warranty and now I have a back up… for the first time in my life with diabetes, I have a safety net that isn’t Lantus. That’s a tiny bit of stress taken away.

It can be easy to let stress rule and let other things slide. Little things like laundry and pulling weeds seem so needlessly time consuming when you’re stressed and were the first to go. But more important things also tend to get dropped when I’m stressed like meal planning and working out… two things which oddly enough reduce daily stress. As things are hopefully quieting down, I’m getting back to the important things and the little things.

How do you handle stressful times?