In the BYU Dietetic Internship, we have an assignment that is designed to help us develop empathy and awareness of the reality of intensive insulin therapy. In our undergraduate curriculum, we were required to count our carbohydrate exchanges and maintain the numbers in an appropriate range... what we are doing now has been taken to a all new level! For the next three days, we are wearing insulin pumps (using saline instead of insulin) and we are checking our blood glucose at least four times a day. We were given arbitrary numbers for our basal insulin to be set at and then we have to count our carbohydrates and give ourselves bolus insulin as needed throughout the day. We had fabulous guest Diabetes Educators (a RN and RD) come and teach us what we need to know for this experience! We all had to select sites for our pumps to be inserted and we are all becoming accustomed to pricking our own fingers. Wish us luck...
