How Blue Is Your Monday?

Did you know that today is Blue Monday?

Experts say that today is the saddest day of the year. For people in general, even without factoring in diabetes.  And as a matter of fact, I am feeling kind of blue. Not to mention that this whole past week hasn’t been so hot either. (Let’s just wipe last Saturday from the 2015 calendar, shall we?)

Even our kids are feeling it. Max cried about having to go to school today. “I’m not ready for Monday! I need another Saturday!” (Can I get an Amen?!) Always a little ahead of her time, yesterday Gemma refused to get out of the car when we arrived at church. She scowled, “I’d rather stay home!” (Double Amen!) So I started wondering… why?

Why is Blue Monday so blue?

Those same experts say that it may have something to do with our (excruciatingly large) holiday credit card bills coming in. Or maybe it’s because this is about the time our New Year’s resolutions start falling apart, and we’re feeling defeated about how hard it is to change habits. Maybe it’s the lack of sunshine, and all those dreary, cloudy, gloomy, snowy, cold days. (Hello, fellow Canadians!)

For those of us living with diabetes, on low-energy, low-motivation days it’s even harder to do what needs to be done for diabetes care. Days like this I think about how nice it would be to do NOTHING the whole day. But our family never has the option to do nothing. Even on a pyjama day, there’s still demands: blood sugar to check, carbs to count, infusion sets to change. I’m not looking for sympathy on this one. It is what it is. (I’m learning, Dean. :)) It’s just a comment on the relentless nature of managing diabetes. And sometimes, diabetes does contribute to the “blueness” of the day. The diabetes dragon can make Blue Monday into Bluer Monday, it can turn an otherwise Yellow Monday into Blue Monday, or even Blue March, or Blue Last-Six-Months-of-2014. Sometimes it feels like I’m the only one who gets down about living with the diabetes dragon. I know in my head that isn’t true, but sometimes it feels like it.

So for the benefit of anyone who feels like they’re in this alone, I hope you will all take a moment to take our Blue Monday survey. (5 short questions)

(We’ll share the results in February’s Dragon News, the e-newsletter from WaltzingTheDragon.ca.)

And in the meantime, I wish you all a Yellow Tuesday.