Day off. Seriously?

I've already raved about the CWD weekend.  The message is; it rocks, so GO! But while I hope I have covered the weekend in general enough to give you a thirst for more and hopefully come along to the Glasgow weekend, there were some lightbulb moments that I thought deserved a post all to themselves. Having a day off, is one of them.

The 'Avoiding Burnout' talk by Jill Weissberg-Benchell (awesome name alert!) and Korey Hood, brought together a group of people who by all accounts either were, had been or might be on their way to, burnout.  If you have never been through burnout before, it isn't a fun place to be.  It's when diabetes, technically a chronic condition, becomes emotionally acute.  The pressures of walking the tighrope between the upper and lower target range build up over weeks, months or years and end in, quite literally, total burn out. 

During the CWD session we explored ways parents can have a rest without going out of their minds with worry and how to hand over control to teenagers, without losing tracks of whose role it is to do what.  One suggestion was for parents to be in charge of everything when they were around their child but hand that control over, when apart.  Great idea, if you are a parent.  For the PWDs, who can't ever truly get away from the condition, it isn't quite so easy. Or….is it?

That discussion seemed to start a fire in the mind of InPuT's Lesley Jordan, who announced that she would be asking her husband to give her a day off when she got home from the conference.  He would be taking over the reigns for one day and allow her to just be Lesley.  Not, Lesley with diabetes. 

Honestly I thought she was crazy.  How would that work? Wouldn't she worry more?  How will she know everything is being done right, or even just, OK? 

Without realising it I was turning into my own concerned parent, saying all the same things a parent at the beginning stages of burnout says?  The lack of faith that things will be OK.  The need to know what was going on.  The inability to let go of control, but needing to in order to self preserve.  Placing demands on myself to handle it.  Those are exactly the demands I want to to have a break from, too.

After teasing me that this fitted well into his master plan of exerting total control over me (he's kidding.  I wear the trousers, of course) Jamie agreed that it seemed like a great idea.  What's to lose, right?

So tomorrow, for the first time since in 18 years since my parents handed over the reigns in my early teens, my Jamie will be allowing me my first day off. Tomorrow is mine; Anna's, not Anna with diabetes.  I won't be consulted. I won't have to make decisions about when to test or what to eat or how much to bolus. Jamie, is taking my diabetes for the day. And he's welcome to it!

Now to decide how to spend my day off...

Have you had a day off lately?