Growing up I had an infatuation with how things work, while most kids collected stamps, toys and were out playing soccer or goofing around, I was busy trying to get my hands on my dad’s chronograph.
Complicated childhood I know but the man once said to me that the chronograph happened to be the only thing that he could depend on. It was his father’s watch and it had never been a second off in the 50 or years that they both owned it.

I am the second son and where hierarchies go my brother has a bigger shot at inheriting it than I am and at that age in my life I had a knack of taking things apart and putting them back together just to see how they worked.
I blame it on Morbid child hood curiosity even though our VCR would beg to differ after the 15th or 20th strip search.

The watch however was another matter, hard as I tried, he never put that thing down long enough for me to tinker with it and the longer I became obsessed, the harder it became.
I spent my youth day dreaming of the day I would get my hand on it and how exactly I could find out what kept it tick ticking on.
I honestly couldn’t imagine the craftsmanship that went into producing those Bulova chronograph watches to make them work perfectly for a half a century or so without more than a polish and a shine.

It is the tinkering obsession however that makes my diabetes management such a fun exercise and an effective one at times as well.

When I need to add a particular food to my diet, I just eat a sample and then test 2 hours later to see how my body reacts to it in terms of glucose levels, if it is acceptable, then I add it but if it doesn’t then it is Adios muchacho Mr. Pizza and move on to another food, who can say that about any other disease.

I will never probably get to wear that watch but it left me many impacted youthful lessons that I use today on a daily basis and I am thankful for that.

Effective diabetes management means that you have to be able to tinker with your management practices to eventually come up with a streamlined procedure that works for you. It is rarely about a cookie cutter solution as we each have a different physiology.

While diabetes management basics remain the same, the path to fulfillment has to take a more personal approach.

While those Bulova chronographs keep going and going like the energizer bunny, alas diabetes management is a practice that has to be constantly tinkered with and adjusted to make it effective.

and I do love the tinkering.