We’ve probably all done it. If you haven’t, then you’re pretty awesome. If you have, I totally understand…and you’re still pretty awesome. Blood sugar lies.

And I don’t blame anybody for wanting to lie about their blood sugar readings, because I know how it feels to say, “My blood sugar is 320.” The look on your doctor’s face or your mom’s face—it’s not easy to look at. Even though my doctor and my mom are both very supportive and positive about my diabetes, I hate having to report a “bad” blood sugar or a high A1C. Even when it’s just a friend asking me what my blood sugar is after they watch me check, a part of me wants to say, “120” every time.

Sometimes, it’s because I know they’ll raise their eyebrows in alarm and say something like, “Oh, geez, that’s bad, right?” or “Whoa, why is it so high?” or “What did you eat? Did you eat something bad?”

There are other times when I simply feel like it’s nobody’s business but mine! I mean, sure, my doctors technically have a right to know—otherwise they can’t do their jobs and help me understand and take care of my diabetes. But when it comes to friends, it really isn’t their business. I know they’re concerned, but I don’t need watchdogs and I don’t need more doctors. So if they ask and I’m not in the mood to discuss my diabetes with my friends, I can smile kindly and say, “Right now, my diabetes is on a need-to-know basis, and you don’t need to know.”

But this might not work when it comes to parents, because while they aren’t your doctors, they definitely are still justifiably involved in your diabetes care. They do have a right to know how you’re doing because you are their responsibility and they care about you! But sometimes, you just might need to keep your diabetes to yourself, and I understand that, and hopefully you can help your parents understand that too. Try saying to them, “Mom and Dad, I know you care about me, but right now I’d like to just take care of my diabetes by myself.”

The only trick to this is that that means you really do need to take care of it yourself.

On the other hand, I think a large part of the reason I don’t want to talk about high blood sugar readings is really about what I’m saying to myself. I feel guilty when my blood sugar is high because I usually know exactly what happened. Either I forgot to take insulin with my meal, or I hate a really high-carb meal that probably consisted of food I don’t really need, or I took the wrong amount of insulin or miscounted my carbs.

And even though I “miscounted,” I sometimes think in the back of my mind, “Hmm…I should probably take a little bit more, but I don’t want to drop low because I can’t stand hypoglycemia…so I’ll just wait and see.”