Playing by the Rules
11:30pm. 176 mg/dL. Lantus is a go. Small Humalog correction is a go. Mad Men, Season 2 is a go. Speaking of Mad Men. I know I’ve been watching a lot of procedural stuff lately, but I can say without a doubt that this show is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. And that fascinates me. If, for some ridiculous reason, you haven’t seen this show before do yourself a favor and at least Netflix it. It’s awesome. Oh, where was I?
As is the case all too frequently, Lantus and Humalog do a number on my blood glucose and I receive a friendly “DO SOMETHING” alarm in the middle of the night. At this point, I think Lantus and a single unit of Humalog are overkill. It’s a shame that simply looking at my insulin pens don’t have some kind of magical blood glucose lowering ability. How sweet would that be?
At the first sign of an alarm, I see Hal Jordan has a course South East. I munch on a York Peppermint Pattie and try to get back to sleep. What feels like seconds later I get an another alarm, only this time, Dexcom’s playing for keeps. A quick test reveals my blood glucose is at 59, Dexcom reports South East (still) so another Peppermint Pattie it is.
Side Note: These are the moments when I would typically start eating food until I saw an upward trend on my Dexcom receiver. These are the moments when I’m at my weakest. Last night I managed to eat that second Peppermint Pattie and nothing else. Words cannot properly articulate how difficult it was to only eat that. 15 for 15, right?
The next alarm I receive is about a half hour before my traditional alarm for the work day sounds off. Prognosis? I’ve climbed to 201 mg/dL.
So let me get this straight: I have the patience of the Dali Lama with my Diabetes as I wait for my blood glucose to rise, I don’t over eat, I don’t overindulge, aside from the part where I dropped to 59 I do everything by “the book”. And THIS is how I wake up…to another high alarm.
Even when I play by all the rules, Diabetes refuses to. I know this is a by-product of striving for tight control, but it feels like the rewards are so far and few between the missteps. When the most noteworthy measure of success only shows up every three months compared to little reminders of not-as-successfulness every few hours, it’s hard to stay motivated. But that’s the struggle I we go through every day.
I’m dealing with the exact same thing right now. Constance said I was 46 going down! I was in a meeting, so I didn’t want to shuffle off to my desk to do an official check, so I took 3 pieces of candy from the community bowl. Finally got back to my desk where I was actually 106, but only an hour after lunch. I knew I would crash within the hour, so I drank some juice, too. Now I’m climbing over 200 due to being scared! Diabetes is a constant roller coaster!
Gack, this is something that’s SO hard to explain to someone without diabetes. Your blood sugar is high, so you correct with insulin. But to get it ‘right’ you should be prepared to wait 3-5 hours for the correction to take, that is when your correction insulin has been used up. It’s a safe bet that within that time period you’re likely to eat or exercise or stress or… Which changes all of the equations (exercise cancels out food which cancels out insulin which cancels out stress induced highs). It’s really miraculous that we get anywhere close to a normal blood sugar level.
I hate the trial of patience while waiting for a low to come up. And you exercised GREAT restraint in my book.