A little before 8:00 on Friday night after a low glucose alarm
on my CGM, I texted my friend “I am having a day” and she immediately responded
“yes you are.” Friday was one of those
maddening T1 days where it felt like I couldn’t win.
The fun started around 1 AM when I got my first low alarm of
the night. Low alarms happen when my
continuous glucose monitor, the CGM, thinks my blood sugar is 55 or less. When the alarm jolts me out of bed I head
straight to the bathroom and check with a finger poke to confirm and decide
what I need to do next, if anything. The
early hours of Friday morning were no fun at all, as you can see here:
- 1:07 alarm, finger poke 75 and recalibrate the CGM to correct the reading. Back to bed.
- 1:26 alarm, finger poke 67 and eat 6 peanut butter M&Ms. Recalibrate and go back to sleep.
- 2:36 alarm, finger poke 71 and recalibrate before going back to bed.
- 2:47 alarm, finger poke 67 and eat a glucose tab before recalibrating and heading back to bed.
Unfortunately the overnight sleep disruptions weren’t the
end of my adventures for the day. You
see, schedules and timing are a big part of keeping things level and my
schedule changed on Friday afternoon. Mid-afternoon
I had some blueberries and blackberries along with a little insulin to cover
the sugar in the berries. No
problem. And then…my boss very
generously sent us home early to get a head start on the weekend. I happily headed out around 3:30 and went to
the gym. Why was that a problem? I hit the gym with 2 units of insulin in my
body and cardio makes your body more responsive to insulin. Normally I would have left work at 5:00 or
later, putting that insulin farther in my rear view window. I was at 70 in the locker room and took a
glucose tab before my workout – I’d also had half a protein bar in the car, so
figured all would be good. Wrong!
The low alarm went off while I was on the stationary bike, shortly
after I’d thrown back another glucose tab.
I added a third tablet and then a fourth because although I didn’t feel
low, I wanted to be safe. I’m fighting
shin splints and have been doing my cardio time on a bike instead of a
treadmill this week – I’m learning, not quickly enough, that cycling impacts my
sugar much faster than walking does. I
cut my time on the bike short and walked on a treadmill for a bit before
calling it a day. My finger poke in the
locker room after 40 minutes of activity and 4 glucose tabs (16 carbs) was 130
at 5 PM. What? That’s higher than I like to be and I figured
I was climbing, so I took 2 more units to cover where I was and where I
suspected I was heading.
And…a little before 7:00 my low alarm went off again. Ugh.
Another glucose tab, another “I’m not dead” text to my friend and I
moved on with making a “fat head pizza”
for dinner. An hour later we got another
low alarm and I sent my “I am having a day” text. Another hour later, I ate a 5 carb tiny Milky
Way for my final correction of the night.
Fortunately, that was the end of the madness.
I went to bed with my blood sugar at 127. I took 1 unit to get that closer to 100, but
didn’t go any further because I wanted to sleep through the night! It was a day.
I never overcompensated and wound up crazy high, but I was a little too
tight about avoiding the high and wound up spending much of my evening low as a
result. It’s a balancing act, and while
things like random overnight madness and schedule changes are out of my
control, being a touch too aggressive on keeping my numbers down is within my
control. Does knowing that mean I’ll never
have that kind of day again? Not a
chance. But every T1 “day” gives me a
better shot next time.
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