May 6, 2005

In which I run very late to work

This morning I dragged myself out of bed at 5:30 as usual, but for the life of me I could NOT stay awake. I couldn’t begin to conceive of the notion of fixing breakfast, which (along with other opportunities to eat) is normally one of the highlights of my day. I fed the cats, wandered over to the sofa, and dozed off for another hour. When I woke up, I had an annoying headache. I tested. 83.

Hmm. Most of the time when I’m awake, I get symptoms of hypoglycemia at 83. Shakes, sweats, overwhelming hunger, that sort of thing. Of course, meters aren’t perfect, and maybe I was really closer to 90. In any case, all I felt was tired and headachy.

Another strange thing about this 83 is that I can’t remember ever waking up that low. On good mornings I’m at 110-125. Lately, during the April of Unmotivation, I woke up higher that than fairly often.

Sometimes waking with a headache means you went low while you were sleeping. So I’m wondering if I spent part of the night in Hypolandia. Ack. From the descriptions I’ve read, that is nowhere near as lovely a place as Pumplandia.

My CDE (certified diabetes educator) knows I’ve worried about nighttime lows ever since I had one during my first week on insulin. (It wasn’t that bad, but it did scare the bejeebers out of me.) My protocol for bedtime is to test and have a small snack if I’m below 120. The snack sees me through the night without trouble, and I usually wake up around 120ish, an acceptable number for me.

Last night, I was 124 at bedtime, which is awfully close to Snackville. But I wasn’t hungry (for once in my life) so I didn’t eat. Maybe I should have.

I think I need to do some during-the-night testing for the next few nights that I don’t have a snack. Maybe I need to raise the snacking threshold to 130.

Do I need to mention that I am not at peace with the idea of descending into a coma in my sleep? No, I didn’t think so.

5 comments:

  1. I am glad you are back to blogging and exercising and stuff. I'm not quite back, myself, but I wanted you to know that I hear you and you are not alone.

    I hope you can sort the number thing and get your numbers up for night-time safety. I think you're fine, you feel your lows in plenty of time, and ranging between 80-130 is very safe, but I know peace of mind and assurance is hard to feel when we really do live with such an unpredictable chronic illness. But I really think you are okay. Hang in there, friend.

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  2. Lori Lori Lori! It is soooo good to hear from you. Have wondered muchly about you the last few weeks, but I didn't want to pester you. ("Where are you? Why aren't you blogging? Oh wait, I am not blogging either...I better go test my BG now.")

    Thanks for the encouragement. Tis good to feel heard. I am hanging in there, not much more or less! As for last night, the kind cyberpals at Pins and Needles think perhaps I had a honeymoon moment, rather than a serious low, as with the latter I'd probably have awakened high due to glycogen output from the liver.

    I never gave my liver a second thought until the last 6 months...

    Hope you are well, or as well as you can be, and taking good care of yourself.

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  3. Hello Violet,

    New reader here-- I LOVE your blog. Just started one myself -- my son was dx'd last August and began pumping on Jan 26th. I truly hope that as he grows he can learn to cope with his diabetes with the same kind of humor, grace and insight you convey here.

    Please, keep writing.

    Oh, and you know, my son wakes up occasionally with pretty bad headaches. And since we check his bg quite regularly throughout the night, we've never been able to detect a low (or a high for that matter) as the cause... hmmmm. Don't know if that helps, but that's been our experience.

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  4. Short & sweet is my style of late - as you know there has been a lot going on with me.

    That being said, everytime you feel "off", isn't *always* diabetes related. Maybe you were just tired and had a headache...??

    Keep up the good work - I think you're doing great! Glad that I have some good reading material again!

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  5. Sandra, hello, thank you so much for your kind words. I often feel utterly lacking in grace, insight, and humor! It seems to me--and I think Scott, who commented right after you, would concur--that you and Shannon and Martha and all the other parents of type 1 kids are the real heroes in our world. What you're grappling with for the sake of your babies leaves me continually in awe. I'll look forward to checking out your blog.

    Hey Scott :) Oh come on, you mean diabetes doesn't define EVERY aspect of my entire existence?! Is this possible??? Hmm. I will ponder. Good to hear from you, hope you're hanging in there...

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