What Goes Up Must Come Down, Then Go Back Up Again!

Although it’s taken me years to do so, I’ve slowly come to realize that making exceptions and changing up daily routines often isn’t worth it. And yes, this is going to be a bit of a rant about a Diabetic issue, so buckle up. This realization struck me in the face like a snowball with a rock in the middle, last Wednesday night.

I got home at about 9 pm after an excellent karate class. I felt good, my blood sugars were in normal range and I guzzling water and electrolytes to stave off the easy and slippery dehydration that tends to sneak up on me when I train. Although I had some writing and studying to do, my wife mentioned she would not be working any later that night and asked if I wanted to watch a couple of episodes of something. I obliged.

A little after 10 pm, my wife headed off to bed, which is what I would have typically done, as well. But I had laundry going and since I had another karate class the following day, I wanted to make certain my gi was clean. So I told her to go ahead and crash and I’d be joining in a little while, once I had laundry completed. As luck would have it, I got into watching some Star Trek (don’t judge) and got laundry done, getting my head on the pillow at about half past midnight.

Considering I wake up anywhere between 5:30 to 6 am, this wasn’t the brightest move, since it would only allow of drive or six hours of sleep. I made my peace with, convinced that I was reaching the end of my week and that I could get away with the loss of a few hours’ sleep by supplementing with caffeine and staying busy at work. My dark passenger (Diabetes) had other plans…

My wife got up at about 2 am, as she has this system where she starts her work from home before everyone else has woken up. Good for her, but I’m not down for that bullshit. In fact, my years as a police officer taught me to appreciate being able to stay firmly in my bed until morning. But about thirty minutes after she vacated the bed, my pump went off. 3.9 mmol/L. Fan-fucking-tactic. I scarfed a dozen jellybeans I had at the side of my bead and closed my eyes.

At about 3:15 in the morning, my pump went off again. 3.7 mmol/L. Not only had the jellybeans not raised my blood sugars, they were continuing to drop. Not good. I wolfed down the remainder of the jellybeans I had in the bag, which was a little more than a dozen, and tried to go back to sleep. I got to almost half past four when my pump started blaring an alarm at me and display a sensor glucose of 2.9 mmol/l!

What the hell was happening??? My blood sugars were in normal range when I finally hit the sheets. The only thing I could think of, is that I usually have a small snack in the evenings but that night, I chose not to. Maybe that would have been enough to cause my blood sugars to drop? I staggered out to the kitchen, since I had exhausted my jellybean supply and found my wife still working away at the table.

I gulped down a couple of packages of grapefruit segments and about two cups of Froot Loops before passing out once again. When I woke up at 6 am with my alarm, I felt like I had been struck by a freight train. When I checked my pump, I was reading at over 20.0mmol/L. Of course, I was… I had apparently overdone it and my blood sugars slingshot to the other end of the spectrum. I spent the next four hours of my day, slowly reducing my blood sugars and bringing them back to normal.

You may be asking, why am I telling you all of this, besides to bitch about the difficulties surrounding Type-1 Diabetes? It’s simply to show that even when the waters are calm, there’s always the potential for rough currents beneath the surface, In this case, despite having normal blood sugar levels and everything appearing normal, it didn’t take much to send me into a rollercoaster ride of bad readings. Maybe next time, I should stick to my routine and have a snack before bed. Food for thought…(pun intended). ☯️