Monday, August 20, 2007

Rollercoasters

Some rollercoasters are a ton of fun like this one, Superman--the ride of steel--at Six Flags New England. That's where I was on Saturday; although not on Superman, since it is/was closed for whatever reason (major bummer!). However, there's also the blood sugar rollercoaster that I was riding and NOT at all enjoying!!

The day started out fine. I entered the park at a cool in range number that is so typical that I didn't commit it to memory. Fast forward four hours or so. A little bit after lunch; blood sugar: 173. I corrected and added an additional 1 and a half units to cover 2 hrs of bolus. This was an unscientific whim that I took to prevent a high while spending 2 hours at the waterpark. Did it work?

Negative. Blood sugar post waterpark: 275. 1 hour after correction: 274

The rest of the evening includes dinner, more rides, plenty of walking and more unmemorable blood sugars. An on the road check at midnight clocks me in at 113. A 1am check before bed: 67. Treat the low with glucose tabs and off to bed. 3:50 am: 45 (a frequent number for my bad lows, I guess.) 15 minutes later: 51 Another 15 minutes: 68

On the list of things I ate/drank to treat the low so I could just get back to sleep!:
3 packages of fruit snacks, 3/4 a can of regular sprite, 2 glucose tabs, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter. That's what I remember anyway. Since the first 15 min check did not give me much hope, I ate more than I "needed" and then didn't bolus for any of it and went back to sleep after the 68 reading (close enough to 70 I think; Plus my stomach hurt from the snacks!)

6am blood sugar: 157 (what!? I was honestly expecting a much higher number and thought to myself, "perhaps I was going to go SO LOW that all those snacks were needed.")

This was not so. 9am blood sugar: 369 (Yeah, I felt it. It sucked.)

Not all rollercoasters are fun. I'd like to stick to the amusement park thrill rides, but sometimes I just don't know that I have any control over the situation.

I also learn from this. I seem to only overtreat at night. I think I'm so anxious to just get back to sleep that I rush the process and then feel like I'm not getting better and continue to treat. During the day I'm a lot more rational and only want the one juice or 4 tabs (I don't enjoy them enough to eat more than that!)

Overall rating on the day-

Great day for the park
Bad day for Diabetes

2 comments:

caramaena said...

Ugh, those numbers sound awful. Hope things have settled for you now.

Scott K. Johnson said...

I'm notorious for over treating at night too.

Seems I lose all rational thought process and eat everything I can see.