This week has definitely been a good one, both in terms of how school is going and how my blood sugar control has been. I wasn’t sure how long my diligence in regards to staying organized was going last, but it’s starting to feel like my natural routine. At this point, constantly checking and recording my numbers as well as what I ate and how much I exercised is becoming a normal part of my day. As wonderful as it is, though, it’s still far from perfect.
On top of monitoring more strictly, I’ve been exercising on a daily basis. Maintaining my blood sugar levels while exercising has always been a big challenge for me. For some reason, I just never seem to get it right. I eat a snack before working out and end up high. I don’t eat a snack and end up low 20 minutes in. I eat a snack in the middle and end up high afterwards and low later on. Or I end up great right after the workout, low at 3 AM, and high at 7 AM. The variations go on and on. I’m hoping that because my workout regimen has been fairly consistent, I’ll soon be able to figure out how to get it right.
I spent Friday afternoon with my mom and got to have a mini vent session about how even when I’m finally doing everything right, my blood sugars insist on being wrong. On Thursday night (technically Friday morning) I woke up at 3 AM with a pretty low blood sugar. I had gone to sleep high and did what I call an “angry bolus.” I knew that I wouldn’t need a full correction but was so frustrated at how high I was that I gave it anyway. I did make sure I had decreased my basal rate enough…or what I assumed was enough.
When I woke up, it was to the notorious low-blood-sugar, absolutely famished kind of hunger. I have juice boxes right next to my bed for nighttime lows, but there was no way that the juice was going to do it. I have cereal stashed in my room for mornings where I don’t have time to eat breakfast in the dining hall, and I decided that that was exactly what I wanted. My room is ridiculously small, so even though I have a mini-fridge, I keep most of my snacks in boxes in my closet on the top shelf. It was pretty dark, and as I reached up and grabbed the box of Life cereal, I managed to drop it, and the corner landed on my eye. Being low always brings out the best hand-eye coordination doesn’t it?
It didn’t hurt as much as I imagined it to…it was my frustration that made it seem so bad. Once my eye finally stopped watering, I saw that there was cereal all over the floor. To be honest, I didn’t even care. All I could think about was how hungry I was. Thankfully there was still a substantial amount left in the box, and I definitely got my low craving satisfied. (A little too satisfied, considering that I woke up high afterwards. Not my best diabetes performance to date…)
For the first time this year, I’m realizing how lucky I am that my CDE Gary works literally 10 minutes away from my campus. I’m planning on calling him at the beginning of the week and getting his help on the logistics. I’m excited; this is going to be my first legitimate diabetes progress tracking while blogging about it. (No pressure or anything!) As annoying and frustrating as managing sugars on a daily basis can be, I’m really starting to get the feeling that I’m in control; that if I just keep on pushing forward past the highs and lows, and truly keep on working hard at it on a daily basis, success is sure to follow.
