Don’t Cry Over Spilt Milk – Unless You’re Low

I reached a new level of low blood sugar last night – not in terms of actual mg/dl number, but in the events that transpired. 

When I went to bed last night, my blood sugar was a little high but on its way down. I woke up twice to correct for the low in the night, eating a total of three rolls of smarties. 

Then at 3am, my husband rolled over and woke me up, complaining that both my Dexcom and my Enlite cgms were alarming (because I’m running both at the moment for a future blog post). In my low and half-asleep stupor, I yelled at him that I had already eaten a bunch of smarties, before I finally rolled out of bed to get a glass of milk. 

I made it to the kitchen, tested my blood sugar (72) and calibrated both cgms. I grabbed the chocolate milk and began pouring it into a glass. But I started to feel weird, like I was going to pass out. I raised the glass up to my lips and immediately it fell out of my hands and spilled all over the counter, the floor, my dexcom and myself. The room was spinning. I stumbled and sat down on the floor of the kitchen and mustered up enough strength to yell for my husband. 

Allen jumped out of bed and, seeing what had happened, quickly poured me a new glass of milk. He got a towel to clean up the mess, and also grabbed his phone to snap a picture of the mess, because he knew I’d want it for my blog. 

    
Meanwhile I sat in a ball on the floor, drinking my milk and trying not to cry. I was so embarrassed that I had lost control like that, especially when I wasn’t even all that low! But every low is different and diabetes is still unpredictable. I’m just thankful that the cgm technology I am lucky enough to have did its job and woke Allen up. 

Good Day Vs Bad Day

What makes for a “Good Diabetes Day” and what makes for a “Bad Diabetes Day”? (Thanks Amanda Arce for the topic suggestion!)

Here is my sensor graph from July 29th, which was a Bad Diabetes Day

Here is my sensor graph from the next day, July 30th, a Good Diabetes Day

Let’s break it down.

My pump saved my life last night

(technically, the combination of my pump + CGM saved my life, but that isn’t as good of a title, now is it?)

I had been battling highs throughout the day yesterday. It was a bad diabetes day, and I was frustrated. We were having orange chicken and rice for dinner, and I knew that I was going to be fighting high blood sugar for the entire night because of it.

After dinner, my sugar barely popped over my 175 limit. And came right back down. And stayed down, even 4-5 hours later (usually I have a residual spike later after most of the insulin has worked its way through me). When it was 11pm and I was about to head to bed, my sugar was drifting into the low 80’s. Normally my sugar rises at that time of night, so I was pleasantly surprised. I grabbed a juice out of the fridge, chugged it down, and went to sleep, believing that tonight like every other night, I’d be just fine.

I don’t know if it was me or my husband who woke up first, but at 3am, my pump was emitting a horrendous sound. In my half-asleep delirium, I read the screen and reread it and read it one more time before I finally realized that it was suspended.