When Diabetes Gets Sick

I think my diabetes is sick. Not sick, as in it’s stopped being diabetes and a giant pain in the ass. But sick, as in it hasn’t been behaving as it should.

Over the last week or so, things haven’t felt right. Mealtime boluses, patricularly in the evening, have had little effect. Despite perfect carb counting and pre bolusing insulin half an hour prior, I’d be lucky if I get an hour of stability before my levels begin to soar. Insulin corrections with my pump are frequently overridden out of frustration. Swear words are often thrown at upward trend arrows on my Libre that make zero sense. And rage-temporary basal rates are the only thing that seem to be able to bring stubborn BGLs down at bedtime.

I know that my basal rates definitely need revisiting. in the past month or so, I have been incorporating more protein sources in my diet. Things like boiled eggs with breakfast, nuts for snacks and meat in my sandwiches at lunchtime. Which could definitely explain the need for changes.

On top of this, yesterday my blood sugar levels began behaving like I was sick.

After a night of warding off lows from the temp basals that I needed at bedtime, I woke up at 6.2. From there, my BGLs began soaring. A milky coffee with about 5g of carbs sent me from 8.6 to 14.4mmol in a matter of minutes. What followed was a day of juggling swinging blood sugar levels. Temp basaling and rage bolusing my way out of soaring highs, and then eating my way out of plummeting lows. Urgh.

I was exhausted. I’d had a fairly stressful day at work. I knew that the stress of dealing with all of this wasn’t helping, so I made sure to have an early night.

My blood sugar was 8.6 before bed. This morning, I woke up to this.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BMSLK5Ag9cw/?taken-by=franksita

It wasn’t pretty. I could have been bolder with my corrections during the night. I could have ran a temp basal for a longer period of time. But last night, sleep took priority over chasing highs and warding off lows.

I really feel like I can’t do diabetes today.

I’m on the couch home from work, rocking crazy temp basal rates, and hoping the stress will subside soon.

This, is what diabetes looks like.

5 Comments

  1. Bobbie

    Frank , So sorry to hear that. But its just another day in the life of a diabetic. My Endo had me eat breakfast and bolus then take blood every hour for 5 hours.(no food after breakfast) Report to her. Did this for 3 days. This was to set my ratios right. It worked and she had me reset them until I was good all day. I am up at 6, eat and have to have a snack by 10 or I go low. She adjusted that . No more low at 10 . it really is frustrating how much time we spend on this disease.

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