A Little Before 2am.

As I was sitting in bed the other night, surrounded by the amazing speakers on my new MacBook Pro, my blood sugar began to dip. Treading cautiously, I treated with small amounts. A square of coconut slice from the kitchen bench. A bit of the pink icing that I’d cautiously left to one side. Then a glucose tab.

By the time I was ready for bed, my CGM was showing 3.5 and a finger prick was 4.0. ‘I could have covered it with a juicebox,’ I thought to myself as I could feel my very unclean mouth. There was just shy of 1 unit of insulin on board. My head was telling me I only needed one more glucose tab, but after the evening’s trend I played it safe and ate two.

Unsurprisingly, around an hour later, my CGM began alarming me. As I picked up my phone and stared at my graph (which I am so grateful to have), I saw a trend upwards that had begun from the minute my head had hit the pillow. I corrected, and fell asleep again.

2 hours later, I was alerted and woken once again by my CGM. It was a little before 2am – and I was still high. I mentally begin to retrace every decision I’d made earlier that evening in the lead up to bed. Then I backtracked to the past couple of nights, and weeks. I felt frustration. That frustration eventually turned to guilt. Finally, I began doubting how well I was actually taking care of myself.

I was wide awake now, and try as I might I just couldn’t get back to sleep.

Now here’s the thing. If this was happening during the day, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it. This afternoon, I was riding at the 12-13 mark for well over 2 hours. I corrected, and thought nothing more of it. It’s rare that I do question how well I’m taking care of myself.

But in the middle of the night, when it’s dead silent and there’s nothing else other than diabetes to occupy my mind? These highs keep me up well past 2am, to the point that my frustration won’t let me get back to sleep.

When I can’t get back to sleep, I’ll grab a glass of water and navigate to the couch. TV, particularly something funny, quickly takes my mind away from it all. If I’m lucky, it might just put me back to sleep.

8 Comments

  1. mjw13

    Well I can so identify with your experience. Mine wasn’t exactly like that but similar cause it’s at night when I’m trying to sleep. EVERY TIME I change my CGM 6 it takes 24 hours for it to regulate itself and give me ACCURATE numbers. So I changed my CGM at 3:00 P. M. and as usual it asked for a calibration an hour later when it had synced with the pump. As usual it was waffling all over the place. By bedtime it seemed to be lining up great with the pump.
    Then it started! An alarm I was going low, took some O.J. without first checking with a meter/stick which I should have done to make sure the CGM was accurate and low and behole my blood sugar wasn’t low it was fine but now I’d taken OJ so the roller coaster began. It went on for a few hours. Lesson LEARNED again….don’t trust the CGM the first 24 hours!
    I will have to take a nap today!

  2. Henderson Webb

    Thanks for sharing Frank. I’m not T1D but my son (age 21) is and we have conversations similar to your blog content. I’ve learned how hard it is for T1D’s to stay in range and how frustrating it is to figure out what’s going on when it seems like you did everything right. So many potential variables beyond glucose and insulin. Sleep, heat, stress, metabolism, recent exercise. Wish you the best and appreciate you sharing.

  3. jannercott

    You help so many others when you blog this sort of thing Frank. It helps others T1 D understand that they are not walking this path alone. It also helps anyone who comes across this post, who do not live with T1, understand the challenges of living with the condition. You are doing it all brilliantly.

  4. Patricia Keating

    Hi Frank, I think your too hard on yourself sometimes. You do are good job of looking after yourself. Type 1 Diabetes is really hard to work out at the best of times. I’m on a pump and up and down like a yoyo. 🤪🤣🥰

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