The Inevitable Low

Low blood sugars. It’s just one of the perks to having diabetes. Luckily, I can feel when my blood sugars are dropping. They wake me from a deep slumber; they interfere with my work performance, and sometimes they prevent me from understanding what’s going on around me. They happen from time to time, and they scream for my attention. I had to learn the signs of high blood sugars. But my low blood sugars came with an instant awareness. The first time I ever experienced a low, it was weird how I instantly knew what I needed to do to fix it.

The other night I woke up with my heart racing, taking deep breaths as if I just ran a marathon and the lack of energy to even get out of bed.  I forced my body out of bed because it refused to cooperate with my demands. Concentrating on moving one foot in front of the other I make it down the hall. The adrenaline coursing through my veins wills me to open the refrigerator and begin to inhale anything and everything out of the refrigerator. My breathing begins to go back to normal, the sweat on my skin begins to dry, and I can hold myself up without any effort. My sugars are going back to normal.

The big decision now is whether or not I should give myself insulin for the surge of food I just put into my body.  Logically yes, I need to give myself insulin for everything I just ate so that my blood sugars don’t spike by morning. Diabetically, I am in too much fear for another drastic battle with low blood sugars that I would rather take the risk of a sky rocketing high. The general rule of thumb when it comes to having low blood sugars is the rule of 15. The rule of 15 is 15 grams of sugar, wait 15 minutes, check your blood sugars again, and repeat if needed. I am pretty good at sticking to the rule of 15. Except when my lows are like this. Usually I get the shakes and become a little fuzzy, but then once in a blue moon these drastic lows happen and all my training goes down the drain.

I survived the other night, even managed to take care of my low blood sugars without waking the hubs. Not all of my lows are this way, but they are not fun. In a perfect world I could predict everything in regards to my diabetes, or there would be a cure by now and I could say good-bye to the drastic swings of high blood sugars and low blood sugars. Until then all I can do is my best.