A 24/7 Kind of Disease
Most of the time, I am on autopilot and don't think twice about the demands of my disease. The finger pokes, carb counting and late night blood sugar checks are all part of my new routine. Every once in a while I think about what I would want to do if I could have a break. I bet most of you are thinking that it would be to eat anything without having to think or worry, but actually it would be to have an uninterrupted nights sleep and wake up feeling well rested.
Sleep isn't what it used to be. Alerts from my CGM go off regularly throughout the night warning me of high or low blood sugar. This is great for my overall well being, but not so much for restful sleep. Whenever I get frustrated and tired I think of all the babies and children being woke up in the middle of the night by their loving parents to get their blood sugar checked. This thought instantly brings tears to my eyes, humbles my heart and I no longer feel sorry for myself, but for these sweet undeserving families. I may feel like I need sleep, but the little that I get, I would happily gift to those munchkins.
Upper left is the Dexcom receiver. It shows real time glucose levels and has arrows so I know if my blood sugar is going up or down and how fast. Bottom left is the thin flexible sensor that doesn't cause too much pain, but the needle that goes in first can be god awful if you hit something. photo on the right is me the first time I used my Dexcom CGM.
I am able to set the parameters on my CGM so that it alerts me whenever I'm too high or too low, this is life saving!!! I don't know what other T1's set their's to, but i have mine pretty tight. I like to stay between 75-150, which means it beeps A LOT. If the problem isn't fixed within 30 minutes it beeps again. Here's last night's numbers:
Every time you see the squiggly line go under the red i had low blood sugar and my phone was alarming me to wake up and eat something. My goal here is to not over eat and swing high. The rule of thumb is to eat 15 fast acting carbs and then wait at least 15 minutes to see if my blood sugar begins to go up.
Unfortunately, if it does not, then I am alarmed again and again!!! On this particular night I was awake from 10pm-3am drinking Barq's Root Beer. Eventually i got tired and I suspended all of my insulin for an hour and woke up to the beeping of high blood sugar at 5am. Soooooo frustrating, but i did get a couple hours of sleep while it was climbing. I then had to correct my high blood sugar by taking insulin! What a rollercoaster and set off by who knows what, i counted every carb.
Today I lowered my nighttime insulin slightly, although I think that my low was a combination of my endocrinologist adjusting my numbers and a long crossfit workout. I'm hoping to get a good nights rest, but this sort of thing happens often.
