51.

Junior Year!

Sunday the Wesleyan College move-in fiasco began for the second time.

Last year was a nightmare - it went kind of like this:

lowbloodsugar

lowbloodsugar

eat90gramsofcarbs

bloodsugarisstill30

lowbloodsugar

nighttimelowbloodsugar

morninglowbloodsugar

lowbloodsugar

for consecutive weeks straight, leaving me reeling and my newly-christened diabetic self (4/3/11) feeling helpless and unsure of what to do. 

This year left me thinking,

"Why didn't I take a lesson from last year?"

I have a ton of stuff. This year I live in the apartments - third floor landing - and enlisted the help of 3 boys (Josh, Josh's Brother, Josh's Best Friend) - to move the heavy stuff.

Even with the lighter stuff, though, the workout was substantial. 

Huffing and panting, we went to DQ to cool off and get some ice cream. I had a small cone and then had a few bites of Josh's Georgia Mud Fudge Blizzard - it was a lot of sweetness for me, and I bolused well for it, wanting to avoid a spike later. I felt fine, except later that night I felt hot and sweaty... the shakes began...

I tested my Blood Sugar. 

51.

So I ate a 30 gram-carb granola bar my apartment-mate, Crystal, gave me.

I carried on unpacking, feeling pretty okay.

As I started making my bed, I started feeling hot again. A bead of sweat dripped down my forehead. I groaned as I wiped the sweat away, knowing what was coming on. I tested again. 68. Still low? Seriously? I ate the other half of the granola bar (30 grams), as well as an additional 30-carbs worth of snacks before bed.

I went to sleep feeling assured that my blood sugar was nice and through the roofs.

I woke up at 7:30 that next morning, which was unusual considering I'd gone to sleep past 2. I curled my toes and crossed my feet luxuriously, taking in my new surroundings - although still messy, the apartment was coming together nicely, and I sure did love my new room better than the dorms!

I woke up and yawned a little. What to do? 

I padded out into the kitchen. Crystal was still asleep, and I should have been, but I had work to do! 

I started working again, cleaning and unpacking...

Soon I felt weak and shaky.

O.M.G., I thought, not again. You've got to be kidding me! 

I had vague flashbacks of my flashing 30's and 40's last year and the nightmare it was to understand the concept of a.) delayed hypoglycemia (work out (in this case, move in), and get low blood sugar up to 10 hours later - hence nighttime lows) and b.) reducing my insulin intake based on the level of my activities. I went through so many snacks during that time. 

I tested while sitting on the floor, and waited for the reading.

51.

... wasn't that my Blood Sugar last night?

I laughed a little, then took a shaky breath and got to business digging a snack out of my bag and eating 26 grams of carbs. That should do it. 

For lunch I was in a rush to get to my Physical Therapy Internship - 10 minutes to eat - I had salad and literally no time to bolus, so I ate and was off. I was starved after interning, and had a 12 g carb rice cake before rushing back to campus for my work study meeting. Since I couldn't test at lunch, I tested there - 200, okay, that meant 2 units of Novo ( - 80 should give me a BG of 120). 

Crystal and I went shopping for apartment supplies later, and we had oatmeal cream pies (28 carbs) for a snack, which was a perfect bolus - 4 units of Novo (each unit covers 7 carbs). So I should have been perfect, right?

We got home from shopping and I set down my purse. I had "hummingbird heartbeat" as I call it, as my heartbeats tend to become fast, tiny, spaced together beats when a low starts coming on, or has already hit and I'm just then becoming aware of it. I wondered vaguely if my sugars were low. Crystal found me later in my room laying on the rug, fanning myself. I knew I was low.

Crystal got out some pasta noodles and sauce, and proceeded to make dinner while I checked my BG again.

51.

UGH! Low once more! 

"It's a good thing you're making pasta!", I told Crystal.

I really couldn't wait until dinner was done, so I ate a slice of bread (11.5 carbs) while I waited, which would probably do the trick. When supper was ready, Crystal fixed us nice big bowls of pasta and sauce (about 60 g of carbs total). I hadn't had pasta since before I was Diabetic, if you can believe it. Crystal and I joked it was both a celebratory first apartment meal as well as a "first" pasta meal for me. What had my life come to? Living on the wild side meant... eating pasta???

Perhaps against what was my better judgement (or so my Diabetic mind thought), I didn't bolus for a carb of it. My sugars were going to be so high....

About 2 hours passed. It was late as it was - we had ate around 9, and now it was a bit past 11. 

And yet...

I still felt hot.

I still felt shaky.

There is NO freaking way this time. NO WAY! I just ate pasta! Not to mention I had done an UNHEARD OF thing for a Diabetic - I hadn't even bolused for the pasta. That was like Diabetic blasphemy, let me tell you.

The test confirmed my fears a moment later though - I was low.

But not just low - I was

51.

Again! I couldn't even believe it! What were the chances?

I ate a bag of popcorn then, hoping that would up my sugars for the night. 

Today my sugars finally stabilized, starting out low at a 59 but remaining in the mid-100's today. I've certainly made a mental note for NEXT YEAR to BRING LOTS OF SNACKS, EAT MANY CARBS and NOT USE SO MUCH INSULIN during move in. No way am I going through this again.

The plus side?

"At least this'll make a good blog post," I told Crystal that night. "I'll call it...

51."