This is a question that I used to ask quite often back in college when I would see a friend in the hallway or cafeteria who had clearly had a long night. He or she was usually in complete disarray with a major case of bedhead and their favorite sweatsuit ensemble on. That's how I remember them, anyway.
I now would like to pose this question to my nighttime blood sugars. Lately, there is no rhyme or reason to them which leads me to believe that I will not be getting a full night's sleep anytime soon. I'll be waking up at my favorite hours, either midnight or 3 a.m. depending on when I go to sleep, to test my sugar.
My favorite night so far, was when I went to bed at 10 p.m. (long day) with a blood sugar of 119 mg/dl and woke up at midnight with a blood sugar of 423 mg/dl. I didn't know I was capable of such profanity until that night.
I did some research the next day and was embarrassed to learn a new "old" diabetes fact. By "old" I mean a fact that most people with diabetes probably already know. With every "old" diabetes fact that I learn, I feel a little stupid. I always wonder why it is not common knowledge to me after having diabetes for 15 years.
I learned that if you eat a fatty meal before bed (not a good idea to begin with - this I already knew) that your sugars can significantly spike during the night. Good to know. My meal that night was definitely not in any diabetes cookbooks.
Over the next few nights, my sugars ran in the 200's. Not good, but being a bit paranoid about lows at night, I was okay with them as long as they weren't spiking.
Then there was last night. My blood sugar before bed was 274 mg/dl. Ugh. Being that I had just bolused not an hour ago for a high blood sugar, I left it alone and set my alarm for midnight...which didn't go off. Thanks, unreliable cell phone alarm. I woke up at 4 a.m. with a blood sugar of 154 mg/dl. Then at 7:30 a.m. my blood sugar was 116 mg/dl.
I think we all know what this means - nighttime testing, followed by a call to my endo, followed by pump adjustments. If my Continuous Glucose Monitoring System would get here, my nights would probably be more peaceful. (I've been told that my insurance approved the CGMS but that it is on back order. More on whether or not this is true in a later post.)
For now, I wish my blood sugars could just answer my simple question: what were you doing last night?
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3 comments:
I hate those middle of the night highs. When you eat something with a lot what happens is that the carbs get into your bloodstream much more slowly. Also there are some who believe that the fat itself has some impact on your blood sugars.
One CDE I know has suggested an extended bolus over 8 hours to cover this. But I don't have the resolve to follow this advice.
I don't like the middle of the night lows either, S. That's probably why I've got my basal rates so fine-tuned to get me through the night on a smooth course - between 10:30pm and 7:30am, I have five different rates... But I've found that getting into the 100s through the night and fasting, is key to maintaining a lower A1C. So frustrating to not know what's happening in those sleeping hours - CGMS should really help with you! AWESOME. :)
I was on a roller coaster last night.
Yikes. Last night before bed my BG was 80. That was a little low for my comfort, so had a slight snack and it went up to 115 45 mins later. Then, I woke up feeling crappy at 4am (almost 5 hours later) and it was 333. Bolused for that, and woke up at 8:00 with a BG of 115.
Roller coaster, indeed.
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