Keeping good control over diabetes means making frequent adjustments. A friend of mine, and diabetes podcaster recently asked the question; "How often do you make changes to your basal rates?" This questions means making adjustments to the amount of insulin your body receives throughout the day. Basal rates are the amount of insulin your body requires at different times in a 24 hour period. Each time I visit my Endochronologist, like I did about 2 weeks ago, we look at my blood sugars, analyze my A1c, and examine my basal rates. Usually, we make some little adjustments. My doctor has taught me that there needs to be a minimum of a 10% change in basal rate for an effect to take place. I see my doctor every 3 months. Occasionally we don't make any changes, most of the time however, we do. I rarely make adjustments to my carbohydrate ratio (the amount of insulin I take for the amount of carbohydrates I consume) but in the beginning I made those changes more frequently. I also made carb ratio changes when I was pregnant because EVERYTHING changes and gets really wacky when you're pregnant and diabetic.
Anyway, recently, my weekend schedule has changed. I wouldn't say that it has changed dramatically but it has changed enough for me to notice a pattern of change- for the worse. So, I've got to decide what I'm going to do to make some changes and adjust to this new change.
Each year, our church schedule changes. We attend church for a three hour block of time. Each "ward" or congregation, is assigned a different start time so that the buildings may be shared by more than one ward. This year, its our turn to attend the 12:30-3:30 block. AND I HATE IT! I absolutely detest this schedule. It's not good for me, and it's not good for anyone else in my family. Last year we were lucky enough to attend the 9-12 block. Yeah, it's nice to sleep in on Sundays but I'd much rather be finished with church by noon. Also, when do you eat? Either you sleep in and eat a big, late breakfast; or you wake up early and eat two small meals before attending church. This is what has been really whacking out my blood sugars. In the 5 weeks we've attended church in 2012, I've had ONE Sunday where my sugars were under control. The other weeks, I've had one issue or another. I've been high, I've been low, I've been quickly rising and falling fast. Ugh. I cannot figure out this schedule.
Yesterday, it finally clicked that something had been off for five straight weeks, each and every Sunday. Yesterday I took the day to sleep in. I slept until 9:00 am like a total slob (for a mom) and didn't eat breakfast until 9:50am. At that time, my blood sugar had dropped to 59. I didn't even feel it. I almost always feel lows. Not this one. So I ate. And I ate. And I probably did eat too much. And I didn't take any insulin. So, 2 hours later, my sugar was like 280. Then I got to take my naked and free shower (where you aren't wearing a pump site or sensor) and put in a new site after my shower. I bolused and figured I'd come right on down. Only no. 1 hour after my bolus I checked my sugar and it was 316. I felt super dizzy. And super thirsty. And it just happened to be the first week of the month which means that everyone is fasting. So I'm taking down at the water fountain when all the adults around me are fasting from food and drink, including water, for 24 hours. Ugh. But you do what you have to to take care of yourself, right?
Eventually my sugar came down and I spent the rest of the day fighting lows. Which leads me to tomorrow's post.
So, let me get to the point here, I know I've got to make a change. And I hope it will be an easy one. I just need to wake up earlier. No more enjoying the ONE BENEFIT of this stupid late schedule, I've got to get up at my regular time and eat breakfast at my regular time. As for lunch, I don't know. I think I'll just go for a little carbohydrate and protein combo snack before church and maybe another portion when I get home and then have dinner at the regular time. That should do it.
I'll let you know how it goes.
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