A year later

It's been roughly a year since I received a whole lot of bad news, blogged here. 

In the 11 months since that time, I've had quite a LONG year in my diabetes (and overall health) care. However, I am happy to say that I just had my blood work repeated and everything came back within normal ranges with the exception of thyroid to which my doctor has made a very small change.  When I received this news yesterday I was ecstatic.  The past year has been such a struggle and I am so happy to learn that all of my hard work is paying off and I'm once again kicking diabetes to the curb.  That's a really good feeling.  

The major thing which has changed for me this year is gluten.  Last year when my doctor saw my numbers he said I fall within the range that could be considered a Celaic diagnosis.  I took him seriously and slowly began removing wheat and gluten from my diet.  It was a struggle.  really, really difficult at times.  I am STILL not perfect at it and it is still very difficult here in Singapore but I am doing so much better and I FEEL so much better too.  And now, my blood work shows that it's working for me too.  

There's so much more to be said about what has happened in the last 12 months and what's yet to come for me and my care but I'll leave it at this for now.

adjusting to a new schedule

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.

Roller coaster

Posted originally on April 15, 2011

From time to time, a good, in-control diabetic, can have a unexplained roller coaster of blood sugars. This week I experienced one that lasted much longer and had different attributes than any other I've experienced. It was so strange that I just have to blog about it.

This is my roller coaster. For those who aren't diabetic or familiar with normal numbers, I should be right around 100. For me, anything in the 80-140 range is pretty normal- and considered good blood sugars. (Narrative below)

date time sugar
4-10 9:37 am 305
4-10 12:12pm 73
4-10 4:56 pm 199
4-10 9:52 pm 346
4-11 7:52 am 360
4-11 10:57 am 166
4-11 12:40 pm 313 changed my site
4-11 2:34 pm 260
4-11 3:35 pm 231
4-11 4:57 pm 176
4-11 10:07 pm 197
4-12 7:43 am 294
4-12 11:23 am 373 changed bottle of insulin, kept same site
4-12 1:47 pm 322
4-12 2:50 pm 238
4-12 4:21 pm 213
felt quite low at dinner, didn't check but guessed it was in the 50's
4-12 8:28 pm 54
4-12 10:59 pm 57
4-13 2:23 am 48
4-13 5:48 am 170 Husband woke me up to check on me and tell me to test my sugar.
4-13 11:21 am 143

I began this roller coaster on Sunday morning. We have church at 9:00 am and I ate breakfast without testing beforehand, (that was my first error) bolused, and checked my sugar and hour and a half after breakfast as I usually would check my sugar. I felt kind of high and wasn't real surprised at the 305. I took my insulin for the high and drank a little water out of the drinking fountain. By the time we'd made it home from church (three hours later), I was at 73. I ate lunch and probably didn't take too much insulin for it. At dinner I was 199. My mom made a nice spice cake (second mistake) that sent my sugars way high. 346 at bed time, I took my insulin for that and expected to wake up with a normal sugar. Not so.

By morning I was 360, normal after breakfast, high again at lunch and changed my site after lunchtime. This is usually where my blood sugars would even out and start getting normal again. This time, I went another 24 hours with high blood sugars.

I decided that my insulin bottle must be bad and took out a new bottle, and switched out my reservoir. I didn't change my site though because it had gone in really well and I was happy with the way it was feeling. I think I changed my basals up a bit but I'm not sure. That sort of did the trick but it took quite a while. When I changed my insulin, my sugars came down and by that night, I was having a lot of lows. Usually when I have a lot of lows I'll have them between highs or regulars. This time, I had 4 low blood sugars in a row. After the first one, I ate. After the second one, I had some juice and went to bed. I also lowered my insulin to 75% and changed my basals back. After the third one, I just couldn't believe it! I woke up sweating and just astonished at the 48 on the screen. I drank a bunch of orange juice and ate a piece of bread too. I wanted to let Husband know that I wasn't doing well but I didn't want to wake him up, so I sent him a message on Twitter and asked him to check on me in the morning. When he did, I had finally begun my climb back into the normal range and have pretty well maintained that throughout the day today. What a mess! It is so hard on my body to go through these blood sugar swings.