![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Yesterday was my birthday. So many friends and family reached out to show they care, but my Diabetes couldn’t have cared less.
I woke up with a blood sugar of 153. Not bad. I ate a very, very low-carb breakfast and neglected to give insulin. So it was my own fault when I was 267 at lunch time. I gave insulin for my blood sugar and my lunchtime carbs. Around dinner time I started feeling dehydrated. Sure enough, my blood sugar was 360. I ate dinner and again gave insulin to cover my carbs and blood sugar correction.
After dinner, I went to choir rehearsal. I still felt dehydrated, so I politely refused the offer for cookies and other birthday treats. My choir director bought cookies just for my birthday, and I had to politely decline because of my blood sugar.
Before you say, “Hey, your first post proclaimed you’d eat cheesecake any time. Clearly you don’t reject sweets. What happened?” Remember, I don’t always have an appetite when my blood sugar is high. Sometimes if my sugar’s up I don’t want to eat sweets for fear it will spike even higher.
I drank copious amounts of water as I sang, but my blood sugar seemed stuck between 360 and 365 all night. I wasn’t worried because it wasn’t going up, but I told myself if it didn’t drop when I got home from rehearsal, I’d change my pump site.
When I tested before bed, my blood sugar was 100. Great! The pump has a feature where the user can input her blood sugar and it will calculate how much insulin is needed to bring the blood sugar back to the target number. I put 100 into my pump, and it said I should get negative 0.35 for my blood sugar. The minus sign before the number means I should eat something, but since it was less than half a unit, I wasn’t too worried. The number that did worry me was beneath the recommended blood sugar correction. The pump will tell the user how much insulin she has on board (IOB). This is the insulin that’s still in the body from the last time insulin was given. There is always a minus sign in front of this number. Last night it read -1.65. Let’s ignore the minus signs for a minute and do some math. 0.35+1.65=2. This means I needed to eat two units worth of carbs (about 30 grams) and hopefully my blood sugar would stay in a normal range.
The choir friend who takes me to and from rehearsal gave me a bag of chocolates for my birthday, so I ate a few pieces and figured I’d be okay.
Half an hour later, I felt weak and shaky so I tested again. Our choir director sent me home with some cookies, I had birthday chocolates, and there was a birthday cupcake in the kitchen from my mom. Good thing, because I was 51! I ate some more chocolate and a cookie and waited about fifteen minutes. When I tested again, I was 78. I figured it was coming up and I could go to bed.
This morning I was 66, and before lunch I was 55.
It would be great if I could just eat a cookie or a giant cupcake or as many chocolates as I want without worrying about insulin and blood sugar levels. Even just for one day. But Diabetes doesn’t take a break for anything, not even your birthday.
I woke up with a blood sugar of 153. Not bad. I ate a very, very low-carb breakfast and neglected to give insulin. So it was my own fault when I was 267 at lunch time. I gave insulin for my blood sugar and my lunchtime carbs. Around dinner time I started feeling dehydrated. Sure enough, my blood sugar was 360. I ate dinner and again gave insulin to cover my carbs and blood sugar correction.
After dinner, I went to choir rehearsal. I still felt dehydrated, so I politely refused the offer for cookies and other birthday treats. My choir director bought cookies just for my birthday, and I had to politely decline because of my blood sugar.
Before you say, “Hey, your first post proclaimed you’d eat cheesecake any time. Clearly you don’t reject sweets. What happened?” Remember, I don’t always have an appetite when my blood sugar is high. Sometimes if my sugar’s up I don’t want to eat sweets for fear it will spike even higher.
I drank copious amounts of water as I sang, but my blood sugar seemed stuck between 360 and 365 all night. I wasn’t worried because it wasn’t going up, but I told myself if it didn’t drop when I got home from rehearsal, I’d change my pump site.
When I tested before bed, my blood sugar was 100. Great! The pump has a feature where the user can input her blood sugar and it will calculate how much insulin is needed to bring the blood sugar back to the target number. I put 100 into my pump, and it said I should get negative 0.35 for my blood sugar. The minus sign before the number means I should eat something, but since it was less than half a unit, I wasn’t too worried. The number that did worry me was beneath the recommended blood sugar correction. The pump will tell the user how much insulin she has on board (IOB). This is the insulin that’s still in the body from the last time insulin was given. There is always a minus sign in front of this number. Last night it read -1.65. Let’s ignore the minus signs for a minute and do some math. 0.35+1.65=2. This means I needed to eat two units worth of carbs (about 30 grams) and hopefully my blood sugar would stay in a normal range.
The choir friend who takes me to and from rehearsal gave me a bag of chocolates for my birthday, so I ate a few pieces and figured I’d be okay.
Half an hour later, I felt weak and shaky so I tested again. Our choir director sent me home with some cookies, I had birthday chocolates, and there was a birthday cupcake in the kitchen from my mom. Good thing, because I was 51! I ate some more chocolate and a cookie and waited about fifteen minutes. When I tested again, I was 78. I figured it was coming up and I could go to bed.
This morning I was 66, and before lunch I was 55.
It would be great if I could just eat a cookie or a giant cupcake or as many chocolates as I want without worrying about insulin and blood sugar levels. Even just for one day. But Diabetes doesn’t take a break for anything, not even your birthday.
