Summer is the Season of Lows
I love summer. I love the heat and the ability to wear cute little skirts and sundresses. But I HATE the lows that always come with the hot weather. At first, it's kind of nice to watch my insulin requirements lessen in the warmer weather. But then, the lows start and my basal rates go nuts and I feel like I'm living in a permanent fog. I've had several bad middle-of-the-night lows recently, one of which almost required the EMTs. Last night was another one that, while not as bad as the one last week, was bad enough to keep me up the rest of the night.
Whenever I go low, I'm always scared to go back to sleep. I've had a few hypoglycemic seizures over the years (mostly at night) and it only takes one to fear having another. So I just stay up. I watch TV, I graze to treat the low (so bad, I know), I rebound, and then I'm a zombie the next day. I've had 3 cups of coffee today and I'm still out of it. I don't know how I'm even functioning and I'm sure I don't look too hot either. I hate when this happens because it just throws off the whole day, BG-wise and work-wise. I have a headache too. Strangely, aside from the 201 I had on my way into work this AM (can you say rebound?), my BGs have been pretty good. But my cognitive functioning is a mess.
This is always one of the hardest parts of D for me - the inability for people to understand what's going on with me. I really only have one colleague that knows about my D, and when she asked me today if I was ok (probably because I look like I'm not), I did tell her what was going on lately. So at least she understands. But you can't exactly go around announcing, "Yeah, I had a bad low last night so I'm a freaking zombie today. Sorry that I can't talk properly or think straight. Better luck tomorrow!" In this respect, D is an invisible disease. Our bodies are often wacking out all over the place, but unless you tell people (or have a majorly obvious bad low) people just don't know. I can appear functional down into the 50s, but I'm not all there. It's strange and hard to work around some days. I have a job that requires a lot of thinking and being unable to think is beyond frustrating. Lost day in terms of productivity, so I am going to throw in the towel and head home in a bit.
Whenever I go low, I'm always scared to go back to sleep. I've had a few hypoglycemic seizures over the years (mostly at night) and it only takes one to fear having another. So I just stay up. I watch TV, I graze to treat the low (so bad, I know), I rebound, and then I'm a zombie the next day. I've had 3 cups of coffee today and I'm still out of it. I don't know how I'm even functioning and I'm sure I don't look too hot either. I hate when this happens because it just throws off the whole day, BG-wise and work-wise. I have a headache too. Strangely, aside from the 201 I had on my way into work this AM (can you say rebound?), my BGs have been pretty good. But my cognitive functioning is a mess.
This is always one of the hardest parts of D for me - the inability for people to understand what's going on with me. I really only have one colleague that knows about my D, and when she asked me today if I was ok (probably because I look like I'm not), I did tell her what was going on lately. So at least she understands. But you can't exactly go around announcing, "Yeah, I had a bad low last night so I'm a freaking zombie today. Sorry that I can't talk properly or think straight. Better luck tomorrow!" In this respect, D is an invisible disease. Our bodies are often wacking out all over the place, but unless you tell people (or have a majorly obvious bad low) people just don't know. I can appear functional down into the 50s, but I'm not all there. It's strange and hard to work around some days. I have a job that requires a lot of thinking and being unable to think is beyond frustrating. Lost day in terms of productivity, so I am going to throw in the towel and head home in a bit.
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Comment by Ant97gtr on June 8, 2011 at 3:11pm -
I too enjoy summer (pretty hard NOT to here in Oz) although I'd look pretty ugly in skirts and sundresses ;-)
Sorry to hear about what you are going through and it sounds like you need to adjust your insulin/food/exercise ratios. Like you, I also end up using less insulin over summer and have lower blood sugars. I never associate this with the heat as such just the fact that I'm getting way more exercise in the sunshine.
All my serious lows have occured when I'm asleep (you can read about it in y hypo blog). Obviously during the day I can pick up the warning signs and correct, but I sleep like a log and my body doesn't wake me up when low. There was a period when I had a spate of these hypos overnight and after discussing with my endo came up with steps to take which resulted in no more trips to the hospital.
1) The daytime insulin I was taking had a longer acting curve - ie my dinner shot was still at work in the early part of the night. Changed to a quicker acting insulin.
2) Eat some long acting carbs before bed. Every night I have a slice (at least) of brown bread or the like which provides fuel over a long period.
Lastly some words of advice - once your BG is rising go back to sleep! As long as you have some longer acting carbs as well as an instant hit when correcting for a hypo, it is highly unlikely your sugars with drop. The lack of sleep is not going to help your general health nor your D. Secondly, if you do have a bad night and really feel like death warmed up the next day, take a sick day! That is what they are there for and you have a good reason for doing so!
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Comment by MyBustedPancreas on June 9, 2011 at 11:21am -
Yes, I know I should go back to sleep once I'm heading upwards, but it's hard. Mostly psychological because of bad past experiences with lows. I do eat a small snack before bed (usually a couple of crackers with cheese), but that doesn't always help. I've lowered my basal rate overnight and that worked well last night. Woke up a little high, but not too bad.
I also know that I need to take a sick day if I really have a bad night, and sometimes I do exactly that. But other times I feel defeated if I take a day off because of something D related. It makes me feel like the D has won, and I hate that!
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Comment by Ant97gtr on June 9, 2011 at 9:41pm
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I can def understand the psyc part of it as I have had some serious lows during the night. Funny thing is that after a low (and I make sure my BG is on the way up) I feel exhausted and can't wait to fall back to sleep. Lol reminds me of a fight I picked with an electronic monitoring system in the recoverdy room of a hospital many years ago after a bad overnight low - all I wanted to do was sleep and everytime I closed my eyes it would alarm because my blood pressure would drop below the preset level...Grrrrrr :)
Instead of the crackers try a slice of wholemeal bread (or as toast if you prefer) as it seems to work wonders for me.
I can understand the work thing as I consider it a matter of pride that I take less sick days than many co-workers but you shouldn't feel defeated over something like D....consider it a minor retreat in order to win the war ;)
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