Monday, April 16, 2007

Sugar Acrobatics

I've been having some issues with my sugar since I got back from Spain, so I've been running numbers like this

(as a refresher: a normal person has a fasting glucose of about 80. I need to stay under 150. Over 200, you do permanent damage. I record three times a day: before breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I test more than that, but generally, these are the only ones I record):

185 - bad
91
91

142 - OK
122
82

125
70
70

148 - OK
99
157 - OK

119
177 - bad
108

These aren't horrible numbers, but I've only been able to make them by adjusting my insulin in the middle of the night. When I test at night because I've woken up for some reason - usually because my feet are bothering me (poor circulation caused by high sugar) or I have to pee (also caused by high sugar).

So at night, instead of running around 100 - which is what I test at before bed, my sugar has been climbing by nearly a hundred points at night while I sleep. So I'll test at 185/200/175 around midnight/three am (no, unless I wake up because of some discomfort, I don't generally test in the middle of the night)

Ideally, I'd like to get these sorts of numbers from a few weeks ago, which I was achieving *without* this odd midnight adjustmentof 4-5 units:

96
88
99

144 - OK
157 - OK
68

95
126
97

118
116
68

153 - OK
105
98

Of course, looking at the actual differences between those numbers now, side by side, I realize I'm being kind of anal about the whole thing.

But you know, high numbers in the middle of the night (which I generally don't record, so they don't show up in this comparison) make me feel like shit the next morning.

This particular morning, I blame the two pieces of pizza I had last night, but you know, after covering for said pizza and going to bed 4 hours after eating with a 75 number only to wake up at 3:30 am with a 207 is just *weird.*

Bodies are *weird.*

3 comments so far. What are your thoughts?

Jackie M. said...

Nah, I don't think you're being anal.

Could it be jet lag? Or... what did your numbers look like in Spain? My Dad always screws up his sugar when he's traveling.

Kameron Hurley said...

A similar thing was happening in Spain, which is what makes me think it had something to do with the time change... I'd have abnormally high morning numbers despite the usual OK nighttime numbers. I do wonder if I'm still settling out from that.

I've noticed that a lot of the sugar stuff is sort of like when you bounce a ball - you get high highs, low lows, then less high highs and less high lows, then smaller and smaller variations until you even out again.

Any sort of upset in routine tends to set off this bouncing-ball effect.

Bad Decision Maker said...

yeah, nighttime highs (or "mediocres") are annoying. partly because that might mean you're spending 7 hours up there. they also annoy me because i'm not doing anything while i sleep - no eating, no stress, no exercise - so few variables, my body should stay where i want it to be, right?

maybe you need more dinner (or bedtime snack) insulin? sometimes people need different carb/insulin ratios at different times of the day. if you're worried about getting low in the short run, for high fat foods like pizza you could see what happens if you take the insulin as you're eating instead of before.

that's crazy that you're getting symptoms at 180 - I NEVER have symptoms until at least 230 or so (maybe i'd notice a little thirst/sluggishness if i was trying to do a hard run at 180 or 190). maybe your body is just used to well controlled blood sugars in a way mine isn't.

oh, and i call it the "roller coaster" (the bouncing ball)