#DBlogWeek ’13 – Day 3 – How I met your mother

(Or, more accurately: How my mother met your mother)

It’s Diabetes Blog Week again! For the next five days, Karen , author of Bitter-Sweet diabetes, will tell me what to write about. (She did this last year, too). Today, she wants me to write about a memorable diabetes day. I don’t know if this one is my MOST memorable, especially since the most significant diabetes-events tend to be the ones where I’m in no capacity to remember things, but here goes…

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This happened over ten years ago. Add old-age to hospital-grade hypoglycemia, and memories get hazy, but I’ll do my best.

Back then, I was living alone in a second floor apartment in the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA. I was dating a girl who lived on the outskirts of Queens, NY. Because of the distance between us, we only saw each other on weekends – and the “dates” usually included an overnight stay.

Don’t judge.

The rocky reality of hypoglycemia

This vlog (video-log) could have just as easily been titled “A Consequence of Hypoglycemia”, but alas, that name was already taken. So I’ll just go with the “Rocky Reality…” name.
(subtitle: “Gonna Cry Now”)

Running time 3 minutes

Another nighttime low? or no?

I’m stumped.

Last night, shortly after 1:00 am, I woke up to the sound of my baby son crying hysterically. (A “Low Predicted” CGM alert at 12:30 and a “Low” alert at 12:45 did not. Have I mentioned my expertise in silencing alerts in my sleep before?)

Lifting him out of his crib and laying him on the changing table were no challenge for me. Removing a wet diaper was no challenge for me.

Then the  feeling set in. I started sweating. Shaking. Becoming disoriented. Nausea was starting to set in. This wasn’t the “Regular-Low”, this was the “Oh-Crap-Really-Bad-Low” feeling.  A quick glance at my pump/CGM and I see a sensor glucose of 65 mg/dl. Oh shit, I thought. If the sensor’s reporting 65, I’m probably more like 35. I know how this thing behaves!

Wordless Wednesday: Flirting with danger

I believe I spent more time on Monday below the “low” line than above it.  Seriously, what the hell happened?

No, I wasn’t more active than usual; and no, this wasn’t a new infusion set/vial of insulin. Yes, the CGM matched the fingersticks.

And I can now say something I never thought I’d say: I am so freakin’ sick of Skittles — If I eat another Skittle before 2015 it will be too soon.

 

The “rule of 15″ is so 15 years ago

If I lived in mmol/L land, my blood sugar would be a diminutive 'two'.

Someone, somewhere, came up with this so-called “rule of fifteen.”  If your blood sugar is low, treat it with a fifteen-carb snack, then patiently watch the second-hand spin ’round the clock fifteen times before testing again.

You have got to be kidding me.  This rule is so flawed, that even the glucose tablet confectioneries don’t make products which comply.  (Speaking of confectioneries, I went to college down the street from Just Born, makers of delicious [I'm told] candies such as Mike & Ike and Marshmallow Peeps.  The place itself looks like a hospital, and it took years to realize what really went on in that building!  Now I hear that Mike and Ike might be splitting up.  So sad.)

Back on topic.  With no individual customization whatsoever, or no evaluation of just how low a person might be, fifteen carbs will always do the trick.  And if it doesn’t. try again.