The Aftermath

Time: 1:30am
Blood Sugar: 40ish
Carbs Consumed: way too many
Amount of diabetes education remembered: 0%


Remember that 15/15 rule we were all taught about lows at diagnosis. I believe it was something like "eat 15 carbs and recheck your blood sugar 15 minutes later, if you're still low repeat." Yeah, that totally goes out the window in the middle of the night. The above picture is what I awoke to a few weeks ago. Yes, that is a knife for the juice box. I lost the straw, desperate times call for desperate measures :) This particular event occured a couple of weeks ago, however they are all the same. Anytime I am low in the middle of the night I cannot control the amount of food I consume. Anything is fair game, especially cereal. There is no limit to the amount of cereal I can eat with a raging low at 2am. Please tell me I'm not the only one who deals with this:) Of course my middle of the night lows leave an aftermath in the morning. Usually I wake up even higher than this particular morning. I have a bad habit of simply disconnecting my pump to not have to deal with another low (This is not a smart thing to do!) The intelligent thing to do would be to keep a simple juice box next to my bed and not even venture into the kitchen. This. never. works. I usually end up drinking my bedside sugar and still eat like a mad woman while standing over the kitchen sink. The low headache and the high nausea make for great fun the next day.

Though I'm making light of the situation there is some seriousness to it. I bought a house about a year ago, this is the first time I have lived completely alone. To be honest, middle of the night lows scare the crap out of me. I was intentionally making myself high at night for fear of these lows, particularly after long run days. I have tried some different approaches to combat my fear but it still exists. I set an alarm on my phone for 2am but most of the time I sleep through it. I use a temporary basal rate most nights just to ensure I won't go low. I don't know if there is a way to truly overcome my fear short of a roommate or a husband. It has gotten better, but it still worries me. I'm not usually a diabetes drama queen but this probably is my only fear when it comes to diabetes. I can control how much I eat (during the day anyways). I exercise during the day to help my blood sugars. I can take a daily aspirin and analyze my basal rates all day. However I can't stop a random midnight low. I know serious consequences of night lows are usually rare but they do happen. I have the CGMS but it is inaccurate more times than it is accurate. Honestly, I try not to think about everything that could happen. I try to be as educated as possible so that I can be best prepared for the randomness of diabetes.

Oh the woes of midnight lows...