Friday, August 7, 2009

Like a Seesaw

Looking at my blood sugar log of the past seven days would make a mathematician question if everything was recorded on the same scale. My blood sugar has been as low as 29 and as high as 450 since last Saturday. Sunday night I woke up three times with glucose readings of 29, 48, and 55. Yet the following day I had blood sugars between 250 and 350 throughout the day. What gives!!!

Although my diet has not changed my exercise schedule has really been ramped up. I also believe there is some variability in my basal rates; it seems that my higher blood sugars shift from 3am to 5am at certain times of the year to 9am through 11am at other times in the year. I don't have a ton of statistics to back this up but its just a trend I've kind of noticed from time to time. I thought I really had my basal patterns set but now realize I need to start recording all my blood sugars, exercise activity, insulin intake and carbohydrate intake again. That unfortunately is the only way to stay on top of blood sugar management.

If this week has taught me anything, its that good control over blood sugars needs constant vigilance. Becoming lazy in recording blood sugar readings, and ignoring small trends can blow up causing huge shifts in blood sugars. The more variable my blood sugars are the harder it is for me to act like myself on a daily basis. Having the up and downs of the past week have caused me to feel more fatigued, miss a couple workouts and just not feel like myself. The 5 minute sacrifice it will take to write down the information I need to analyze my blood sugars will be well worth the pay off in overall health.

1 comment:

PJ said...

Ah, the joy of living with diabetes. Hope you get it figured out!