Thursday, April 16, 2009

Feeling low in the middle of the night

In the middle of the night, around 3 a.m., I felt like eating everything I could come up with. Biscuits of all sorts (didn't matter if they were stale or not), chocolate, candy,... I had these terrible cravings, due to my blood sugar being too low, meaning 32 mg/dl. It's supposed to be in the 80-126 mg/dl range. It woke me up - or must I say I couldn't sleep for no particular reason - and it left me with this strange sensation in my body, like a cold wind racing inside my torso, grabbing me by the throat. Getting up and going wasn't easy, feeling dizzy and shaky. I did manage to eat all the cookies on my night stand, before I stumbled downstairs to have more. They didn't even taste good, but they definitely made me feel better.
I know I should've stopped my insulin pump from delivering insulin, but I didn't. This time, I wanted to binge, needed those carbs badly to feel better. O well, I used to feel really bad about these binge sessions, but I don't any more. It doesn't happen that frequently. Mostly, nightly sugar lows are solved within 15 min, having some glucose tablets and putting my insulin pump on hold for half an hour. Don't know what triggered me this time, to go for the cookie carbs. But I sure know it made me feel better and I could go back to sleep feeling at ease. And that's important.
I woke up with a great 107 mg/dl. That surprised me after all those excess carbs. Checking the history of my pump this morning, I found out why. Little miss unconscious wasn't that unconscious after all: I did bolus for the extra carbs!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

how long have you been a diabetic?

www.kokenenhogehakken.blogspot.be said...

On June 12th of this year, I will celebrate my 7th Diabetes Anniversary. I was diagnosed after several months of not feeling well, being exhausted and losing weight (that part I didn't mind at all). Thanks for asking.

Debbie said...

That 32 BG reading had to be scary. I've never been below the 50's and that was bad enough. The lowest I've ever been since on my pump is 68. Maybe if it's happening at night you should do an overnight basal test and see where your basal settings need adjusted.

Richard's Rambling Review said...

Cathy, I enjoy your blogs! I have been unconscious with hypos many times, especially prior to the glucometer era. I frequently forget to bolus for the carbs I eat during hypos. I am amazed you remembered to do so when you had a low of 32.

Richard

Richard's Rambling Review said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
www.kokenenhogehakken.blogspot.be said...

Hi Richard,
great to read you here.
O I do crazy stuff when I have low BG's at night. I also check my pump's history in the morning, when I wake up with a sticky mouth and cookie wraps on the pillow. LOL

www.kokenenhogehakken.blogspot.be said...

Hi Debbie! Great to welcome you here.
I have experienced these low numbers before. Not to the point where I lost consciousness, but still scary. I'm glad you don't have those lows and that you have good management. Hope you and your family are doing well?