“What? “I’m low again?”
“Sounds like you have the anti-betes.”
“Unbelievable. We had Mexican food for dinner last night and I never went high. In fact, I had to treat lows twice.”
“Must be the anti-betes.”
It’s a silly little turn of phrase that keeps me from going totally insane when my blood sugar throws dip after dip at me. I’m in a period of anti-betes right now. It started with that very scary low last week. And it simply has not let up. My poor Fitbit stats are suffering because I’m practically too low to move. Now is the time to indulge in carb heavy foods without facing the blood sugar consequences. Pete wanted Macaroni and Cheese? No problem. Yes, we did have Mexican food - enchiladas and rice and chips with salsa. My high alarm did not ring. It’s completely crazy and as much as I hate high blood sugars (so much more than I hate lows) I’d almost welcome a bunch of them right now. Especially after last night.
I’m a really light sleeper. Which is why I was really surprised to wake up sometime after 4:00 this morning to find my pump had suspended. The Threshold Suspend alarm on my 530G is crazy loud but somehow I had slept right through it. In fact, upon reviewing my Alarm History it seems I slept through it twice!!
This shows that my pump was suspended from 11:45pm to 1:45am.
And this shows that my pump suspended again from 2:08am to 4:08am. It shows that my blood sugar was in the 40s both times. And let me assure you, this sensor has been spot on. Before bed it read 93 and my fingerstick was 96.
At 4:15ish when I awoke, after 4 hours without basal insulin, I was spiking and needed a correction. Which is completely fine by me because that big gap .at the bottom of the graph shows that I spent several hours with my blood sugar below 40. And I can feel it this morning. Although I slept through it, my body does not feel the least bit rested. I corrected for the spike and went back to sleep. My graph shows me topping out in the 180s before starting to come back down. My fasting was 139 with a tiny correction needed along with my coffee bolus. And by 9:30 my blood sugar was back in the 90s.Today I’m feeling grateful and privileged for the diabetes technology I am lucky to be using. I’m thinking back to the 1980s when I didn’t even have a blood glucose meter, let alone a CGM and insulin pump. And I’m pushing away thoughts of how last night would have gone if I slept through those blood sugars in the 40s without having technology going to bat for me.
And as I wrap up this post so I can go treat yet another low, I’m really looking forward to the end of this current instance of anti-betes.
** My Medtronic disclosure can be found here. **
Yay technology! Glad it wasn't worse. Of course, now that you've written about the anti-betes, it will surely go away.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the exact same thing as I was typing the post. And sure enough, 187 now with double up arrows. That's a bit excessive, but I'll take it as a welcome reprieve from the lows!!
Deletelove pete's clever name!
ReplyDeletesheesh how scary to see all that stuff after the fact, but yes, so glad you have that technology. it's like we're living in the future!
Oh icky. I've got the same thing going on at the moment and it's driving me insane.
ReplyDeleteCGM looks useful but not sure about the alarm not waking you up!
Hope it steadily improves soon :)
I really REALLY hate it when this happens. I never know why either. Is it some sort of weird hormonal thing? Because really, there's no reason for a random day of not needing insulin. And how are we supposed to know it's that anti-betes day? we go curiously low after a routine meal and a routine amount of insulin. Then it happens again and again. It's hard to shake the pattern too. The moment we take less insulin because of the first half of the day, that's the moment our bodies will need more than usual insulin or something stupid like that.
ReplyDeleteI really hate these days. This is one of the first times the pump suspend seems like a good idea.
Hope you're back to the "norms"
Wow. Thank you, Pump!
ReplyDeleteThank you for putting a name to this phenomenon. Glad technology could save the day until regular old diabetes takes over again.
ReplyDeleteI know I experience the Anti-Betes every once in a while as well. I know I have not idea what causes it but sadly for me those nights where you pump can make adjustments would not work for me. I find most of the time my Dexom CGM is off and was ever more so when I tried Medtronic Sensors. I am glad they work well for you but I am thinking I am part of the slim group of people who's body does not like the CGMS.
ReplyDelete