I felt blessed to get in a couple hours of basketball, even on a holiday. We played hard. I had a lot of fun, and wore myself out quickly. Blood sugars were pretty normal for most of the session, with a slight spike as I was finishing.
We got cleaned up and headed out to lunch — a normal routine I have with a few buddies at the gym. Before leaving I tested my blood sugar again and was surprised by a very high reading. So high that it didn’t fit the pattern, but I didn’t think twice about it. I took a correction bolus and my lunch bolus, wanting to give my insulin a head start on my meal. Especially since I was so high.
I've notice that post-workout spikes sometimes seem to be a bit more nebulous than say cheese fry spikes. I am suspecting that this may be b/c there's some adrenaline involved, like my BG will tail off for a run, I'll get home and the slight up trend on the CGM will be like 40 points behind the meter as it shoots up, I usually bolus for a snack (or beer or whatever...) and take a shower, get changed and like 15-20 minutes later will check the CGM and it's heading back down. This works out ok as the whole range is like 80-120 and back but it's kind of weird to see it spike like that and the spike to just disappear. I'm glad you survived!
I've been super careful lately and testing like crazy because I've had some random lows. The other night I had a 1.6 mmol/L and this morning I woke up at 2.2 mmol/L and had two other lows today (not as low, though). The only symptom I've been getting the past few days is that I feel nauseated. I live alone and don't have a CGM, so get extra nervous.
It's so hard to balance out sometimes. Exercise is good, but it's SO tricky balancing blood sugars! I'm going to get back into regular exercise again in the next few days, so will have to be even more careful.
Thankfully, I haven't had a pass-out-call-911 kind of low since 1998, and I definitely hope to keep it that way!
Scott, your comparison of Diabetes being the tiger is appropriate it's unpredictale. Within all the years I've lived with this monster I can't always predict what it will do. As I've always said Diabetes is an ongoing education. Now that I'm older I'm still learning and adjusting to where my journey with Diabetes is taking me. Just as life is an adjustment so is living with this disease.
Wow. This really scared me. Only because of how suddenly and quickly this came on. I am generally lucky in that I can feel my lows. Every now and again one sneaks up on me, but it's rare that I don't catch it either through a BG check or symptoms.
BUT...I am human and lately I've been a little lax on the testing. A few times I've bolused without checking because I was in a hurry, resulting in an overbolus. I have no excuse and it needs to stop. This post was a reminder of that.
I shudder at the thought of having a low that requires assistance. I hate the thought of losing control and being dependent on those around me, let alone an EMT. I consider myself lucky to have never required help in the two years I've been on insulin. But I also know that in order to prevent hypos, I have to be smart. I can't "taunt" the Tiger. I'm usually high after exercise and I can also have sudden lows after exercise. So I stopped correcting post exercise highs and have started to eat (and bolus) promptly after exercise.