Frustration++

Just checked my BG and it was 225. My CGM is way behind at 155. Way to go, CGM. To confirm, I rechecked with my meter and it said 236. Fanbloodytastic.

This morning crap wears me out. There is absolutely nothing I can do about it, I’ve concluded. Nothing. It’s not consistent enough, and I shoot up too quick to catch it with a bolus.

It’s not always this bad though. Then again, maybe it is, and my CGM just sucks. I’ll often hit around 150-160 in the morning after exercising and breakfast. I don’t always check it right when it peaks though, so who knows, maybe I’m hitting 230+ every damn day.

I’d like to think not though. Part of the problem is that my period is going to start soon, and I’ve noticed that my BG readings are pure crap the week before I start. Then the week after they’re constantly low.

I’m much better at mentally handling lows though. They don’t make me want to hit and throw things like highs do. And highs used to not bother me so much…back when I didn’t try. But now that I’m constantly working my ■■■ off to do things right, I just can’t handle shooting up in the 200s for no reason that I can help.

Here’s how my typical morning goes:

Wake up at 5am with consistently normal to low end BS. I exercise from 5:30 to 6:30 and start a basal rate of twice as much as the one before it at 3:30am.

Go exercise. Sometimes spike. Sometimes stay level. Sometimes go low. It’s anybody’s guess really. I try and be consistent and put the same amount of effort in each day, but how much of that can I truly control? Most average case, my CGM with hit up to 130-140 with and up arrow, then fall quickly towards the end of the workout / when I get home. This I can handle, I just wish it happened everyday. But my trouble now lies after this point.

When I get home, I eat breakfast and then shower. Breakfast is typically 15-30 carbs. My carb ratio is only 1:6 in the mornings, where as it’s 1:9 other times. My CGM usually shows that I’m staying steady until sometime after I shower. Then it shoots up and everything goes to hell, like this morning.

Once I get that morning BS high back down, I’m typically good the rest of the day barring special circumstances.

Okay, just checked my CGM again after typing all this out and it’s at 184, still with a single up arrow trend (missing two arrows by like one point, so it’s climbing FAST), so it’s catching up to the 230. This actually makes me feel a lot better because it doesn’t hit 184 like this most days. But the question still remains about what in all of the hell is going on this morning. I’m going to have to blame pre-period hormones, I suppose, because nothing else makes sense yet. Doubt highly that my site just went bad when I changed it last night, and it was working great up until this point. Insulin shouldn’t be bad either.

Because I was so angry, I probably over-corrected. This is common for me. I’ll probably go low later. Is it wrong that I hope I do? >.<

CGM now at 188. Slowing down. It best fall as fast as it rose.

My BG starts to climb the moment I release an egg! So for about 2 weeks I run on the low side then for 2 weeks I am chasing my BG with insulin trying to get it down. It is so much fun. The night and early morning sugars are affected the most I don’t know why maybe progesterone is highest in the morning is all I can think. Progesterone is what gives us those hard to bring down sugars and causes blood glucose to rise.
No it’s not wrong I hope for a low also when i have had a couple of hormone induced days of higher readings.
Be loved

Thanks, Laura! You know, guys just have it too easy not having to deal with monthly cycle craziness. That’s interesting about progesterone. So much I don’t know; that I never even thought about before I got my pump and starting really monitoring myself!

Looks like my BS is falling now. CGM down to 164. Thank goodness. Hopefully I’ll be low-normal by lunch!

haha oh you’re not alone… every month before my period for a day or two my blood sugars go out of wack… then i go THATS IT… I KNEW IT I HAVE TO GO ON MORE INSULIN, MY DIABETES IS OUT OF CONTROL… I’M SCREWED… UGH… then a day later they’re perfect… gets me every time haha

My heart goes out to women who are struggling with fluctuations due to hormones; fortunately, I was relatively young when I hit menopause, 40 and it was fast; so now everything is pretty calm now. Interesting that when I exercize, I generally increase my basal as my sugar goes up with a strong work out. I also found a milk called carb countdown, which comes in no fat, 2% and a delicious chocolate, as the lactose in milk used to “blow up” my sugars. You can make puddings with it as well. Eating lower carb meals typically helps keep my sugars lower as well. Nutrasweet raises my bs, but splenda works well. I calculate pretty well, or I should say my pump wizard calculates with each bolus so my primary challange is when for no clear reason, my wire gets bubbles or I may accidently bump the cannalus which is where the insulin is delivered into my skin. We will all keep working at it!!! Kindness and joy, kwlawson

I would suggest eating breakfast before working out - there’s no way I could work out and then eat and expect my numbers to stay below 150. It also depends on the kind of exercise you do - cardio should drop you during exercise while anaerobic should spike you a bit.

Jill: Haha, I’m glad I’m not the only one getting fooled every month. This time I remembered, but not at first. Last month, I wrote this whole blog about holidays screwing up my numbers even more than I expected–then I got my period the next day. >.<<br />
KW Lawsom: I’ve heard of that carb countdown milk in passing before, but I haven’t looked for it yet. I need to remember to do that. Milk blows up my BS too, and I just don’t have it very often anymore. Used to enjoy making the low-sugar breakfast shakes with it though.

Kimberly: I don’t know that I can stomach eating before working out, unless I ate way before, and I just can’t get up much earlier than I already do! I’ll see if I can try that tomorrow though. I do a mix of cardio and weights everyday, and the drops/vs spike mixed me up for a while. For whatever reason, despite doing a similar routine mixing the two, my BG just isn’t consistent.

The only thing I can figure from my CGM is that when I push really hard (actually, more with aerobic stuff, but then, maybe I’m using lots of muscle, legs in particular, during this too?), I usually see the higher spikes. I have morning issues on top of the exercising though (I have trouble with carbs and dawn phenomenon even when not exercising). But it’s really either exercise in the morning for me, or not at all!

As an update: I’ve already dropped back down to 77, not dropping quickly anymore. Just ate mid-morning snack. Hopefully the worst of the day is behind me. >__>

Thanks for the comments and support all!