Hi everyone,
So I was diagnosed a little over a year ago. Luckily I was out of school but now im in graduate school. This is my first week of finals and today I have been all over the place. My diet hasnt changed, I changed my infusion set. I don’t know what to do. I can’t study this way and can’t take tests this way.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
I would need more data to guess but usually, when things change, I assume that the alignment of the planets has shifted my cosmic energy so I cut back on carbs and look closely at the numbers to develop a pattern? Does your meter/ pump prepare reports that show the numbers for “meals”? My meals sometimes are at wierd times or whatever but I will generally be more conservative. If there’s a consistent and unexplained post-parandial high for like 3 days in a row, and I know the carb counts are accurate or at least very close, I’ll adjust the ratio down a bit, less carbs/ unit, basically a bit more insulin try it for 3 days and see what’s up. This won’t help with your timeframe but you could maybe try cutting back carbs/ meal and see if that can give you a clue? Sometimes it works really quickly to smooth things out and might even help? Good luck on your tests!
Hi Jackie. Yep, stress definitely affects blood sugar. Not a lot you can do about it when you’re in graduate school and taking finals! You don’t really say if you are mostly high or mostly low or really up and down. If you can see any pattern at all you can do a temporary basal lower or higher for the times of day you see problems. Other than that, all you can do is treat the highs and the lows and get through out.
Some suggestions both related and unrelated to diabetes: Be sure, of course to have quick and easy treatment for lows (such as glucose tabs) with you at all times. Leave sufficient time before exams and in between exams to test your blood sugar and do either a glucose or insulin correction. Don’t overdo either treatment so you don’t yo-yo - no bags of cookies in the car if you’re low - no “rage boluses” if you’re high. You say your diet hasn’t changed so it sounds like you’re making time to eat healthy (assuming your diet before wasn’t 100% junk food…lol).
Only marginally diabetes related: get enough sleep - extra cramming last minute doesn’t usually work all that well and being sleep deprived isn’t worth it for the extra studying. Be prepared and then get your rest. When you take your finals be sure you are not hungry and your blood sugar is stable going in. Use the time you are allotted for each test - students who rush through exams don’t do well (this is coming from a community college instructor btw). Do your best and don’t let anxiety about missed questions overwhelm you - do what you know first then go back and look over the hard parts. Finally, don’t be too rushed and too stressed to relax. Just a 1/2 hour spent doing something you find recuperative such as reading a novel, soaking in a bubblebath, walking around campus, etc will help. Oh yeah, and don’t forget to breathe and relax your muscles - when your body is relaxed you will feel less anxious.
Bottom line - the stress screws with your blood sugars and you can only do what you can do, both managing your blood sugar and working on relaxing through the stress. Good luck!