I am both a college student AND work a stressful job.
I am in my last semester of college and I am a supervisor of an in-store financial institution inside a Wal-Mart. I work four, ten hour days (9:00 AM - 7:00 PM) on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and go to school on Tuesday and Thursday. I start crashing (by crash, I'm referring to low BG's and no energy) and getting carb/tension headaches about 5:00 or 5:30 and still have a couple more hours of work. I only get a half-hour break for lunch about 1:00-2:00 PM. Is this normal to crash about 5:00? What can I do different to make it through the day and still have energy to make it home and do homework after work?
Well in my own personal experience (I am a graduate student and working as well) in the past I worked in a warehouse placing orders as well as a grocery store (CubsFood). Both of the positions my work was at night (8pm-3am, 6pm - 11pm, 11pm - 7am) What I do will depend on my BG and the amount of sugary/ carbs I eat. If my BG was within normal range, I will reduce my insulin intake to 10%, you are on shots, I will stop there…
Usually I used to have 3 breaks two of them are 15mnt while one 30mnt…I check my BG during these or if I felt low, always kept a sugary thing with me.
Am recovering from a low, apologize for the typing if it mixed up!
I teach full time AND am taking the last of my prereqs for PA school, so I understand not having the “break time”.
I keep hard candy in my desk at work as well as bottles of juice. Sometimes I can swig a couple of swallows and throw a peppermint in as I am racing between students. Getting rid of the lows helps. It is your body’s way of trying to conserve what little sugar it has left. Have you talked to your endo about doing basal testing? or about having a different set of rates for days that you work?
I have a different set for work days and non-work days. Maybe try a temp basal of -10% starting about 3ish… I do that when I know that I’m not getting dinner in before 6 (I start my day at work at 6am!).
