Bridget McNulty

The thing about being diabetic…

// October 20th, 2008 // Diabetes, Life (and the living of it)

… is that, even when you’re extremely healthy (as I am – I boast about being the world’s best diabetic!) there are days when you feel a little off.

Like today.

I woke up at 2am last night with low blood sugar (or hypoglycemia, to those in the know). How can I describe how awful this feels? It’s 2am, so you’re all groggy, and you wake up with a pounding heart… At first you’re not sure if you’re going to be sick or if it’s a low or if it’s a nightmare that’s made your heart beat so fast. After a few minutes, you get it together enough to test your blood, and then get up to go to the kitchen and eat something to correct the low.

Now, midnight snacking is all fun and games when it’s a game… with friends… and you’re hungry… and feel like eating. But when you’re feeling low – fuzzy head, disconnected, slightly headachey, still that horrible fast heartbeat – it’s no fun. No fun at all.

This is only the second night-time low I’ve ever had, the first was when I was in Malawi learning to scuba dive. All the info I can find says it’s usually to do with exercise the day before (i.e. yesterday) and it’s true my man and I went for a bit of a hike, but I didn’t think it was too extreme… Can you believe exercise can affect your blood sugar for up to 24 hours after you’ve done it? Crazy.

So now today I feel a bit hung-over, and more prone to going low than usual. And much as some days I love the freedom of being able to eat more sugary foods (which I can do when I’m low), I also love the joy of eating well, and feeling healthy.

If diabetes has taught me anything, though, it’s to listen to my body. So instead of pushing through this feeling, I’m going about my day in a calm and peaceful way, chipping away at the mountain of work I have to do, drinking lots of tea, and quietly grateful for all the other days I have, the days when I feel wonderful.