Bridget McNulty

Let me rephrase that…

// April 7th, 2009 // Diabetes, Life (and the living of it)

Can we make it Supergirl With Diabetes?

The only problem with starting a new exciting exercise regime is that my blood sugar doesn’t necessarily agree with it. And by that I mean my blood sugar doesn’t like it at all. One little bit.

That’s always been another reason for the mild-exercise-excuse of walking: I know exactly how it affects my diabetes. It doesn’t wake me up at 2am with low blood sugar, and again at 7am, and leave me feeling like I’m walking around with a heavy, aching head simultaneously filled with cotton wool and nails. Yup. That’s what it feels like now.

There are few things I really hate about diabetes. I don’t mind the injections, or the testing, I don’t even mind the dietary restrictions, most of the time, because I’m able to eat a healthier diet, and it keeps me on track. But there is one thing that I hate, hate hate hate hate hate, and that is waking up low.

You’ll be fast asleep, snoring away happily, when suddenly you wake up, totally alert but completely disorientated, with your heart pounding and a funny lightheaded feeling. You drag yourself through to somewhere with light, prick your finger, test your blood and see that it’s low. And then you have to make a decision – generally at 2am in the morning, when you’re still mostly asleep but feeling rotten – about what to eat. And then this intense sugar craving kicks in, so that even when you drink sweet fruit juice you don’t quite feel satisfied. And then, once you’ve had your rationed amount of sugar, you drag yourself back to bed and lie down, heart still pounding, alternately going hot and cold, until your heart finally slows, your blood sugar rises, and you can go to sleep again.

Only to wake up feeling unrefreshed and like a car ran over your head during the night.

Logically, I know, it’s pretty remarkable that my body can wake me up when my blood sugar goes too low, and I’m very grateful for that. But I am not grateful for the feeling I have today, of being useless, and tired, and over-emotional, and 100% diabetic.

And that’s my diabetes rant for the next few months, I promise!

UPDATE: It’s the next day, now, and I’ve woken up feeling fantastic – full of energy, clear head and all-round well. Interesting, too, that after some in-depth research it looks like it wasn’t the exercise to blame for the night-time lows at all! We had a three day heat wave from hell here in Cape Town last week, and I was out and about a lot. Insulin isn’t supposed to get hotter than 30 degrees Celsius, but it was definitely over 35 for a couple of days there… So the too-hot insulin’s potency is reduced, resulting in less effective control from low blood sugar. FASCINATING!

Who said diabetes wasn’t an interesting condition?