Wednesday, April 23, 2014

5 Stages of Low Blood Sugar

We've all had that low experience, the one where something goes awry in your brain and you don't treat it quickly and move on with life. The one where things happen so fast and someone else has to get involved. That is the low that this post is about. I just had one of these lows today in the gym, and I am so thankful that my mother happened to be there today. I didn't quite grasp what was going on as it was happening. It hasn't happened like that for a while. It also happened to be my first training session, so I was letting the trainer push me. That's his job. Apparently I let him push me into ignoring my low signals. So, here I present the 5 stages of low blood sugar.

1. Suspicion. Am I low? Am I shaky because I just did a bunch of squats? Maybe I'm low. Give it a few minutes and we'll reevaluate.

2. Denial/ belligerence. No, I'm not low. I don't want glucose tabs. I don't need glucose tabs. No, I don't want juice. No, I won't drink the juice. Get it away from me. I don't want any damn juice!

3. Acceptance. I'm low. Oh man, I'm so low. I'm just going to sit down, put my head down here. Just give me a minute.

4. Black Hole. I drank the juice. I ate the crackers. What else is there? I need to eat more. Now. Everything in my belly. Now.

5. Rebound high. I shouldn't have had so much juice. Crap, now I have to take more insulin. God, I hope I don't overdo it.

I know everyone experiences lows, but this is often how it plays out for me.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

...But the Door Handles are Evil

The boyfriend and I have been apartment hunting for the past few weeks. Our current apartment is nice, but very poorly managed. Plus the door knobs are evil. Evil? Yeah, they're the kind that extend out horizontally and then curl on the end. They grab anything passing by- especially pump tubes. The one day  I wasn't wearing my pump, I managed to get my belt loop caught on the stupid door knob. I wish I were kidding. I told my boyfriend very early into our lease that I was never going to live somewhere with those evil door knobs ever again.

With door knobs in mind, we went out hunting. There were a few places we wanted to check out in our area. The area is nice, and we don't want to leave it. On the first Saturday we were out we toured about 6 different properties, including one willing to rent a 2 bed, 2.5 bath town home for $850/month, and give us two free months' rent! (PS, around this area, that is red-flag waving, send in the cavalry suspicious.) At the last complex we checked out that day, the lady giving us our tour kept commenting that I looked really tired. "Awh, you've been doing this all day. You look exhausted, bless your heart." Yes, I looked so tired she needed to bless my heart. In the car I decided it might be a good idea to test my blood sugar, and it was somewhere south of 50. Oh. That's why I was so tired. Okay.

This past weekend we went out again, expanding our search circle to include a little extra geography. Lather, rinse, repeat. We saw some really beautiful homes and some that made our skin crawl. This day I kept telling myself to look alert, stay sharp, keep going. At the end of this day, my blood sugar was also south of 50. I'm lucky my boyfriend does all the driving, or I'd have been sitting in strange parking lots, chomping on glucose tabs.

We have our list down to two apartments now, and depending on the apartment, we will either move next month or the month after that. Let's hope I can keep my BG up while moving. Last time I dropped into the 30's and had to chug some Mountain Dew.