Malaise

I have to step out of the past for a day so my immune system can catch up.  You see, I've been having some issue with my blood sugars not being on track for the past week or so, and problems with lows since...well, for over a year.  I know there's the "dawn phenomena" which usually deals with why diabetics wake up with highs, but me, I usually wake up, either in the middle of the night, or morning with a low.

The last two or three times I saw my endocrinologist she suggested a specific kind of fasting glucose test.  One that involves me waking up every 2-3 hours in the middle of the night and not having a snack before bed, or eating until lunch time the next day.  My husband knew about this when I did, but still, neither of us were looking forward to it, in fact, we put it off as long as possible.
Then I had two lows yesterday, one that involved an inordinate amount of orange juice and graham crackers with peanut butter, the next, chocolate ice cream (I will say in my defense, yes, chocolate is not a good option for bring up your sugar, but ice cream on the other hand has sugar and lactose, so even with the chocolate, you're covered).

Now you'd think a low was a diabetics dream, you get to eat the foods you're generally supposed to limit, but no.  The feeling of the low definitely outweighs the joy of such foods.  For me at least, I'm weak to the point that movement isn't much of an option, lest I make the low worse (movement= exercise, exercise= lowers blood sugar).  There's also cold sweats and crazy hunger, irritability, dizziness, and shakiness, and trust me, I get all of them, together, at once.  When I first learned about lows (or as it is more scientifically known, hypoglycemia), I was taught the 15 in 15 rule, which states, 15 carbs every 15 minutes.  When you're first aware of the low, you're supposed to ingest 15 carbs, wait 15 minutes, then test again, if you're still low, you repeat.  I don't recall how well I did with this when I was younger, but I've come to the conclusion that my body has realized "Oh hey!  Orange juice!  You'll make me feel better! *glug glug*" and the glugging is definitely more than 15 carbs, plus there's the crazy hunger, which usually leads to crackers or some other carb laden starch, sometimes even candy.  I seek out whatever will make the feeling go away, and I usually wind up eating/drinking it, until it does.  What can I say, I'm not very patient and I have had the joy of waking up out of unconscious stupors caused by lows more than once and I'd rather not experience it again.

Oops, I sidetracked...aside from long term complications, I've experienced most of the bad parts of diabetes, mostly due to my own lack of knowledge, stupidity or just plain obstinacy,  so I'm of the mind that when there's something wrong, I will do what I can to fix it, sometimes with minimal doctor interference.
Last night, I finally started the testing and set myself up for every 3 hours instead of 2.

Apparently, this blood sugar roller coaster meant I was getting sick, and waking up every 3 hours in the middle of the night did not help my immune system any.  I'm now stuffy with a bad headache and praying it's just allergies.  I still plan to do another night of this so my doctor has the information she needs, but if I don't post for a few days, it wasn't allergies :P.