I woke up this morning and found a 103 on my dexcom with a nice flat line through the night. This was confirmed by a 105 on my meter. Those circumstances always make me happy to calibrate the CGM! And thankfully, this is fairly standard for me currently. Wearing a CGM for the last 9 months has really helped me tweak my nighttime basal rates to keep things on an even keel.

But daytime has so many more factors that influence blood glucose levels and each day seems to bring on a new set of variables. This morning started like many. My 3 year old came crawling into my bed at 6:45 even though she knows she’s not to get out of bed before there’s a 7 on the clock. I got up and hopped into the shower leaving my husband to fix breakfast for the kids. If my blood sugar had been high upon wake up in might have given a correction and breakfast bolus before the shower but this morning that was not the case.

After getting dressed and reconnecting my pump, I did take that breakfast bolus. Then as I got my breakfast ready, I finished packing the picnics that my girls needed for their respective field trips today, I helped them get dressed and dealt with only one minor meltdown. By the time I was actually eating my toast (only 10-15 minutes later) my husband let me know that my dexcom was vibrating In the other room. I looked and sure enough, it read 64 with a south east arrow.

I grabbed some juice and hurried husband and kids out the door, thankful that it was his turn to take them to school. Just as they left dexcom called to me again this time with 4 loud beeps to let me know that I was at 55 with a straight down arrow. This is when the real symtoms kicked in and I started feeding the symptoms (read: I ate the fridge)

Ugh.

I way over-treated the low, and by the time I left for work (once my bloodsugar was above 65 and rising) I was about 45 minutes later than usual. The day that had started off with a smile was no longer so bright!

The subsequent roller coaster wasn’t fun but things did settle down mid afternoon (7 hours of “perfect” overnight readings cancelled by 7 hours of pure frustration). At least I didn’t rage bolus for the rebound high.

Tomorrow is a new day.

Lessons learned (not that I’ll never repeat the mistakes though!!)

1. Be more careful when counting carbs and guestimating bolus.
2. When blood sugar is already on the low side (and possibly dropping), eat as soon as bolus is given.
3. Treat low then do something else or at least sit on hands for 15 minutes waiting for the low to come up. (15 minutes is a LONG time!)
4. If I still manage to overtreat the low, bolus straight away for the extra carbs eaten.
5. Forgive myself for not getting it right every time. Treat the low (and/or the high) and then get on with life rather than beating myself up for messing up that nice straight dexcom graph.