A little tip(ple)

Here's a word of advice, freely given: never open a bottle of wine directly after taken a blood sugar reading. Not unless you want the tiny pinprick on your finger to become a gushing torrent of sticky red liquid.
Or, if you are going to be as dumb as I was, make it a bottle of white wine. Because when that geyser starts going just as you uncork the wine, you want to make sure that there isn't any blood mixed in with it and that's difficult to do with a glass of Cabernet. I learnt that the hard way. Eeuk.

Weird patterns: the sequel

After the week of bouncing between -50 and 200+ I followed Matt's advice and got up every couple of hours throughout the night to see what was happening to the old blood glucose. I'd expected that it was dropping and then bouncing back high but that wasn't the case. It stayed around 200 the whole time. I definitely didn't want to fiddle with the basal rates now.
Then on the fourth night I tested my blood before bed and it registered 132. I decided I'd had enough mid-sleep finger pricking to last a while and I was just going to forget about it. Number on awakening? 106! And it's been fine ever since.
I don't know what was going on for those 7-10 days, maybe I was stressed, maybe I'd exercised harder than usual, maybe... who knows? It's one of the more difficult aspects of diabetes that there are no absolutes, no norms and often no answers. We struggle for perfection but sometimes we have to settle for just muddling through.

Weird patterns

Number of times in the past week my blood sugar before bed has been below 65 = 7
Number of times in the past week my blood sugar before breakfast has been above 200 = 6
Number of times in the past week I have corrected my insulin dose before dinner = 5
Number of days my blood sugar has been in range during the day, other than before bed and before breakfast = 7.
Number of times in the past week I have used a four letter expletive upon looking at the numbers on my meter = 13
I can't figure out what is going on here but I'm getting mighty sick of it. Bad, bad diabetes.

The other side of good

I haven't posted much recently because I've been busy and also because things have been going well - exercise is pretty much back on schedule, I've lost the lbs I put on flying around last month (does this happen to anyone else? I eat the same, I exercise the same but I put on 5-7 lbs just getting on a plane and it takes me a week to shed them again) and a couple more besides, and the health stuff has been non-eventful.
Then Thursday I came down with a real migraine. I've only had a couple in my life, mostly I just get flashing lights in the corners of my eyes and it passes after an hour or so. But this was the full-on headache, flashing lights, sensitivity to noise, throwing up, nothing-helps migraine. I retired to a darkened room and slept most of the day and night but Friday I had to get my fingerprints taken for the green card at 8:00 in a deserted mall an hour's drive away. Luckily, the man was also required to be there and could drive because there was no way I could. I couldn't even see the road let alone negotiate it. But the fluorescent lights, the government officer barking instructions and the whole biometric thing - I was on my own there. I did wonder what the penalty was for chucking up in federal government offices. Immediate deportation, perhaps?
Anyway my fingerprints only match those of known criminals 50-59% so I was allowed to leave with a stamp on my papers but my photo, oh f%$k, I look like this but with a better shirt. They make you take out your earrings and glasses and push your hair behind your ears. Then they make you approve the photo. Apparently you can have as many shots as you like until you are happy with the result. But they won't let a sick person ask their man to approve the photo. (I suppose it was kind of "Hang on, I'll just as my pimp if this one's ok").
Let's hope I never get accused of a crime, 'cos one look at that mug shot and I'd convict me straight away. Guilty.

Doing What You Have To

I finally had to give in today and do something I'd been putting off for almost a week. I've been unable to get a work out at the gym since December 1st because I can't walk fast, pedal or sit without it being literally a big pain in the butt. Consequently my BG has been rocketing skywards for the last few days. I've been correcting with extra units of Humalog to keep it in check during the day but the morning levels have been above 270 since Friday.
So this morning I took an extra 10% Lantus and like magic my BG has been below 126 ever since. I don't know why I'll take an extra bolus here and there but upping the basal rate makes me feel like the diabetes is getting worse. That's truly crazy, right?
I'm sure this is just a temporary thing until I can get back to the gym but it goes to show that exercise makes a big difference to glucose levels, mine at least.