I controlled that rebound like Dennis Rodman!
Dennis Rodman was perhaps the best rebounder in the NBA while he played (mid-late eighties and most of the nineties). That was his specialty! He was such a good rebounder that he was left on the court for almost that purpose alone! He led the NBA in rebounding (15.0 rpg) in 1997-98 for a record seventh consecutive season.
So what does this have to do with me?
Well, I have been waking up with high blood sugars a lot lately. Many times there would be no real good reason that I could figure out for the high.
I work late at least three nights per week, and that pushes my dinner and bedtime close together. Typically I am laying down with the kids less than 2 hours after my dinner. I’ve usually got a bunch of insulin on board, and can’t get a good feel of where I’m at due to all the activity (digestion, insulin on board, etc).
So I suspected I might be going low during the night and not knowing it, and seeing a rebound high. To confirm or dismiss this theory, I have to catch at least one or two points during the night.
I set my alarm for 2:00 AM to wake up and do a test. Or at least crack half an eye halfway open to try to stab my finger and get a sample on the right end of the test strip. On that note, I have a freestyle flash meter on my nightstand. That meter has a light that shines onto the strip and sample area so you can see what you’re doing. Brilliant.
At about 2:06 AM my wife is kicking me saying “what’s that noise?” (I had set an alarm on my pocket pc, not the regular alarm clock). I cracked half an eye halfway open, felt around and gathered all my stuff together (vial of strips, lancing device, meter, finger). Poked my finger a couple of times before I got a sample, got it applied to the right end of the strip (thanks to the light on the flash meter!) and got my result.
68.
Aha! Not feeling low at all, but 68 is not a good number to just roll over and go to sleep on. I got up and found a bottle of glucose tabs that had migrated onto the dresser from the nightstand. I had 3 glucose tablets, worth a grand total of 12 grams of carbohydrates.
I woke up in the morning at about 6:30 AM, and checked my blood sugar. 105. It can’t get much better than that.
Low avoided, rebound controlled – like Dennis Rodman.
Keith – I think that makes sense. Maybe I can work my schedule around to eat something at work earlier in the evening – it would be much easier to troubleshoot without so many variables working their ways.
Kerri – I figured I’d hear from you on this one. 🙂
Larry Bird had a hell of a fade away.
Just for the record.
Congrats on the rebound avoidance, though!
Scott–
I love it when a plan comes together!
Two things I’ve found as my diabetes has ‘matured’: 1) If I go to bed with anything in my stomach I almost invariably end up high in the morning 2) if I have a mid-night hypo it is incredibly difficult to eat only 3 glucose tabs (in my case it’s 12 jelly beans). On this last point, maybe its always been hard to control mid-night hypo recovery eating but now the affects of over-correcting just seem to be more pronounced.
I’m glad you found the problem and it’s working out!