I recently had an “aha!” moment.
I was recovering from an overnight high (472 mg/dl for the record) because I over treated a low the night before.
The “aha!” moment? I realized (again) that all of my highs (and I mean my really high highs, like 300+) were from over treating lows. This is something that I’ve talked about before, but apparently keep losing focus of.
I do go high for other reasons, but they are usually “moderate” highs. Low to mid 200’s, or even high 200’s if I goof up my carb count enough. But my really high highs, those are almost always explained by a low blood sugar that I over treated.
The crazy thing about those lows is that I’ll take a bunch of insulin along with that food I’m cramming down! Just think of how many grams of carbs I’m eating if a massive meal bolus isn’t enough to offset them? And how scary is it to take insulin while treating a low (when I may not be thinking clearly)?
So, once again, I am trying my best to avoid lows in order to avoid highs. It’s the ones that happen during the night that get me because 1) I’m not awake to catch them before they get out of hand, and 2) I’m not awake to monitor for the crazy BG spike afterwards.
A topic for another post maybe, but why is it we have to keep “re-focusing” on things like this? If I realized this way back when, why is it still causing me problems?
Another topic for another post is trying to avoid those lows – especially when we have so much less “fudge room” on that end of the blood sugar spectrum…
[…] I’m supposed to wait. I’ve never been good at waiting, and in fact often over treat. Now I know a little bit better why I do what I […]
Scott, When treating lows you should always assume or take into consideration when you took your last shot or insulin intake, if its past the two hour mark, then you need to realize your insulin is now tapering off and any bounce back food digested will not be controlled with any insulin; causing high blood sugars. When combating low blood sugar always eat a small amount of carbs with some protein to help stabilize your body again. The roller coaster effect is not the objective. I have found through 19 years of experience that its best to eliminate large amounts… Read more »
Yeah I definitely have those bounce-back 300s and 400s too sometimes (especially after bedtime or overnight lows)… I wish I could say that all my 300-400s were from that, but they aren’t. It’s so hard not to overtreat because a) our bodies are screaming at us to EATEATEAT b)i am usually tired/half asleep and have no self control or just don’t care that i’m overtreating because i want food and c) i also heard that when low, sometimes it makes you bounce back high even if you don’t overtreat too bad because the body is in this mode of trying… Read more »
Truly sucks, don’t it?? I have a tendency to over-treat my lows. It’s a never ending cycle. Just hang in there and hopefully, we both can conquer the demon that is over-treating.
The bad part is that I go into “panic eating” and I, like you, end up paying for it hours later. Most of the time (about 99%) my super highs are from overtreating lows too.
It’s crazy. I can even be sitting there, in all my “low-ness” telling myself not to drink anymore than the 1 juice box. And I still do it. I eat until I feel better. And even after giving insulin, I still spike out.
It’s awful. Sigh. I dealt with this the other day. It’s so frustrating.