Highs and Lows

For almost two weeks now I have been a wee bit under the weather. You see, I had this ugly sinus infection that decided it didn't like its' current place of residence. So, seeing the "for rent" sign posted by my lungs, it decided that a move was in order. Needless to say, walking pneumonia really isn't that cool of a thing to be dealing with (sugar readings all over the place and lots of other "quirky" things). But, this isn't what I wanted to write about today...

Last Friday, despite the moving party that was occurring inside my body, I trudged off to physical therapy (mainly because I had forgotten to cancel the appointment and was going to get charged either way). After donning my mask to prevent me from spreading any germs I proceeded to trudge through 10 minutes of wall slides, having my knee "knifed" to break up the scar tissue, 10 minutes on the stationary bike, three minutes of squats against the wall, two reps of 10 "four ways" fighting the resistance tubing attached to the wall, two reps of 15 hamstring curls, two reps of 20 ball tosses while only standing on my surgery leg and finally five minutes on the StairMaster 4000 (roughly 10 flights of stairs).

I was just cruising past the seventh floor of my imaginary ten story building when it happened: my body started to shake uncontrollably and instead of just trudging along through my last three flights of stairs I had to call it quits. After curling up on the therapy table and having the electrodes attached to and ice placed on my knee I pulled out my sugar tester and stabbed my finger. Shoot. Zombie finger (thanks Kerri for teaching me that term). So I felt around and found my warmest finger and stabbed it. Fortunately I was able to get just enough blood to get a reading: 68 mg/dl. I had just caught my first low.

For those of you just joining me here's the recap: 72 minutes into a 75 minute workout my sugars tanked. My physical therapy was first thing in the morning, I hadn't grabbed anything to eat and I hadn't brought anything with me to correct my shortsightedness.  And, I was paying the price.

And then it happened. I felt an intense wave of heat and dizziness sweep over my body.  I'd felt these same sensations before. I had always attributed them to being tired, but this time things were different. I was still a little disorientated from the low but was fearful that I was going even lower and that this was another sign of the low I was surfing. I pulled out my tester and went for the other side of my non-zombie finger to see where I was headed (I still had about nine minutes left of knee muscle shock therapy). Lo and behold I was reading 132 mg/dl. Can you say "LIVER DUMP" boys and girls?

I guess I should be grateful that my liver works somewhat correctly and did what it was supposed to (and had enough glucose in storage). I should be, but I'm not. I'm pretty scared that I had a 64 mg/dl swing in roughly eight minutes. I should be grateful that I have a better understanding of how my diabetes causes my body to work. Instead I have fears and insecurities that continue to haunt me.

"It's life Jim, but not as we know it..."

I'm pretty confident that Commander Spock said that line more times than I'll ever be able to count... I never thought it would apply to my life... But, it is what it is.

Tonight I had an interesting experience with one of my oldest son's friends. This friend was diagnosed about nine months ago as a Type 1 Diabetic. With as much as he's over at my house his father recently joked that we were going to have to figure out who gets to claim him on our taxes. So I guess you could say he is more family than friend...

Anyway, we were driving to pick up some "take and bake" pizzas from a local business and I was having a hard time coming up with simple words in normal everyday conversation. I jokingly told him that he needed to pull out his sugar tester and check my blood to see if I was going low as I couldn't even complete the simplest of sentences without struggling for the words. The boy freaked on me... He honestly thought that I was in the process of having a low and was going to kill us both if I didn't get some sugar into me right then and there. I told him that I was joking and was fine.

The experience got me thinking a little bit more about our diabetic plight, though. My son's friend and I suffer from two significantly different diseases. So far I haven't experienced a sugar low. I actually don't think I will with my current treatment plan either - I'm not on insulin to control my blood sugar, just medication. My meds prevent the liver from dumping lots of extra sugar into the bloodstream to compensate for my body's inability to effectively use what is already in the blood. Thus, no lows yet... My son's friend, however, has to account for EVERY gram of carbohydrates. One misstep in his math or estimation of carb quantity in his food and he could seriously over or under medicate. When the ONLY insulin in your body comes from a syringe after a finger prick and math problem there is some serious potential for error. Lows are a real and potentially deadly reality for him - thus the freakout in the car...

I guess that's the reality of life as we now know it...


Please note: These observations have been true for me and in no way should be taken as medical advice from me. It's really sad that we live in a world where I actually have to spell hat out because common sense seems to have been thrown out with the bath water. (Five bonus points to anyone who gets that obscure, turn of the century reference...)