Fitting in to the programme
As a type 1 diabetic, on many levels I have it all. A reasonable Hb1Ac, good clothes, a smart house, a fascinating job and some great friends.
I do mean great because, often, I’m shattered, mentally exhausted as my blood sugar levels are managed by me.
I test and analyse everything and mark it against what I’ve done. If everything is working as it should, that all takes about 15 minutes a day.
The past week has been shattering as things are not working that way at all.
So, you’re Hb1Ac is 6.1%, it can’t be that bad!
Mmm, I’ve knocked a significant amount off my basal as per working on basal rate 2 but I’m still hypo first thing. I’ve not managed more than 5 hours sleep on average as a result and I’m just a bit blah.
I know it’s because I am high at ten pm (between 8 and 10mmol/l) and have changed the basal for that time to accommodate that requirement. That should mean I don’t need to correct and the basal between 2am and 8am is obviously perfect because it is as steady as a rock but I am pooped just the same. It’s been a week and I am down on at least 2hrs if not more for 7 days which is nearly two night’s sleep.
In the diabetes blogs, this is called diabetes fatigue as per “what causes diabetes fatigue“. For me this is one of the reasons the Equality Act 2010 is so important. We look normal and during the working day most things work normally but our day job is 24/7, 365.
Where I work we have a stress assessment tool to work out if you are under a great deal of pressure at work or elsewhere. One of the questions concerns sleep – “are you having more or less sleep than normal?” It’s given a great deal of weight in the sheet because of the impact low sleep levels have on the body.
High or low blood sugar makes it very difficult for me to sleep, so I tend to answer thruthfully and I don’t always get 8 hours a night.
If I answered this against expectations for my age and health, according to the stress assessment, I would be considered under extreme duress. We just put up with it, because there’s nothing else we can do. You work at your blood sugar but every so often there is something causing it to behave unpredictably and you just have to live with it.
Such periods of course have the same impact on us as they do to anyone without diabetes. We get run down and that causes depression which in turn causes instablity and then we’re more prone to not healing when we get infections! You then get a vicious circle.
The way I cope is prioritisation. If the dishwasher doesn’t get emptied no-one is going to die.
Making sure I am relaxed in the evening and counting my carbs and making the right decisions. I have a tool kit with my calculators too.
Hopefully, things will become steady as I begin to recover. Wish me luck, please.
Posted: December 10th, 2018 under 42, Diabetes.