Let's Get Physical - Blood Sugar Uncertainty!

Yesterday I attended TCOYD with a group of friends.  And it involved lots of walking, my pedometer counted nearly 10,000 steps and I walked up a quite a few stairs as well.  And I felt really good that the exercise helped me have good blood sugars all day.  And exercise can have a beneficial effect for up to 48 hours and so after exercise I try to keep an eye on my blood sugars not only during exercise but in the day afterward.  I will make some adjustments by slightly reducing my basal and even at times reducing my mealtime boluses.   Exercise is one of those things that require me to depend on my meter more critically and as many of us know all to well we can only have so much faith in our meters.

This morning when I woke up as usual I took my reading and BLAMMO.  70 mg/dl.  That is actually not good, I'm usually high in the morning.  Yesterday I was 153 mg/dl which was more typical.  And I know how to deal with that and can consistently correct and get back on track.  But a 70, that is problematic for two reasons.  First, I don't know whether I was even lower before waking and that can mess me up.  And second, I routinely inject insulin simply to deal with Darn Phenomenon (DP) on-top of correcting a high blood sugar.  But injecting when I am low, that is not good.  So what can I do?

Well the first thing to do is to make sure I have good information so I test again.  And BLAMMO, a second reading is 100 mg/dl.  So what is my actual blood sugar?  I could split the difference, but I actually don't like that.  My experience is that usually one of the readings is actually close to correct and the other reading is just bad.  So I test a third time and DOUBLE BLAMMO it was 97 mg/dl.  So I have confidence that my blood sugar is actually around 100 mg/dl.  I am not hypo and shouldn't treat myself as such.  So I took a normal few units for my DP and nothing to correct my blood sugar.  And this will work out fine, I am sure.

But this makes me angry.  I depend on this meter.  I get way too many bad readings.  And those bad readings can cause me to do exactly the wrong thing.  A false high when I am actually low can result in me injecting insulin causing a hypo.  And if I am low and the meter says I am fine I can place myself at risk for a hypo.  And exercise is one of those things that can induce both of these situations because it has such a strong and variable effect on my blood sugars.    And having to take 3 tests just to get one confident reading, that is crazy when faced with things like Medicare's policy that you just get 100 strips a month if you use insulin.

Yet Again - Danger Wil Robinson, Danger!