Twice now, but still just as confused.
This post will be short and sweet, partly because I truly don’t know what to think about what happened yesterday and partly because I’m still recovering from it. Let me give you the cold, hard, facts and see if any of you out there can figure this one out.
10:00am - blood sugar is 157mg/dL, I bolus two units for a snack.
11:15am - BG is now at 190 so I bolus another unit.
12:00pm - Glucose is now at 150. I eat lunch. Dose three units for my food, according to the nutrition facts on the back of the package (it was a salad, but had some carbs in it due to some starchy veggies).
1:47pm - I’m driving when my eyesight starts to get…blurry…only that’s not the word for it - like I can’t see clearly, as if my eyes can’t focus on things. A huge headache starts. I pull over and test. I’m 64, but I’m feeling so crappy I swear that meter should say 10mg/dL. I shovel some glucose tabs, wait 10 minutes until I start to feel better. I check again and the meter says 85mg/dL but I don’t feel that much better. I’m nauseous, shaking like a leaf, and still feeling lightheaded. I double check the sugar and it’s fine.
3:00pm - Still feeling like utter and complete crap, but my BG has been holding in the 80s. Decide I shouldn’t be driving when I’m feeling this weak, so I head home and lay down. Vision has returned to normal, but the headach, naseau are still just as bad. Laying down is the only thing that makes it feel better. I start to feel better around 5pm and my blood sugar is 126.
By 6pm, blood sugar is up to 211 and rising. Doesn’t respond to a normal bolus and I’m cruising above 200 for the next four hours. What. The. Hell?
I wouldn’t be writing about this except that the EXACT same thing happened to me about a month ago: I stacked some insulin doses, my vision got all wonky, a headache set in, a massive post-meal low from said stacked doses happened, and then I felt like I might pass out for the rest of the day. I have no idea what this means, but I do know that it’s been repeated, symptom for symptom twice now, and that freaks me out!
I’m sure there’s a rational explanation for this, but do you guys ever just know, unequivocally, that something was caused by your diabetes? My weird symptoms and low from yesterday could have been caused by my early morning workout, or maybe I’m developing migraine tendencies or who knows what else but something, deep down, is telling me that it was my diabetes - there’s something about the way those lows happened that’s causing a massive reaction in my body. I just know it. Call me a dia-conspiracist, but I’ve just got a sneaking suspicion that the big D was behind this.
Holler if you have any speculation/thoughts/old wives tales on WTF happened to me yesterday. Now excuse me, I need to grab more coffee because yesterday kicked my ass.
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Comments
At the risk of starting a sub-topic that doesn’t help you at all with your issue Alexis, I have the same sort of pattern with my periods. Week 1 (period week): need 80% basal. Weeks 2 and 3: 100% basal. Week 4: At least 120% basal, often 125%. And if I happen to have a cold during week 4, it’s almost impossible for me to take too much insulin.
It’s amazing the variation we all have in the manifestation of our disease. I never even considered that women would be so effect/affected by their cycle. (I’m wondering too if men experience a difference if their testosterone levels drop). Hang in there. You’ll figure it out. Diabetics are like scientists in a lab who repeat the same experiment over and over while someone changes two or three variables (without telling them).
Wow - I didn’t think about how cycles and hormones fit into this! This is really interesting - thanks to both of the ladies for that insight, and that’s really interesting about how much you both change your basals and routine for those times in the month.
And Tim, thanks for chiming in with the guys take! I know I’m going to take all this to my next endo appointment, I’m actually more curious than anything else about what exactly happened…and yes, we are like scientists in the lab, I’ll be looking out for the next time this happens and see if I can pinpont the pattern!
Hey Lexie! Ya, menstruation can play a factor - some T1′s are affected, some aren’t (I am not).
Did you by any chance work out really really hard the morning before? Or not eat enough carbs (>100gms of carbs) within the last day? It almost seems to me like your body is having a hard time with glucagon release and consequential glycogen breakdown… Like maybe you’re not getting enough carbs to help keep you fueled, is breaking down glycogen to compensate, and then becomes insulin resistant for the time being since the liver is all out of whack…. If that makes sense?
I’d be happy to discuss this more in-depth with ya if you want, but I’m trying to keep it as non-scientific-lingo as possible 
Jamie - I did work out really hard that morninig, and then I did indeed keep the carbs low all day - I didn’t know that could affect it!
That sounds like a pretty horrible day. Could you have felt extra crappy due to a combination of low bloodsugar and true hunger? This disease is so wonky and impossible to figure out. I always have to cut my insulin dose for ‘healthy’ packaged meals and also for most salads. Sometimes I eat Healthy Choice frozen meals for lunch and if I take insulin for all of the carbs on the box, I’m always in trouble.
Also, my cycle wreaks havoc on things and I’m yet to figure that out. I’m a math-geek, but too many variables!!
Ya, if you work out really really hard, you use up all of your glycogen (what glucagon breaks down and turns into glucose) stores in your muscles and your body trips out! It works really really hard to restore the glycogen by making you crazy insulin resistant. Eating a good amount of carbs around the hard workout really helps.
For me, I find that I’m insulin resistant for maybe 8 hours after I work out crazy hard. Actually increasing my basal rate by a little bit helps, as does carbs and sleep 
As a rule, we need 100-120gms of carbs a day for just brain & red blood cell needs, since they only use carbs for energy.
I have had this happen to me. The order of symptoms was slightly different. I had just woke up low for the third time in the week (thank goodness) and ate a usual breakfast with carbs and protein, went to class, went to work out before lunch, but before I could I started crashing with a terrible headache. I went to get ahold of some regular pop and as I was walking back to my on campus apartment, my vision went out. All of a sudden it was like temporary blindness. This is all due to the previously commented lack of glycogen stores in the liver, only I had depleted mine being low over nights and you by working out and not refueling enough. It’s like a conscious seizure 
Pete - thanks for the insight! Wow I never thought of it like that. I’m going to be a little more on top of my breakfast on the mornings I have rough workouts….
My blood sugars go whacko based on where my hormones are in my cycle. (My endocrinologist said most diabetics don’t typically work this way, but of course I do. My sugars are basically mimicking what the estrogen levels are in my body at a given point in my cycle). Guys - warning - this comment may be TMI. Day 1 (Period) … blood sugars are low for about 10 days. Then, the next couple days are “normal”. Then, day 12 (ovulation) … blood sugars spike to mid 200s no matter how many times I correct, so I have to do a basal of 135%. They continually rise until the end of the cycle, so I continue to increase the basal rate percentage. So, I am totally depended on the temporary basal function on my pump, because I use it about half the month.(Increase in estrogen = increase in insulin resistance, thereby needing more insulin). When the period comes, the bg’s plummet, and I start all over. Also, it sounds like you may have stacked, and when I correct and eat snacks together, it’s hard to tell which dosage is doing what. Then, naturally, when you feel like crap and are low, you eat, and sometimes over correct the low. Just my thought process … but we are all different. Sorry you had a crappy day.