On more than one occasion I've been rather surprised at how low a post-meal or random blood sugar check is. Not in a 'wow-I-did-good' kind of way; more like a 'geez-I'm-53-and-not-feeling-it' kind of way.

I don't consider myself to "suffer" from hypo unawareness, but it's safe to say that I get it quite often. I remember plenty of times waking to a fasting of around 60 and feeling great.

So when I have a day like today, it really drives me crazy.

After lunch, I was feeling pretty shaky. Not terribly low shaky, just like a going-low kind of shaky that I knew needed to be dealt with soon or it would get bad. I expected to be in the 60s and was quite shocked with an 83. I treated, thankful that I caught it early and went on my way.

First thing this morning I made some banana bread and indulged in more than I should have this afternoon. While I bolused for it, I tend to graze and I really don't think I guesstimated carbs correctly. I know I should have done a pre-dinner blood sugar check, but since I had been grazing I didn't think it would be accurate. OK, I was being lazy and scared-I don't really want to know what the number was.

With potatoes and corn as part of my dinner, I thought I was being conservative with my dinner bolus. Man was I shocked when two hours post I was 67! And, I might add, not feeling anything. You see my trouble now? Earlier today 83 made me feel like a leaf on a windy day and barely five hours later I was feeling fine heading for 60.

I grabbed half a piece of that banana bread on my way upstairs to put the kids in the bath and get them into bed hoping to head off a real low. Naturally, as soon as I got upstairs the low hit me and it hit hard. I tried very hard to give the bread time to work (yes, I know I should have "treated" with something different, but I wasn't feeling the low and thought I could get away with it), but I was having trouble not focusing on my wobbly, hollow-feeling legs. A piece of strawberry hard candy on my dresser called to me. I thought it would do the trick in minutes, but no, I had to go searching for another piece of candy. This one was getting bad fast.

This was the kind of low that sneaks up on you and then hangs out for a while even after you've recovered. The kind of low that makes you question your shaky hands for hours even when you're hanging out over 100, that leaves you in a fog and feeling so run down that all you can think about is sleep. The kind of low that makes you remember why you hate diabetes.