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My blood sugars have been rocky in the last few days. I haven't made any insulin or exercise changes, but I've been staying fairly "low." And this evening, I hit rock bottom.

Most of my blood sugars have been in the 120's, which I'll take any day of the week. There have been a few 160's and an episode of 200's during my workout on Tuesday, but mostly I'm doing okay. Yet the bad lows are back.

Last night, I had a 56 a few hours before bed. And after juice and crackers, I was only 92. So I ate about 25 grams of LifeSavers and hoped for the best. Only to wake up to a 58. I ate breakfast, did insulin for the extra carbs, and headed to class.

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When I look back on my blood sugars today all I can think is WTF?

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I've been having a lot of lows lately. I've been increasing my insulin, so I'm in that middle stage of fixing highs and avoiding those pesky lows. But it seems like every time I turn around, another low has snuck up on me.

Sure lows are great for my A1c, but they are horrible for my weight, my nerves, and everything in between. I'm trying to treat sensibly, but it seems like if I don't carb load that I'm low again in another hour. And I can't get it out of my head that I'm at risk of lows constantly now (like during a quiz in class, at work, and driving home from Target).

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Lows come in all shapes and sizes. They come with grueling symptoms or no symptoms at all. They come with reason and purpose, and other times with no cause in sight. Sometimes they're short-lived and sometimes they linger for hours. For me, lows come in several forms:

The worst kind, the night low: Night lows for me come sometime between 2am and 6am. Usually it's a reading in the 50's or 40's that wakes me from a deep sleep. I wake with panic in my heart, it pounds in my chest. My body coated in sweat, the sheets damp under me. And an overwhelming weakness that leaves my knees shaking in the darkness. For me, this is the worst low because I have a history of seizures. I'm deathly afraid that one of these lows won't wake me or I won't catch it in time. Glucagon stashed by my bed does nothing to quell the fear. The only peace of mind is having someone close by listening for the sounds of a low.

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The last five days have been exhausting to say the least. My nearly non-stop lows started on Thursday. I thought it was just one of those days. But Friday brought its fair share of lows as well (though not as many as Thursday).

Saturday my family, along with my mom and dad, drove the RV from Phoenix north about two hours to Sedona, also known as Red Rock Country. The extra nearly 3,000 feet of elevation provide quite a respite from the valley heat.

On the way up, while Mom and I were attempting to entertain No. 1 and No. 2, I got that familiar low feeling. I tested immediately and rang in at 50 mg/dL. I was pretty shocked considering I tested as soon as I felt the low. I went for my Skittles and fortunately Mom had some non-diet soda in the RV fridge.

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I’m just now, right this minute, recovering from my third difficult, strange low bloodsugar in just over a week.  

These are not your average lows.  They are terribly combative and confusing and physically exhausting.  They take hours to manifest fully, dropping precipitously after the first vague symptoms have been around with bloodsugars looking pretty normal (ie: headache, dizziness), and they toss me into senseless thoughts, argumentative behavior, repetitive speaking, and drastic weakness.  They take a LONG time to come up and A LOT of glucose (read: I’ve used partial glucagon injections to treat them).  

The after effects are just as disarming.  I’m exhausted, weak, scared, and typically having to deal with the aftermath of whatever fights I’ve picked or made worse with my argumentative behavior.  The impacts ripple out, and my energy has changed noticeably.  

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Every time I turn around lately, I'm low. These are beyond my "discomfort" zone and into the "scary" zone. I've had three below 70 just today. One that woke me, shaking and sweaty, at 7 this morning. A 55 in the afternoon. And the most recent, a 69 that felt much lower.

I know the facts of diabetes: too much insulin equals lows, too little insulin equals highs. It's not rocket science, really. But the frustrating part of these lows lately (pretty severe ones for the last two to three weeks) is that I'm lowering my insulin and I'm still seeing just as bad of lows. Nothing in my schedule or diet has changed, except that I'm exercising much less. I even had a urinary tract infection this past week.

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The thing I hate most about trying to manage my diabetes is that it gets in the way of everything. Every time I turn around, diabetes is interfering in my life. Right now, it's the lows. I work out, I go low. I sleep, I go low. I eat, I go low. And what is that doing to my efforts for weight loss? Absolutely the reverse.

The frustrating part is that I have no idea to get around the lows. I'm still having some extreme highs. The lows seem unavoidable. If I change my insulin, the highs will overrun everything. But I can't keep up with these lows.

My day looks something like this:

Morning numbers are tolerable. I'm either running in a great range or a little on the low side but nothing concerning.

Once I eat breakfast, everything goes crazy. I spike easily into the high 200s if not 300s. This is with Symlin, but reduced insulin.

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I've been having way too many lows for my comfort level lately. But I've yet to change my insulin. Why? Because I'm worried that lowering by just one unit will send me back into the 200s or that it'll be the Humalog and not the Lantus that needs adjusting. Or both.

Since I've started doing a yoga class twice a week and doing twenty minutes on my own at home, my blood sugars have been in the trenches. My averages have dropped, yes. But I'm having too many lows in the middle of the night, too many after I've just eaten, and too many below 70 that I don't catch early enough.

The other night, I had a snack before bed but didn't bolus for it. I just didn't feel like it and I wasn't sure I really needed more insulin in my system. I expected to wake up in the 200s and I was okay with that. But around 6am, I woke up with weak knees, a knotted stomach, and sweaty sheets. I had already dropped to 52.

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