Lindsey Guerin on Flickr
My night basals are a little tricky. It's hard to find a perfect balance. I want my morning number to be 110. Perfect and steady. But even with tweaking my pump, I either wake up 140 or 80.
Considering my history with night seizures and horrible over-night lows, I try not to go under 100. But I also don't like risking my A1c by running on the higher end of the scale. So lately, I've let my morning numbers slide below the 100 mark.
Usually with this, I can wake up in a decent range (between 80 and 120). However, some things can cause a little bump in the road. For instance, I under-estimated the carbs in my snack last night and woke up at 166. But previous mornings, I'll over-estimate my snack or misjudge a correction and end up on the lower end of the scale.
For instance, a few mornings ago, I woke up at 67 after a high carb meal at dinner. I hadn't set my alarm so I have no idea how much longer I would have slept. Oddly, my cat woke me up crying endlessly. When I realized that my stomach had that "low" feeling, I decided to check.
A few days after that, I woke up at 54. I don't recall what caused this low, but I do know that my cat once again woke me up with his incessant crying. That morning, I immediately knew I was low.
My cat usually doesn't wake me up, however it does happen occasionally. So I'm not sure whether this is all coincidence or if maybe my cat is detecting my lows. When I was much younger, I had a cat that would wake me up every time I was low (without fail). He would nudge me and cry until I finally got out of bed to treat it.
There isn't much research on animals detecting lows. Most people tend to think it's not a legitimate service, but I do believe that animals have the ability to watch for these things. And of course, there are seizure alert service dogs that can be used for diabetics. Now training a cat to do it every time seems a bit impossible. But there is always hope.
Lindsey, the first thing is that you probably won't train the cat. The cat will decide if it's important enough to be bothered with, and if it thinks it's fun. After all, your only reason for being is to do what it wants, right? Otherwise, it's I'll take a message and get back to you.
Seriously, though, there is evidence that many dogs can sense their human's lows, so I don't see why a cat couldn't. It sounds from your post like you've had cats that do exactly that.
Yes, I think your cat knows. I have a low-sensing cat of my own. She doesn't stop at just meowing though. If I don't wake up to the meowing, she paws at my face, eats my hair, does everything in her power to wake. me. up. And only when I'm low and clearly sound asleep. Perhaps it's a smell thing (we must emit something) or the way we move, breath, etc? Whatever it is, I'm often thankful for Rosie. Even if she is eating my hair.
They have trained Dogs to detect lows, so why not? My cat will wake me up at 8:30 am everyday. (my furry alarm clock)
My dog will often wake me up when I'm low. He'll bark, lick my face, jump on my bed, etc. He's also 140lbs, so he's pretty good at it. Handy, but kind of annoying.
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