I do not like being diabetic.

I’m pretty sure there isn’t a single person on the planet who is diabetic who will say “Oh, I love being diabetic! It’s the best thing about me.” But to understand this post, I feel as if I need to begin with the obvious.

I’d also like to begin with when it comes to being diabetic, I’m not sure I have any idea what I am doing. This even comes from someone who has been around people with diabetes all her life. Something that I watch kill and destroy lives. Something that once you achieve getting, it’s pretty much harder than getting into Heaven after going on a murder spree to get rid of. Although, I’m still optimistic that one day, sooner than later I’m hoping, I’ll be able to achieve that. (Not the murder spree then getting into heaven.)

Everyone knows by now that I have had issues keeping my numbers under 250. Lately, however, in the last couple months, I have been doing a dang good job at it. I finally got it where I have been 150 or lower all the time. Which compared to my old numbers, that’s good. By dinner my numbers were hovering around 100 to 125. (The morning, to be honest, was usually nearly 200 && no one can tell me why they are so high in the morning when I wake up, but whatever. By 11 AM, it’s usually around 150 or lower.

Monday – November 1st, shot that all to hades in a hand basket.

I began my Monday like any other day. But my Dexcom said the sensor was expiring in less than six hours. Okay, that’s fine. It does that. Every 10 days. && for anyone who doesn’t know what a Dexcom is. It’s a little machine that tells me my blood sugar throughout the day. I don’t have to prick my finger when I’m wearing it and it takes my sugars every five minutes. My endocrinologist wanted me to have one so I can see what makes my blood sugar rise versus what doesn’t. Basically, everything I eat, including water, makes my blood sugar rise, quickly. However, some of the foods make it worse. Like anything to do with flour.

Anyway… When the sensor expired we put in another one. After two hours the sensor warmed up and was ready to go. && it beeped. Okay, that’s fine, it does that when it’s below 100. That way I know to keep my eye on it. It read 90 – which I found weird, because for dinner I had rice. So I put it to the side && waited. I thought maybe the rice didn’t kick in yet. Because sometimes, okay, not sometimes, all the time, it takes my body nearly two to three hours AFTER eating to show the rise. Which isn’t what I have read or even been told. So the whole “check your sugars after two hours they should be decent” don’t apply to me. It takes nearly two to three && sometimes four hours for my blood sugar to lift. Two hours after I eat, it’s perfectly fine, then BAM! It starts it’s climb. (This is probably something I should probably talk to my doctor about. If I remember, I will do that.)

As I ignore this beeping I am laying in bed. Trying to go to sleep because I”m tired && that’s what you do when you’re tired. After a few dozes here && there it beeps again. I grab the little machine && now it says 54. I’m confused. But I think, maybe, before dinner I took too much insulin. It’s possible since I wasn’t able to actually check my sugar level. You’re now thinking, what? When my Dexcom sensor expired I figured I would just use my finger poker (that’s what I call it) and check my sugars the old fashioned way. I pulled it out to discover that it was dead too. Everything needs batteries! So I just went off what it last said which was around 150 – I figured it couldn’t be much lower than that. So I took insulin that worked with 150. I’m now thinking that I took too much && I need to get some sugar in me. Which is fine, I had some ice cream in my bedroom freezer so I ate one. Sugar, for me, is the quickest way to raise my sugar levels. Even just a couple gulps of Dr. Pepper does it. I knew this would work.

I eat the ice cream && wait. Fifteen – twenty minutes – my Dexcom goes off again, this time it reads that my sugar level is so low that it just says LOW. I’m start panicking. Now I’m too the point of giving myself panic attacks, which in turn makes me lightheaded. Now, I have no idea if my lightheadedness is from my panic attacks or from low blood sugar.

I’m scared.

We have a bag of single packets of chips – I eat two. Still nothing. I eat a oatmeal crème pie, which, by the way, I do not like them, at all. But I eat it because I know it’s full of sugar. My Decom is still reading low – I’m freaking out. I guzzle some sweet tea (I’m from the South so when I say sweet tea, I’m talking sweat tea) that I made Boyfriend and guzzle milk. NOTHING!

My sugar is still low. How can this be happening? At least point I’m scared to death. I start getting dressed && Boyfriend asks what I’m doing. I tell him I’m getting dressed. He knew exactly what it meant. I want to go to the E.R. Because something isn’t right && I need help. So I grab shoes, my pill bag (it is a little ADIDAS bag that holds my pills, my glucose book, my doctors names, etc.), my phone && Decom – he grabs keys, his shoes and out the house we go. He needed cigarettes so I think, maybe what I have isn’t enough sugar. (Yes, it sounded as dumb to me as it does to you right now.) So I tell him let’s stop at the store first, this was, by the way, at 3:30 in the morning. Grab you some cigarettes, and a bottle of orange juice. I tell him we will get that, I will sit in the parking lot && drink the orange juice, wait 15 minutes &&& then we’ll go to the E.R. if it doesn’t help.

So by 4:00 in the morning, it’s still below 40.

Boyfriend wanted to try one more thing. He wanted to try my finger poker, but I explain to him it’s dead && he said let me try && fix it. We head home and he gets it working – thankfully, I guess. He takes my sugar && after looking at the machine he says, “You aren’t going to like this.” My heart sinks, crap! That’s all I was thinking. Even it was reading low, what am I going to do if this didn’t work. What will the E.R. be able to do? He turns the machine around me && I look at the reading.

I HAVE NEVER, IN MY LIFE, BEEN SO HAPPY TO SEE MY BLOOD SUGAR READ 367!

Because that means what I consumed did work. That means that my blood sugar was never low. That means – my Dexcom is broken. Yippee right? We figured out the problem.

Here is the new problem. For the last two days it was been in the high 200’s, because my body is still trying to process all of that sugar. Which, if you recall, I don’t eat like that on a normal basis. I never have. My stomach was so upset that day, I think it was freaking out. I’m drinking water attempting to flush it out, but sadly, nothing in my body works properly so I feel like I am fighting a battle that is going to take weeks to fix.

Man I’m so angry! I wish I knew ahead of time that the Dexcom could break && do that. Even Tuesday, when I woke up, I was still feeling the effects of the lightheadedness (as we all know now was from my panic attacks), and the food I ate. I was miserable. But today, Wednesday, I’m still miserable because I feel like that when my sugars are high. It makes me tired, and sluggish. So – upside, I’m glad I’m off of work for the next two days – hopefully by Saturday I’ll get this crap back under control and feel better. I won’t bet on it, but I can still hope.

You know, when I was hospitalized this year was a scary moment in my life. But Monday night – was scarier than that. Because at least I knew in the hospital I had people that knew what they were doing that were helping me. I felt… clueless, helpless… I felt so many things on Monday that I can’t think of all of the words to express it. It was probably the scariest day of my life. && I don’t want to feel like that again.

I’m mad at the Dexcom. I went && purchased a new batter for my finger poker && took the Decom out. Turned it off. I’m just going to poke my finger for a little while until I feel ready to put it back in. I think it was the transmitter, which I have replaced, but… I’m not ready for that again.

Upside! Good news for the bad news! I am 4 pounds away from being able to say I lost 100 pounds since January. Now if only I can get that four freaking pounds off!