When my glucose levels are high, the emotions I feel are far and reaching; from mild dispair to total frustration. But the emotion that I have learned to summon to tackle high glucose levels effectively is patience.
There are always a few exceptions but, in general, I find low glucose levels a bit easier to deal with than high glucose levels: just knock back a few glucose tablets and call it done. Of course there are many other frustrations with low glucose such as I may have to lay across the couch for ten minutes to optimise the rate at which perspiration is steaming from my body, but in general, I can move on quickly.
For me, high glucose levels seem to take so much longer to deal with. It takes so, so, so very long for the insulin to work. Sometimes a high glucose can stay around for 6 to 8 hours. And IT'S SO FRUSTRATING!!!!
At first there’s optimism. It’s just a number, right?!
The number is just a piece of information that I use to manage my diabetes. My approach is to take my correction dose and wait at least 90 to 120 minutes before I assess if I need another dose or not. I don’t always follow this though. Sometimes, I can see that the carbs I’ve eaten are still being converted to glucose and my levels are still climbing so I might take another dose of insulin to pre-empt a blood glucose stalemate after the waiting period.
Then there’s waiting
The first 90 minutes isn’t bad at all. It’s when I check my levels again and the number isn’t going down but it has gone up!!! And sometimes this can happen, even if I’ve done a pre-emptive correction. So then I take another correction dose of insulin and wait an-other 90 minutes.
Then my Irk-some-ness becomes Frustration
Sometimes a high glucose can stay around for 6 to 8 hours. Sometimes this 6 to 8 to 10 hours is during the night and I have to set alarms to keep check glucose levels.
This is point where I struggle with my patience and I may give into my frustrations with a rage bolus.
A rage bolus is “the act of suffering from a high blood sugar for an extended period of time or for an unknown reason and the retaliatory insulin dose.” From SixUntilMe.com's Diabetes Terms.
And then two hours later, I have a rebound low glucose!!!
So when people talk about keeping glucose levels as close to normal as possible and make it sound like there is a magic strategy I’m like
Yeah, well, you try to be your own pancreas!