Thursday, March 8, 2012

Midnight Cravings

Yes, I made this cupcake, but not in the middle of the night! 
"Isn't it amazing what our bodies can do?" - says the girl with the pancreas that retired way before her time was due.

I'm talking about going low in the middle of the night, when you have already been fast asleep for the past four hours, you've had plenty of vibrant dreams and then all of a sudden you have one strange dream, the dream that doesn't make sense - the dream that awakes you and makes you instantly want to eat a whole pizza, two Oreos and a milkshake.

That's when you know that, that cozy warm bed you're enjoying at the moment, is going to be no longer, as you feel for your glasses, put them on, hop out of bed, open your bedroom door, guide the way with your insulin pump light and find a nice spot in the kitchen to begin your munching.

But, how does our body know? I picture the little minions from Despicable Me inside, just telling my body, let's get up, you're about to crash!  So the 'dream real' begins to change into the worst dream possible, and before you know it you are up and ready to go.

Last night I woke up craving a glass of milk - this was my instant alert that my blood sugar was low.  I wanted to be sure, so I went over to my purse, sat on the floor, and took out my meter, pricker and strips.  Being so tired, I remember putting a strip in the meter, then pulling out another to do it all over again.   I was in the 3 range [54 mg/dl] so I headed to the kitchen for that treasured glass of milk.

I guess just like when we have to go the washroom in the middle of the night our body just knows, wakes up and takes care of it (hopefully..) but it still amazes me that blood sugars alter the way we awake, we wake up feeling strange, hungry and flustered.   Low blood sugars at night can be a nightmare to some, especially for those whose bodies aren't waking them up.

Luckily, I feel my lows and are able to treat them promptly and easily and yes, I should probably just stick a juice box near my bed to avoid having to leave my cozy bed, but half the fun of it, is raiding the kitchen and bringing it back to bed with you.

Kayla

2 comments:

  1. I'm actually in the middle of a midnight craving right now. Thank God for the "body alarm" or we would be in a LOT of trouble!

    I was diagnosed at 11 and for the next year or two after that,my body would not wake me up. My mother is a light sleeper(plus I don't think she has had a good night's sleep since I was diagnosed and I'm 24 now!) and she usually heard me making noises( I was still trying to either wake myself up, I was in the middle of one of those weird dreams I have when my BS is low, or I had fallen off my bed in an attempt to get up).

    Now, I can recognize the symptoms faster and sprint to the kitchen but sometimes I'm in such a deep sleep that I don't get up when I have low BS, but still in the morning it either get's really high or it's in a good range.

    I remember someone telling me that your liver produces glucagon to cover you when your body needs help. So yeah, the body is an amazing creation.

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  2. Heidi, your body will only produce glucagon for a few years after you've become type 1. It stops because diabetics have lows too commonly, and so your body doesn't register the lows as the emergency they are anymore.

    I have an article I'd like to link. It's KIND OF a downer, but for me, at least, it has many important things to say about nighttime lows. I have suffered some extreme nighttime lows. I have seizures, I've been unable to move and had to call the police. I'm talking extreme. Anyway, here's the article: http://www.diabeteshealth.com/read/2010/05/13/6679/beware-the-perils-of-severe-hypoglycemia-/

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