Confirmation
So for years I've known that severe weather changes cause my blood sugars to go haywire... it's just that I could never prove it conclusively with solid data.
Well, now I can.
This last week the weather has changed considerably where we live - sharp drop in temperatures, lots of rain, etc. Almost immediately, I went into the "weather ritual", which happens 3-4 times a year, in which my blood sugars become very difficult to control and impossible to predict.
However, with the Dexcom I can do a much better job at controlling, and am beginning to get a sense for predicting. It used to take me 2-3 weeks of terrible blood sugars to regain control, suffering in the meantime from the effects of seesawing numbers, which are physically exhausting, not to mention damaging. Well, now it took me less than 2 days - and even that only because I was over-reacting to trends. And that's the first confirmation for something I knew for years: during weather changes, my body's reactions are in general more extreme (when it gets colder). I suspect I will get confirmation for the other side of the equation (less extreme when it gets warmer) in summer.
In technical terms, it appears that my trend slopes become steeper when the weather gets colder, and I assume they will get smoother when it gets warmer again.
And I also have a wonderful little example of this from the trend graphs. I think I mentioned it before that, as a brittle type-I, I can drop 60 points in 15 minutes with no idea it's happening. Well, I apparently never realized the obvious - that if my body's reaction become more extreme, it will impact this as well. Examine this:
Wow. That's a drop of ONE HUNDRED (100) mg/dl in 15 minutes.
No wonder it's more difficult for me to control my blood sugars in weather changes. And thank heavens (again) for the Dexcom.
Well, now I can.
This last week the weather has changed considerably where we live - sharp drop in temperatures, lots of rain, etc. Almost immediately, I went into the "weather ritual", which happens 3-4 times a year, in which my blood sugars become very difficult to control and impossible to predict.
However, with the Dexcom I can do a much better job at controlling, and am beginning to get a sense for predicting. It used to take me 2-3 weeks of terrible blood sugars to regain control, suffering in the meantime from the effects of seesawing numbers, which are physically exhausting, not to mention damaging. Well, now it took me less than 2 days - and even that only because I was over-reacting to trends. And that's the first confirmation for something I knew for years: during weather changes, my body's reactions are in general more extreme (when it gets colder). I suspect I will get confirmation for the other side of the equation (less extreme when it gets warmer) in summer.
In technical terms, it appears that my trend slopes become steeper when the weather gets colder, and I assume they will get smoother when it gets warmer again.
And I also have a wonderful little example of this from the trend graphs. I think I mentioned it before that, as a brittle type-I, I can drop 60 points in 15 minutes with no idea it's happening. Well, I apparently never realized the obvious - that if my body's reaction become more extreme, it will impact this as well. Examine this:
Wow. That's a drop of ONE HUNDRED (100) mg/dl in 15 minutes.
No wonder it's more difficult for me to control my blood sugars in weather changes. And thank heavens (again) for the Dexcom.
posted by Blinkered at 4:19 PM
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