October3rd, 2010: Let me revise my comments about pushing the envelope. This morning’s events underscored that it needs to be done with eyes wide open. I’m sure my metabolism has accelerated with the harder runs, and although I have been careful to make sure I’m not going low while awake, I forgot to consider the night.
I woke up at 6AM drenched in sweat, clearly suffering from hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. My wife was away at a weekend conference and my first instinct was to test my blood sugar – BIG MISTAKE. I must have been quite low because my legs buckled and I clanked my forehead on the bathroom doorjamb. It was dark but I knew instantly I was bleeding badly and jumped back up on my feet, resulting in collapsing into the doorway a second time.
I sat still and composed myself for a moment. Recognizing that I needed a snack, I slowly tried to get up…but couldn’t. So I grabbed my bath towel off the rack and wiped some of the blood off and started crawling into the kitchen where I could get some peanut butter crackers. I literally sat on the kitchen floor for about a half hour before trying to stand up again.
Fortunately I was able to get up and called my wife to let her know what happened. Shared that I wasn’t critically wounded, but the two cuts to my head were pretty deep and that I would head for the local Urgent Care to get repaired. The result is that I had twelve stitches put into my forehead and another six over my right eye…I’m pretty banged up.
A rather painful lesson, but I hope to grow from it. Once again my training program takes a hit, but the doctor said I would be okay to run tomorrow if I felt up to it. We’ll see how I feel – my head is throbbing right now. I am very lucky that there was no serious injury and the main concern while at the doctor’s this morning was how long it took, only because my daughter was home alone. Even though they instruct you to turn your cell phone off, I begged permission twice to phone home and let Spencer know that I was okay and hoped to get back home soon.
Returned about 11:15AM and spent quite awhile cleaning up all the blood. Gracious it was everywhere! I would get a target area tidied up thinking it was the last and then notice more blotches, but I was pleased that most of the stains came off in spite of how long it was before I could tackle them.
So all this trivial crap aside, the important take-away is that if you are diabetic and ramp up physical activity, please be aware that your metabolism may increase and cause more low blood sugar episodes during the day and night. I need to visit my regular doctor on Friday to have the stitches removed and requested that we discuss precautions to avoid this again.
Be cautious if diabetic and ramping up your training schedule!
One of the difficulties of Juvenile Diabetes is the constant need to monitor where your blood sugar is. There are so many variables that impact this, making it difficult to anticipate everything perfectly, especially since life is so unpredictable. And living day-to-day, the precautions become routine and it is difficult to keep them fresh in mind. So several years ago I started a practice of filling out a 3x5 card each month with a tip or pointer on either side.
I believe this has reinforced a lot of common sense practices and is a great way to embed these best practices in your mind. The problem with going low is that your thinking gets fuzzy, compromising your ability to remedy things when you need it most. I have found that looking at a key thought every day for a month is a good way to install best practices as second nature and as each month nears an end I start thinking of new ideas for my card which keeps things fresh. The critical mistake this morning was thinking I needed to test my blood rather than just grabbing a snack and allowing myself to recover. I make a new card on the first day of each month, but re-wrote October’s this afternoon:
Reading this every morning while brushing my teeth should insure that if I wake up low again I will open the drawer of my nightstand and EAT some crackers FIRST before trying to walk on unsteady legs!
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