Another Round of Stress Updated

The exam is over. My blood glucose behaved as expected – off the planet today. It started after midnight last night.

Not only couldn’t I get to sleep (a normal problem for me), my blood glucose was mildly raised (still within normal) at I sat at around  7.9 mmol/L (142mg/dl), until mid-morning when it raised even more (despite throwing insulin at it) and stayed that way until mid-exam. By then I’d thrown corrections of around 6 units of insulin at it (not counting breakfast which was an often-eaten, protein-only and required some insulin – an amount that always works). I wonder what my BG would have been had I not thrown all that insulin at it?I shudder to think!

It got to 11.7 (210) late morning and stayed that way. I kept correcting with insulin. An hour before the exam, I did a +50% increase in basal for a 1.5 hours on my pump, plus an injection of 2 units of insulin, in case it was the infusion site (I pretty much knew it wasn’t).

I started the exam at 2pm. At 3pm, after an hour of exams and another half hour to go, my blood glucose was finally something un-shocking! It was 6.9 (124).

The exam finished about 20 minutes ago. I measured and I was 4.7 (84). At this time of the day, I’m usually around 5, so I’m very ok with a 4.7. I will swear I was not stressed. I knew the work and was able to answer all the questions – whether correct or not, I don’t know yet, but I’m pretty sure I’ll get a pass at the very least.

I don’t feel right, so I just measured and I’m 3.6 (64), so time for some glucose and food. Not unexpected. I probably should have only done the increased basal for 1 hour.

So what I’ve learned is that if I can anticipate a stressful situation, even if I don’t feel any anxiety, is that an appropriate timing of extra basal on my pump, works pretty well. I probably should have started the increased basal in the morning, when I first got up,  but I was still within normal range, despite running BGs much higher than usual.

Whew, I’m sure glad that’s over!