Personally, I find it easier said than done to have good, consistent blood sugar levels on a weekend – forget it if said weekend involves alcohol consumption or an imbalanced diet.
That being said, I think it’s an absolute miracle that I had a nearly perfect 24 hours on this past Friday according to my CGM readings and blood sugar tests. On a normal day, I strive very hard to stay within those lines on my CGM. It’s my goal to stay above 80 mg/dL, but below 180 mg/dL. It sounds simple, doesn’t it? In reality, it involves a lot of hard work.
It was made more complicated by the activities I did this past weekend. My friends and I made plans to celebrate the beautiful autumnal weather by participating in the stereotypical fall activities. You know, by carving pumpkins, watching scary movies, and consuming apple cider and candy, among other goodies. We also decided to venture downtown to check out some of the bars in Amherst.
Phase one of the day went by almost seamlessly. I was able to get a good workout in which helped my blood sugars level out in time for the pumpkin carving and candy eating. I don’t believe in depriving myself completely of treats because of my diabetes, but I’m also careful to not overindulge. As a result, I was able to have a bunch of mini candies as well as some surprisingly good sugar free cider without any intrusive buzzing from my CGM.
The fall fun was followed by an evening trip to the High Horse bar. I’m still trying to figure out drinking and diabetes – they don’t exactly complement each other – so I made sure I was armed with everything I might possibly need over the course of the evening. I brought a large bottle of glucose tablets, my humalog pen, my test kit, plenty of needles, my CGM…I wasn’t fooling around, I know well enough by now that it pays off to be prepared.
I was more paranoid due to the fact that I had somewhat of a low prior to leaving my apartment. I think it’s safe to blame it on the fact that I overcompensated for the beer that I drank with my dinner because of its presumed carbohydrate content. I corrected the low in no time, but worried some more when I saw that I was creeping past the 180 mg/dL mark. I didn’t stress too much, though, because I knew I would be walking downtown to get to the bar.
It was great to spend more time with my friends and indulge in a few drinks with them. It was even better to (sort of) forget about my diabetes for a couple hours. Instead of declining drinks because of a high or low blood sugar, I was able to enjoy them because of my persistence in maintaining healthy readings. I stayed constant the entire evening without dramatic drops or highs and it felt fantastic. And when I saw the 24-hour results on my CGM, I was very happy to see scarcely any of the dreaded yellow or red dots littering the screen.
It’s a moment like this that makes me feel better about my diabetes management. It proves to me that I can successfully get past the trickier diabetes obstacles, all it takes is some monitoring and motivation.
