Re-Building Trust

Let me set the scene for what really should have been one of the greatest nights of my life ... On a very romantic whim I decided to surprise my husband Friday night with a evening out downtown. Hotel room, drinks, and food ... just the two of us. We both have had a hell of a summer with demanding jobs which have led to stress and not a lot of "us" time. We started off with a complimentary bottle of champagne from the hotel and then made our way around town, stopping at our favorite places for drinks and appetizers here and there. It was a blast and it just felt so good to be with JUST him, the man I truly love and adore.

I've always been pretty cautious about drinking. I definitely stay away from the sugary mixed drinks, very rarely drink hard alcohol, and only sometimes will I have a beer. I stick to wine because not only do I just love it but I have also come to "understand" what it does to my blood sugars. And when I say "understand" with the quotation marks, drinking can still be hit or miss because you never really know what and how much wine makers are adding to their wines. Nevertheless, a girl's gotta have a vice or two ... and wine is definitely one of mine :-)

Around midnight, once we were back at our hotel I definitely was feeling the effects of the 4 glasses of wine I'd had over the last 3 hours. The combination of feeling the effects of the alcohol with a Dexcom meter that was not giving me proper readings was the perfect storm for not being able to detect THE lowest blood sugar I've ever seen. I just remember having this feeling like something wasn't right and I told my husband, I need to check my blood sugar. I easily found my meter, inserted the test strip, pricked my finger, and 5 seconds later the screen flashed a larger than life 20.

20?!?!?!?!

If you google "blood sugar of 20" you get the following information:

That is a reading that is so low you would likely be unconscious and need emergency hospital treatment. If alert and able to swallow without choking, use a glucose tablet or sugar candy immediately and call 911 if you are diabetic and on oral hypoglycemic medications or insulin.

If you have no symptoms of sweating, shaking, agitation, dizziness or fainting which are common symptoms of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and if you are self-testing, it could only mean that your testing meter needs a battery or your strips are expired. Check those things and recheck your blood sugar, if still low seek urgent medical advice.
 
My mind immediately started racing (clearly my brain was still functioning) ... How was I still conscious? How was I alert? How could I even string two thoughts together? I'll tell you what my initial thought was, "That's not right!" So I checked it again ... and this time the monitor just read "LOW," in all caps. That's the reading you get that is supposed to scare you. That's the reading that means, "We're not even going to tell you how low you are, just get sugar NOW!" 

My husband was standing right there and we both reacted so quickly it's hard to even remember the events that followed. Thank goodness I was more than equipped to handle a low blood sugar and I sucked down a sugary gel that was in purse faster than you can imagine. I lay down on the bed, covered in sweat from the adrenaline and effects of a low blood sugar, chewed and swallowed a few more sugar pills just to be on the safe side, and held my husband's hand until I felt better.

I can't entirely blame the wine for this, although I continue to realize that alcohol is just a tricky thing to have to deal with. I was also so caught up in the evening, that I probably wasn't paying as close of attention that I normally do. And it also goes to show that even though the Dexcom technology is great, it's definitely not perfect. I've been through such a range of emotions since the other night from guilt for taking my focus away from my blood sugars, apologetic for taking away from the romantic evening I had planned with my husband, ashamed that my blood sugar even got that low, and mostly fearful that it will happen again. The last 36 hours have been filled with some anxiety and I've been on high alert. After a low like that it's going to take some time to re-build the trust I have in the Dexcom readings and most of all the trust that insulin is here to help and not hurt me.