I Ate an Entire Tube of Glucose Tabs During the Night: So Much for My SoloHealth Station Assessment

Wednesday night was date night for my husband and I, just a relaxing dinner for two.  We planned to make it an early night (since I had a cold) but didn’t want to get home before the kids were in bed (sorry sweeties…we love you but mommies and daddies sometimes need a little break).  So, we stopped at the drug store to pick up a couple of things, where we spotted the SoloHealth Station and, being in no rush to get home, decided to give it a whirl.

Love Tester MachineOk, I confess we were a bit like kids playing around with the old-school “love testers” at the fairgrounds.  “My turn, my turn! Yeah, take that test too! Giggle, giggle.”

Turns out my husband could stand to work on improving his sleep patterns, but me? I passed all the tests with flying colors, including BMI, Blood pressure, Sleep Assessment, and a Health Risk Screening.

SoloHealth Station

I’m not the most photogenic person. My husband is forever laughing and calling me out for “talking” during the picture.

However, last night I definitely wasn’t’ the shining example of health portrayed by my friend, the trusty SoloHealth Station. Last night I was low, low, low.  Don’t you wish there was an easy or obvious answer for every bout of irregular blood sugar readings?  I may feel guilty when I miscalculate my carb intake and end up high or low…but at least I know why!  I find it infinitely more frustrating to be left guessing…or to have irregular blood sugars for some other reason that I have no control over, like an illness.  While I do have a pretty wicked head cold right now, I’ve already had it for about 5 days and usually being sick raises my sugars instead of lowering them.  Last night my CGM woke me at least 4 or 5 times!  A couple of those times I was only a little low, so I just popped a single tab or two and fell back asleep (thinking the issue would be over).  Only to be woken again, and again, and again.  Finally I was woken in the 40s and upon dragging myself out of bed I realized that my menstrual flow had gone haywire in the night and was extremely heavy.  Huh? Now I’m sick, having hard-to-ditch low blood sugar in the middle of the night, and a heinous menstrual cycle?!  Is this the Universe’s cocked-up way of letting me know it’s Friday the 13th?  Not funny Universe…not funny.

Dexcom CGM low nightAs bad as it is, I’m thankful for my CGM and the peace of mind it provides in situations like this.  What could have happened if I didn’t have it?  After all, I was pretty zonked out on cold medicine.  This isn’t the first time since having my second child and going back on HRT 6 months ago that I’ve had a crazy girl cycle.  Guess it’s time to bite the bullet and go to see the Dr again just to be on the safe side and make sure I’m not missing anything (short of the Universe’s evil Friday the 13th plan, of course).  But, it’s also definitely one of those mornings where I wish I could just catch a break.  I wish I could just be an average Joe, someone who could actually use the SoloHealth Station (with it’s simple metrics and variables) to get a realistic snapshot of my health.  Sigh…