It’s coming up to that tricky time of month for me: the time when I almost need to double my basals overnight, and when my insulin resistance is at an all-time high. So – when I woke up yesterday at a 13.8 I realised it was probably about time I changed to my 24 hour basal pattern which has higher doses especially for this one to two week phase.

I was off to the gym this morning for a 6am class so wanted to make extra sure I wasn’t waking up high and having to miss the class. Set my alarm for 2am and things were tracking nicely. 5.2. I went back to sleep just hoping I wouldn’t drop any lower than that. I needn’t have worried as by 5:20am I was up to 8.2. Still – I was chuffed with this – I find optimally I’m on about a 9 or 10 before I start exercise and it will come down to 4s or 5s over the hour. So – I took my pump off.

Mistake # 1 – assuming my blood sugar would only go up one, at most two mmol/l in the half hour between then and starting my class. By 5:55 it had gone all the way up to 12.4. That must have been a damn sugary glass of water I poured myself from the tap before leaving the house!

Mistake # 2 - starting my RPM class anyway. When I clocked the 12.4 it occurred to me that I should give myself a couple of units, but the class was starting and I also just wanted to see what would happen. This is what happened – by the time 20mins of hard cycling had been achieved, my BG had gone up to 14.5. Off I hopped, shrugged my apologies to the instructor and headed downstairs to shoot up.

What I have learned from this annoying interlude:

• Put pre-menstrual morning BG hikes and exercise together and get a monster.
• My earlier assumption that the tipping point of when BGs will go up with exercise (13mmol/l or over) is pretty close to being right… it might be more like 12+
• Never assume that your BG won’t go up by 4+ mmol/l in half an hour. Watch it goooo!

On another note: as I type this post I’m talking to Aaron on MSN. He had SIX LOWS in the night and woke up at a 14.7. Anyone out there get it right overnight? Love to hear from you.

Have a good day peeps!

N