Innocent sip of OJ leaves black mark on my record

In diabetes we have a rule: the rule of 15. What this means is, if you have a low blood sugar, you should consume 15 grams of carb, wait 15 minutes then test again. It's a good rule and it can work pretty well if you can stick with it.

I woke up this morning around 4 and according to the CGM, my blood sugar was an excellent 98, which I confirmed with my meter. However, since I was planning to roll over and go back to sleep for another 3.5 hours I decided to have a swig of OJ in case my numbers were trending down. I have noticed in recent months (years??) that I do not need 15 grams of juice. This was never more clear than this morning. I had some juice (maybe an ounce—3 carbs—at the most). I'd like go on the record here as saying that even at that dark hour, I used a glass, no carton chugging for me.

Fast forward some time (maybe an hour? I was too groggy to care) and the CGM woke up me to tell me my sugar had soared to at least 240. Could be overnight hormones, could have had a rebound from a low after all (I really don't think so), could have been the juice. But it was interesting all the same, and will be something I ask Erica about when I see her. That's the whole point of the device, to track trends, but also anomolies.

I think the rule of 15 could apply to a lot in life. Take this morning when I discovered that someone had burnt toast badly enough to scorch my brand new stainless steel toaster. It's less than a month old and it has a big black mark. Did I immediately text the likely suspects? Leave a passive-aggressive note? Nope, I waited a few minutes and the urge passed. I'm still ticked, but I am sure the offender will do their best to clean it up. It wasn't intentional, after all.

Theresa Flaherty