Stress is Stressful

One of the things they talked about at my diabetes management class was the role stress plays in your blood sugar. I didn’t really think about it much before today, but the stress I experience at work is definitely impacting how my body is functioning.

Case in point, today I woke up with a great blood sugar of 92. I ate my breakfast, went to work, had a short walk with one of my friends, and started getting some work done. My post breakfast sugar? 93! Today was going to be a damn good day.

Before lunch I was at a brisk 84. The great day continued… I ate my lunch, which was only about 35-45 carbs and just knew that after my two hour wait, I was going to be great.

Then the e-mails started.

I’m not going to delve into too many details, but let’s just say that incompetence can be stressful. And when you have a lot of incompetence flooding in from all sides, it starts to grate on you. The e-mails kept coming, people became ever more demanding, and I could feel my blood pressure rising.

Two hours finally hit. I had spiked to 150. What the hell?!? The pittance of food I ate for lunch was nothing, but clearly the stress of the day caused a serious increase in sugar production. Thankfully I was back down to 84 when I got home and finished making dinner. Cooking always seems to de-stress me.

It makes sense, the more I think about it. Before I was diagnosed (the months leading up to it) I was stressed beyond my normal level nearly every day. My team was going through a major transition, I was eating more, drinking water nonstop, and everything seemed to fall on my shoulders. The nonstop stress probably killed my blood sugar which, in the end, almost killed me. Pretty fun, huh?

Speaking of fun, I was looking at my fasting sugars over the past few weeks. These are the numbers that I submit to my PCP so he can see if my Tresiba is working the way it’s supposed to. Not sure what he’ll think about this, but I’m guessing he’s going to question what I’ve been doing every other day… 

Today’s Numbers