The Sun Also Rises

04/10/08 Treatment Options

Daylight savings time adjustment always reinforces for me why tight control matters. Twice a year, regardless of my successful management, the clocks change, and something inside me responds in kind. My glucose readings suddenly become unpredictable, and I have to set to my basal rate profile like a lost hiker hoping for answers from his GPS.

Typically, after a few days of turmoil, the adjustment ends, my body returns to its former state, and I’m out of the woods. However, this scenario has unfortunately mirrored a much more consistently muddled time in my life: my mornings.

The “Dawn Phenomenon” has always been my nemesis. I wakeup with a high glucose level for no apparent reason. I constantly tweaked my injections to counter, and when I began pump therapy, I did the same with my basal profile. Often I achieved success, but only for short durations of a week to 10 days. Then a 280 mg/dl reading would appear on the screen at 6 a.m., and I’d start the ride over. That is until I just gave up.
   
I simply stopped caring what my level was in the morning. If I was normal, fantastic, I relished breakfast and moved on with the rest of my day. If I was high, well, breakfast was out the window and I starved until lunch. Obviously, I loathed testing in the morning. The unknown answer was lurking just seconds away while my stomach growled and I literally shielded my face with my hand out of fear of what would be revealed. Then one day I began a new diet regimen, and that switch brought a focus that altered everything.
   
Breakfast using the Zone method became vital and set the stage for the rest of the day. In order to follow Zone guidelines, I began eating on top of those high levels, and as a consequence, felt sluggish and lethargic—the exact opposite of how I was supposed to feel. I knew it wasn’t the failure of the Zone to live up to its claims, because once my levels straightened out, the rest of the day I felt fantastic. I quickly realized that in order to reap the full benefits of the lifestyle I was trying to live, I would have to achieve tight control in the morning.
   
It was a struggle, but multiple weeks of 3 a.m. tests and a diligent look at every aspect of my day—not solely the overnight—brought insight into what my body required. Soon enough my morning readings lowered and have remained consistently so. I now expect success upon rising and no longer fear what the monitor will yield.
   
Therefore, now that we have sprung the clocks forward, I’ve again had my adjustment phase, and it lasted exactly one day. That’s all I needed to get back on track.  As the expression goes, I’ve finally “seen the forest for the trees” and can now clearly discern the necessity of forging a clear path, from the beginning.because following the straight path is so much easier to do when you are committed to looking for it, wherever it might be.