Stress and Blood Glucose Levels

There have been quite a few studies on stress and the way it affects diabetics. We know that stress is part of our survival instinct, and short term stress releases hormones and begins processes in our body to heighten our responses and fuel us for the wild need of flight or fight. Part of this is fucking with blood glucose. In type II diabetics, stress tends to elevate blood glucose levels. In type I diabetics, the majority also see a rise in blood sugar, but some have the opposite response and go low a lot in times of prolonged stress.

To say that I've been stressed is an understatement. There was the panic of this weekend, followed by immediate anxiety about my own inability to tell when something is genuinely wrong or not. My therapy session on Thursday was rough. It left me emotionally drained, and a stressed-out, irritated, melancholy mess for the rest of the day. Friday was little better, topped off by Matt's car beginning to have trouble and him not getting home from work until an hour and a half late because his replacement didn't know she was on the schedule and didn't show up on time. 

And then came today. Yesterday when Matt's car was misbehaving we made the plan that he would take my car to work because of the long commute until we knew what was wrong with his car. We figured it was just a belt that was loose, but that we wanted to avoid any problems we could. The days have been relatively warm so we hadn't been having trouble with my car. Last night he took my car and it worked out well enough. This morning he went to leave for work, though, and it was cold enough that the dashboard wasn't responding. So Matt made the decision to take his car to work.

Twenty miles down the highway and he said there was a loud bang, a lot of smoke, and he coasted to the side of the road as the engine shut off. That's when he called his parents, got yelled at, and then while he was waiting for his mom to come and give him a ride to work, called me. So that's how I woke up this morning. Ahhh, more stress. Happy stress. Lovely stress.

You guys, I ate a sandwich for lunch yesterday, before all this huge stress really happened. It shot my blood sugar up by 100 points, and yes I had taken my insulin that morning. I am not looking forward to today at all.