As if the scale weren’t bad enough, jumping on and off every day, the blood glucose meter is worse. The thing is, if you’re getting too obsessive with the scale, they tell you to only weigh in every week, or every month or never. They NEVER recommend doing that for diabetics. You’re supposed to test at least 3, if not 5-6x per day. But those little strips are EXPENSIVE – like $1 each! So I’m trying to conserve and also not get too obsessive over it. BUT.
It started all all good on Tuesday at the diabetes class. I had stellar numbers! I was so proud!! But then on Thursday they started getting wonky, kind of elevated, and I didn’t know why.
They’re still elevated. I don’t know why, and I don’t know what to do about it. Apparently there is something called a “dawn phenomenon” and sometimes you just wake up with inexplicably high numbers.
Apparently your glucose level can also rise when there is physical or emotional stress, and I think I’ve had some sort of cold or virus the past few days and haven’t been feeling well. I thought I was better this morning and had a really good couch-to-5k run, but … I don’t know.
It’s frustrating and a little scary because often if the scale shows me numbers I don’t like, I pretty much know why, and I also have a pretty good idea what I need to do in order to show an improvement. But with this little machine, I don’t understand it, or my body’s responses, well enough yet. Why did I have great numbers Tuesday and Wednesday, and then they have steadily worsened since Thursday. Wahh! I don’t like this!! I don’t know what to do.
Meanwhile, the scale continues to be my friend (thank you scale!). I got my 10# sticker at Weight Watchers this morning. Still contemplating quitting though.
foodfoodbodybody 
April 11, 2009 at 1:09 pm
If you are sick or getting sick, your numbers could go up. Exercise could make your numbers go up. Or go up then plummet. Or go down. Hormones can affect your numbers.
It’s very frustrating, isn’t it? For now, you might want to test more to see what diff foods do to your blood sugar. Find out how many strips a month your insurance will cover and ask your doctor to write a prescription for more test strips. I asked mine to write one for testing 10x a day. But I was also going hypo too much so I tend to test more.
I keep thinking that I should keep more detailed logs with exercise, carb intake, etc but I am lazy and unorganized so I don’t. Guess I’m my own worst enemy.
Congrats on the weight loss! I bet that will help and your numbers will reflect that eventually.
Just hang in there. We all get bad numbers occasionally.