#WWSD?

The other night, my blood sugar dropped. It usually happens at night. My eyes shot open as I lay in bed and I knew that something wasn’t right. As I got up, I realized I was much lower than I thought especially since I began to sway and sweat bullets.

I opened the fridge and pulled out some juice and while I had it sitting at my side I checked my blood sugar. It beeped: 32. This was the lowest in about a year that I’ve seen. I had been sick that day and not hungry at all. Although I knew I should eat, I didn’t. I had eaten earlier in the day and was snacking without bolusing (giving myself anything extra) and figured I’d balance out through the night. I was wrong.

I drank juice and made myself a sandwich for the protein, the bread and the actual meal. I was wet; as wet as I would have been getting out of the shower. Shoveling food into my mouth was my only relief and shortly after, I could feel myself balancing out. My blood sugar was going up enough to make me feel like I wasn’t going to black out. And it’s not even like I enjoy eating the food at the time because my mouth and taste buds go numb.

As I sat there at 12:30 a.m. I flipped through the IKEA catalog on my kitchen table and thought about the beginning of a chapter in Sonia Sotomayor’s “My Beloved World.” Although I had started the memoir earlier this year, I hadn’t really begun to read it until I started my full time job and had time to read on the bus or the train.

Near the end of the book, she talks about the issues she’s had with hypoglycemia. As a person with Type 1 diabetes, she explained that almost everything impacts your blood sugar levels; puberty to stress and food, of course. But the fact that people like us are on insulin, the tiny hormone also can weigh hugely on our blood sugar. The swings and changes happen sometimes and you don’t know why. With the better technologies and glucose meters and sensors, the swings and roller coaster rides can be better monitored.

Fortunately, there were some stories of hers that I couldn’t relate to, like passing out due to low blood sugars. Although that has always been a fear of mine, it’s never happened to me, thank God. She said that in those situations, she always had someone find her, worry about her, almost knock down doors for her. I thought about it, and the fear for me is living alone, not having anyone find me in time and a whole bunch of other morbid thoughts.

Those usually happen when I’m sitting there with low blood sugar. Blood sugar levels also affect your moods, by the way.

I found a lot of inspiration in Sotomayor’s memoir. I also felt like I could empathize because in certain situations, including the diabetic situations, I could relate. I found that her battles from years ago are still the battles that we see today. That as far as we’ve come as Latinas, there was still a lot of work that needed to be done. And I tweeted the following:

I mean, it’s hard not to hold her in high regards or want her to be related to you somehow. Sotomayor is a testament to hard work and dedication. I’m sure she applies her ability and love of learning to diabetes like I do and it only makes me want to be better all around. So if you see me use the hash tag #WWSD know that I’m in consideration of our Supreme Court Justice; playing one in my own life.