Adrenaline 2

My previous post described our experience with adrenaline when my daughter performed in the school musical last weekend.  The excitement and anxiety of performing resulted in a large spike in blood sugar.  The spelling bee, amusement park rides, and other big moments have resulted in similar spikes.  Yet there are circumstances in which we'd expect to see an adrenaline spike and do not, such as this weekend's other stressful event.

In the midst of her busy play weekend, I dropped my daughter and my husband at softball practice at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning.  I returned an hour later to find my daughter with an ice pack and a growing bruise near her eye.  She didn't catch the fly ball.

This scenario involved physical trauma, fear and embarrassment.  It seems to me that this would be a perfect trifecta of adrenaline production.  For her? Nothing. Her blood sugar was 81 after practice and didn't spike until her performance later that afternoon. 

There is a long list of areas in which people's experience with diabetes varies.  Foods which are disastrous for some pose no difficulty for others.  Exercise may cause a slow and steady drop, or it might cause a spike followed by a later crash.  Low and high blood sugar symptoms differ greatly from person to person.

It becomes a matter of tracking individual experiences and learning the patterns. We learn the basic science and execution of it all from our health care team.  We read and listen to the experiences of others with diabetes.  Yet diabetes management also involves a great deal of 'learning by doing.'

We hope not to have a repeat of the softball to the face incident, with its resulting black eye; particularly not hours before the school play.  Perhaps, though, we've learned something about the difference between physical and emotional trauma in their ramifications on my daughter's blood sugar.