Dreaming with the Dexcom

I've had plenty of diabetes dreams, and I've had lucid dreams (something I never knew other people experienced too, until I took psych). Never had a diabetic lucid dream although this one kind of came close. I always thought my dreams lasted for about a millisecond and the seemingly endless high or low were just exaggerations. But my textbook, informed me that dreams unfold in real-time. I didn't think it was possible to have a low lasting over 30 minutes without A. waking up or B. going into seizure. Dexcom has proved me wrong.(apparently, I do have a glucose producing liver at moments when it actually counts)

I think it would be kind of neat to be dreaming about a low or high(which translate into feeling hungry and thirsty, in the dream) and see how low or high I actually am, and for how long. (corresponding time chunk) Not that difficult, because if I wake up suddenly, most of the time I remember my dreams. Lucid dreaming is pretty hard/rare though, you can't just decide to do it. (dumb luck)I may know that I have diabetes in my dream, but not that eating or drinking will not cure my symptoms.So I'm merrily eating mountains of pancakes or drinking gallons of water and it isn't doing any good at all.(till I wake up) I don't know if wild bg variations make for more nightmares, probably not, I've always dreamed alot. The problem with using the Dexcom to track this is the Dex has a tendency to shriek/vibrate its head off anytime you're outside of the range so you really don't get a chance to wake up naturally from the dream. And there are certain safety features(under 55, over 400?) that even if you have the alarms off those safety alarms will still boot in.

Sometimes I turn the fan on high and put the dexcom under the bed so it won't wake me up but it will still read. For the most part, I have good internal cues to wake up when low but its not always right away. The dexcom will wake anyone up,(usually I put it under my pillow) but deciding whether to treat that (usually) high is another story altogether. It's best to be very, very conservative at an hour where you're so exhausted that a low is the last thing you need. Bottom line, I'm grateful for the chance to correct the situation before it gets out of hand..even if it does wake me up all night long some nights.

A Freudian Self- Analysis

I had a dream last night

Dreaming about tomarrow.

And while the needle, jammed into my flesh

Demands that fantasy, mix with pain

I'll still believe in Tomarrow.


Bittersweet, this nightly transendence

Into the mind's eye

Leaving the cares, the sorrows, the tears behind

However briefly.


But dreams don't stop reality from rushing in

Like an icy wave, slapping against the naked chest

Taking your breath away.


Wide awake- the pain now has a name

An infusion set gone south.

Yank cannula from leg,

And as bright red blood spurts against the once-white sheets

(Old Faithful-look at that gusher!!!)

the stress of the dream melts away.


Well, since I'm already awake, might as well check the o'le blood sugar

After changing the bedclothes.

No high, no low, graces that early morning scene.

132 mg/dl- precisely where it should be.

And yet, I marvel at the abilitity of diabetes

To steal shut-eye in another unusual way.


Sometimes, I know I have diabetes (in my dreams)

it manifests itself by frantic eating (lows)

and drinking water (highs)

Some weird form of ESP, no doubt

but this dream was just a sense of un-nameable pain

that I couldn't fix, couldn't help, couldn't wake up from.


I think that dreams,(be they subconsious, or conscious) in general, must cope with

said "thorns in the flesh"

reality bites, but life's like that.

They must coexist- you may never be a millionaire, might not make it to 100.

(statistically speaking,just not likely to happen)

Yin and Yang- pleasure and pain.

Because you can't stop dreaming, even if you wanted to.