What the heck is coffee doing to my diabetes ??

There are few things I enjoy more in this world than a good cup of coffee. In fact, without my two morning cups I cannot leave the house. Or socialize. Or smile really. But my question is, why does coffee seem to wreak havoc on my blood sugars? Am I alone here?

To shed a little light on the troubles I've been having with my beloved, let me break it down for you:

Morning Lows

The morning lows came first. While I was on winter break, I did a lot of BG monitoring and rate testing. In the mornings, I started measuring out my cereal and Trop 50 to a T and testing my BG two hours after breakfast. I ended up having to up my ratio and lower my basal rate--but it still wasn't enough. I still was going low two hours after lunch. At this point I was covering for about 15 carbs for my morning coffee because of the creamer that I use.  Several mornings of dizziness and agitation later, I decided to try not covering for my coffee.  And poof! the lows went away.

Morning Highs

After I stopped covering for my morning coffee, I thought my morning levels were taken care of. However, once I started up school again, things changed. I started out my morning as usual--measured out my breakfast, gave my insulin according to my new ratio, and gave no insulin for my morning coffee. But alas, two hours later, I found myself in the mid-300s--very confused and very annoyed.  This continued to happen to the point that now I cover for 15 carbs again for coffee. I have been doing okay but why the sudden switch? And why on occasional mornings do I find myself going low two hours after breakfast?

Runnin' on Dunkin'

Further complicating the coffee issue, I began to do some investigative research on my beloved Dunkin' Donuts. I then discovered that the pumpkin flavored coffee I have fallen in love with has much more sugar than hazelnut or french vanilla. So I made the switch to hazelnut and have gotten mixed results--sometimes I go low after giving 1 unit of insulin for a medium, and sometimes I am perfectly fine with no insulin at all for one.  I have found that a unit and a half (my ratio is 11 in the morning and 9 during the day) is usually consistently good for a medium pumpkin on the days that I treat myself.

I have considered the possibility that some mornings I am more tired than others, and some I am more anxious than others--something that may affect the way my body reacts to coffee.  I also know that coffee can sometimes affect your adrenaline levels, which can in turn affect your blood sugar. But it is proving to be a slippery slope to navigate!