I had hoped tht today would start a fresh, new, AND better week... What the hell was I thinking?!
My blood sugar over the weekend was absolutely HORRIBLE . Saturday, I came home from the gym and tested... To my dismay I was over 200. Ok,that was a bit of a surprise, but I took a correction dose, and tried to shrug it off. The next reading would surely be better, right?! WRONG!!! Hours later, it still hadn't come down (it was in the low 200s)...which didn't make sense. When I took that reading, I took a correction, and also had not eaten for the rest of the afternoon! Usually, things would have come down considerably, so this was strange for me. The next time I ate, it was 8 pm... I, obviously, wasn't happy with things, but what could I do?
THe next morning, I tested and, again, I was high ... I was still hovering in the 200s. No, that wasn't exactly what I was hoping to see, but I was sort of relieved that it wasn't higher. Anyways, I ate my breakfast of virtually little to no carbs and then went to the gym... After the gym, I tested again- this time I was even higher . I rang in at lovely 300 ** note my sarcasm**! I freaked out a bit. I had just about had it with everything. And my rage, frustration, and sadness kind of took over. I did pull it together, but it took me a long while to do that. However, I felt emotionally and physically spent at that point...
Usually, I would try to not eat too much and try to wait and see if my blood sugar came down at all. Not this time! I was like screw that, I'm hungry and I'm eating... so I got a good lunch-nothing extreme, but enough to keep me satisfied.
I was still running high all evening... When I got home that night, my blood sugar was even higher- My next test was 425! . I that point, I had had it. I took some insulin... and took some more... and took some more. Yes, I even took a correction by syringe. Surely, that would be enough to stabelize my blood sugar.
Sadly, this morning things were not any better . I still was in the 200s! WTF!
The thought that my site might be the culprit had entered my mind, but I had dismissd it... why? I don't know. But, now I realized that my site was definitely the problem. First, it was swollen all around the site & sore. And, it was painful when I took a bolus! Two signs that something is going on!
**Ok, little confession, I left this site in a little longer -ok, a lot longer- than I should have. I had misplaced my serter and, being a big baby, I couldn't bring myself to insert a new site without one... I have never manually insered one. Also, I thought I would find it. But, no such luck!**
So here I was with horrible blood sugars, a swollen/sore site, and to top things off I was a complete emotional mess. I didn't know what to do, but I came up with plan. I thought I would drive to work, look for the serter, and take things from there. Since I work for a hospital, I thought I could always go to Employee health if I couldn't find it. And, hopefully, they'd be able to help me out.
Like I said, I didn't find it and at that point, I was so upset! I showed up at work, looked around for my serter, but found nothing. All it took was for one of my coworkers to comment on how I looked (ok, I looked like a mess) and I broke down... My coworkers probably thought I completely lost it, which I pretty much had. But one was nice and offered to walk with me to EH.
Employee health couldn't help me out... She listened to me, but told me that she couldn't do anything bout my poor blood sugar control or the site. She suggested that I see my Endocrinologist.
I should have listened to her, but I thought there MUST be something they can do. It is a hospital afterall. I asked her if I could go to the ER. I thought they could at least look at the site, see if my blood counts were off (which would indicate an infection) and possibly help bring my blood sugar down.
They were little help, if any. They didn't know anything about insulin pumps and very little bout Diabetes. Plus, the whole department was completely disorganized. Yes, they drew blood and they tested my blood sugar, but that was the extent of things. There was no communication between the doctor and the staff and it took at least twice as long as it should have...
By the time I got out of there, I had spent a good 3 to 4 hours in the ER with nothing being resolved. At that point, I just wanted to go... Out of desperation and, basically, a whim, I decided to take a shot (no pun intended) and call my Endo's office to see if they had an extra serter onhand. For once in my life, something did work out! They had an extra serter, plus they were nice enough to assist me with back up long acting insulin. Not to mention they even took the time to examine the bad site and write out a script for an anti-biotic... Why didn't I just listen to EH when she told me to go there first???! Leave it to me to do things the hard way!
I apologize that this post is SO long, but I had to share this... Hope no one else expereiences a day like this anytime soon- I am SOO glad it's over! And, one more thing, I tested my blood sugar before dinner, and I was at an awesome 78! :) Rough day, but at least it ended ok.
I don't think I need to explain why I chose this song~ feeling a little "bent" is an understatement.
__________________
My blood sugar over the weekend was absolutely HORRIBLE . Saturday, I came home from the gym and tested... To my dismay I was over 200. Ok,that was a bit of a surprise, but I took a correction dose, and tried to shrug it off. The next reading would surely be better, right?! WRONG!!! Hours later, it still hadn't come down (it was in the low 200s)...which didn't make sense. When I took that reading, I took a correction, and also had not eaten for the rest of the afternoon! Usually, things would have come down considerably, so this was strange for me. The next time I ate, it was 8 pm... I, obviously, wasn't happy with things, but what could I do?
THe next morning, I tested and, again, I was high ... I was still hovering in the 200s. No, that wasn't exactly what I was hoping to see, but I was sort of relieved that it wasn't higher. Anyways, I ate my breakfast of virtually little to no carbs and then went to the gym... After the gym, I tested again- this time I was even higher . I rang in at lovely 300 ** note my sarcasm**! I freaked out a bit. I had just about had it with everything. And my rage, frustration, and sadness kind of took over. I did pull it together, but it took me a long while to do that. However, I felt emotionally and physically spent at that point...
Usually, I would try to not eat too much and try to wait and see if my blood sugar came down at all. Not this time! I was like screw that, I'm hungry and I'm eating... so I got a good lunch-nothing extreme, but enough to keep me satisfied.
I was still running high all evening... When I got home that night, my blood sugar was even higher- My next test was 425! . I that point, I had had it. I took some insulin... and took some more... and took some more. Yes, I even took a correction by syringe. Surely, that would be enough to stabelize my blood sugar.
Sadly, this morning things were not any better . I still was in the 200s! WTF!
The thought that my site might be the culprit had entered my mind, but I had dismissd it... why? I don't know. But, now I realized that my site was definitely the problem. First, it was swollen all around the site & sore. And, it was painful when I took a bolus! Two signs that something is going on!
**Ok, little confession, I left this site in a little longer -ok, a lot longer- than I should have. I had misplaced my serter and, being a big baby, I couldn't bring myself to insert a new site without one... I have never manually insered one. Also, I thought I would find it. But, no such luck!**
So here I was with horrible blood sugars, a swollen/sore site, and to top things off I was a complete emotional mess. I didn't know what to do, but I came up with plan. I thought I would drive to work, look for the serter, and take things from there. Since I work for a hospital, I thought I could always go to Employee health if I couldn't find it. And, hopefully, they'd be able to help me out.
Like I said, I didn't find it and at that point, I was so upset! I showed up at work, looked around for my serter, but found nothing. All it took was for one of my coworkers to comment on how I looked (ok, I looked like a mess) and I broke down... My coworkers probably thought I completely lost it, which I pretty much had. But one was nice and offered to walk with me to EH.
Employee health couldn't help me out... She listened to me, but told me that she couldn't do anything bout my poor blood sugar control or the site. She suggested that I see my Endocrinologist.
I should have listened to her, but I thought there MUST be something they can do. It is a hospital afterall. I asked her if I could go to the ER. I thought they could at least look at the site, see if my blood counts were off (which would indicate an infection) and possibly help bring my blood sugar down.
They were little help, if any. They didn't know anything about insulin pumps and very little bout Diabetes. Plus, the whole department was completely disorganized. Yes, they drew blood and they tested my blood sugar, but that was the extent of things. There was no communication between the doctor and the staff and it took at least twice as long as it should have...
By the time I got out of there, I had spent a good 3 to 4 hours in the ER with nothing being resolved. At that point, I just wanted to go... Out of desperation and, basically, a whim, I decided to take a shot (no pun intended) and call my Endo's office to see if they had an extra serter onhand. For once in my life, something did work out! They had an extra serter, plus they were nice enough to assist me with back up long acting insulin. Not to mention they even took the time to examine the bad site and write out a script for an anti-biotic... Why didn't I just listen to EH when she told me to go there first???! Leave it to me to do things the hard way!
I apologize that this post is SO long, but I had to share this... Hope no one else expereiences a day like this anytime soon- I am SOO glad it's over! And, one more thing, I tested my blood sugar before dinner, and I was at an awesome 78! :) Rough day, but at least it ended ok.
I don't think I need to explain why I chose this song~ feeling a little "bent" is an understatement.
__________________
posted by Andrea at
9:13 PM
7 Comments:
Andrea, my heart bleeds. The dark clouds WILL disperse. Look, D really throws us loopers. I hate not understanding what the fuck is going on, but sometimes that is just what we have to accept. You have been SO depressed for SO long that you must have a zillion stress hormones zooming around in your blood. Turn up your temporary basal rate, if you haven't already done that. So did they find any other infections in your body when they did the lab tests? Hej, your endocrinologist team really did seem to want to help you along here.... Don't say no to any help offered, even though it is YOU that has to balance the D. I swear by exercise, but first check that you do NOT have ketones. If you do not have ketones, take a long hard walk. It helps against stress and might bring the bg down a bit. If I am really stressed out I need MUCM MORE insulin and exercise will not help reduce it. Try not to think about why this is happening, just concentrate all thought on balancing it now. Ironically when I get high bg values, ust when I need some help from both my brain and my emotions, my brain just goes in circles and my emotions do everything to prevent me from getting a handle on the situation. I use to have a post-it on my desk: when the bg gets high - get it down NOW. I really needed that note to get me going in the right direction b/c my head and heart want to lead me rapidly downhill. Come on Andrea, you can do it. Get the bg down, through less food, more insulin and maybe exercise. THEN you can start thinking again, THEN you can analyze what the hell has happened. Just get the bg value down NOW. Pls send me an email. Don't listen so sad music now, save it for another day. TRY to pull yourself up, do it for me. I care. My heart blleds for other Ds. I think I know what you are going through. Sorry if I am getting out of line here and hammering you.....
Oh man, that does sound like a rough one. It sounds kind of like everything got a bit overthought! Sometimes I make things harder on myself than they need to be. I am glad you got it figured out. Maybe you should practice doing a site without a serter? I have tried the serters, but I learned without them and they are a pain in the bum for me to use. They always fall out and I don’t mind manually inserting them. That being said, I’m glad your sugars are back down to normal!
Oh man, that does sound like a rough one. It sounds kind of like everything got a bit overthought! Sometimes I make things harder on myself than they need to be. I am glad you got it figured out. Maybe you should practice doing a site without a serter? I have tried the serters, but I learned without them and they are a pain in the bum for me to use. They always fall out and I don’t mind manually inserting them. That being said, I’m glad your sugars are back down to normal!
Ok - my question is what is a serter? I wear a pump but I insert the cannula manually (with the long needle). A similar situation happened to me when I first started on the pump - my BS readings were in the 300s for 2 days before I finally thought to change the site and found that the cannula was clogged with blood. Now it is the first thing I think of if I have 2 super high readings in a row for no reason. I HATE having to give myself correction boluses. glad your BS is back to normal!
Hi Andrea............How may I be able to help you?
sometimes it really sucks when those blood sugars just don't come down ... and then it sucks more when you realize that it's all because of the stupid site ... i think half of the time i forget about my site until my pump is telling me no insulin and i have to change it - and at the point i realize i should have done something way sooner ... but the good thing is, atleast it's down now :-D good luck!
Ooch, I came to this one late, and I'm sure by now that everything is clear and on its way to healing. Brendon had a nasty infection at a site and the poor guy could barely walk.
For future reference, maybe you can keep a tube of Emla cream on hand in case of one of those times when you lose your serter again (hopefully you'll never lose it again, but it's good to have a backup plan).
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