Monday, March 25, 2013

A 436 Bloodsugar, Lots of Patience & Not Letting It Ruin My Sunday

An apeshit high blood sugar does not have to ruin your Sunday, #fact.
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I'm not sure how the 436 blood sugar happened - All I know is that I went to bed on Saturday night with a new infusion site, 24 units left in my insulin pump, a bgnow of 200 and a correction bolus of 2 units - And I should have been golden.

Cut to Sunday morning at 8:30 am when I woke up with a raging headache, a blood sugar of 436 and moderate ketones. I put in a new infusion site and a brand new reservoir, did a correction bolus of 10 units ( including a bolus for my morning coffee,) drank a huge glass of water and then another one... And  I waited.
Because seriously, what else could I do?

While waiting I had time to think where it all went wrong.
Was it the infusion set that had caused my blood sugar jam up, or was it the 30 grams of Eddy's lowfat vanilla icedcream I'd had after my low carb bowl of chicken soup without rice that I'd eaten for dinner on Saturday night.
Maybe it was those last 24 units of insulin in my reservoir - Had they somehow gone bad??
Did my infusion site somehow become slightly ajar in the middle of the night?
Maybe it was some quadruple threat combo of all of the above.

Or maybe it was diabetes flipping it's bitchswitch just because it could.

So I gave myself a pep talk: This rarely happens Kel, so be grateful it happened on a weekend - Chillout and don't freak, And you know what? OK, as silly as it sounds, be glad this diabetes WTFedness happened on a Sunday instead of a work day. 
I continued to drink water, flipped the channels between CBS Sunday Morning & Animal Planet, chatted about crazy blood sugars on line (and for the record, I was not the only one blowing blood sugar gaskets left and right - See the diabeteslalicousness facebook page,) and just tried to relax.
I refused to get upset because I knew the moment I went apeshit, my numbers would go even more apeshit. Even as my blood sugar jumped to 450 I reminded myself that it was because of the coffee. "A 14 point increase after coffee is nothing - it will go back down," I told myself as I rage bolused 2 units and then jumped in the shower and got dressed. I had plans and I wasn't going to change them because of diabetes, but I did need to push them back a bit.
I read a book and checked my blood sugar again an hour and 15 minutes later - it was 289, by lunch time I was 205 with normal keytones and by 2pm I was 135.
I ate a yogurt and didn't bolus for it, grabbed my water bottle and hopped in the car and dialed my temporary basal rate back to 40%.
I had a 50 minute drive ahead of me & I didn't want to be overwhelmed with insulin swimming through my veins.
I hovered between 120 and 135 for the rest of the afternoon. I spent the rest of the day visiting with my family, did a Trader Joe's pit stop and finally drove back to my house with my temporary basal rate dialed back at 50%,

By the time I drove home and emptied out my car it was 10mm.  I crawled into bed and my blood sugar was 190 - But I wasn't surprised because I'd dialed my pump back for the ride home. I did a correction bolus and this morning I was 102.
Why am I telling you this?? 
Maybe it's because I know you guys "get it," no matter what. And maybe I'm proud that I was able to salvage my Sunday - And that diabetes didn't have the upper hand for long, even when it looked like it very well could have ~

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Love love love this post. Sorry you had such a rough start to your Sunday, but glad you didn't let that stop you. Thank you for sharing your day with us.. I do "get it" and life is sweeter knowing we are all in this together. :)

Bruce in the mountains said...

Took my Sunday school kids to the laser tag arcade after church, had a pizza lunch and played for 3 hours with them. After 2 hours the 2 slices of pizza had me at 345, I knew this would probably happen, whipped out my pen, (back up for pump)and shot 6 units. I didn't let it ruin the day. The site was good, I just change my metabolism on Sundays and pizza with the kids was a no no

Mike Hoskins said...

Nice recovery, K2! Sorry it started out that way, but glad it all balanced out. Lot of times post-Highs I feel so much like crap from the glucoastering that the day seems totally shot, but there are those easier times when things balance out and it's not a ride up and down.

Scott K. Johnson said...

Sorry about the rough ride, Kelly. That's never any fun. Glad you pulled through it though!