So my blood sugars were 204 an hour and a half after lunch, so I gave myself 30 units in the muscle and figured that would take me down pretty low (but at least I wouldn’t be high). I might have given myself more, but I’d run out of insulin, and I’m at work, which is a long way from home. Anyway, my blood sugars just keep going up. I’m now 241 and they’re staying steady. I just keep testing every 2 minutes, and I’m 224, then 234, then 238, then 240, then 241.
Anyway, I’m having a panic attack and crying, because this makes me so mad. I know it’s just for a short period of time and that I’ll go home and give myself a couple hundred units of insulin to make up for this, but that doesn’t make me feel any better now. I don’t want to be 240. I want to be IN RANGE! Or at least low. I’d exercise, but, first off, I’m at work, and secondly, my blood sugars always shoot up really high when I exercise while high.
I just wanted to complain to people who’d understand. I’m completely panicking, even though I keep telling myself it’s no big deal. How can people stand to have high blood sugars? I just don’t get it. Okay, I need to go find myself a paper bag to breathe into before I start hyperventilating.
How can people stand to have high blood sugars? I just don’t get it.
Well, usually it’s not people’s choice to have them …
And I just have to ask (because I find it a bit shocking), 30 units for a correction and a couple hundred when you get home? Are you joking here, or serious? Are you insulin resistant in addition to having type 1? I only ask because a 30 unit correction would be enough to lower my blood sugar by over 1,000 mg/dl, and I’m not particularly insulin sensitive compared to some type 1s (I take about 40-50 units a day). A few hundred units would kill me.
Remember, too, that even “rapid acting” insulin is SLOW. It takes about two to four hours to do its thing and taper off. I’m not sure how much faster injecting into the muscle would be, though, but I’d still expect it to be over an hour to take full effect. So typically after a correction you shouldn’t expect to be in range until several hours later. I typically test two hours after a correction to see if I’ve come down.
Anna, This post has me very concerned for you safety. Are you serious in the amount of fast acting you have taken and will take? If so, I hope somebody can step in here and help you because I am at a loss for words.
Yowza, injecting in your muscle is perhaps a way of getting a fast insulin response, but it can have very unpredictable results. You need to step back and take a breather. I don’t know your insulin sensitivity, but for most, 30 units in muscle would be a bit extreme. And it never makes sense to test every 2 minutes, test every 15 minutes at most.
I know you want to be in range and everyone here feels the same way, they want to quickly get into a good blood sugar range, but you need to do this safely. Your feelings about this appear out of proportion. You are in a panic over this and you feelings over this are extreme. You are a T1, sometimes stuff happens and your blood sugar goes high. You need to safely and smoothly respond to the situation. If you abruptly bring your blood sugar down you can go to low, and that can be much worse than being a bit high.
I looked at your profile and you have an HbA1c of 5% (even 4.8% apparently). I guess I would ask you whether you really are being too harsh on yourself about this level of control. In order to stay at this level, you usually need to severely limit your carbs and take special care with your insulin, bolusing and often correcting. You are exposing yourself to high levels of stress dealing with these variations and I would be very concerned about overcorrecting and having a harsh low. Just be safe. Step back, take a breather and treat yourself with cold careful logic, not panic.
You might want to sit down and talk with your endo or CDE about your blood sugar targets and management strategy. Tight control is all fine and dandy, but using high levels of insulin to bring down highs and then high levels of glucose to recover from lows is a total recipe for disaster.
Fortunately, I fell 50 points in the 10 minutes after I posted this message, so I’m down to a (not terribly) reasonable 190. Hopefully, I will continue to fall.
As to the couple hundred units: I used to do that, regularly, but I’ve cut back somewhat recently. I agree the 30u were probably excessive for 200, but I really don’t like high blood sugars. This is the highest I’ve been for about 5 months, and it makes me very, very mad.
I’ve developed some insulin resistance, because I give myself so much insulin that it becomes less effective, but I’m not too resistant. Usually when I give myself a hundred units or so, I think have to down a 6 cans of soda or something just to remain conscious, but I figure that’s better than being high.
Hey, now. It’s been at least a month since I passed out from a low. Since I used to average a couple a day, all of my healthcare workers are terribly proud of me. Anyway, yes, I refuse to go high. Today, I told myself that I was going to be okay with it, but then it happened, and I just started panicking. As soon as my sugars go down, I know I’m overreacting and being completely ridiculous, but while I’m high, I just can’t think about anything but the high and how awful it is. (I never have any logical reasons to explain why it’s so awful, I just KNOW it is.)
But, yes, to stay at my 4.5 to 5.0 A1c average causes tremendous amounts of stress. I constantly think about my blood sugars, where they are, where they’re going, and I don’t really like it, but I’m obsessive, so I tend to obsess over my diabetes.
“Usually when I give myself a hundred units or so, I think have to down a 6 cans of soda or something just to remain conscious, but I figure that’s better than being high.”
All righty. Anna Martin, shame on you. You need to step back and do some self reflection. A high is “not great,” but overcorrecting to a low with a hundred units is BAD, BAD, BAD. Did I tell you that it was BAD. This is NOT better than a high, and you are fooling yourself if you think you are doing yourself any good. Fine, correct a high, but never do it in a way that puts you at risk for a low, and certainly not a serious low like that.
If you want some help, there are plenty of very experience people here who can help you. But the way you are doing this is unsafe. You need to think about what you are doing. This approach is self destructive and I do hope you will think about this. Please don’t continue this, it is really going to hurt you. And it hurts me to hear you say you are doing this.
Sit back and use the experience to make a plan. ok, you’ve done that before! Haven’t we all!!
Figure what would have helped you this time if you’d had it around? A punching ball, weights, anger management friend.
Your plan: insulin with you at work anytime away from home, tester with double the # strips you’ll need. A reminder of how far down 1 unit takes you. A reminder of how far up 1 gram takes you. Wow! you’re taking 15 x the amount of insulin I’d take for that! You’re only reducing 100 mm/dL. Does 1 unit take you down only 3 mm/dL? I’m learning so much from you!
Your list of never eat this: a list of foods and amounts that put you up there. But no! a refiguring the grams of the foods since they’ll be in the menu tomorrow…
Your list of how to react when (not if) it happens again: sit back, count to 10, look around for that insulin and your reminders, calculate the insulin amount on board.
I hope you realize I’m trying to make you laugh at all my idiocy. Seriously, I’m commisserating with you. And I hope you didn’t overreact with that 30 units. Overreaction without the math can breed overcorrection as a repetitive action.
There is so much to learn from each one of us. Cheer up! And move on! Put it behind you!
Anna…I totally agree with everything bsc said and I think he said it in a very understanding and tactful manner. I will probably not do as well. I’m shocked by your post and the risks you are taking with your well-being. Taking massive amounts of fast-acting insulin and then having to “gulp six cans of soda” to avoid passing out from the consequent hypo, is possibly worse for your diabetes than being high to begin with. Not only are wild swings in blood sugar found to put us at risk for complications, but over-treating highs to the extent you reported is putting yourself at risk for seizure, coma and death. I understand the desire to avoid complications but if you kill yourself what is the point??
Your description of your reaction to the occasional high blood sugar makes me think there is something else going on for you other than just the desire to maintain a good A1C or avoid the risk of complications. There is something about seeing the high numbers that seems to be affecting your very sense of self and putting you into a panic. I strongly encourage you to get a referral to a therapist, preferably one experienced in working with people with Diabetes and to work through this issue before you put yourself at any more risk.
#$^#&@$%@%ing insurance company denied me. And my appeal. And my appeal of the appeal. I hate insurance companies. (And, no, I promptly fell 100 points in about 20 minutes, so I didn’t get to 242. I feel much better now.)
Dude. You’re making it sound way too complicated. It’s so much easier to just shoot yourself full of insulin and know that you’re going to be 40 or so in an hour. Trust me on this. And now I can look at it logically and develop a plan, but the next time I’m high, I’m gonna be reaching for a 50 unit syringe and filling it full a couple of times.
Of course I know it’s self-destructive, but…I’d much rather pass out than experience a panic attack due to high blood sugars. Well, maybe not. Actually, yes, I would. (Not at work, though - they’re going to fire me the next time I pass out.) At least when I pass out, I’m not conscious of feeling awful.
And, yes, I know it’s going to hurt me. It’s hurt me a great deal already - I’ve lost several jobs, broken some bones, owe/d about $10,000 in hospital bills, etc. But that still doesn’t prevent me from being terrified of high blood sugars and starting to hyperventilate anytime I see myself going up. And nothing’s really ever helped. (Yes, I’ve tried extensive therapy, but it’s not a terribly common problem. They usually just tell me not to panic, which doesn’t help.)
Anyway, I know it’s horrible, but it’s the way I’ve done things for the past 5 years or so, and it’s a really hard pattern to break. I try to take steps to improve myself, and I am somewhat better - like I said, I haven’t passed out in a month, but that still doesn’t fix me.
Anna,
I have little else to add but these two comments:
- Anxiety and stress will also elevate your blood sugars, so that is one factor that is within your control (and costs less than insulin and test strips to manage), that will help you avoid some BG highs.
- BSC said it: you have a pretty low A1c, so your averages are pretty decent (granted that we can have good A1cs as a result of combining highs and lows). Try to not be so hard on yourself.
No honey, it’s not easier to overdose yourself. If a little is good, a lot is not better. Know you hate highs & no one likes them.
Since you’re concerned about highs, you should be equally worried about what crashing down too fast is also doing to you. To me, one of the worst feelings is plummeting after a high. Makes me feel awful. The swings between high & too low is extremely damaging.
I’d be dead within an hour from a 30 unit correction. Hope you weren’t serious about giving yourself a couple hundred units of insulin to make up for this. There is no “making up for it.”
Know you’ve written here about your lows & fears of highs. Please, please stop taking revenge on your body. Come here the next time you’re high & talk to us before ravaging yourself with too much insulin.
With your history of persistent lows, it’s surprising you weren’t approved for a CGM.
Panic attacks - whatever the cause- can be treated with a combination of therapy and medication. If you had a therapist who told you “just don’t panic”, you are right, that doesn’t help, and I would suggest switching therapists. This is not a diabetes problem, it’s an anxiety problem. It often takes time to find the right therapist and the right dose of the right medication. There are lots of ways to be self-destructive, and as diabetics, we have some pretty scary ones at our fingertips. Please don’t give up on seeking the help you obviously want and need.
Okay anna this is my take from living with type 1 for 16 yrs and being a paramedic.
from my diabetic take on this:
- you are testing way to much which can lead to insulin stacking which is what it looks like you are doing.
- Lows make me feel like junk and I would not take a insulin dose with the intention of going low. it would not be safe for me nor anyone around me. I mean think about it what about driving in the car and you pass out you could kill someone!
- these hospital visits got to be adding up in the bill dept is that not motivation to keep control?
- Do you know what stress this causes on your friends and family when this happens? I do being diabetic when I go low I have no clue how others feel or act when trying to help me but because I am a medic I see it in the eyes of family and friends when we get called out for a low BG.
- this would limit the things I enjoy in life since I would have to worry about my lows.
- I think of it like this I would rather under dose and still run slightly high that way I can dose again later and not over do it. but with taking to much you can only take so much before you die
Paramedic point of view:
- Hypoglycemia CAN KILL you!
- you can lose brain cells and risk brain death if not resolved quickly.
- Please don’t drive it is one thing to put your life at risk with a low but we you drive low you could be risking others lives as well.
- Please get with your ENDO it seems you need to get a better diabetes education.
- just a little piece of what happens with diabetics in the back of my ambulance: we get called out to the patient find out they are diabetic then check the bg’ sugar comes up low if patient is awake I give the gel or juice if they fight me then glucogon. if that doesn’t help then on to IV D50 which we have to use a larger gauge needle to place IV because D 50 is like syrup to the vein. then in the back of the ambulance to the ER we go. then to the room where everyone is trying to get you back to normal which might take a couple of days so there goes what ever plans you have for the you now have to spend in the hospital.
So with all that being said I pray you don’t have to be in an ambulance in a long time and that you get with your d team and find a happy medium. you can do this you just have to work at it.
it has become very apparent in the way of this topic that you are a clear and present danger to yourself and those around you. you have suicidal intentions and feel that is okay. you may not be out right stating your intent of suicide but you have stated out right intentions to harm yourself which may result in the harm of others (i.e. if you drive … EVER.) and yourself and have acknowledged that you understand what you are doing.
If anyone here knows where Anna Martin lives or any way to contact her I really implor them to call 911 and inform them of her intentions. " I’m gonna be reaching for a 50 unit syringe and filling it full a couple of times" is a clear statement of intent
Anna,possibly totally of topic ?? Mid Sept 2009 was one of your last comments -April 2010 , when you came on board again …what were you up to for the past half year plus , if you care to discuss ?
no one is attacking those who NEED to control their diabetes that way. But it’s been established that she is doing this on purpose and does NOT NEED to be doing this.
She really needs HELP… and more than I think anyone can offer here