Well this is not a great start to a Monday. I am thankful I don’t work until the afternoon today!
You know it’s never good when you’re up at 4:30 AM with high blood sugar and ketones, changing pump cartridges. But this time it’s a first (and entirely my fault).
Last time I changed my pump cartridge I decided to only use the bit of insulin that was left in the vial, which only came out to 50-something units. I should have realized that was little more than a day’s worth, but didn’t think of it.
Last night I did a bolus to cover a snack at around 10:00.
I went to bed at around 11:30, with a blood sugar of 6.3 (113 mg/dl).
At around 12:30 my pump ran out of insulin, completely.
At around 4:30 I woke up to my pump alarming. I kept pressing OK to shut it up but then realized, as I was tossing and turning unable to get back to sleep, that it was alarming an abnormal amount. Then I realized that I had to pee and my mouth and throat were incredibly dry.
I start thinking, “Uh oh,” and get up to see what’s up with my pump and why I feel so high.
That’s when I realize my pump says it’s out of insulin. And I’m going, “What?!” at the same time as I’m checking ketones (positive, of course) and then it’s coming together that I haven’t had any insulin in about four hours.
Blood sugar was 21.3 (383 mg/dl). Ketones were surprisingly only moderate, probably thanks to doing a meal bolus at 10:00 last night.
Needless to say I’ve now got a full pump and a correction bolus on board, and am about to have some water and try and go back to bed for an hour or two before checking on things again. My old Cozmo used to alarm louder and vibrate and get really insistent when it ran out of insulin, but it appears the Animas just does a regular old alarm with no vibration, if vibration is turned off, which is probably why it didn’t wake me up sooner.
I usually sleep until 7:30 and I am SO glad I woke up at 4:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep! Judging from experience with bad sets this is probably the type of high I’ll end up fighting to bring down all morning and then I’ll go to work and my coworkers will have no idea that I’ve been up half the night dealing with diabetes issues. Which is why I need to get a bit more sleep so I’m not a zombie when I show up there this afternoon …
Ugh… don’t you hate the necessary wasting of insulin that goes along with a pump? Oftentimes I will re-inject the little bit of insulin left in an old reservoir back into the vial, looking to extend its life as long as I can. Sometimes when I’m at the end of a vial, I’ll just use it to “top off” the reservoir I’m already using. It depends on how “frugal” I’m feeling on that particular day.
But I’m glad you know what happened and for how long you’ve been without insulin. That’ll help you to get back on-track in no time. Which I’m sure you will (if you haven’t already). But you’re right… sometimes you need to go to work completely frazzled by the experience you just had, while you’re co-workers are completely oblivious to what you’ve been through. Best of luck to you!
Hope the rest of your day went smoothly Jen! I agree, not a fun way to start a week. Glad you woke up to what was going on sooner rather than later.