Perhaps the worst day in my diabetes career so far!

1

Well what an eventful day..

I started work for a new client today, so was up at 6am preparing for the day ahead.

Standard routine, I wake up, go downstairs sort some coffee and go upstairs jump in the shower... You know the drill...

There I am reaching down to disconnect my pump. "What's this it's not attached. Hmm" I distinctly remember my cat coming into my room and waking me up during the night about 1am pawing at my feet, legs (it's a game he likes to play), upon inspecting the tubing it's been chewed clean through!

Great just what I need, I test and low and behold 360, I then do blood test for ketones and yep we have ketones present. Thanks cat, just what I need this morning...

So I skip breakfast, kick the cat (jokes) correct and get ready for the 75 mile drive for the new client.

I arrive on site at 9:45am, whereby I am dragged into meetings until 14:00. I have still eaten nothing all day, I make my excuses, leave a meeting and test still 297! I correct again and back in I go..

4:30pm rolls around, I test 93. Great I can grab a bite to eat and hopefully things will return to normal. I consume 30g of carbs, bolus, work for another hour and get ready for the drive home...

Test before I set off for the return journey 110. Happy with that. So off I go..

There I am 30 minutes into the journey, I take a wrong turn, start feeling tired and confused. "Oh well I will be home in abit probably just feeling the impact of a crazy day"..

I drive for another 15 minutes, there I am doing 80mph in the fast lane when my vision starts blurring 3 lanes start turning into 6 and I start seeing stars, all I can think is "I am passing out. I need to pull over, Jesus I can't see anything"

I don't know how I managed it, but I swerved across three lanes and managed to brake without skidding, flying into a pull over rest stop for haulage trucks and lorries managing to stop inches from the back a large articulated lorry. Dust everywhere and drenched in sweat.

I really am loosing it at this point can barely make sense of anything and haven't even really twigged that it was diabetes related (too far gone at this point to be logical). I am also having spasms from being so low.

I reach into the glove box get out a testing kit and yep 18 :( I reach for my sweet stash and find a handful of empty wrappers (thanks hungry buddies). I reach for my jacket where my dextros are, I must have left it on the back of my office chair.

So there I am sat in a lay by, cars and lorries whizzing by with a blood sugar of 18 and no way to correct!

Nightmare! I am still struggling to keep awake, I sit there for what seems like forever wandering what the hell to do.

I drag myself out of the seat and approach the truck ahead of me, there is a guy sleeping in the cab. I bang on his window and shout "sugar, sugar"...

He looks at me like I am insane but finally twigs I think.. He has no fast acting glucose but kindly gives me his lunch box, I give him the thumbs up sit on the floor ha and eat his sandwiches and chocolate bar..

I get back in the car, it takes almost 50 minutes for my bloodsugar to get up and for to start seeing straight.

All the while panicking that the police are on their way, last thing I need is to have my licence revoked and a dangerous driving charge. Which is invariably what would have happened, as they are very hot on such things in the UK.

Long story short. I eventually get back on the road, pull over at the services about 5 miles away whereby I have a sit down, drink and a meal.

I am still shaking at this point and feel very very cold, I have gone lower in the past put have never been that close to going unconscious and never whilst driving a car at 80mph!

I suddenly get the most intense craving for sugar I have ever had and consume a silly amount of junk food, put it this way about four days worth of carbs in one sitting ha. I must have looked gross :) Bolus.

Get home, silly high again, another low 1 hour later..

So all in all a bloody disaster of a day if I do say so myself.. So here I am feeling pretty drained, extremely guilty for the risk I caused to other people on the road and very tired and fed up..

Haven't plucked up the courage to tell anyone else about it yet, as I know I will get an ear bashing. So thought I would vent with you guys..

Not sure if I should be angry at myself, the cat, diabetes or all three!

All seems unbelievable reading it back to be honest..

2

Wow! What an awful day! I would just stick with diabetes for the anger! The cat was just being a cat (which I remind myself when my own 18 year old girl is driving me crazy!). And you? You don't deserve to beat up on yourself! Your day was hard enough without it! You got through it and I'm so glad you are ok. I'm sure you are still shaking from how really worse that whole thing could have gone. And sounds like you actually did what you needed to do work wise? Wow, so glad you're ok. Do something nice and relaxing this evening or whatever time it is over there!

3

Yes the cat is forgiven, the little bugger..

I do genuinely feel awful about not stopping or realising sooner,I don't know what I would have done if I had caused a serious accident. Would not have been able to live myself on that one.

I guess I will be more vigilant with testing and driving I think. I always test before a long journey and have a stash in my glovebox, this approach has served me well for the last 10 years of driving, just not this time :(

Think I shall attempt to chill out and watch a film or something.. Still feeling a little wired at present.

4

Don't be too hard on yourself theres no shame in what happend...you learnd a big lession...if you do it again then shame on you..

Buy a big bag full of Pastilles...hide them everywhere...If my wife finds them there history...;-)

5

Oh my goodness. I am so sorry this all happened to you! I am so glad you are ok!! Don't feel guilty, though. The important thing is that you are alright. I hope your day tomorrow is better!

6

Ha I went shopping yesterday and these were 50%, so I now have 10 large bags in the car..

7 sweets for 19g of carbs, sounds about perfect for me ha.

Plus I am sick of Jelly beans, must have consumed about 10kg of them since January ha.

7

Man, what an utterly horrid day! Can only imagine how wiped out you feel from such an ordeal. Must be some angels on your shoulders to have seen you safely through all that unscathed. All we need is luck & good timing. You had both.

What you experienced can come on so suddenly. I'm impressed how you handled it. Give yourself credit. When low, I'm a sobbing, disoriented mess incapable of logical thought or action.

Here's to far better, less eventful days.

8

Yup, THAT is a screwed up day. Getting mad at yourself isn't going to do you any good. A little irked at the cat would probably be healthy. The rest of your day was just a result of chemistry gone wild. Not to minimize what you went through -- that was a scary day. There's no worse feeling than reaching into the pocket you expect to hold glucose tabs and finding it empty. All you can do with this ration is to learn what you can from it, stash a couple more rolls of glucose tabs in a few more pockets, and stay calm and carry on. :)

Welcome to the Judgment Free zone. I once took a spill down a concrete set of stairs while going very low. I ended up in a pile at the bottom of the stairs with a guy asking me "my wife's a diabetic, are you low?" I was on my way to pick up lunch so I spent a lot of time feeling kind of dumb. Not useful. A lot of our management skills come from having these experiences. I'm glad that you were able to make it home safely. Dealing with the spikes and valleys after a significant low requires a bit of attention for HOURS. Diabetes is sometimes an inconsiderate and inconvenient mistress.

9

Buckley - I'm glad you're OK and that the truck driver proved to be a Good Samaritan. When I get low like that, it seems I get enmeshed in the task at hand and refuse to think about the cause. That only makes things worse. You're lucky your sugar starved brain told you to pull off the road.

This raises another issue. I know most T1 diabetics like to think that they have no disability and are loathe to make any concessions to not being as capable as any non-diabetic.

Looking back on your situation, don't you think you would have been better served by taking a day off from work to take care of yourself? Your blood sugar was very high and you measured ketones. I'm sure there was nothing that you accomplished that day at work that would have justified losing your life or injuring someone else.

I'm ambivalent about this issue but think perhaps that we diabetics should make the occasional concession to our condition. The fact of the matter is that we're not as capable as a non-diabetic. We can become impaired. I don't mean to discount the talent and drive that each of us can offer, we simply need to recognize reality.

I'm glad you're well and I appreciate your story.