I have lows all the time since I started pumping, not fun, and I get so angry, and tell my husband you don't understand. I don't like glucose tabs, but I know they are the best thing to use, I usually do 1 cup of milk and a cookie. Last night I had a 49 had a juice box, but then woke up this a.m. at 207, but blaming it on site in too long, but who knows, some people say a liver glucose dump, but I have never believed that.
I don’t think glucose tabs are the best thing if you don’t like them. For me, the hypoglycemic buzz is pretty negative so I want something that I like to eat as it provides immediate catharsis that helps take the edge off my attitude because it tastes positive and I know it will work. To me, glucose tabs are nasty and dusty.
Hi -
I've been pumping for about 6 years and therefore, not new to insulin. I only corrected once at about 2 hours which is when I also bumped up the insulin.
Maurie
Hey D Twin -
Bumping the basal was overkill and what's worse is that I always turn the basal back down once I'm under 150 so that I don't go low. I didn't do it this time for some reason.
I usually won't walk unless I'm bumped up to 120 and I was at 128 to start.
The third mistake is that I didn't grasp the implications of dropping from 128 to 48 in 40 minutes. When I was pump training, the trainer said that if you drop under 30 you should immediately take 30 grams of carb. When I asked why, she said that you could be dropping too quickly for 15 grams to help. I understand that now.
We're more like adolescents now. We've been shooting insulin long enough to think we know it all until we discover we don't.
Maurie
Insulin, meth, cocaine. All the same thing :-)
Maurie
I've been having the same big breakfast (around 60 carbs net of fiber)for years but recently I've found that if I eat just a few more I'll spike. I think I have to re-calibrate breakfast; for years it was my steadiest meal.
Maurie
In the long run, it’s easier to quit coke and meth than to stop taking insulin!
I'm a glucose tab fan; everything else even jelly beans seem to take a little longer to bring me up. I'll use jelly beans if I'm trying to nudge up a 75 but I don't trust them. I'll have to get some gummy savers and try them out for those non-emergency bumps.
When something like that happens to me it usually is that the insulin outran my food. It actually happened last night - it's not been a great week. I had dinner and about 1:20 later I was at 39. I took four glucose tabs. Right before bed I was at 87 which didn't make much sense as I figured I'd be high. I went to bed and woke up an hour later having some pretty weird dreams. Tested - 200. The food finally hit....
Maurie
Yep, that sounds about right!
What an awful week. I tend to have insulin hassles in clusters just like I have life hassles. But usually they are things I can just deal with. Your going unconscious experience was a cut above (below?) the usual. Things where we actually feel in danger are a bit harder to just shrug off. Take care of yourself.
The Starburst Jelly Beans ROCK! I usually wait until the post-Easter sale to nab a bunch (if there's any left - they're a popular item)
What is it with the white bread sandwhich? I ate those in the hospital though, lol. Do they carry them around with them or do you have to have white bread at home for them to make it because we have no white bread fortunately, lol?
This kind of reminds me of an experience with my father a long time ago. I had called an ambulance for him, he was having trouble breathing, he was breathing very rapidly and he had a rapid heart rate. First a police officer arrived and while my father was on the floor head down trying to stop himself from passing out this idiot started asking him what drugs he was on, he said specifically illegal drugs, not medications as I recall- I have no idea why the police even showed up since I called an ambulance not the police. I asked him where the ambulance was.
Then when they showed up one of the ambulance attendants started trying to say that my father was only hyperventilating and nothing was seriously wrong. When he got to the er, this paramedic had told one of the nurses about his theory so they had him in a non urgent area. When she hooked my father up to an ekg and saw his rapid heart beat and arrhythmia she said ■■■■ and immediately started getting more help, they moved him into the urgent area of the er right away.
Some of these people are just not very intelligent to say the least, I think the bar needs to be much higher.
I am with you, AR, in that I hate glucose tabs. But I also know they work better than almost anything in terms of speed (I think the glucose liquid shots work a bit faster). When I am slightly hypo, I go for the Starburst. When it's a bad situation, I go for the glucose tabs. I want the sure thing--I want my brain to stop hurting. But glucose tabs really are nasty.
Maurie, I really am sorry that you went through such a horrible experience, and are in addition having a bad week. But by sharing, you help us all. It is a wake up call to me.
I have been as low as 52 from dehydration. Walking and moderate exercise will drop my levels too. I do have a tendency to increase sensitivity to insulin when I exercise so can over estimate my insulin needs. I do try to call someone just for conversation while I am waiting for my glucose to increase. That way, if I drop the phone they can call 911 if I am by myself.
Ahhh, yea. Thats what I thought, but you guys don't count the 'bump up in basal' as correction, then. Did you bump the basal because of these post-breakfast spikes? No body has ever explained some of these subtle details about basal adjustments, thats why I'm too scared to be on a pump.
Sometimes my Doc office lends out a Dexcom CGM that they have on hand for people to try. If your doc has one, maybe you could borrow it, just to get you through this adjustment period. I bet if you tell them you have had some severe lows they will jump to get you one.
Hi Maurie. "We're more like adolescents now. We've been shooting insulin long enough to think we know it all until we discover we don't." Between your low and my high, I'm on new information overload right now! I think I'm going to have better control from now on, though, because of all this info. Thanks.
After reading this, I guess there could be many reasons for a high after a low, but on this one I did not over treat my low, but I did have plenty of carbs before the low happened or maybe it truly is the liver glucose dump........
I suppose they just see so much overdose and illegal drug issues, ya know. but yeah, it's what my friends had at their house, white bread. yuck! and the EMT packed it so full of icky processed meat/cheese. yeah...they said, i think, i was kind of out of it, are you taking any illegal drugs (HUH!), "NO"! Asked again, are you a meth addict, 'what...NO'! it was so ridiculous, over and over again. 3 paramedics showed up, no cops, thank god. it was just this one dude who kept asking me about meth. I told my CDE this, she was pissed. I was offended a bit, but...I don't know what they deal with on a day to day basis.