This was originally posted to my blog, Diabetes Odyssey.
I’m just in the mood to write, so let’s see where this goes.
It seems sometimes that when one thing in life gets better something else needs to give you a hard time. For us diabetics that thing is usually our BG.
I recently started a new job and I knew this meant adjustments that included working on my BG control. A new schedule (or any changes in routine at all) always must include adjustments to insulin dosing. My BGs have not been behaving at all. I’ve had a couple mild lows but mostly they’ve been high.
I really don’t want to have to raise my basal even more than it already is.
I’m not eating too much or many carbs since this is a desk job. I make sure to walk on my breaks, but mostly I just sit at my desk and use my brain.
I’m actually not any more or less physically active than I was before the job, or eating any differently, so I’m thinking that’s not the problem. The only two things I can really find suspect is my stress level and the fact that I’ve been sick this past week. I thought it was allergies at first, but now I’m thinking this might actually be a cold. Also, I have been taking antibiotics for staph infection as well. The only issue here is that the illnesses do not exactly coincide with the high BG levels. The stress does, though. But can stress (of learning and adjusting to a new job, etc) cause BG to rise as much as 100 points and stay up consistently?
I do not want to adjust my basal rates quite yet because I’m not sure if this is going to continue or if things will return to normal soon. I know, I know, temporary changes in basal is good… but, you understand, I’m worried about going seriously low at work. It’s a new job and I just don’t want to have to deal with that kind of drama. Especially since a couple co-workers recently were talking about a diabetic a while back who had “an episode”. The way they were talking made me uncomfortable, it was almost as if they were blaming the diabetic for bringing it on themselves. And blaming the diabetic for making them feel uncomfortable and scaring them!
Really?! WTF! That’s how you react and talk about a serious, life-threatening event? Blame the ‘victim’ and make it about you? Wow.
They were also talking as if they knew all about diabetes but everything they said was wrong and misconceived. They blamed the person for not taking care of themselves, and not eating right among other things. It took everything in me to not butt in and set them straight; they know I’m a type 1 and they were talking right in front of me. I don’t even know anything about this diabetic they were talking about but I wanted to defend them. The only thing that kept me from saying anything is that it would take way more time than we had for me to teach them, and we had already gone off-topic for our meeting as it was by talking about this subject anyway.
These are not bad people at all, they are just ignorant about diabetes.
ANYWAY…
Let’s move on to another recent event.
I recently went on a day trip with some friends and family. This was a foodie trip to LA (about 4ish hours from where I live). We drove down there and had a great time eating at four different stops (Donas, Rock’N Fish, Elbows, and Sweet Rolled Tacos) and walking around at Manhattan Beach. I ate tons of carbs and made sure to bolus for all of them. I stopped eating at about 4:30 in the afternoon. We got home fairly late in the evening and I was expecting my BG to be high. It was 300, higher than I expected. I gave a correction bolus and went to bed.
Then next morning I woke up feeling horrible. I felt that oh so familiar dehydrated feeling we get when we are too high. My body felt stiff and achy, I was dry mouth thirsty. Part of me knew I was high but part of me thought maybe I’m just seriously dehydrated (I’m prone to it). This is when I realized I had not drank and water at all in over 24 hours…and I had spent time walking around on the beach under the sun yesterday.
Whoops. I’m already prone to dehydration, this could be a really bad situation.
First things first, I checked my BG like a responsible diabetic. 598!!! OMG!
OK, there is no way the food I ate yesterday could make me this high today without there being something seriously wrong. I immediately checked my pump, pump line, reservoir, insulin, everything pump and insulin related. Everything looked fine.
My current infusion site was good, I’d been using it for a day before the trip and had no issues with my BG.
So, what’s the issue?
The dehydration. Could being dehydrated make my BG skyrocket like this? Sure, if you’re dehydrated seriously enough.
Wow.
I gave a correction bolus (huge), and proceeded to drink tons of water. Within an hour my BG was down to the low 300’s and as the day progressed it came down to normal.
Drink your water, people.