This is the only place I can go to share what’s really going on with my diabetes and have several people really get it.
Today is one of those days when having Type 1 makes me feel so isolated. I had to leave work at lunch today because my blood sugar was 371!! due to a leaking infusion set. I felt nausus and headed to the bathroom to use my usual toliet paper on the infusion set routine. (It’s the only way that I can tell if it’s leaking if my set is in a spot that I can’t see.) Then I had to pull my boss out of a meeting to tell her that I needed to go home because my set was leaking, my blood sugar was 371 and I felt like puking on her shoes. She kindly offered to give me a ride home which I declined. The last thing I wanted was somone unfamiliar with Diabetes freaking out if I threw up in her car.
I got home and dug out my emergancy needles, gave myself 12 units, which was my best guess of how much insulin I should’ve gotten delivered since breakfast, rested my head against the coolness of the toliet bowl (any Cosby fans? That was me this afternoon.) Then I threw up 3 times! I hate throwing up! I had an excellent record of not throwing up for 2 years that just went down the drain this afternoon.
I got my infusion set replaced, dug out my keytone strips and checked. I was the 2nd darkest purple on the label! I haven’t had keytones since I was first diagnosed 18 years ago. I called my husband and left a message on his cell phone. He’s a teacher so I knew he’d have a prep period coming up soon. I couldn’t remember what to do when I have keytones so I called my Doctor’s office which was closed for lunch until 1:30. That’s when I decided to call my mom. I’m glad she was home because I just needed some reassurance that I was doing all I could do to bring things back under control. I called my Doctor’s office at 1:35 and my lovely disfunctional cell phone decided to hang up as soon as I got a live person, So I got out the home phone and tried again. My Doctor and his nurse are off on Tuesday’s so I got put through to the voicemail of the nurse on call, who didn’t call me back until 5pm. I guess I should’ve been more adement when I spoke to the receptionist that I needed to talk to a live person before then but I didn’t think about it. There I was, waiting for a call back from my hubby, my doctor’s office and my mom. Just another moment when I realized that this disease is really totally mine to manage the best I can. It was the most lonely feeling.
When I got the call back from the nurse, she wanted to know if I was still vomiting. I told her no, but I hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast and that my latest test said I was 175 and keytone strip now said I had none. So she told me to go to the ER if the vomiting returned or my blood sugars started to creep back up. I asked what they would do for me there, that I couldn’t do from home and she said Hydrate me and monitor me for infections and make sure all my internal organs continue to work properly. In case all the type 1’s weren’t aware, your diabetic body can decide it wants to shut everything down without asking your permission first. So I’ve had some Diet Ginger Ale and some Saltines thanks to my caring hubby. It’s been an hour and everything is staying down. Yahoo! but I still feel like I got hit by a bus. I hope this wears off before I have to go to work tomorrow.
My hubby and I discussed that if this happens in the future that I need to call his schools office and they’ll get him a message to call me ASAP. He first said to just have them transfer the call to his classroom line but I told him that I didn’t think he’d want to deal with this kind of news in front of all of his students. But someday he may not get a choice. I do everything I can but some days just sucker punch me.