5:00 am...
I woke up and tested.
114
Took my meds (the other stuff for thyroid) and plugged into my pump 114 + 77 carbs to calculate that I need 7.9 units...it took about 35 seconds to deliver while I measured out my english muffin 27, peanut butter 6, jam 12, tea with milk (12), and yogurt (20). I expected that In 2 hours it will probably be around
123
or so normal day in normal land at least I hope as today is Sunday ,and I am not as active on a Sunday.
I chatted with my buddy told me that his A1C was a 7.1. He is thrilled because he was a 9 three months ago. He has lost 30 pounds. He is a type2. He takes one shot a day and oral medication. I don't have the heart to tell him that mine was a 5.8. I am a type 1. I have lost 30 lbs too, and hope by 6-6th to be able to proudly wear a 2 piece bathing suit.
There are good days and bad days. Today has been a good day so far. Last Thursday was ranked up there as one of my worst.
Somehow my connector to my pump came loose when I was getting dressed. I didn't notice that it was off and stuck in my panty hose...where the slow drip, drip, and odor of the insulin were concealed. I ate 80 grams of fast carbs..starbucks coffee chocolate latte (40)(I don't do it often, but sometimes I just have to have chocolate in the morning.), yogurt (20), and a cereal bar (19) low in sugar only 5 grams per bar. During 2nd period I felt weird. I had this strange taste in my mouth like the coffee was off. An odor that burned the nose. Numb sensation in mouth. NUMB! Get numb in mouth and tounge when I have a low. Brain seems to fumble at this idea as I didn't feel numb..felt sort of queasy and the taste in my mouth...like amnonia. SIgnals were wrong, but I follewed my best intincts and tested my BS. It was
651!!!
I blinked and repeated the test.
648
Not good. Half panicked I called down to the office for a aid to cover my class. I also phoned the school nurse, who called my Dr., who returned a phone call with some instuctions. The school was short handed...and an emergency room visit was out of the question. It took the office 20 minutes to get a warm body to watch my kids. She brought 3 bottles of water with her. I went to restroom and injected 12 units of humalog. Reconnected pump and set it to a 2 basal. I drank 1 bottle of water and waited 1 hours. Then retested with my fingers crossed. My BS was down to
400.
(Do you know when your BS is at 600 that the pump will not calculate a bolus?) There were no arrows from the sensor indicating that it was moving quickly up or down. Then again, my sensor still told me that my BS was 183. But was still showing how fast the glucose was moving. I programmed my pump and took another bolus for 4 units. I drank another bottle of water. Retested 2 hours later and BS was
350.
Still too high, I wanted it to go down FASTER! Sometimes I hate to wait. An asprin would have helped but did not have any in my supply case. I was too high to go run up and down a few flights of stairs. Needed to hang on and wait. Lunch came and I drank another bottle of water. My collegues in the faculty lunchroom asked if I were feeling ill. I told them my BS was too high to eat. One asked if they needed to get me a coke. I politely said no. I felt terrible. Like being pulled through a buttonhole. Vision was beginning to blurr. I knew it was the BS exiting the fluid in my eyes. My brain whirred through all of the issues that this could be causing..renal, eyes, the works. I retested at 2.
220
making progress. THis time there was 1 arrow pointing down and active insulin in my system. I drank more water, took a deep breath, I knew I was close, but not close enough. At 2:45 I impatiently retested.
135.
YES! I took deep breath. Thought to myself, emergency over, finished my bottle of water. No down arrows this time, so I programmed in 135 +19carbs for low sugar complex carb and protein bar. After not eating for a whole day, I was amazingly hungry. I waited 15 minutes before eating. eating though. Just to be on the safe side. At 4:30 I got home, and felt a little low. I retested and found that my BS was
62
So I applied the 15-15-15 rule, and it came up to a
79
and held. I replaced the sensor that failed to sound when BS sugar reached 200. I have no idea why it decided to stay on that one particular number for most of the day. I hope that it never happens again. My BS continued on a flat line for the rest of the evening, but I felt terrible and went to bed early. I missed my school's potluck dinner because I was afraid to drive with my vision so messed up.
I was once again reminded of when I developed type 1. At onset my BS was
550
fasting. Since onset I have managed to keep it under 400--until Thursday. But in the span of 1 disconnection and 4 hours that all changed. I am humbled by the speed of my disease and the total dependence upon technology that I have placed my life on, and thankful that I still have some sense of well-being to know when it is wrong. Today my vision is back to normal. The only problem: when I try to explain what this all means...no on understands the numbers. Unless you live it, you can't even fathom it.