It is so rare that I will actually leave or miss work due to diabetes. I think this is the second time in my life ... Today was one of those days, though, although I only left an hour early. Today started out great, both BG-wise and work-wise. I was super productive today! However, around lunchtime something clearly went wrong with my blood sugars:
Who knows if my site just "went bad" as they sometimes do, or whether the insulin overheated or what. Needless to say, in the afternoon I felt super tired and thirsty and whenever my blood sugar seems that high and isn't coming down I HATE being out and about. I'd much rather be home.
I did realize that I should probably keep a site change and Ketostix at work for situations like this. I always have a backup insulin pen with me for situations like this, but having some backup supplies wouldn't hurt.
Now I am at home eating a zero-carb dinner and hoping my blood sugar comes down to something reasonable soon!
When do you stay home or go home sick citing diabetes as the reason?
I don't work (at least not on a regular schedule), Jen. But I can certainly understand your going home considering the circumstances. Since you do it rarely, it certainly seems justified and like you are taking care of yourself!
I'm sorry you had such a lousy afternoon and I hope it's getting better. Yes, sets at work sound like a great idea and if that's what you got out of the experience, that's great.
It's super nice that at my current job we have good flex hours, so I left early today but can make it up another day. Not sure I would have left if we had set hours.
Flex hours are nice, I worked from home 3 days of the week for about a year and half and it made things like Dr apt's much easier, but LOL I was bored out of my mind. Now I'm back to 8-5 but my dept is nice and even though its set hours, they really try to work with u regarding Dr aptt's
I lost my first site the other day and how it happend I have no idea, but LUCKILY I was at home. But I dont really bring supplies either, well other than my meter.
It's now 8:00 PM and my blood sugar is 12.3 (221 mg/dl), so definitely heading in the right direction!
I was thinking back and I think this might be the first time I've left work because of diabetes. In university I did miss half of one class because I was low and didn't wake up, but that was sort of an accident, and at least I showed up for the second half! (It was actually really embarrassing; I happened to walk in during the break and didn't realize class was half over, I thought I'd arrived at the beginning and was so confused!)
I don't think running stairs will work in the case of a bad site (which I'm pretty sure mine was as I was feeling sick and had ketones, plus it started coming down as soon as I changed sites). I think exercise would just drives up BG and ketones even faster, since you're not getting any/much insulin, and make things worse. For a high caused by miscalculating food, I'd do stairs, though.
I think it wouldn't be as big a deal if I lived closer to work and/or could drive. But as it is, it's a 1.5 hour commute on transit between work and home, so it's hard to just pop home quickly.
It may not make me a "good worker" but I usually try to power through any high/low bg's by making necessary corrections and just working harder.
I'm not really ignoring my diabetes (because I am working on the corrections) but by working harder I don't worry about it so much. Does that make sense? Probably not. Aren't we actually supposed to go home when we're sick?
I guess that's complicated. At work there's an ongoing arbitration between my union and my employer. The latest arbitration agreement, among other things, requires me to bring in a doctor's note for any illness exceeding three days (this is the actual wording). I've had diabetes for 30 years. That means I owe work a couple thousand doctor's notes? I hardly ever miss work because of diabetes except for doctor's appointments but technically to be in compliance with the arbitrator's orders I would have to bring in notes all the time. (My bosses at work don't insist on such notes but HR is escalating it by turning up the heat on them so they collect the notes). This is nutty.
Yesterday I had a string of lows that would not come up and lasted all morning, and for those I just gobbled Skittles. Then I went high in the afternoon ... I had clients to see, though, so I didn't think about it as much (except that I HATE being low right before seeing a client!). When I am travelling around and/or meeting with clients it's really engaging for me so I'm not as aware of my BG.
Today was super quiet in general. I was using it as a catch-up day and was super productive. But mostly I was just doing phone calls and e-mails at my desk, and even my colleague was off sick today so I had no one around. I think you are right that it makes you more aware of the BG swings. In the end I had nothing much to do and was suspecting my site was bad, had been in the 20s (350-450) for several hours and was feeling icky, and had flex hours so (thankfully!) don't have to give any reason for leaving early, so I decided to go.
At my old job we had a similar thing where we had to provide a doctor's note if we were sick for a certain length of time. I don't take much sick time (usually only a day or two every few months) so never had to get one, but I know others were did who found it really annoying to have to go get their doctor to write a note saying they had the flu, or whatever.
Being retired since 1999 may not help a response...I do have a tube of glucose pills at the local SPCA , where I volunteer and be known to forget to add these to my SPCA bag ...most helpful :) I would keep back ups at work , if I were not retired ! My BG meter pack has : needle , tape in case I need to move my Sure-T site ...due to hot weather I leave insulin at home ...but I am only about 10- 15 minutes away when around town . Jen , when I see an over 15 ish as you did at lunch I give a needle shot ( my MM pump suggest to do this when over 13 ??) and I don't take in carbs till in the norm . A second reading like that and I change the site . It becomes confusing when numbers like that and one has given a needle shot ( does the site need changing or not ??) ...I am getting better at changing sites sooner ...and what do I know ...most of my A1C's are around hi 6's low 7 's :) ( and no complications )
PS I don't recall staying home from volunteering but YES I have stopped going for a walk !
The thing about the agreement over doctor's notes, is it doesn't say that I have to bring them in if I miss work. It says I have to bring them in for any illness that exceeds three days.
Unfortunately I have very very strict work hours. No flexibility at all. They can call me in in the middle of the night (I'm leaving tonight in about 20 minutes, just after midnight!) but I still have to be at my desk 8:30 to 5:00 every day.
As much as I hate to admit it, yes, I have stayed home or left work early because of diabetes. I try to make it as uncommon of an occurrence as possible, but it happens, and I usually only do it when I know I could be a danger to myself or others.
For example, a few times, my BGs have been really low or high in the morning, so much so that I knew driving was not a safe idea. On those days, I just teleworked or called out sick.
If I am at work, I can almost always deal with lows just fine. For me, lows don't usually cause any long-term issues (once I eat something, I'm ok). Highs, however, are a different story. If I'm high for any prolonged period of time, I feel horrible and can be very cranky. Twice in the last year I have left work early because I was really high and not coming down fast. In both cases I had a massive headache, ketones, and a general feeling that I could accomplish nothing. So I went home.
I am very fortunate to have a flexible job that doesn't necessitate any sort of schedule. We have flex schedules, teleworking, and no one watching over us. I regularly telework 1-2 days per week already. I am very fortunate in this sense.
I've never left work due to high blood sugars. But lows that have exhausted me, I have gone home. Sometimes it's hard to rebound from a bad low. It wrecks my whole day.
I never missed work because of blood sugar, but I missed a couple of days because of very low blood pressure. In my case that's diabetes-related because of autonomic neuropathy. I would have been fine once I got to work because I would be sitting down, but I didn't want to take a chance driving. Thought I could just have more coffee and maybe it would come up and I could go in late, but that didn't happen. I was below 65/40 all day.
