My set cap became unscrewed the other day. The cap twisted partially off somehow and I didn't know it. Bam. After a couple of hours of this state of affairs, my bloodsugar rocketed to 450. I don't think I've ever had a bloodsugar that high and certainly never in such a short period of time. Nausea. Grogginess. Of course, thirst and a wicked need to pee. And this all happened at work. I took 4 units of insulin to correct and THEN discovered that the cap was not locked in. So how much of the bolus I had just delivered actually made it, I wondered? How do I decide? So I took 1 unit and waited. Tested. 430. Not much movement. I took another, and still not much movement. 420. Ok, so obviously the original correction bolus didn't get delivered. So I took 2 more units and literally had to lay down on the floor of my office because I felt so horrible. I tested every 15 minutes. Slowly, it dropped. 390, 370, 320. Then 270. Then 250. I didn't feel so sick and my head was clearing. It was 1:30 and I had to eat. I took a normal bolus, ate lightly and over the next few hours continued to drop. By 5:00 I was 175. Tired. A bit sad. But feeling better.
I love the technology. But one silly mishap like a cap not being totally locked in, and wow, it's diabetes drama time. In the 5 years I've had the pump, I've never had anything like this happen. Ever. In the 20 years I've had diabetes, I've never had anything like this happen. Ever. It's amazing to me that after all the years and experiences and "situations" I've endured, I can still have a new one that quite frankly, kicks my ass. No more "professional at work" girl for me. It's "lying on the floor, sick as a dog" girl, until I figure out what's going on. Delightful. Not. Scary. Very. On days like that I'm reminded that yes indeed, diabetes is one very serious disease.
Thanks to flickr for the perfect image.
Oh man. That's tough.
You know, I think that as CGM systems become better and more affordable, this type of thing will happen less and less.
The first thoughts I had about this was "what type of alarms or alerts might let us know something is not working right".
Well, those warnings would be unexplained high blood sugars! BUT - we can only test so often, and it's unreasonable to feel like you should have caught this any earlier.
When we're all wearing some type of CGM, the system would alert us to high or rising BG's, and we could initiate the troubleshooting so much sooner - maybe even before we feel so crappy.
Also, prior to pumping you always had that background basal from shots, so you never had to worry about anything like this. I guess that is one of the prices we pay for the other benefits of pump therapy.
My question is why does everything have to have a price?
Posted by: Scott K. Johnson | October 26, 2006 at 07:07 PM
Pumps are lovely, BUT when they malfunction you realize how vulnerable we are without the usage of long acting insulin! This has happened to me too so I really do know how crappy you felt. You didn't mention checking for ketones..... you probably had them too!
Posted by: Chrissie in Belgium | October 26, 2006 at 10:33 PM
This has happened to me before, but with a site that came out and I hadn’t realized it. It’s rough when you have a high blood sugar. It is even rougher when you have a high blood sugar that really makes you feel worse than high blood sugars normally do.
Posted by: Sarah | October 27, 2006 at 09:30 AM
A few things come to mind:
1) You've never had a bloodsugar over 450 in 20 years with diabetes?! That is fan-freaking-tastic! While I certainly feel like a failure and physically feel like crap on top of that when it happens, I've probably broken the 500 mark about once per year.
2) I too have had the same thing happen, but back when I was using Quick-release inserts (the kind with the 4" tails that you had to tape to your side). I had bent the little needle at the quick release and was filling up the little space there with insulin rather than delivering it TO ME. That sucked. I had to go home for the day because I didn't have back-up supplies with me at work and I was spilling ketones through the evening. Which brings me nicely to...
3) Ditto what Chrissie said: ketones are what make s us feel like ick when we miss our insulin. You were probably spilling them in all that pee. Chugging water helps that feeling go away faster.
Sorry you had such a rough day.
Posted by: Kevin | October 27, 2006 at 02:09 PM