I just had a crazy day. After changing my insulin pump site last night, all was well and I woke up with a normal bg. I was in a rush and so made a quick veggie sandwich to get some carbs in before going to my active, physical job. I took my normal amount of insulin for this, not bothering to check my bg again since I’d just checked it an hour before and went to work.
I get to work and after an hour, felt funny. I check my bg again and it was 525!!! The highest it’s been since my diagnosis a year and a half ago. I had a coworker drive me home to change my pump site and saw a slight lowering in numbers. I went back to work.
I thought it would be fine but it just hovered at 340 for the rest of the 7 hour shift, no matter my corrections. I didn’t have a pen and have no prescription or money to purchase one.
I came home and changed both the site AND the insulin one last time. It’s finally back around 90-100.
In the mean time, while waiting for my bg to lower, my glucose meter battery died! I had to drive to the store and buy a battery. Just one emergency after another.
It was SUCH A SCARY DAY
Thanks, type1nation, for existing and letting me share my day with other people who might have had (but hopefully haven’t) crazy scary days like mine.
You must have heard that good things come in batches - well so do difficult incidents with T1D. I can relate to what you went through.
The faulty infusion site / set may be my most frustrating thing. Yes, you replaced the set late the night before and apparently when you got up early everything was fine - BG was OK then possibly because you had really good levels the 12, or so, hours before changing and the “good stuff” carried over and everything was fine until you ate and the bolus wasn’t effective. I’ve had that happen, so what I do now is cap the old infusion and leave it in for several hours before pulling it out. Right now there are two implanted in my belly. I learned this after a rushed early morning flight when the carryon I was lifting into an overhead bin caught on my tubing - if the used site was still in place I could have reconnected.
I don’t leave my old set in place “too long”, but only long enough to make sure that the new one I put in before leaving the house is working. I don’t keep an insulin pen either, but I do have a few disposable syringes with needles which I now keep in my “leaving the house” bag.
Watch yourself now that you don’t go too low after correcting to get back to “normal”.
That’s really good advice, Dennis. Thanks! If my site is still hanging on after the three days, I’ll definitely try it. It seems like things go well most of the time (ya know, well for diabetes that is) and then something like that happens. Still getting the hang of things.
