Monday, April 24, 2006

Drama in the Workplace

Had one of those truly mortifying lows yesterday, about 45 minutes before the end of work. 30 minutes before, had tested 133, put a temp basal till the end of work.(1.5 hrs) Started to get lightheaded, figured I was probably low, ate/consumed candy-but it wasn't enough. Then my knees buckled, and I was kneeling on the floor. I couldn't get up, after a couple of minutes of trying, I gave up and just sat back down on the floor, leaned against the side of the lane.
"You ok, Heidi?" a coworker in the next lane over asks.
"Fine," I lie, as I drain a bottle of juice. "I just need to sit here awhile, I'm having a low."
"Go right ahead- you look terrible!"
5 minutes pass. Word of the drama in lane #3 has reached the ears of two other coworkers, who pro-offer mini-Butterfingers, Kisses, and hard candies. This is a really weird low, I'm not dizzy now,my legs just won't support my body.
20 minutes later, I'm feeling slightly better. Stand up, and finish the order I'm working on(takes less then five minutes). Clean up work area.
3:30 pm-Quitting bell rings. Phone rings.
I answer.
"Why on earth didn't you let me know you were having problems?What happened?"
The voice of my supivisor jars me back into the realities of the working world.
" I'm fine, just got dizzy and I had to sit down. They gave me candy, I was having a low blood sugar."
"That's good, but if it ever happens again, I need to know about it. Are you ok now?"
"Yes."
It's called Saving-the-Company's Gluteus Maximus- if I would've injured myself on my journey to the floor, the company would be liable for medical costs/employment compensation. This isn't the first time I've had a low blood sugar there, but the last bad one was 4 years ago, I can generally treat/work through my lows. (nobody even knows I'm having them) If I took off for every low I'd ever had, I wouldn't get anything done! (and my supivisor wouldn't either)

I went home, fell into an exausted sleep for 3 hours, and rechecked my blood sugar.

120. (this was 4 hours after I took my pump off)

Now, to figure out what had caused this rapid low. Thought it was a new infusion set prob, on the wise advice of people who know me just a bit too well, (I tend to keep my infusion sets in to long) but an hour post-supper my abdoman began rebelling against my Healthy Choice lunch, now I'm thinking none of it absorbed, hence the rapid drop in bg.
Healthy Choice- the next great way to lose weight, one way or the other. Called in sick today, as its still wracking its way through my system.

The DC Expo was great, despite getting there rather late (1:30 p.m.). I underestimated how long it would take me to get there on the Metro, but fortuantly the Convention Center was right on the Metro line. And there were plenty of helpful folks directing people towards the Expo(on the upper floor) Downstairs, the American Dental Association was having its thing (quite appropriate, actually, I wouldn't have minded listening in on some of those speeches).
I registered, and begun making the rounds.

2 hours later, figured it was time for a blood sugar check. (And why waste a strip...when there was a station set up to do it for free?) So I filled out a couple of permissary forms, got it checked (475, yay) got an a1c done, asked an endo a burning question I had, and completed the rounds.

It was definatly free pedometer day- everyone from NovoNordisk to Blue Cross/Blue Shield was passing them out. I got 5 differant pedometers. (I doubt it will inspire me to exercise more,though) Saw a Cleo sample, (very, very cool-I want some) partook of the various sugar-free-but-still-loaded-carbohydrate samples, and acquired too much stuff.(as usual)

Supper at Union Station, watched Ice Age 2, and back on the Metro.

Then the real fun began. It was raining hard, and I took a wrong turn coming out of the parking garage. Ended up circling Baltimore via the Beltway, for the next 2 hours. Eventually, I made so many wrong turns that I made my way back to DC, saw my "exit" that would put me back on the road I needed to be on, and was fine from there. Got home at 3 AM, extremily glad I don't have to deal with that madness every day.

Gas was $3.07 for a gallon of regular, that night. (vs the $2.87 around here) This isn't a political blog, but the whole situation is getting more +more ridiculous. Its not price gouging, when the supplies of crude oil/refined gasoline are gradually getting used up. And if we're not going to drill for more oil, we can expect those prices to keep going up. We need more efficient cars, and another source of fuel. (sooner or later, we are going to run completely out of gasoline and have to deal with these issues!)
I don't even get mad anymore(over the prices of gasoline), it could be much worse. (and I'm sure it will get much worse!)

3 comments:

Scott K. Johnson said...

Heya Heidi,

That low at work sounds like no fun. Scary.

I got a chuckle out of your healthy choice line - "you'll lose weight one way or the other"! hehe!

At the booth where they checked your BG's, did they just about fall over when your result showed up? I bet they get so many T2's that have a "high" of like 190, etc. Good of you to shock them back into reality! :-)

I want to take my kids to Ice Age 2 - did you like it? We liked the first one, so I'm hoping part 2 is as good.

Anonymous said...

I used to find it ok when i had bad lows when i worked at the hospital. a nurse in the dept would walk me to trolley, do a bg and generally look after me.

then i switched dept and people just used to laugh cuz i acted drunk. man, people are mean.

glad you got thro it.

HVS said...

Scott,
Yeah, they were pretty shocked.(imagine what they'd done if I'd have been HI...Probably have called 911!)
Ice Age 2 is very good, as good as the first one, I thought. Some romance in it though. (your kids might not care for that)
Pumping Princess, do you still work there, that really sucks if you don't have any friends there who'll help you out.
Much as I don't like being the center of attention(and that my supivisor would just leave me the total heck alone)I'm glad someone cares.