7 Excellent Reasons to Hang at 300+ Mg/Dl

#1
While attempting a reservoir swap this morning, I cracked the cartridge case+ a piece came off.(on top-you can see the hole) Called Deltec, because it wasn't cooperating(stuck on a certain screen)-put in another cartridge and that worked. Unfortunately, when you chip the cartridge case, it can't hold in the reservoir of insulin and it becomes unsafe to use.(envision 300 units of insulin being jolted into your body) Replacement cap should be here by noon tomorrow, (Fed-Exed)but its back to shots for me. They really should make those things tougher.

#2 I have a cold. Or something. Not allergies, throats don't feel this way for no good reason. Besides, its been raining + my husband also has the bug(which he kindly gave to me) + the pollen count is essentially zip around here. Gonna be a fun weekend.

#3 I'm craving Chinese food, chocolate,ice cream, and pizza. Feed a cold, starve a fever(so the old adage goes) + despite the fact that its about the worst possible thing to eat when you're well, much less sick, high carb stuff is about the only thing I want right now. Really weird.

#4 This.


Just the earth transcending heavenly scent, is enough to put you in full-blown DKA.

#5 It's almost a full moon.

#6 Speaking of months and moons, its simerarily that difficult, basal rates need doubling, week.

#7 Narnia opens this weekend..and Indiana Jones the next. Can't see either, because we're going to go with friends(who are,maddingly, on vacation). Cannot wait.

Hope your weekend is better then this.

A Night Out with the Pancreas

I like my pancreas(es)-both my old, worn out, c-peptide dead one and my spanky nice, (relatively) new, blue one. Both of them serve their respective roles.(one for the digestive enzymes, one for the insulin)

What I don't like, is a night in which both of them flunk out.

10 PM- Dex has me at 78, and its been going on for the better part of 1.5 hours,flirting with the 70-80 range.(meter confirms this) I'm feeling low, so I swig some glucose + figure I'll recheck in about an hour. Regretfully, I haven't yet reconnected to my pump + I fall asleep...

3 PM- Shrieking Dex wakes me up,telling me I'm low. NOT in this lifetime, not unless I've spontaneously regenerated islet cells overnight. But I'd better check anyway.

Ultra: 406.(should have put my pump back on last night)I shoot 4 units, resume slumber. Since the Dex is so screwed up, put it somewhere else to chill out those whacky readings.

5:30 PM- Very, very, high. I can tell this, without consulting the meter. Meter confirms, at over 500 mg/dl. I think I must have shot air, not insulin, that first time... Shoot 6 more units.(this isn't the time to be worrying about set reliability)

400

300

200

I start to dream, intense dreams(does the body do that, the more worn out one is?)
I'm low in those dreams and someone is pouring OJ down my throat.(I hate oj, so this is a nightmare) I recover, enter a surfing competition and win first place.(I've never surfed in my life)
A long time(in dream hours) later..

Wake up, 186. Perhaps the title of this post should have been, A Night With(out) the
Pancreas. I am impressed, though, that my correction factor was still so strong even as high as I was, even with no basal.(1/60)In the future, I'm going to program a temp basal NOT take my pump off, going slightly low is much better then waking up 500's and feeling like you've been 10 rounds with Mohammad Ali.It's beyond a yucky feeling,its pure exhaustion.(you just want to curl up and sleep for 12+ hours)

Dreamcatcher

Seconds tick, and the latest REM cycle begins, peaks, and dies, in the blink of an eye.
It creeps into the dream subtly,stealthily, this overwhelming urge. Not the usual food gorging, because that would signify
an impending reaction and the body's subsequent automatic kick-in, pulling one quickly back into the familiar safety of the real world. The brain knows when it needs sugar.

No, this urge is too slight to be noticed at first, especially if you're engrossed in your one humdinger of a dream. But like a hangnail, it grows on you and soon the dream has been overrun by this one thing. And then it hits you-crap, it isn't normal to be drinking so much fluid! and I'm not even full. So thirsty. A familiar thirst, and yet you can't quite place it.
(the fact that you've got diabetes and might be insanely high never occurs to you)
Like most horrible dreams, it goes on and on and on and on until you finally wake up, still thirsty + knowing full well what that probably means.
536 mg/dl.
(don't worry,this DIDN'T happen last night. I'm over it.)

Its odd how this stuff can creep into our dreams, but I wonder why the body doesn't wake up so much for highs. It certainly needs to. And how high do you need to be before it affects the dream? I don't dream about highs, when I'm in the 200's. One of those times I wish I had a CGMS.

Highs...just encourage that urge to sleep.

I must be a dreamcatcher- I dream about everything.
(I've also had some real humdinger of diabetes dreams, everything from being hounded by Secret Service Endos to being diabetic in an 1942 German concentration camp but that's a subject for another day) I don't mind dreaming about diabetes, as long as I'm not high or low. It can be quite interesting.

Chocolate, Vanilla, or Strawberry?

Three Choices.




Lined up before me like a hepatatic glucose-producing smorgasboard, it was time to make a decision. And be quick about it- as my stomach demanded some sort of instant caloric appeasement. (fasting for 9 hours prior)

" Heidi?" Gabrielle, the research nurse, was waiting for my decision.

"Strawberry." The only one I've never tried(you know, this is a popular drink at ADA + other diabetes conventions) and thus, the only one I don't automatically hate.

"Strawberry it is. Want a cup- or will it be straight out of the bottle?"

"Bottle's fine." She comes back in, carrying 2 bottles of water. Unscrew. Hold nose. Take swig.
Emi, the other nurse, glances across the room. "Why are you holding your nose?"
"Tastes bad. I can't stand nutitional drinks."
"Really- most people say it tastes pretty good."
(I have my own theries about those types of people, but I keep those opinions to myself)
"Not me, I'm afraid." Down rest of bottle, take 3 swigs water.

"So, what's her glucose now?"
"Starting glucose was 174. We need to get this IV access (thingie) in."

Poke around on left arm. Poke around on right arm. Encase right arm in hot water balloon(gloves). Go back to right arm. Blow elbow vein. Go to left arm, blow hand vein. Call in reinforcements.
Senior nurse walks in.
"Ach, I remember you- you're the gel who ran over the poor cow." (driving simulator, several years ago)
"Yeah, that's right." Laugh. "I'm a much better driver, now,though."
Back to the right arm. Try for hand vein. Meanwhile, Gabrielle is poking my finger for a blood sugar and the onslaught of both arms seeing painful action is having me do cartwheels in the bed. "Just calm down, you're ok."
I am not ok. I am in pain...
Senior nurse gets it in. Do blood draw #1. "That should do it, dear, but don't you move a muscle. Hear?"
"Yes."

3o minutes later- time for the next blood draw. More trouble on the access site. Heparin flush- call other reinforcements back in. Poke needle back in left arm. Give up on left arm- go back to failed hand site and get that one to work.
2 more blood draws, both non eventful.

Research coordinator shows up and congradulates me on my starting blood sugar of the morning. (124) Apparently, some people are on their 4th time at coming in for this, because their morning blood glucoses refuse to cooperate(most too high). One guy, was 320 coming in,
they tried for an hour to get him down(via exercise) but he only dropped 10 points. The research doctor, apparently, was upset over that..

Final blood glucose- 390. Ah, the joy (apparently, I have no residual cpeptide production) Bolus well for that, eat provided lunch. Fill out pay forms. Turn in meter/pda to be downloaded. RC gives me some more strips/lancets to keep me going for a little while. D studies are sporadic things.

It is not such a horrible thing to be a guinea pig, if you can ignore the aftermath. You get to lie in bed, watch tv, and chug down Aqua while making bouques of moolah. Beats my job, any day.

Your research dollars at work. (Thank you, thank you very much!)

3 PM- I'm now 523 mg/dl, have the mother of all migraines, and after I take a shot, am going to bed. I can figure out what is going on later(I changed the set last night, and it worked like an utter charm all night, this is utterly ridiculous).