Weekend chaos

(Dixie and Ella resting in the BWCA)

I’ve been struggling with my morning blood sugars since I’ve been back at work. That means that for the last three weeks, I have been waking up higher than I like to be. I’ve gradually increased my overnight basal rates, even though I’m not sure why on earth they suddenly need to be increased.

I decided to do middle of the night testing over the weekend to find out where the problem was happening, since I refuse to do it during the workweek and I don’t have a snappy Dex Seven to easily guide me.

I go to bed on Friday night around 11pm. Blood sugar is 112. I wake at 2:30am. Blood sugar is 200ish, but I changed my site before bed and knew that would happen. I give a correction. I decide, in my sleepiness, not to wake up at 4am. Dixie gets me up at 9am and my blood sugar is 48.

Saturday afternoon, I went to lunch at Fuddruckers. (A hamburger joint) I had a burger and fries, and a couple glasses of diet cola. I had tested 82 before lunch, so gave a regular bolus, no correction. Dixie was pestering me all through lunch. I didn’t have a tester with me (argh!) and didn’t feel low, so I just ignored her.

Bad idea.

I did some shopping and then went home. I was feeling horrible. I tested the minute I walked in the door.

328.

WHAT?!. I gave a serious correction. Tested 45 minutes later. 320. What the heck. I checked my infusion set, pump, etc. All seemed fine. My pump site was new. I wasn’t changing it.

Then it came to me. It was the pop at lunch. I KNEW that it wasn’t diet. I drank several glasses. Crap.

At this point I decided to bolus for the bazillion carbs I had consumed in regular soda. I guessed at 70 carbs. I never drink regular soda. Ever. So I didn’t even know what the actual carb value was. All I knew was that I was feeling horrible.

Test another ½ hour later. Down to 305. Another correction. (You can probably guess where this is going to put me in a couple hours.)

Four hours later I was 28. I tested twice. 28 again. This would have been a super time for the dang pop that I had earlier. Instead I had powerade and cookies.

Saturday night I decide to check the basals again. (Obviously still brain damaged from the highs and lows of today…what was I thinking?! This wouldn’t be a great night for checking.) But, I woke up at 2:30. BS= 108. Sweet. Got up at 8:30 the next morning. BS=160.

I turned up my basal rate last night between 4am and 6am, and went to sleep hoping for good things.

It’s amazing the smile that I can get from looking at the Freestyle, in the dawn of morning, with a simple 78 on it.


DIXIE TIDBIT:

Dixie would like me to mention that she tried to tell me that there were problems in the restaurant, but I wouldn’t listen.

I should have.

Sorry Dixie!

Pencils, books, and teacher's dirty looks

School is back in session.

It’s bittersweet. Summer is over. But it’s fun to see the kids. It’s especially fun for Dixie who loves her boys, and spent the summer without seeing them. She had some fun reunions last week. But it was a hot week. Temperature highs in the 90s, and a school without air conditioning. Not a good combination.

The beginning of school always brings crazy blood sugars. It’s always a time that I have to tweak my basal rates and readjust my carb ratio. I like to wake up in the morning with blood sugars in the 65-80 range. If I’m higher than that, I feel so sluggish to start my day. This week I haven’t had one blood sugar in my target range. So you can probably guess how my mornings have been going.

Back up to Labor Day weekend. After fighting with my medical supply company for a half an hour, they agreed to Fed-ex overnight me ONE Deltec cartridge. (because heaven knows that I can’t possibly really need more than that. I must be trying to “fool” the system!) My friend, Scott, very kindly offered to share one of his with me if the Fed-ex order didn’t come before I needed to leave for my trip. What a guy! Thanks Scott.

It was great to get back to the BWCA. It was just the kind of relaxing that I needed before starting school. I sat on a little beach at the campsite and read a good book, took pictures, and stared at the waves and clouds. We made trail pizza and hot pots of soup. It was peaceful and wonderful.

You may remember my post about glucagon and that my insurance company (prescription coverage) wouldn’t pay for it. It was submitted to my medical insurance and they also have refused to pay. I am so frustrated. I know I should be calling the company and fighting it, but I don’t want to.

I’m sick of dealing with people at companies who don’t have to spend their days living with diabetes. I’m sick of having to justify why I might need a couple extra test strips or a few more cartridges for my pump. I’m just sick of it. It’s one thing to live with diabetes and all the frustration that it brings trying to manage the disease…but it is too much, on top of that, to have to deal with insurance companies, claim personnel, and medical supply companies.

Yes, I know, be thankful that I have good health insurance. I am.

I just dream of things being simple.



DIXIE TIDBIT:

Dixie is certainly happy to be back at school, although it seems like she wishes that summer vacation had lasted longer. After she goes outside for her lunch break, she is reluctant to come inside. It’s as if she’s saying, “Hey, it’s great out here. Sunny, warm, and there is so much to smell. Come on, we were outside all summer. Don’t make me go back in that school!” It takes us both a while to get back into the routine.

Cartridges woes

When I was in the BWCA a couple weeks ago, I decided to half fill my pump cartridges, so that I wouldn’t heat up the entire 300 units of insulin day after day living outdoors in the hot sun. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Yesterday I realized that I only had one cartridge left in the box. O.k., no big deal. My medical supply order from the company in Florida was scheduled to come on Wednesday. Last night I filled the last cartridge and put it in my pump. When I screwed on the luer lock for my quick set, I heard a click. Hmmm, that was odd. Never heard that sound before. I didn’t really investigate the noise.

I went to bed about 10:30pm. I woke up (I think because it was raining so darn hard) at 1:47am. I felt horrible. I grabbed the tester and poked. 367. WHAT??? I remembered the click sound, and so disconnected my quick set and primed the line. Nothing. No insulin. It pooled up around the top of the pump. CRAP! I didn’t have any cartridges left. The one in my pump was apparently broken, and I was high as a kite. (with small ketones, might I add)

I did the only thing that I could think of. I took my used cartridge from the garbage can (where I had thrown it hours earlier, minus the screw on top), wiped it with alcohol, and filled it up again. I put it in my pump and gave a gi-normous corrective bolus.

I called the medical supply place today. The woman tells me that my order had a problem with UPS, and that it wouldn’t be coming until Friday. I calmly explained the contaminated cartridge I was currently using, infested with probably more bacteria than I’d really like to know about. She put me on hold for 20 minutes, trying to pass me through to the “diabetes division.” After the 20 min, she came back on the phone to ask me to give her my number so that she could have a rep call me. THEY NEVER CALLED. I called and sat on hold again, ending up having to hang up to head to a training that I needed to give at a local summer camp for environmental education staff.

So here I sit. Contaminated cartridge of insulin pumping into me, germs and all, without a replacement en route.

I leave for the BWCA at 4am on Thursday morning. Gotta figure out something by then.

I’ll have to get back on the phone tomorrow and offer to sell my soul in exchange for one lousy, overnight-aired, cartridge.

Dam diabetes!