Diabetes Blog – Happy-Medium.net

All things being equal, yesterday was a pretty good day. Only things were not all equal… diabetes doesn’t play that way. Okay, well, maybe it wasn’t just the diabetes. Let me explain:

We woke up early (for a Sunday, anyway) at about 6:00 a.m. When I reached the kitchen, I did the normal stuff… make coffee, let the dog out, feed the dog and cat, and check my BG: 81 mg/dL. Great start to the day, right?

I promised to take The Great Spousal Unit over to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge near Cambridge, Maryland on Sunday. So after breakfast, we took off for Maryland’s Eastern Shore– a little over 2 hours away by car. By the time we were nearly there, we stopped for gas and I also needed to make a pit stop (badly). I should have guessed something was going on.

So we go off to the refuge, and it’s beautiful even though we didn’t see much compared to most trips there. After we finished, I decided to make a quick side trip over a public road that goes right through the middle of the preserve. It was there that Maureen spotted the only bald eagle that we saw all day. Wish I had a photo, but he flew away before I could snap it off. After that, and an equally quick sighting of an osprey, we headed off to Cambridge for a late lunch.

Again, I really had to go, but I didn’t think too much of it because I knew where my BG was in the morning, I knew what I didn’t overdo breakfast, and I bloused accordingly. Also, my infusion set had already been in for going on four days, and it had been working well. It was surprising when I checked just before lunch and found a 237 mg/dL on my meter.

Okay, I’m frustrated, but again, I bloused accordingly. I made sure I would be good by about 5 o’clock at the latest. Wroooong.

We took our time coming home, and the way back over the Bay Bridge, through Annapolis, and up to Baltimore wound up taking about 3 hours. When we arrived home (and after I ducked into the bathroom), I checked my glucose again: 249 mg/dL.

Now I’m mad. I almost never have a consistently high day like this. I’m ready to bolus the living daylights out of anything that moves. But I regained my composure and decided to change my infusion site instead. After changing, and to be sure I’m getting all of my bolus this time, I decided to do an injection to cover where my BG was sitting, plus the very limited amount of carbs I was ingesting at what was really more of a grazing than dinner. At this point, I’m absolutely sure that everything will be fine, even with (or especially because of) a new infusion set. Wanna guess how that came out?

I wait until 8:00 to check, and whaddyaknow? I’ve hit a new high for the day! 331 mg/dL. This is where the term “rage blousing” comes from. If it weren’t so late in the day by now, I probably would have rage bloused my behind off. Instead, I decide to do two more things.

One was to do another injection, right away. I figured this still had to be my best option to bring my glucose down.

The other thing I did was something I should have done much earlier in the day. Instead, I waited until I tested again at around 10:30, and saw 348 mg/dL on the meter. When I changed my infusion site earlier, I did not change my reservoir. I had about 100 or so units left in there, and I didn’t want to just toss all that insulin into the trash. So I changed my site and hooked up the old reservoir. But by now I’m thinking, maybe the insulin is bad somehow. I don’t know how this happens… I can’t remember it ever happening before. But, of course, now I’m ready to try anything, so I filled a new reservoir and hooked it up. I know this isn’t how you’re supposed to do these things, but hey, sometimes things don’t go according to plan. Once this was complete, I had pretty much given up, and I went to bed.

And gloriosky, when I woke up this morning, I was right back at 81 mg/dL all over again. Fiiiinnnnaaalllly. Hmmm…. Bad insulin. Who would’ve thunk it? But then again: When you consider this diabetes beast we’re all fighting against, it seems to make perfect sense. In a crazy, don’t count on anything, not gonna play fair kind of way.