Diabetes Blog – Happy-Medium.net

I really wrestled with whether I should write again about my severe low early Monday morning. In the end, I’m writing this wrap-up because when something like this occurs, it’s important that I (and The Great Spousal Unit) examine what happened, and if I can, do something about it. Only then can I move on.

So here are some bullet points on Monday morning’s hypo event:
 
 
– First of all, many thank yous to everyone who left a comment here or on Facebook. I appreciate the fact that you were so concerned for my well being. Even when I’m making stupid mistakes. Read on…

– Looking back at my pump, I saw the most obvious problem… I bolused twice for dinner. Once before dinner (which I forgot about), and about an hour later. I remember thinking that I hadn’t bolused, and like an idiot, I didn’t check my pump and bolused again. Plus, my glucose was really climbing at that point, and I was very concerned after being high in the afternoon. On top of that, I bolused for a snack about an hour and a half after dinner. So yeah, I seriously stacked my boluses. I won’t ever bolus again without double-checking the pump first. I’m feeling really, really stupid about this. Really, there’s just no excuse.

– I was fighting really high BGs all day Sunday (in the 300s), with the breaks from that only coming just before meals. The morning spike was probably due to a high carb breakfast. I had a low carb lunch, but later found tubing that was clamped off by my pump’s belt clip. I changed the tubing, and worked on fighting the highs off the rest of the day. I was sinking pretty good before dinner, then had another large post-prandial spike an hour later. When I went to bed, I was still at something like 218 mg/dL, but I really had way too much insulin on board at that point.

– I slept through all of the Dexcom alarms. Or, I slept through turning them off. I don’t know. I do know I remember one alarm early on (probably around 1:00) that I heard. I turned it off, ate a few Glucolift tabs, and went back to sleep (I know, I didn’t check the BG). I don’t recall hearing another alarm. Maureen sleeps next to me, and she doesn’t recall hearing an alarm either. But she was sleeping as soundly as I was.

– Speaking of the Dexcom… I’m getting some very useful data on how my glucose trends through the day. That’s the good news. The bad news is that I’m obsessing over it too much. I don’t want to say I’m treating solely based on what I’m seeing on the receiver’s display. I’m not sure I’m ready to be honest with myself about that. But Maureen mentioned just today that I “need to stop paying so much attention to that thing”.

– I have a nice bruise on the side of my head, and a cut on my ear. Probably from falling out of bed, but I really don’t know. I guess I should be happy that’s all the physical reminders I have from this.
 
 
The final analysis: It was an epic fail on my part. I cowboyed my way through the day instead of being patient.

Many times, I’ve commented on blogs and told people in person that you can’t worry about the past. It’s only a reference point. What counts is making the most out of today and tomorrow.

Now I have to go practice what I’ve been preaching.