Sunday, October 12, 2008

Out of Control

Post originally written on October 11, 2008

So my blood sugars have gotten a bit out of control lately. Waking up high several mornings in a row- random high and low sugars. I decided it was time to put the CGM on for a while. On Wednesday of this week my sugars went like this:

6 am: 130 - okay normal

12 pm: 80- wonderful


4 pm: 256- arg


9 pm: 405! what?!


So I had my sensor in that day but it ended at lunch and I didn't feel like starting it up again because it had kept me up in the night for 2 nights in a row beeping every 40 minutes to tell me my sugar was high- 305!

I was hoping to sleep well this night so I was just going to start it back up in the morning. Well, apparently that was a bad idea because when I changed my site around 5pm I guess that's what gave me the dramatic high. So I bloused 9.5 units and then changed my site. When I pulled it out it looked fine- so I'm sure that's just a wasted site- arg. I've been having this problem when I change to a new site that about 2 or 3 hours later I'll be up in the 300's. So I started doing more sites in my tummy instead of in my hips like I always do thinking that those areas of my body might have too much scar tissue or something like that. But, this site was also in my tummy so that shouldn't have been the case- who knows!

I just hate it when I have a high blood sugar and its just 10 times worse when I can't quite figure out what it was that made my sugar go up so stinking high.


The last couple of days have been so much better. The graph on my pump for the last 24 hours has nearly been a straight line. I think I'll probably just wear this sensor until it dies and then evaluate my settings further and move on with those.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

HI

Post originally written on May 23, 2008

So last night was pretty scary as it goes for diabetes. I had the highest high I've ever had since the day I was diagnosed (actually it was higher last night). So here were the events leading up to this high.

I hadn't gotten much rest on Wednesday night because baby decided he wanted to stay up all night long. I started feeling pretty tired and kinda ill. So I laid down and then I decided I'd get ready for bed. I checked my sugar and it read "HI".

That's bad.

So I checked again and got the same reading. Well, since I didn't exactly know how high "hi" was, I decided to try to bolus about 9 units. I guzzled a bunch of water down and went back to bed. While lying there, I checked on my site and realized that it had completely come out. So, I wasn't getting any insulin. That's bad on a normal night, but this particular night I had decided to get a mango drink at Taco Bell to go with my dinner (free coupons online btw). I usually NEVER eat more than 70 carbs at any given meal, but last night I was feeling saucy or, rather sugary, and so I had 120 carb meal.

Anyway, I decided I'd better pull out my better meter and test to see if it would give me a number. It read 578!!! Yeah, that's the highest I've ever been. So, I changed my site and let my pump do the math, I needed to take 15 units of insulin. So I bloused 5 and took a 10 unit shot. I then checked my sugar every half hour for the first two hours. I decided that after it had only come down 6 points in the first hour that I should take another 5 unit shot.

Then I tested my keytones and they were luckily negative. My blood sugar had just dramatically risen because of the meal and no insulin. So I drank some more water and went to bed.

I checked my sugar ever hour or two until it finally came down to about 250. I decided it would be okay to take more insulin at that time and bloused 5 more units. By 5:45am when baby woke up to eat again I was at 48.

Husband brought me some apple juice and my sugars were surprisingly normal today.

Gave us quite a fright last night though. I'm just glad I wasn't feeling really ill throughout the whole thing, and I did get SOME sleep.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

7 Years

Post originally written on April 29, 2008

I've had diabetes for seven years! Can you believe it's been that long?! It sure doesn't seem like that long to me. Seven years is a long time.

I remember that when I was diagnosed that I made the decision to make diabetes be a way of forced good health. I knew that I would have to eat healthy, exercise, and do all of the things everyone should do anyway. I felt that my reason to live a healthy life was chosen for me. I went information crazy and tried to learn as much as I could about diabetes. I printed out hundreds of pages off the Internet and read them, highlighted things, put them into a binder. I was really craving to know as much as I could.

Things started off rocky for me, as is the case for a lot of newly diagnosed diabetics. But, I had a good doctor and a GREAT nurse who tried to get my insulin dosages correct. She would call me twice a week to go over blood sugars and insulin dosages.

About a year after being diagnosed, I decided I was ready to try the pump. This was honestly the best decision I made in caring for my diabetes. I was lucky enough to come across the BEST doctor in the entire world, Dr. Robert Day. He and his staff at the Diabetes Clinic at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center have really become a big part of my life. They've taught me so much about caring for myself that I feel forever indebted to them. This team of educators, nurses, dietitians, and doctors really work wonders. I now travel over 40 miles to go to doctor appointments at this office.

About three and a half years of living with diabetes, my blood sugars were finally good enough to try getting pregnant. We were lucky enough to conceive in the first month and nine months later our healthy baby Ryan was born. His blood sugars at birth were minimally affected and he shows no signs of developing the disease.

In my sixth year of diabetes, continuous glucose monitoring systems were being covered by some insurance companies for patients with special circumstances. I was covered 100% through our great health insurance plan about two months into my second pregnancy. Blood sugars were a very small issue during this pregnancy due to the incredible technology of the CGM. Evan was born with no blood sugar issues whatsoever, another healthy baby boy!

Throughout the past seven years, I've been really good at taking my medication, counting my carbohydrates, learning as much as I can about the condition. We've even done a little work for charity too. Diabetes is an all encompassing disease that sometimes gets me really down. Overall, though I think it has been a blessing in my life. I've gained an enormous testimony of the word of wisdom through living with it and I've certainly learned and experienced a lot. I don't mind that I have diabetes (most days) and I love to tell people all about it, mostly because I get tired of hearing very ignorant questions and comments about my condition.