Day Two (and Final) Day Off the Pump

Last night I again struggled with moderately high blood sugar that stubbornly held in the 200 mg/dl range, but stubbornly I continued on. And with the aid of 64 ounces of ice water, got the BG down to 118 mg/dl at bedtime, which happened to be around 11:00. Fast forward now to 12:38AM, when I awoke to a pounding heartbeat and the general feeling of unease I get when my BG is low. So I got up and VERY unsteadily made my way to the kitchen to test. I finally managed to open up my kit and somehow got my shaky hand to meet up with the test strip. 52 mg/dl, and based on how I was feeling, it was still on its way down in a hurry.

There was no time to fool around with this one, so I went straight for the atom bomb...pop-tarts. And then a peanut butter sandwich, then another, then chocolate milk...

By now I was as scared as I have ever been while low. I could really feel myself struggling to hang on to consciousness. Scary thoughts began to race through my foggy mind. What if I took too much Lantus? What if my BG isn't coming up? I eyed the glucagon and considered a micro-injection to provide a fail-safe boost. I tested again after eating all that food. Still 52 mg/dl. That was actually ok because I knew that I wasn't dropping anymore, and so I went to bed. Normally I have a hard time falling back asleep because of the counter-regulatory response. Not this time. I'm fairly certain I just passed out.

At 7AM I awoke to the diabetes hangover. Sticky, dry mouth, headache, etc. This was not going to be good. Normally after one of my nighttime feasts I can drop a quick pump bolus to minimize the damage. Not this time. 483 mg/dl. I took an injection of 15 units of Novolog and hooked my pump back on with a temp basal of 4 units per hour for the next 3 hours. It's going to be a miserable day.