Be calm. Don't be stupid

[plantae]

These graphs are misleading. The day before Sun 29 my avg BSL was over 20. I was getting pretty ****** off. Sun 29 wasn't great either TIR was, I dunno 5%. At about 10 PM 29th I had a throbbing headache, I was peeeing constantly, I was thirsty, my mouth was dry. I was angry. Very angry. I will call my normal bolus insulin x units. I had x units. Nothing happened. 15 minutes later I had another x units. Rinse and repeat until about 1:30 AM the next day. I'd had 8x my normal bolus units. Crashed. Dexcom graph only says 3.9 but I was 1.8 on Abbot glucometer, 2.3 on contour. Hospital blood test I was 1.4. The two peaks at about 5 AM and 6:30-7:00 on the 30th are two infusions of 50mg glucose given by the hospital. Stick to the plan, don't be an idiot like me. I'm still high (average today was 14). I dunno why. But I should not have made those choices of novorapid. Lesson learned.

 

[plantae]

The slight rise at about 4AM was in the ambulance where they gave me oral glucose. I didn't know that novorapid did this. Ok, I guess I did. But 13.0 to less than 2 in 30 minutes is what's concerning. I should have known though

 

[plantae]

I'm only just analyzing this now so excuse my rambling. But looking at the two peaks where the hospital gave me glucose straight into my vein and how quickly they dropped again seems to indicate (to me, I'm not a doctor) that the novorapid was still very, very active

 

[Grant_Vicat]

These graphs are misleading. The day before Sun 29 my avg BSL was over 20. I was getting pretty ****** off. Sun 29 wasn't great either TIR was, I dunno 5%. At about 10 PM 29th I had a throbbing headache, I was peeeing constantly, I was thirsty, my mouth was dry. I was angry. Very angry. I will call my normal bolus insulin x units. I had x units. Nothing happened. 15 minutes later I had another x units. Rinse and repeat until about 1:30 AM the next day. I'd had 8x my normal bolus units. Crashed. Dexcom graph only says 3.9 but I was 1.8 on Abbot glucometer, 2.3 on contour. Hospital blood test I was 1.4. The two peaks at about 5 AM and 6:30-7:00 on the 30th are two infusions of 50mg glucose given by the hospital. Stick to the plan, don't be an idiot like me. I'm still high (average today was 14). I dunno why. But I should not have made those choices of novorapid. Lesson learned. View attachment 64018

It seems most likely that you are fending off a virus or something similar. To me this is the great bugbear of Type1. I hope it levels out soon!

 

[plantae]

It seems most likely that you are fending off a virus or something similar. To me this is the great bugbear of Type1. I hope it levels out soon!

Yes, that's what the hospital said. Last week I was over 20.0mmol/L all night which is very unusual. I went to my GP the next morning (I have a deal with them where anything diabetes related I can turn up without an appointment). He, the GP, gave me 10 units of novorapid and got me down to about 15 mmol/L. Which while not great is not life threatening. Ketones OK the whole time. I check ketones whenever I'm high even though the strips are pretty expensive -- better than dead I guess. So maybe I have a virus, these levels are very unusual. The problem the other day was that I had a lot of novorapid over a fairly short amount of time (more than 3 times I'd normally have in a day). That was silly, but I don't think I was thinking straight

 

[Lainie71]

I'm only just analyzing this now so excuse my rambling. But looking at the two peaks where the hospital gave me glucose straight into my vein and how quickly they dropped again seems to indicate (to me, I'm not a doctor) that the novorapid was still very, very active

Ramble away, thats what we are here for x

 

[hh1]

These graphs are misleading. The day before Sun 29 my avg BSL was over 20. I was getting pretty ****** off. Sun 29 wasn't great either TIR was, I dunno 5%. At about 10 PM 29th I had a throbbing headache, I was peeeing constantly, I was thirsty, my mouth was dry. I was angry. Very angry. I will call my normal bolus insulin x units. I had x units. Nothing happened. 15 minutes later I had another x units. Rinse and repeat until about 1:30 AM the next day. I'd had 8x my normal bolus units. Crashed. Dexcom graph only says 3.9 but I was 1.8 on Abbot glucometer, 2.3 on contour. Hospital blood test I was 1.4. The two peaks at about 5 AM and 6:30-7:00 on the 30th are two infusions of 50mg glucose given by the hospital. Stick to the plan, don't be an idiot like me. I'm still high (average today was 14). I dunno why. But I should not have made those choices of novorapid. Lesson learned. View attachment 64018

The time I find it hardest to avoid panicking is when I'm hypo as I can't bear what it feels like, and I tend to over-react and consume too much of whatever. I'm very conservative in injecting additional insulin; whilst I do it a lot it's always in small doses and I keep checking. I'm not surprised that your bg went up again after the glucose injections, simply because you had so much novorapid on board. There's also the bounce back you can get after a hypo, when your body kicks out extra glucose as a response to being so low.

You must've felt pretty rough during and after all that; hope you're feeling better now.

 

[Grant_Vicat]

Yes, that's what the hospital said. Last week I was over 20.0mmol/L all night which is very unusual. I went to my GP the next morning (I have a deal with them where anything diabetes related I can turn up without an appointment). He, the GP, gave me 10 units of novorapid and got me down to about 15 mmol/L. Which while not great is not life threatening. Ketones OK the whole time. I check ketones whenever I'm high even though the strips are pretty expensive -- better than dead I guess. So maybe I have a virus, these levels are very unusual. The problem the other day was that I had a lot of novorapid over a fairly short amount of time (more than 3 times I'd normally have in a day). That was silly, but I don't think I was thinking straight

I think that because the symptoms of invasive germs don't necessarily materialise, it is easy to be caught out when blood sugar readings shoot up for no apparent reason. I can certainly understand your actions!

 

[JAT1]

I will call my normal bolus insulin x units. I had x units. Nothing happened. 15 minutes later I had another x units. Rinse and repeat until about 1:30 AM the next day. I'd had 8x my normal bolus units. Crashed.

You were stacking the bolus insulin. It is dangerous as you have learned. Novarapid {contrary to what the manufacturer claims} might take much longer than 15 minutes to start working and then it might be hours before it works efficiently. Meanwhile you took more and more so it's no wonder you crashed. It's extremely hard not to panic when going low too far and too fast. Panic is one of the symptoms that happens to most of us. Bad mood and anger are often the case when too high. When your blood sugar is high and you suspect your immune system is dealing with something but you're asymptomatic other that the blood sugar, it's wise to review what you have been eating so you can determine whether that's in the mix or not, read up on the sick day strategy and rest when you can. I hope you are feeling better and remember that the hangover from the blood glucose rollercoaster can last several days.

 

[EllieM]

I personally find that when my blood sugar goes high I become more insulin resistant, so it's alarmingly easy to "rage bolus" because my levels aren't coming down.... Insulin stacking is a real pitfall but I totally understand why you did it.

Hope you feel better soon @plantae.

As far as I am concerned, every day is a learning day with diabetes...

 

[plantae]

You were stacking the bolus insulin. It is dangerous as you have learned. Novarapid {contrary to what the manufacturer claims} might take much longer than 15 minutes to start working and then it might be hours before it works efficiently. Meanwhile you took more and more so it's no wonder you crashed. It's extremely hard not to panic when going low too far and too fast. Panic is one of the symptoms that happens to most of us. Bad mood and anger are often the case when too high. When your blood sugar is high and you suspect your immune system is dealing with something but you're asymptomatic other that the blood sugar, it's wise to review what you have been eating so you can determine whether that's in the mix or not, read up on the sick day strategy and rest when you can. I hope you are feeling better and remember that the hangover from the blood glucose rollercoaster can last several days.

Yes I agree. That's what I was doing and I learned a lesson. It could have been worse, I was lucky. I love the term @EllieM used "rage bolus" because that's a great description. Beware the rage bolus

I personally find that when my blood sugar goes high I become more insulin resistant, so it's alarmingly easy to "rage bolus" because my levels aren't coming down.... Insulin stacking is a real pitfall but I totally understand why you did it.

Hope you feel better soon @plantae.

As far as I am concerned, every day is a learning day with diabetes...

Yeah I'm feeling better today. Yesterday was all high again (everything over 10). At about midnight it looks like I went to 18 and then down to 8 (no insulin, naturally). I stayed at 8is until 6am or so when it went up a little to 10 and then back down to the 8s. I had breakfast with my normal insulin:carb ratio bolus and have been sitting in the 7s since the small peak (normal) after eating. Maybe I did have a virus after all although I didn't have a fever

 

[plantae]

You were stacking the bolus insulin. It is dangerous as you have learned. Novarapid {contrary to what the manufacturer claims} might take much longer than 15 minutes to start working and then it might be hours before it works efficiently. Meanwhile you took more and more so it's no wonder you crashed. It's extremely hard not to panic when going low too far and too fast. Panic is one of the symptoms that happens to most of us. Bad mood and anger are often the case when too high. When your blood sugar is high and you suspect your immune system is dealing with something but you're asymptomatic other that the blood sugar, it's wise to review what you have been eating so you can determine whether that's in the mix or not, read up on the sick day strategy and rest when you can. I hope you are feeling better and remember that the hangover from the blood glucose rollercoaster can last several days.

Sorry for replying again, I thought I'd add some more information. I have sick day rules and had been following them but I just got so frustrated. It's like I wasn't thinking at all when I was rage bolusing. I even got brand new insulin pens the other day thinking that maybe I hadn't stored the old ones properly (they'd been in the fridge for 11.5 months -- I don't know why they give me 12 months worth of pens at a time but they do -- and I didn't trust them. So I've got 2 spare novorapid and 4 spare lantus pens now... plus another 12 months worth). But I think the pens are fine because the fresh insulin made no difference. Although I haven't had a fever my blood pressure has been elevated -- I monitor that for another condition. Blood pressure is a nice 110/83 this morning (was 160 over something for most of the last week) and BSL is acceptable as well. I monitor and record all my food intake using cronometer which is easy for me because being a creature of semi-habit I just copy over the entries from a previous day now that all my usual diet is in there. I don't even have to look at the carbs because I know them for all my "normal" meals, but I do anyhow. I'd like to link cronometer with my dexcom clarity because that'd give me another nice graph to look at but it's not available in my country (I think you can if you're in the US)

 

[Antje77]

I have sick day rules and had been following them but I just got so frustrated. It's like I wasn't thinking at all when I was rage bolusing

This sounds pretty familiar to me, although by now I've learnt to triple check the time that has passed since my last injections before adding more.