Hypo and bleeding cannula

[ewelina]

Hello Eveyone Something really strange happened to me yesterday. I woke up with really high sugars in the morning (16.2). I took correction (about 3u). One hour later I boulsed for breakfast and 25 mintues after that when I was eating eat my vision went a bit funny. Lots of kind of circles floating around. Generally I felt ok but I decide to test. The meter showed 1.6 I must say I felt okish and could think quite straight. Unclipped my pump and drank as much coke as I managed (3 mini cans of about 45g sugar all together). After 10 mins I was back to around 4mmol. Felt fine so decided not to cancel planned countryside walk of 12 miles. Whole day my sugars were quite erratic but I probably didn't bolus enough for lunch and snacks I had during the day. On the way home I was again quite high so decided to change cannula. My God, Ive never seen anything like this. The site bled like crazy. My t-shirt and jumper were soaked with blood on the waistline. I managed to stop it and luckily had a spare top in my rucksack.
Have any of you ever experienced something similar? I assume my cannula hit some vessel , hence the bleeding. Is it possible that all insulin I had in the morning got into the vessel and thats why I had such a bad hypo? I don't understand why I woke up so high though?

 

[CarbsRok]

No idea about the blood sugars but the bleeding is known as a gusher. I've only ever had one and was so surprised by it I just stood and stared at it instead of sticking a finger over it.

 

[catapillar]

Maybe you did manage to cannulate a vessel and initially there was some sort of occlusion which caused waking up high, and then it unblocked and all of the insulin went out at once, causing the lows? Don't know if that works.

I know low blood sugar stops you clotting efficiently (high blood sugar thickens the blood, low blood sugar thins it and reduces coagulopathy) so maybe erratic blood sugar had some impact on your murder scene experience?

Hope you are feeling ok with new site and you don't have too much of a bruise.

 

[ewelina]

No idea about the blood sugars but the bleeding is known as a gusher. I've only ever had one and was so surprised by it I just stood and stared at it instead of sticking a finger over it.

Gusher, perfect word to describe how it looked like

 

[ewelina]

Maybe you did manage to cannulate a vessel and initially there was some sort of occlusion which caused waking up high, and then it unblocked and all of the insulin went out at once, causing the lows? Don't know if that works.

I know low blood sugar stops you clotting efficiently (high blood sugar thickens the blood, low blood sugar thins it and reduces coagulopathy) so maybe erratic blood sugar had some impact on your murder scene experience?

Hope you are feeling ok with new site and you don't have too much of a bruise.

Thanks. I feel ok just a bit tired after bg rolle coaster and quite intense day. Surprisingly there is only a small bruise on the cannula site.
It makes sense what you say. Maybe there was some sort of occlusion and then suddenly it all got unblocked. I wonder if there is any way to avoid hitting vessels with cannulas or at least recognising its there

 

[azure]

Gusher, perfect word to describe how it looked like

Yes, they're horrible : ( I used to get them more often when I used my tummy, not so much at all with my thigh or bum. Once so much blood came out it overflowed from my cupped hand. Scary.

I find a misplaced cannula can cause me unexpected lows too. In fact, if I get unexpected blood sugars (either high or low) I often change my cannula just to be sure.

I hope all's ok now.

Edited to,add that often being aware of your cannula in an uncomfortable way, even slightly, can mean it's not quite placed right.

 

[noblehead]

Have any of you ever experienced something similar?

Just the once @ewelina, the cannula was in my stomach and when I took it off blood started pouring out, had to ask my wife to pass some hankies and the blood ended up on my clothes.

Not sure if your cannula experience caused your morning hypo, but thankfully you were still able to treat it.

 

[MushyPeaBrain]

I've had a few of these and find they way they effect BG varies. Sometimes they stop the insulin working properly and other times they make it super efficient. Still gross when you puul the cannula out though!

 

[cz_dave]

Wow, sounds a bit scary. May be I am not going to rush to move to pump from MDI...

 

[JaneC]

Although annoying......and messy, they are so infrequent so wouldn't worry too much, I've had 4 in 5 years of using a pump and these have all been on the stomach, they haven't hurt either, just a bit of a surprise, a very small downside of using a pump. Capillaries are so hidden it's hard to avoid them really.

 

[CarbsRok]

Wow, sounds a bit scary. May be I am not going to rush to move to pump from MDI...

I've only had one gusher in 9 years, so they are very rare please don't be put off by what we have written here. If we were all well organised had tissues ready just in case then there would be very little mess. It's just the surprise of the unexpected and a very small bit of blood goes a very long way which makes it look worse than it actually is.

 

[rockape37]

Obviously just one of those things that happens from time to time.

Slightly off topic but about a month ago i stood on a nail, that kinda gushed out but a bit of pressure and a bandage till properly treated sorted it. Unlike my wife i found it funny albeit painful.

Regards

Martin

 

[-Artemis-]

Oh - that's so interesting... I use sure-T's (the steel sets) and last week, between dinner and 'pudding', I felt it move... I feel them do this quite often - cos they're steel, I didn't really think much of it - it's seemed to settle back into place and that was that... Anyway, then bolused for whatever snack I was having post dinner - and about half way through delivery my pump alerted me that the insulin flow was blocked and to change my site. I've never had this notification before - but, again, didn't think too much of it and went upstairs to change it. It didn't bleed and actually looked totally normal when I took it out... But as I walked downstairs I felt very, very weird. My cgm was showing stable blood sugars but I must have looked odd as when I sat down next to my husband he looked at me very concerned if I was okay... I said 'I think I'm having a hypo - but it doesn't make sense.... I hadn't long tested to bolus for my post dinner snack - and despite the pause to change the cannula etc it was still less than ten minutes since I'd last tested - and at the time I was around 8/9 (if not long had dinner).

I didn't have a lot of insulin on board though so was really confused - but obviously tested as felt so weird. My meter showed something in the 5's. Obviously not that low - but still a pretty big drop from the 9ish something less than ten mins before - and by now my body had started shaking.

I couldn't understand my bodies reaction even though my number wasn't low - so went and washed my hands (though retrospectively I'm certain nothing was on them as I'd washed them to change my set) and tested again - this time I was in the 3's. I downed two tubes of glucojuice (30g carbs) and ten minutes later I was still low 3's. I had two or three glucose tablets (by now I was feeling really really odd and shaking violently so lost track a bit) - and another ten minutes later I was still barely in the 4's. I expected a rebound high but it never came. I also continued to shake violently for the next 40mins or so.

... As I said I didn't actually have that much active insulin on board - I think 2u - so the fact that I dropped so quickly, and needed so much glucose to get stable, plus shook so badly -- added to my pump telling me the site was blocked as I was delivering the insulin, all made me wonder whether my set had somehow moved and positioned itself so the insulin went straight into my bloodstream...? I don't know if that's possible but I've never experienced anything like that before - and it really shook me up. Hope you're okay now x