24 Hours, 18 Strips, 2 Pods, 1 Sensor

24 Hours, 18 Strips, 2 Pods, 1 Sensor… those were the numbers of my day on Wednesday. Add in some small ketones and you’ve got a party!

Some days it feels like I’ve got diabetes on autopilot. My basal rates are good, I count my carbs right and I float along in a nice range with only a few hills and valleys. Other days, it’s the perfect storm of rebel technology, mystery carbs and stress. Wednesday was that perfect storm kind of day.

Wednesday was already a pod-change day, but when I checked my blood sugar around 10 am because I noticed my Dexcom wasn’t reading me, it was 247. For no reason. Out of habit, I looked at my pod and noticed that the window was tinged pink and full of insulin and water from my shower. So I decided to change my pod early, I took my new vial of insulin and spare pod into the restroom at work because we have an open office and the bathroom is the only private place to do a pod change.

The new pod placement looked good, the cannula was under my skin, no blood, no redness, no pain. So I went about my day. By lunch time, I had gotten my blood sugar down to 131 so I figured I could eat. An hour later, I checked my blood sugar and it was 333. I haven’t seen the 300s in a very long time, so this freaked me out. I fought this high blood sugar all afternoon at work. Test, bolus, drink water, repeat. It wasn’t coming down, so I started ticking through the variables in my head, was my lunch higher carb than I thought? Was my brand new vial of insulin bad? Was my pod bad? Was my site bad? Meanwhile, my Dexcom is still showing question marks.

I decided to take a syringe injection before leaving work. By the time I got home, my blood sugar had dropped about 40 points. My insulin was good. I changed my Dexcom sensor and we took a walk around the neighborhood. I wanted the pod and site to be fine. They looked and felt fine after all. I finally thought to test for ketones and the strip came back light pink – small ketones.

I clearly wasn’t getting the insulin I needed. So I changed my pod yet again. When I took off the old one, there was barely a dot where the cannula had been. And after a few seconds, blood started to trickle out. I don’t know where the insulin I had been pouring into that site actually went, but it clearly didn’t go anywhere with my blood sugar.

Once my new pod was on and the new Dexcom sensor was calibrated, my blood sugar started to come down. I tested multiple times during the night and was 64 when I woke up this morning with no ketones.

Even when there was data, it wasn’t always accurate

Wednesday was an excellent reminder that I do in fact have diabetes. That it isn’t easy. And that my life is dictated by numbers.

2 thoughts on “24 Hours, 18 Strips, 2 Pods, 1 Sensor

  1. Mine was a sensor yesterday. It was awful, it took 24 hours and well I have a new one now. Who drama, I have diabetes.

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