37... 33... 911... 33! After finishing dinner last evening, I scraped the plate and placed it in the sink then returned to the couch, where I quickly faded away. Fran wasn't able to arouse me for more than a moment and got out the glucose meter. 37. I've never had such a low reading. She got me to drink a sugar-laced orange juice and took another reading -- 33!! She then called 911. I woke up with an IV in my arm, oxygen in my nose, blood on a couple fingers from the tests and eight firemen and paramedics in the front room; what a crowd. They had taken a reading upon arrival. It was 33. They fed me a tube of glucose but that didn't raise the reading significantly so they fed me a glucose IV. That done I was up to 250. Because I was responsive to their questions, they packed up and left. Moments later we tested again and got something in the 170s. A half-hour later it was in the 150s.
When I finally became fully aware of my surroundings, I noticed my tee shirt was damp. No, not damp really, but sopping wet! Fran helped me get the clammy thing off and went to get a dry one. That's when I noticed that my walking shorts were also damp. I thought I'd pissed myself, but what was wet was in the wrong place for that to have happened -- a small relief.
Fran did everything right. I'm thankful she was around, and am proud of her actions.
What was weird about this incident was that it happened only a half hour after my pre-meal injection and immediately after eating. The insulin is not supposed to come into play that quickly. It also followed my lunchtime dose which is a mix of fast and slow acting insulin. The incident occurred a bit late for that to have affected me in that suddenly. The cause so far is an unknown. I'm supposed to get a call from my diabetes counsellor sometime today to talk about this and a couple other recent incidents; we talked to her after-hours cover last night but didn't get a lot of direction from her as she didn't have my records available. More to follow, later.
Update
I talked with Tammy again, just before lunch. She doesn't have an explanation for the timing of my incidents. What I am to do is decrease my before dinner insulin dosage by half and reduce my nighttime day-long insulin by four units. I see my normal counsellor, Amy, next Tuesday. Hopefully things will have settled into a better, visible pattern by then.
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3 comments:
Good grief.
I'm glad to hear you were responsive by the time the paramedics left, but that's pretty alarming there was still enough insulin in your system to bring your reading down by 100 after IV glucose was administered and they left.
Is there a way to verify if what you have is really the correct mixture of fast and slow acting stuff? can it stratify? (separate into layers)
Is there any way to get hold of Amy today?
I also commend mom on her actions. Good work mom!!
I've decided to drop the slow acting insulin, Humalin N, N for short. I was supposed to have done that when I went on the three times a day fast acting Humalog. I'd been using both at lunch for more than a year and had just got a new bottle when the new regimen was given me a few weeks back. To answer your question, N will stratify in mixture with Humalog after a while (like 30 minutes), but once injected it doesn't matter.
I think Tammy was standing in for Amy today, who I will see Tuesday.
Man that is scary.
In taking you pre-meal shot aren’t you suppose to count the carbs that you will be ingesting and adjust your shot accordingly? I know that Tony at work takes a meter reading and does some calculating and then does his shot. His meals at work are all very similar day to day, some meat, usually pork or chicken, in a Mexican broth with some veggies, and a few tortillas. I don’t know if he does that so that he can count his meal cards easily or it’s just a Mexican custom.
I too wish to applaud Fran for her quick thinking and actions. And I hope that you can pin down the root of the problem before it happens again.
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