Friday, June 30, 2006

Day 2 - Better...

After last night's little fiasco - read about that below - my bloodsugar first rebounded to 249 mg/dl (at 10:30 pm) - not high enough to call the doc per instructions, but high enough to correct. So I gave 2.95 units - and waited. At 11:30, feeling kind of cruddy, I retested - 312 mg/dl. Now, that was high enough to call the doc, but I figured, it's 11:30 and I don't want to call this late. So I corrected with a dose of 3 additional units (the pump minused out for insulin on board.)

At 3 am, my sugar rang in at a smooth 98.

At 8 am, I was 147 mg/dl - higher than my usual morning sugar, but I must say, I felt A LOT more comfortable giving the Symlin with my sugar slightly higher than normal considering what had happened last night.

I ate 42 grams of carbs at breakfast - a bowl of total and 1/2 a whole wheat english muffin with an egg white scramble. I gave 1.05 units.

After all this, I headed to work. I'm not feeling any nausea -- maybe a slight queasiness, but nothing really notable. I called the docs office, because I was feeling guilty about not having called about the 11:30 pm 312. As I suspected, he chalked the high up to a rebound from the severe low and confirmed that my correcting was right on the money... Well, alright. I also confirmed that ALL of my meal boluses are reduced - not just the ones at meals that I take with Symlin. He also explained that it may take a couple of days for my body to adjust and that I shouldn't be put off by the wonky sugars... OK...

At 9 am, 139 mg/dl - Well, that's alright.
At 10 am, 116 mg/dl - Still alright...
At 11 am, 201 mg/dl - Gave a correction bolus of 2 units...
At 12 pm, 248 mg/dl - Hmmmmmm...

I ate 15 grams of carb at lunch - only need .4 units of insulin for that - with the suggested correction bolus from the pump, my total lunch dose was 3.20 units.

At 1:30 pm, I was 218 mg/dl - going in the right direction... 2.15 correction suggested and given.

And, right now at 2:30 pm, I'm at 155. Since I'm only correcting over 200 - I get to leave this one be. Excellent.

Day two seems like it's progressing a little better. I'm concerned about the number of high bloodsugars I've had, but I imagine as I start adjusting to the drug and when they up my dose, these ought to come down some...

Now - if I only I can stop wanting to check my sugar every 3 seconds...

Some notes about being on a shot again.

It's not the needle itself that bothers me at all, in fact, I sat with my dad and stepmother this morning in a crowded breakfast room and gave my shot right there at the table. I've never struggled with hiding out in bathrooms or under tables to give my shots. It's the responsiblity of another medication - and one that's not a pill that I can put in a pill box. I have to carry the bottle and at least one - usually two or three - syringes and some alcohol swabs. It's a whole other set of "things" to add to the already too stuffed medication bag.

And - I'm deathly afraid of forgetting it. I guess I'll have to ease myself out of that; which will likely cause me to forget more readily - but I think it's got to be done.

I still can't believe I'm going to need to buy more syringes in a short while. I'm still going to reuse though - is it really THAT bad? Old habits die hard, especially when you're CHEAP, like me.

I don't think I'll get to post much this weekend - a wedding on Saturday (this ought to be fun) and a memorial service on Sunday... But I'll let you know how my first off-schedule kind of days go with the new pal-o-mine...

3 comments:

Sandra Miller said...

Nicole,

I'm so relieved that today was better than yesterday (27-- yikes!).

And I can understand your anxiety about possibly forgeting your injection-- I used to feel the same way when Joseph was on Lantus. That one shot over and above his meal injections seemed so easy to fall through the cracks (though thankfully, it never did).

Good luck with this, and please continue to keep us posted on how this new regimen is working out.

Sandra

p.s. I missed commenting on your anniversary post-- a powerful, honest entry.

Congratulations on coming so far, and for helping so many of us better understand the reality of living well with diabetes.

Nicole, the grace and poise with which you face the challenges of this disease are an inspiration to us all.

Thank you so much for sharing your story here.

Nicole P said...

Sandra -

Your comment really touched my heart tonight - thank you. And thank you for helping me to understand my parent's perspective - and the challenges that they face/faced with my having the disease (even the ones I can't/couldn't see).

Nicole

Unknown said...

It sounds like you're doing the right thing, and you can't get perfect numbers, so that's the important thing. I ALWAYS re-used needles, and no its not that bad! I suppose there are limits but my recycling-brain wouldn't let me use them just once. Your correction plan sounds good - my correction bolus numbers changed depending on how much stress is going on around me, sometimes, when its the early afternoon, its 1-100, on a lazy holiday it can go down to 1-50. Its hard to predict, I wish it were easier. Sandra's comment reminded me of a similar one that meant a lot to me. I was so embarassed about forgetting to cary some sugar around with a friend once and after I recovered from a reaction, she asked me what I thought she was thinking. I think I said, "What a dork, she's got a death wish." and she gently said, "No, I admire the fact that you can survive this disease day after day." My response at the time was "does not compute!" But that's what I'm thinking about you now, so perhaps I can be kinder to myself!