You know, having type 1 diabetes has never really impeded upon my life in any way. I've always done what I want to do, and diabetes just came along with it. Not to mention, for a teenager, my A1C is pretty good. Yet on occasion there are those times when something goes wrong, and it takes a long time to rule out all the other variables and figure out what the issue is, let alone actually fix it.
It all started on Monday, when I woke up nauseous and my blood sugar was 411. I regarded it as a random mishap, and wasn't surprised when the number came down to a reasonable level by lunch. Yet it spiked back up from there, and so began the increasing struggle to hold down my numbers. My mom and I decided to correct via syringe, change the infusion site, and hope for the best.
Other then those crazy numbers, I had a perfectly ordinary day. I didn't let the unsolved problem get in my way. I celebrated my mom's birthday and then in the evening we went out to see the Tourist, as she has a huge celebrity crush on Johnny Depp. At the movies I ran into some kids from my school, and that was fun, too. Except only my blood sugar spiked up again, but I didn't let it ruin the movie for me.
My blood sugar came down a few hours later, and I happily went to bed afterwords. My mom wanted me to check ketones, which is perfectly reasonable and could have been the reason why I was being so insulin resistant, but to be honest I couldn't urinate, and so we left it at that.
On Wednesday morning I woke to the upper 300's, and was finally, seriously concerned. My blood sugars hadn't been this consistently bad ever, not counting when I was first diagnosed. I checked ketones, and the little strip turned a dark pink, almost purplish color. Reading the key, apparently I had 'high ketones'. Now that was a major issue because it meant that my body was extremely insulin resistant, and if I didn't get a handle on that things could get bad. I'm talking, diabetic ketoacidodsis, you need to be hospitalized, kind of bad.
In the mean time, that afternoon I was supposed to spend the night at my friend's house. I was quite excited about this because we planned to spend the entire night playing Kingdom Hearts II. But of course, conditions had been set. I would have to cancel if I didn't get my ketones down to a nomral level by noon.
So I drank lots of water, didn't eat anything after breakfast, and hoped for the best. My nurse practitioner at Joslin Diabetes center in Boston called in a prescription for blood ketone strips, which I was extremely thankful for because it meant I no longer had to pee in a cup in order to check ketones.
At noon my ketones were 0.4, which was within the normal range of 0.1 to 0.6. Yet my blood sugar was 316. It was a paradox, but despite the high blood sugar my parents begrudgingly allowed to go over my friend's house.
On top of all the craziness, my dad was starting to get stressed out as he does when things don't flow in a smooth, unproblematic way. His way of exhibiting his stress level is by his OCD increasing exponentially. Usually it's not that bad, but it is when he's stressed. He double checked that I was reading the labels of carbs correctly (come on dad, I can read numbers), and also double checked my mental calculation of the total carbs in my lunch (come dad, I can add in my head). All the while he's yelling to no one in particular about he has no time to do anything, when it's really his OCD that's getting in the way of his efficiency. Simple questions with one word answers are asked a 3rd, time even when answered firmly twice.
I was thankful to leave my home. I just wanted to escape the craziness of my house, of everyone worrying over my blood sugars and ketone levels.
At my friend's house, things went fine for a while. My blood sugars crept downwards, though I was still showing a lot of insulin resistance, and of course after dinner my numbers spiked yet again. Waking up in the morning at 456, it was decided that I was to be taken home early, and so here I am now. After my mom had quite a few talks with the folks over at Joslin, we've come to the conclusion that the bottle of insulin we had been using had somehow 'gone bad'. I don't really see how a man-made hormone could 'go bad', but it's the only thing left that it could be.
I have new insulin in my pump now, as well as an increased temporary basal rate so I get more insulin as time goes by. Hopefully this will all work, because now my ketones are at 2.8, and if we don't get a grip on it soon, I'm spending Christmas in the hospital. Well, I'll just have to wait and see. I check my blood sugar again at noon.
Through out all the craziness, I haven't once gotten stressed. I'm kind of beyond it at this point. (Besides, increased stress = increase blood sugar.) I figured that I shouldn't let it get me down, even if I am having some serious issues. I'll be upset if it gets to the point where I do have to go to the hospital, though of course I'll never show it in front of those guys.
So basically the past three days, for the first time, my diabetes has been quite the bother. Are there times in your life when something that's supposed to run smoothly suddenly break down? And if so you break down and get upset about it? How do you deal with the stress, or do you just push it away like I've somehow managed to do? I'd like to hear your thoughts. :)
~Larz
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