Three days ago, I made a VERY huge diabetic mistake.
I was talking
to my mom while giving myself insulin. Paying no attention to what I
was actually doing, apparently. I set my fast-acting insulin pen to 12
units (the set dosage I take twice a day for my long-lasting insulin)
when I had only intended to take 2 units.
I was only at 230. Each
unit of fast-acting insulin drops my sugar by 50. 2 units would have
put me at 130, close to where I needed to be.
But 12 units?
Let’s do the math here. 2 units: 130. 4 units: 30. 6 units: -130. 8
units: -230. 10 units: -330. 12 units: -430. I took enough insulin to
drop me 600 points, from 230 to -430.
As I went to pull out my
insulin needle, I looked down and instantly realized what I had done. In
mid-conversation with my mom, I said in a very low-voice, “oh, shit.”
My mom worriedly asked me what was wrong. I told her. She made me start
chugging on a milkshake (she had just waled in the door with one —
good timing), a bottle of regular mountain dew. She even laced my
milkshake with extra sugar.
I had NO idea what was going to
happen. I knew that my sugar would drop really fast. If it dropped too
low, too fast, I could have become unconscious, unable to eat/drink. In
that type of situation, I would have to be injected with glucose.
Well, I don’t have any glucagon injections ((note to self: get
some!!)). To be safe, my mom drove me to the local hospital emergency
room. We didn’t go inside. We simply parked right outside the ER just
in case. I checked my sugar every 15 minutes for about 3 hours, while
constantly chugging down sugary drinks. At one point, my sugar had
dropped 100 points in only 15 minutes.
And, because of all of
this testing, I ended up running out of test strips! Perfect timing,
right? My mom left me in the ER waiting room and ran to Wal-Mart to
purchase some Contour test strips. The only package available was the
100 count, which is $100! I usually purchase test strips using
insurance (which is still expensive), but over-the-counter costs are
ridiculous.
Fortunately, by the time she had got back, which
was 3 hours after my initial mistake, I was finally starting to feel
“safe.” I knew that I had consumed enough sugar to fight off any
further lows. We came back home, and, bless her heart, my mom kept
waking up to check on me through the night.
Insulin overdose. Hypoglycemic episodes are scary enough, but unintentional insulin overdosing? Yikes. Leave it to me. *sigh*
I
am just glad that I realized my mistake and immediately started to
correct. I am also glad I had my mom there to help. Lesson learned:
talking while injecting is the diabetic equivalent of drinking and
driving. Insulin can be a life-saver, but it can just as easily be a
deadly weapon. Must use with caution. Always.
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