My CGM’s new name is Nixon
Monday night, when I went to bed, everything was good. My blood sugar was in range, and I was happy.
Forty-five minutes later, still not bad.
But then, the tape went blank. This happened:
For about an hour, the alarms failed to awaken me from my slumber. Eventually, they did, I tested, “restarted” the expired sensor, and gave a correction bolus.
It seemed that all hell had broken loose.
Granted, 214 isn’t so bad, but I have no idea how I got there. I was coasting along peacefully moments before. (My fingersticks can confirm that these CGM readings are, indeed, accurate). And despite the correction boluses, the number kept creeping up. So much that I decided to silence the alerts for a few hours .
Even in the morning, waking in the 250-260 ballpark, a Super-Pre-Bolus before breakfast didn’t help. When my meter clocked in with a number in the tricentennial region (over 300), I decided it was time for another Emergency Site Change in the office restroom, something that’s becoming quite common lately.
That led me to ponder this (on Facebook):
Amid all the pondering, I still have no idea what happened. The record of that short period of time is gone forever.
Damn that missing tape.
* * *
Note to self: The restroom on the third floor of the office has those boxy metal toilet-paper dispensers. They’re much easier to balance infusion-set assembly kits on than the round molded plastic TP dispensers on the second floor, where I sit. The paper is softer, too.
Posted on September 25, 2013, in Diabetes, Personal. Bookmark the permalink. 7 Comments.
Rolling in the D 
I question the “active insulin” numbers my pump spits out. But I usually have the opposite problem. (Necessary correction boluses drop me into oblivion.)
LikeLike
Well, setting the active-insulin-time correctly is one challenge (that can never be achieved, IMO). But what I was wondering is how much of that insulin made it into my body — and if so, if it was actively doing anything — in the first place.
You bring up a good point though — especially when it comes to square/dual-wave boluses, I have no idea how active insulin is calculated.
LikeLike
Oh man, that’s crazy…only one hour for you to jump like that?! Although your post did make me think about how I went 18 years without a CGM and now I’m just like you, so dependent on it to explain things, even if one hour is gone you are wondering what happened.
Hopefully the site change helped bring you down and maybe that’s all it was?
LikeLike
It helped — or maybe the timing was just coincidental — but I still can’t figure out just what happened. The site seemed absolutely fine when I removed it; no irritation, no fluids oozing out of it, nothing.
LikeLike
OK, I got nothing, seeing as Watergate is a common occurrence over here, too. Just a nod of agreement and a promise to call you if Deep Throat ever contacts me.
LikeLike
Pingback: Here’s what’s happening | Rolling in the D
Pingback: September comment contest | Rolling in the D