Yesterday became a lesson in diabetic calmness and resilience.
For a while I’ve known the peril of milkshakes and me. Primarily the fact that any insulin I take seems to temporarily forget how to work when confronted with blended ice-cream and milk. You think red sauce is bad? Tomatoes got nothing on a chocolate shake from Colorado City Creamery.
At first I thought I had simply forgotten to bolus (which wouldn’t surprise anybody), but upon reflection over my bolus history I found I did take a bolus! Granted it was probably not enough (duh.) but did it really warrant such a response? Did it?!
“One medium chocolate shake please.”
“Oh, you know that comes with a side of why-the-hell-do-I-feel-like-this, and a free ticket to the eight-hour-ride-down-to-normal-blood-sugar-land?”
Extreme exhaustion? Check. Excessive thirst? Check. The lovely feeling of breathing straight sugar? (you know what I’m talking about) Check.
Start of my shift.
Wait, what?! Great. At this point I usually go to bed for five hours and sleep my way out of ketone-land, no such luck when you’re just coming on work. First chance I get I stop at a gas station and pick up these beauties
Did you know you could buy a twelve-pack of water for what two and a half regular bottles cost? Well you can, and I did. Armed with these bathroom-visit-inducing weapons I embark on the long, slow ride down praying the whole way that this is user error and not a mechanical failure.
Of course, I didn’t have a back-up site change.
One hour later
Okay, really?! Now the specter of mechanical failure is rearing its phantom-ugly head. *deep breath* I have more than one tool in my arsenal. Check with the meter I carry for my drunk patients. 575. Thank you sweet Jesus a number! Numbers I can work with!
Glug, glug.
Next check
Finally my meter decides to spit out a number and rejoin us on the logical side. Definitely coming down while the phantom of mechanical failure is banished back with a firm Riddikulas!
Being “high” for a diabetic sucks. There is no fun feeling, no strawberry fields or diamond skies, just crappy all day long. However, the feeling of coming down off that high? Glorious! So much energy and excitement for life!
Moving further down the ride
Life is just getting better and better…
Oh look at those lovely little white numbers! Finally back to normalcy and actually feeling a bit low after living above 400 for the better part of a day…
Then I go low.
And this was after I had a packet of gummies.
*sigh*
The Pump and the Second Hand 
OMG that sounds like a truly crap day! I am glad that you were able to get the sugars down finally!
Ugh… I shudder to think of what the next picture would have shown.
“Bathroom-visit-inducing weapons” ,,, I like that!
Pingback: TST — Conversations with a diabetic. | The Pump and the Second Hand·
“The lovely feeling of breathing straight sugar” — YES. I’m never able to describe this to anyone. Whenever I’m high, it’s like my lungs are filled with sticky sugar air and an elephant is sitting on me.