The Just Thought I'd Share Thread

[Meowi]

Originally Posted by APerfectLie

My blood sugar is currently 438. It is supposed to be below 120. FML. No wonder I feel like ****.

Oh knoes.
You okay?

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by APerfectLie

My blood sugar is currently 438. It is supposed to be below 120. FML. No wonder I feel like ****.

How do you bring it down?

[APerfectLie]

Originally Posted by Meowi

Oh knoes.
You okay?

Yeah, I took some insulin and I am down to 355 now. 355 is still terribly high, but I will be normal in about two hours, but until then I will continue to feel like I have syrup coursing thru my veins.

[Silver Springs]

It's half past three in the am and I'm still awake. I should go to bed but I don't wanna

[ButterCookie]

OOOIII you two! I'll not have you badmouthing Mancs unless I can join in

[chelluversu]

Originally Posted by Silver Springs

Yikes! I hope it comes down :s I have the sort of problem when it comes to my Iron levels (I'm severely anaemic). An average Iron count I was told was around 125 and my last cound I was on the cusp of 50. Oh well. It means I get more sleep so I win, considering how little I feel the need to do so at other times. I'm a terrible insomniac.

I couldn't even give blood because my Iron level was so low...it was 12 (or i think that's what it had too be...but ii was pretty low)
they have me a card with a list of iron rich foods. Thanks -_____-

Originally Posted by Silver Springs

Congratulations Honey! University encompasses the best years of your life, despite the workload

Thank you so much

[Silver Springs]

Originally Posted by ButterCookie

OOOIII you two! I'll not have you badmouthing Mancs unless I can join in

XD XD Kevin and Perry crack me up. Yet oddly enough I don't like their "movie" at all. Kevin sounds like a farmer, poor dear

[APerfectLie]

Yesterday my blood sugar fluctuated from the low 60s to the upper 400s. Today, it has been steadily hovering around 130. Oh diabetes.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by APerfectLie

Yesterday my blood sugar fluctuated from the low 60s to the upper 400s. Today, it has been steadily hovering around 130. Oh diabetes.

So John, when it goes up in the 400's, did you do something, to make it do that? Eat something that you shouldn't have?
I hate that you have to deal with this sh*t.

[APerfectLie]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

So John, when it goes up in the 400's, did you do something, to make it do that? Eat something that you shouldn't have?
I hate that you have to deal with this sh*t.

Actually, I ate breakfast and gave myself insulin for it but my pump ran out of insulin in the middle of the dose. All I had to do was switch out the infusion site, however I was about to take a shower and the adhesive will not stick if you take a shower right after inserting it, so I took a shower first and then inserted it and gave the remainder of my dose. Therefore, I went about an hour with carbs in my body without the insulin to counteract them. Dumb dumb dumb on my part. But, to refer to your "something you're not supposed to eat" part, there is nothing I cannot eat. I can eat anything, I just have to administer the correct dose of insulin to counteract that. Therefore, fluctuations in blood sugar do with too little or too much insulin administered. But it isn't a simple science of X amount of insulin for X amount of carbs. Your liver continuously releases glucose into the bloodstream, and that amount fluctuates too. Also, just because a package says it has 42 grams of carbs, it does not mean it is completely accurate. Also, your sensitivity to insulin can fluctuate. And your blood sugar meter can be off by 20%, so if it says you are 200, you may be 160, but you take insulin to correct a bloodsugar of 200 and now you end up low. Therefore, there are many variables that cause your blood sugar to go high or low, and many times they aren't the fault of the diabetic.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by APerfectLie

Actually, I ate breakfast and gave myself insulin for it but my pump ran out of insulin in the middle of the dose. All I had to do was switch out the infusion site, however I was about to take a shower and the adhesive will not stick if you take a shower right after inserting it, so I took a shower first and then inserted it and gave the remainder of my dose. Therefore, I went about an hour with carbs in my body without the insulin to counteract them. Dumb dumb dumb on my part. But, to refer to your "something you're not supposed to eat" part, there is nothing I cannot eat. I can eat anything, I just have to administer the correct dose of insulin to counteract that. Therefore, fluctuations in blood sugar do with too little or too much insulin administered. But it isn't a simple science of X amount of insulin for X amount of carbs. Your liver continuously releases glucose into the bloodstream, and that amount fluctuates too. Also, just because a package says it has 42 grams of carbs, it does not mean it is completely accurate. Also, your sensitivity to insulin can fluctuate. And your blood sugar meter can be off by 20%, so if it says you are 200, you may be 160, but you take insulin to correct a bloodsugar of 200 and now you end up low. Therefore, there are many variables that cause your blood sugar to go high or low, and many times they aren't the fault of the diabetic.

Does the pump determine, by itself, what you need? Or do you adjust the dosage, according to what you just ate? You just know that so many cc's of insulin, counteract so many grams of carbs?

[Nikolaj]

Yikes, aperfectlie, those were serious fluctuations.
Did the 400s reading affect your mood, I mean, before you knew that it was in the 400s?
I'm asking because with my Mom, a very high number can be accompanied by a vicious, incredibly angry mood swing- it seems to be a sign that she may be running high.
I wondered, and testing confirmed it- tonight, in fact. It was 402.
I'd been out Christmas shopping, my Dad said she had been 'low'- I checked the book we keep, and her reading was 108, which actually had always been a fine number for her, until the doctor changed the insulin dosages, not permitting a shot unless she is 170 or higher.
My dad, feeling she was 'low' gave her a miniature piece of 'Mounds' candy, and it spiked her way up. Had I been there, I'd never have let him give her the candy, that's only for when she would be below 70, hopefully that will never happen again.
A reading of 27 landed her in the hospital this year, but 108 should not require she be given pure sugary coconut and chocolate. They should both know this, and did, at one time. They forget that 100 or more is fine, and think she's 'low' if she can't take the insulin, when actually 108 is dandy.
I felt very defeated about the whole thing, he should have known not to do what he did, and she should have known not to eat it.
The lows are more life-threatening than highs, correct? Even at your young age, I mean.
Maybe you didn't eat enough for you to register 60? Or slept longer than usual, causing the number to drop? Or perhaps it was just the maddening, unpredictable disease itself just being difficult with no real reason for it to have happened. You poor kid. But you are strong and super smart, you'll be great. In fact, I think you may find a cure!
I hope you are feeling better.

[APerfectLie]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

Does the pump determine, by itself, what you need? Or do you adjust the dosage, according to what you just ate? You just know that so many cc's of insulin, counteract so many grams of carbs?

The pump does no thinking on its own. It constantly gives you insulin to counteract the body's normal rise in glucose, but I work with my doctor to find out how many units I need per hour and then program those hourly rates into the pump. Also, when I eat I have to manually input the insulin dosage. Figuring out how much insulin you need per amount of carbs is something I had to figure out with my doctor. Right now I take 1 unit for every 8 grams. Another thing my doctor and I had to calculate was my sensitivity, how much your blood sugar drops per 1 unit of insulin administered. Right now one unit of insulin drops my blood sugar 36 mg/dl, which I use to correct high blood sugar. Luckily, the pump has a program installed and I simply input these two ratios, 1 unit/8 grams and 36mg/dl per unit of insulin and then when I go to give myself insulin I enter my blood sugar number and the amount of carbs I am eating and it does the calculations and shows me the number of units I should inject, but I have to approve that number and tell the pump to go ahead and administer that dose. So essentially all the pump does is the math and administers what I tell it to give me.

Originally Posted by Nikolaj

Yikes, aperfectlie, those were serious fluctuations.
Did the 400s reading affect your mood, I mean, before you knew that it was in the 400s?
I'm asking because with my Mom, a very high number can be accompanied by a vicious, incredibly angry mood swing- it seems to be a sign that she may be running high.
I wondered, and testing confirmed it- tonight, in fact. It was 402.
I'd been out Christmas shopping, my Dad said she had been 'low'- I checked the book we keep, and her reading was 108, which actually had always been a fine number for her, until the doctor changed the insulin dosages, not permitting a shot unless she is 170 or higher.
My dad, feeling she was 'low' gave her a miniature piece of 'Mounds' candy, and it spiked her way up. Had I been there, I'd never have let him give her the candy, that's only for when she would be below 70, hopefully that will never happen again.
A reading of 27 landed her in the hospital this year, but 108 should not require she be given pure sugary coconut and chocolate. They should both know this, and did, at one time. They forget that 100 or more is fine, and think she's 'low' if she can't take the insulin, when actually 108 is dandy.
I felt very defeated about the whole thing, he should have known not to do what he did, and she should have known not to eat it.
The lows are more life-threatening than highs, correct? Even at your young age, I mean.
Maybe you didn't eat enough for you to register 60? Or slept longer than usual, causing the number to drop? Or perhaps it was just the maddening, unpredictable disease itself just being difficult with no real reason for it to have happened. You poor kid. But you are strong and super smart, you'll be great. In fact, I think you may find a cure!
I hope you are feeling better.

Yes, fluctuations do cause mood swings and when they get into the 400s, you really begin to feel physically ill. Since I try to control my blood sugar tightly, it is difficult to not get lows, but I am able to minimize them. Sometimes it has to do with "overshooting", as in thinking there are more carbs in a certain food or thinking your blood sugar is higher than it actually is. Another problem is the pure unpredictability of the disease. You can eat the EXACT same things and take the EXACT same insulin on two consecutive days and get drastically different results. And yes, lows are much more life threatening than highs. Highs of course can cause long term complications, but you have to be high for around 36 hours before you enter into diabetic ketoacidosis, which is a deadly condition caused by high bloodsugar. Therefore, a 400 will make you feel like **** and will do microscopic damage to your body, but you have hours, even days to correct it before it takes your life. However, the brain needs glucose just like it needs oxygen. Low blood sugar is the equivalent of suffocation for the brain. If your blood sugar drops, you have about 20 min to correct it, give or take a few depending on how fast and low the drop is, before it can cause permanent brain damage or death.

[Nikolaj]

^ ^
Informative, as always, aperfectlie. I am sorry that I missed the information you originally did provide, that the need to shower had partially caused the low reading, because of needing to refill the insulin pump and that the skin can't be wet when re-calibrating it all.
I usually need to read your writings twice, sometimes a third time, because there is so much information, so I go back, re-read, and find that you've usually already answered what I wondered about.
I don't know if you saw it, but in some thread, somewhere, last week, I told you that I really believe that the medical profession needs you.
Should your studies lead you to medicine; be it biomedical engineering, becoming a medical researcher, nurse or doctor, or anything that you can lend that microscopic attention to detail you write with to, I think you'd have a brilliant career.
Of course, there is a huge possibility that you have interests in endeavors that have absolutely nothing to do with health care, and have been forced to use your mind and energy on diabetes simply because you have the intelligence and strong survival instincts. Likely, that mind of yours would find it stultifying to only focus on health related issues.
So by all means, go for the bliss, whatever it may be! One thing that really sucks about diabetes is that one never gets a break from it, not once a day, even- it's a relentless presence that demands attention, at all times.
Most people have no idea of how the disease touches every aspect of the person's life who has it. You are an inspiring example of someone who just handles a hardship expertly and does so in a matter-of-fact way without complaining or self-pity. You're amazing in that facet of your character, no bitching and moaning, just strength and intelligence. That is a great deal to be proud about.

[Sleepless-Child]

Someone knows what happened to "golddustsongbird"? I don't know her personally, but i enjoyed her posts,so i wondered...oh well.