Re: Blood Sugar Dive While Driving -So Scared!

July 12, 2005

I'm doing the Snoopy Happy Dance. Dang doctor backed down, after reading my

fax, and through his nurse, said for me to continue with the sliding scale. And

that I've completely puzzled him.

Moron.

I'll see him on the 28th. He should be afraid. Be very afraid. <G>

Marilyn

whimsy2 wrote:

I'd sure like to hear the answer to that one too. Please let us know.

Take care,

Vicki

<

I don't know why I haven't done this with the diabetes before, but

believe me, my doctor and his nurse will receive my faxed questions to

them this afternoon, more or less asking " what the heck am I doing

taking 40 units of insulin when my blood sugar reading is in the 60s?

And I'm following the sliding scale, and not your new figures. " That

ought to get a response.

The funny thing is, this doctor is highly recommended. So I'm sure I'll

be labeled " non-compliant " but I don't care. I just need him to explain

his rationale for my taking high doses of insulin even when my BG is

low.

July 12, 2005

Great. Learning from our experiences is one of the best things we can

do to manage our condition.

--- In diabetes_int , Marilyn <marilyncmorris@s.

> I get a funny feeling and tremble a bit, sometimes sweat. This

time, tho, I pushed those signs to the side, determined to go to the

grocery store on the way home. Will never do that again! (Learning

experience!)

>

> Marilyn

July 12, 2005

Marilyn: Any time you feel a little weird (and learn to pay attention to

those things; don't push it aside!) bring out your meter and test! Keep

a little spiral notebook in your purse and write everything down. You

might even want to get a PDA and use that.

And don't leave the meter in the car. Keep it with you in your purse. It

should be with you at all times. If you don't wear a purse all the

time, wear a butt bag and put it in that.

Vicki

Re: Re: Blood Sugar Dive While Driving -So

Scared!

>

> Rotramel wrote:

> Marilyn,

> Don't do anything you are not comfortable doing, but I urge you not to

> let this incident scare you off of driving. As long as you have your

> meter with you and use it, and you have something to raise your sugar

> if you need to, then you should be fine. I try not to let diabetes get

> in the way of living, if you know what I mean.

>

> Yes, I do know what you mean. Funny thing: When I got lupus in 1988,

> I determined then that I wasn't going to quit living just so I could

> live. Don't know why I didn't think of this with diabetes, unless my

> absolute terror got in the way, as I haven't driven my car since last

> Thursday.

>

> I don't remember if you had any warnings of being low. For me, I get a

> little sweaty and light headed. For my wife, she gets grouchy and

> ditzy. (Thank goodness she no longer gets mad at me when I point out

> she is grouch and ditzy, but instead agrees and goes and eats

> something.).

>

> I get a funny feeling and tremble a bit, sometimes sweat. This time,

> tho, I pushed those signs to the side, determined to go to the grocery

> store on the way home. Will never do that again! (Learning

> experience!)

>

> Marilyn

>

July 12, 2005

Thank you. I'll do that.

Marilyn

whimsy2 wrote:

Marilyn: Any time you feel a little weird (and learn to pay attention to

those things; don't push it aside!) bring out your meter and test! Keep

a little spiral notebook in your purse and write everything down. You

might even want to get a PDA and use that.

And don't leave the meter in the car. Keep it with you in your purse. It

should be with you at all times. If you don't wear a purse all the

time, wear a butt bag and put it in that.

Vicki

July 12, 2005

Yeah. I just wish I didn't have to learn the hard way!

Marilyn

Rotramel wrote:

Great. Learning from our experiences is one of the best things we can

do to manage our condition.

July 12, 2005

When you get to where you can handle even MORE information you might

want to take a look at Dr. Bernstein's book, especially the discussion

of meal dosing. Also, I imagine your doctor did tell you that Humalog

has a " standard instruction " start time of 15 minutes, which means you

would wait 15 minutes after injection before starting to eat. Even

better if you test to check on your own personal start time. You would

do this by preparing your meal, take a bg reading, and those of us who

dose for carb or gigl would prepare a syringe with the appropriate

number of units - you would do it according to your scale, then test

every five minutes until your bg drops 10 points, record that total

number of minutes, and EAT! Then you know how long it takes for that

insulin to start working for you. This is to get the insulin and the

food to work together instead of having one start working before the

other one does. And for more technical explanations of just why we do

this you will need to hear from someone else, because I can only

understand all that stuff when I'm reading it - and after that I just do

what I'm told. If this is already too much information for right now

just ignore me. I don't mind.

CarolR

Marilyn wrote:

> It's humalog. 3 times a day, before meals. But not any more -- <G> Now I'm

doing the sliding scale, like the ER doc recommended. I'm still feeling

somewhat scared over the whole thing, tho. God, what could have happened!

> Thanks, Carol.

> Marilyn

July 12, 2005

Whatever you do, if you take Humalog - I highly suggest, when eating out at a

restaurant

that you DO NOT take your insulin until your food is in front of you. With an

onset time of

15 min (give or take a few) you can be in deep, deep doo-doo if something goes

wrong

and your order is delayed!

I had this happen, sorta, at work last month. We were having a company BBQ. Boss

said

'Food's on " so I dosed up. We were having hamburgers, and by golly I was gonna

have one

of those soft white buns that I never keep around the house. 34g of carbs. OUCH.

So, I

dosed with about 4 units.

Well, turns out, food *WASN'T* on. It took a few mins for everyone to get

gathered up, and

then he had to give a little chat, and award the employee of the month, etc.

Even when I

*TOLD* him " Hey, bossman, I've dosed up, and it takes 15 min to start acting...

I gotta

eat... " it STILL took us another 10 mins. So, 30 mins between the time I

injected and the

time I took the first bite.

I was so hungry by then (I get hungry when my bs starts to hit the low 90s) that

I wolfed

down my burger, and barely got to enjoy it 15 mins later, I was shaking and

sweating,

because my food wasn't catching up with my insulin. BAH!

SulaBlue

July 12, 2005

On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 02:48:30 -0000, " SulaBlue "

wrote:

>Whatever you do, if you take Humalog - I highly suggest, when eating out at a

restaurant

>that you DO NOT take your insulin until your food is in front of you. With an

onset time of

>15 min (give or take a few) you can be in deep, deep doo-doo if something goes

wrong

>and your order is delayed!

Yup, had that happen the other day at the Pizza parlor on one of my

splurge days. I need about 8 units of Novolog to offset half a pizza

(see, I really do splurge sometimes.) I normally wait until the

food's on the table before shooting but I figured this time that this

carb blorf probably required a head-start. When I saw the cook put

the pie in the oven, I shot. Turns out it wasn't my pie. Someone

ELSE had also ordered a mushroom, shrimp and sundried tomato pizza.

In about 10 minutes, out came the glucose tabs as the first edge of

the sweats started. I caught it in time but I effectively wasted the

shot. Grrrrrrr.

Moral #1: Wait til the food's there before shooting.

Moral #2: Keep those glucose tabs handy at all times.

Moral #3: Don't assume you're the only one with weird food tastes :-)

---

De Armond

See my website for my current email address

http://www.johngsbbq.com

Cleveland, Occupied TN

July 12, 2005

Another factor to keep in mind: when going into a hupo a common symptom is that

you will do

anything possible to accomplish whatever task you're doing just then. GOT to

learn to realize this

is happening so you can ignore it and test or treat for a low NOW!

Ted Quick

--- whimsy2 wrote:

> Marilyn: Any time you feel a little weird (and learn to pay attention to

> those things; don't push it aside!) bring out your meter and test! Keep

> a little spiral notebook in your purse and write everything down. You

> might even want to get a PDA and use that.

July 13, 2005

Strange, I have never had the compulsion to finish something, but so

far, I have always known when I was having a true low. Sometimes I

have calculated that I CAN finish something and then eat, but it has

always been a conscious decision.

> > Marilyn: Any time you feel a little weird (and learn to pay

attention to

> > those things; don't push it aside!) bring out your meter and test!

Keep

> > a little spiral notebook in your purse and write everything down.

You

> > might even want to get a PDA and use that.

July 13, 2005

When you knew you were having a true low, was it because you tested to

make sure?

Vicki

Re: Blood Sugar Dive While Driving -So Scared!

> Strange, I have never had the compulsion to finish something, but so

> far, I have always known when I was having a true low. Sometimes I

> have calculated that I CAN finish something and then eat, but it has

> always been a conscious decision.

>

>> > Marilyn: Any time you feel a little weird (and learn to pay

> attention to

>> > those things; don't push it aside!) bring out your meter and test!

> Keep

>> > a little spiral notebook in your purse and write everything down.

> You

>> > might even want to get a PDA and use that.

July 13, 2005

Carol wrote:

When you get to where you can handle even MORE information you might

want to take a look at Dr. Bernstein's book, especially the discussion

of meal dosing.

You are correct in guessing I'm feeling overwhelmed with information from this

group. I'll do that when I can catch my breath, so to speak.

Also, I imagine your doctor did tell you that Humalog

has a " standard instruction " start time of 15 minutes, which means you

would wait 15 minutes after injection before starting to eat.

My doctor didn't tell me jack squat. I took diabetes classes at the hospital

but got no really good information out of it; I was too tired from my

hospitalization to really learn anything new at that point, and much of it was

so much medical terminology I tuned out.

Even