Real Estate

I had a visit from the Crazy Rabbit on the weekend.

He showed up on Sunday afternoon and had a new trick up his sleeve.

He sent my blood sugar spiking after every meal. Even low carb ones. Even ones eaten right after exercise. I would take my regular insulin and, instead of happily bobbing along between 7-9 after eating, I would spike straight up to 16+.

It would take three times my regular insulin and 3-4 hours to get me back down.

Once I got down, I stayed down. Even overnight. My blood sugars happily hovered between 4-6 all night long.

Work through it with me. See if you can figure out the problem.

If I spike like that after a meal my first thought is that there is something wrong with my infusion site and I am not getting insulin properly. Then I wonder if it's my insulin. Did it get too hot? Was there a huge air bubble I didn't see in the tube? Did I actually remember to take insulin? (yes, that does happen).

After a few extra boluses of insulin my blood sugar did come down. Ok, so I am getting some insulin. Maybe not all of it but some. Now that I'm down, if I'm not getting all of the insulin I should be getting my blood sugar will start to climb again.

But it didn't. Even after 8-10 hours overnight. I didn't climb at all. So I'm getting all of my basal insulin.

Next breakfast? Bolus extra insulin and wait 20 minutes before eating. Blood sugar starts to drop as expected. Eat. Wait 15 minutes and it starts to climb. Spikes up to 16 despite a few rage boluses. Takes hours to flutter back down but, once down, it stays down until I eat again.

This happened on Sunday and Monday. I decided to test my Tuesday morning breakfast and, if things kept up, I'd change my site. I ran for an hour before breakfast, bolused, waited, ate and went to work. My blood sugar was stellar. It stayed between 5-7, never spiked, never dropped. Sweet!

Crazy Rabbit went home - finally!

At lunch I counted my carbs, bolused, waited 20 minutes just in case, and ate. Thirty minutes later I was 16. It took four hours and a ton of insulin to get it back down again.

Enough!

I went home, changed my site, my tubing, my vial and put in fresh insulin. I also went for real estate that had not been used in months. I don't like putting my pump on my right side for all sorts of reasons. It gets in the way of my golf swing. It gets in the way when I sleep. It gets in the way period.

I put in on my right side in order to properly address each and every variable I could think of.

If things don't improve, I'm making rabbit stew!