14 hours without insulin... what could you expect to happen?

I just saw he got slammed. Debate averted. Turns out a bunch of insulin-dependent diabetics can handle a comment like “14 hours is no big deal”. :smiley:

I’ll go look for him anyway to make sure he’s clear on things…

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You nailed it. There’s an actual doctor in the group who detailed the same plan. In fact, there were a number of people who had this idea. Unfortunately, I wasn’t one. I was pitching long-acting… :smiley:

I’ve got SO much to learn.

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There’s a doctor in the group who said as much in response to him. All’s well and quiet, and people have settled back into being mad at their 670s…

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Your answer was not wrong.

You could easily do basal insulin and then hook the pump up with a zero basal setting until the basal insulin injection wore off.

Or wait until the next day to hook the pump up.

Or do as Chris said and do shots every few hours.

Lots of ways to do it. Depends on if you are more comfortable with a basal injection, or multiple mini rapid insulin injections. Lots of correct answers, just depends on what you prefer.

But any of the above methods is clearly better than doing nothing!

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Even I could’ve told you that… :smiley:

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I don’t believe that is an experiment I wish to try, I would be even less inclined if I were T1. I have read of people that go into DKA in as few as 6 hours. It depends a lot on the circumstances.

I love the term Mansplaining. I would best describe it as when testosterone interferes with the speech/ thought process.

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I have you all to thank for “mansplaining”. Now I accuse men of it every time they talk… (and am still not wrong often)

It was already funny… but that’s hilarious. :grin:

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I hate “mansplainers”!!!

I’ve done it. I’ve skipped my Lantus before. After drinking AND exercising (running an ultra actually followed by celebration). Actually woke up in the 50’s because of those depletion activities even without my 10pm Lantus. It crept up after breakfast and I had to correct multiple times while waiting for the next 10pm to come around.

If I were forced to go 14 hours (after Lantus has already worn off), I’d start walking and drinking whiskey. Not exactly a long term solution.

That said, I have stashes at my office and at home and sometimes car and if I couldn’t get to either place (I’ve been evacuated for wildfires/flood a couple times in the last 5 years), I’d beg for samples at my pharmacy (I’m a regular, they know me) or urgent care or friends with t1 or ER as a last resort.

As a non-kid with still a bit of insulin production (I think my honeymoon is over but I’m not particularly “brittle”), I don’t think I’d be in dka but at least in the 300’s fasting without exercise/alcohol to bring it down.

I misunderstood the context when I answered the question. I thought it was purely theoretical- not something being recommended.

There’s absolutely no reason to go without insulin for 14 hours when you have it in your refrigerator or when you have easy access to a pharmacy across the street with R and NPH (last resort for me, but I’d happily opt for that over nothing!).

I’ve had a pump malfunction, and Medtronic overnighted a new one to me. I just gave myself injections of Humalog every 1-2 hours until I could pick it up.

What a silly recommendation… go without insulin for 14 hours when clearly fast-acting insulin was available.

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Whoever made the recommendation probably also believes it’s OK to dash in and out of interstate traffic…blindfolded. You might be lucky. You might not be!

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And lots and lots of water, because it’s important to flush out the ketones; when they get too high for too long all kinds of things go wrong with the blood chemistry and the body, and it can be too hard to get back without medical support.

If my pump broke and my backup pump failed I’d take injections of humalog every 2 to 4 hours if I expected to get a replacement or loaner pump within 24 hours (my endo’s office might have a loaner/demo pump that I could borrow.) Otherwise I’d get a bottle of that 12-hour basal insulin whose name I forget. 12-hour because my basal requirement overnight is about 4 times my daytime requirement.

I always supposed that if I were suddenly deprived of insulin, I’d start feeling sick at 4 hours, be vomiting at 6 to 8 hours, and be dead within 24 to 48 hours. From the article by Wil Dubois that MM2 posted, it seems like I may have been pessimistic on these times: the endo told Wil that death probably would come within a week or two (not a day or two). I worry that if I ever get arrested they’ll take the pump away and the process of dying will start: they routinely take away all devices and refuse to permit self-medication. (I read an article by someone who went through that. He saved himself by yelling over and over that his life was in imminent danger, he needed a doctor, and the law requires that he be given a reasonable accommodation. And of course I can’t find a link to that story now that I’m looking for it.)

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Stashes… of insulin or whiskey? :grin:

So many people are already jealous of the fact skittles could POSSIBLY be a treatment of mine … can you imagine their face if I broke out a bottle of whiskey? :joy:

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To add to the straight fear of flying, because that’s not enough, I now have a fear of TSA taking off my pump and not giving it back. It’s mostly irrational but not entirely… 1. My name is “Ghaleb” and I’m selected for “random” searches every time I fly, and 2. I actually had someone take my pump off of me in the ER once and remove the battery… to quiet the alarms. :neutral_face: I realized, @Chris, just how reliant I AM on technology and, therefore, vulnerable. Anyway, thanks for refreshing all of those fears but at LEAST letting me know they’d have to keep me for a week, slowly dying, before it would be done. That’s great. I’m off to find that article…

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Ohhhh… another reason for choosing an Omnipod over a tubed pump.

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Well, if they don’t have the PDM and know how to use it, they may do the same with the POD…it’s got some annoying alarms, too. lol

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Yep. Have done that, and also keep Tuojeo on hand… download%20(2)

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ER staff with my pump…before removing battery…

https://goo.gl/images/Ougx23

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When I was on Lantus I forgot to take my dose one night. I woke up the next morning at 16 mmol/L (about 280 or so mg/dl). BUT Lantus lasts more than a day, at least the fumes of it do. So there was still some small level of insulin in my system. I was told the fumes last for three days to a week when I started pumping, and my basal dose jumped significantly after the first week on my pump, which my nurse thuoght were the “fumes” of Lantus finally wearing off. I have no idea if there’s any actual science behind that.

The longest I’ve gone disconnected from my pump was about five hours. I didn’t quite have zero insulin in my system, since I did take three units after about three hours (thinking that was enough). After about five hours with only those three units, my BG was over 26 mmol/L (475ish mg/dl) and I was extremely close to vomitting (basically kept a bucket nearby for a few “close calls”).

I didn’t check ketones either of those times. The last time I had a site die on me, my blood sugar gradually crept up to about 21 mmol/L (380ish mg/dl) over a two-hour period, at which point I began feeling nauseous and my ketones were 2.2 mmol/L or so. I took an injection at that point.

I don’t think I’d be dead after 14 hours with no insulin, but I certainly think I’d be feeling extremely sick, almost definitely vomitting, with very high ketones and BG, and very likely in DKA. Definitely not “fine” by any stretch of the definition.

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That is terrifying! Jail and the ER are the 2 places I fear the most since diagnosis.

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36 posts were split to a new topic: Drinking and Type 1 Diabetes. A long discussion, with some good 'splainin