Finally woke up in an aid car

Not sure if it was bound to happen some day but this afternoon I finally did it…,passed out from a low, collapsed in my snowy yard. I guess I’ll cross that one off the bucket list.

Was rescued by my wife who (oops) had no idea that my glucose gel and baqsimi glucagon were in the basement with my hockey gear. So she got me up on a lawn chair and fed the non responsive me some apple sauce in those baby food squeeze pouches. And called the aid car. At least an hour later I woke up inside the aid car drenched in sweat with an IV in my arm. (They said it was dextrose). I had no memory of collapsing or any of the aftermath. The medics said my BG was 25 when they got there. (Dexcom G6 says I flatlined at 44-46 for 90 minutes).

A few things I reconstructed after the fact to figure out how this screw up occurred:

  1. My Omnipod 5 app says it alerted me “Urgent Low” at 12:11. I don’t recsll hearing that alert but…

  2. My phone log says I answered a call at 12:10 that lasted 4 minutes. I remember that call.

  3. Last night I played hockey until dinnertime and then was out with friends snd had a smaller dinner later than usual.

  4. This morning i had my usual breakfast (big meal, 8 unit bolus at 7:15) but then drove my daughter to the airport (2 hr round trip). Driving always raises my BG so when I got home I was at 245 and rising. Took 3 small Afrezza “4u” caps at 10:15.

  5. At 11:30 I was 140 and slowly dropping so took a 10unit bolus (Humalog via syringe) and put Omnipod in Manual mode (2 unit per hour basal at midday). Made a sandwich snd packed some bars snd fruit for bag lunch.

  6. Outside scraping frozen snow off lumber and stacking to drive it to daughters house. Phone calls at 11:45 (20 min) and 12:10 (4 min) delayed and distracted.

  7. Best guess is the collapse was about 12:30, never had a chance to eat any if that bag lunch. I am guessing I was getting hypothermic from laying in the snow which is why it took so long inside the aid car with the IV and the heat cranked to get me lucid again.

Only other thing to mention is my wife said the medics asked a few times if I had been drinking, even after she said Type 1, injected insulin for lunch but never ate, etc. So who knows what they would have done if they did not know about the diabetes.

I have no idea why I did not hear the urgent low alerts or feel my Apple Watch alerting me starting at 12:10. I have an idea why/how I ended up stacking my Afrezza correction and Humslog bolus…I completely forgot about the Afrezza when I was prepping for lunch.

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Ugh, sorry to hear that, @John58.

I know it’s scary. Glad your wife was a safety net for you!

Learn from it, but don’t beat yourself up over it. Things like that happen. I’ve been there too.

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@John58 , so glad you’re OK! I’ve not had one of those episodes since before I got my CGM, but I do gamble all the time and don’t even think about it: this morning, for instance, woke at 6:15, BG 180ish, injected 10 units novolog and went out to do 15 minutes of sandbag carries in fresh snowfall at 8 degrees F…and I’m home alone all day. What could happen?? :upside_down_face: (my better half is in the medical field and would be slightly upset about my tempting fate…)

I’m sorry this happened to you, but take some solace in that you’ve given me food for reflection this morning…

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@John58 Thanks for the willingness to share the particulars of this event with the rest of us!.I haven’t had similar happen as yet, but can see how it could happen at some point. Thank goodness your wife realized what it was and what to do, even minus the glucagon in your gear! My wife and I have placed Baqsimi at strategic spots around the house, in each car, and the kit I take with us when traveling any significant distance from home. It did go expired for want of use (thankful for that) for a few months (corrected when we finally noticed it). Thanks again!

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Thanks for the well wishing everybody. I bounced back pretty quickly from the unfortunate snafu but noted that it took all afternoon and into the evening before I felt warm despite being indoors bundled up. Pretty certain I was laying in the snow long enough to chill my core close to hypothermia range. Anyway, all’s well that ends well. I’ve stationed ziploc bags around the house with glucose gel and Baqsimi glucagon. Ordered a refill of the Baqsimi to keep things well stocked.

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Glad you are OK!

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Sorry to hear and glad you’re Ok.

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