I am mildly freaking out right now, but trying to keep my cool. I bloused 2 units of Humalog as a correction when I noticed blood sugars were rising and I saw the label on the bottle. I’m not sure if the dose is going to cover this, but I drank it about an hour ago and my blood sugar is currently 183 according to my finger stick. Dexcom says 215 with a slightly trending up arrow.
Not sure if I should wait the 3 hours to do another correction, I’m just freaking out. I feel so stupid. I haven’t had sugar like this in years. Ugh, I’m trying really hard not to beat myself up over this but it’s hard.
What is the carb count on the mountain dew?
When you miss bolus for food, you should consider the amount you would have bolused.
What would that have been?
I had a small Keto crust pizza which was about 15g of carbs and no sugar for dinner.
I was low when I ate, about 68 mg/dl my dexcom was reading. So I knew that I could handle the bolus thankfully.
I think because I was low, I didn’t need the usual ratio that I have set for 1:25g the mt dew had 74g carbs yikeeeeeees. I left about 1/5 liquid in there because that’s when I noticed. I’m sitting steady around 180 mg/dl right now. Keeping an eye on my dexcom just in case I’m having delayed digestion from the fat in the cheese from my pizza. If anything I made need 1u correction later. I consider myself super lucky that I was able to catch it. I saw the dexcom and instantly new something was wrong, my fiancé saw the label and was like “oh ■■■■ that’s not diet. Check with your meter and stop drinking it”. I cried a little cuz I was mad at myself, and he consoled me and told me to be kind to myself. Accidents happen.
@ClaudnDaye It was delicious but man it was fkn terrifying at the same time. I couldn’t help but imagine that if this had happened a month or so ago I would’ve been even more scared and doubting my decisions to treat. I’m so thankful that I have all of the knowledge I do now. It’s nice to see that even though it was a crappy situation, I’ve come far enough through the other side of my new diagnosis and I was able to keep the danger at bay.
Oops! It totally happens. Sometimes restaurants get you by accident, too.
The nice thing about this situation is that soda will let you know pretty quickly how high you’re going to spike. And then you can keep chipping away at the high as you’re comfortable.
One time I was grief eating before an awful funeral and ate an entire Digourno pizza in one sitting by myself. That took a longggggg time to unspool. I was nowhere near range for that one.
Hang in there and let us know if you need anything!
But on the plus side you recovered without any big issues, you got some experience, learned a little bit, got some good support from your SO, built up some more courage with insulin corrections, and are maybe a little less afraid of BG spikes and how to fix them. And are most likely going to be more careful checking labels
There are a lot of positives to take from it. And not really much negative. A short little BG spike like that is nothing to stress about.
So focus on the good things.
And welcome to the club of people who have made a mistake with their D. It’s a pretty big club. Membership = everybody.
I did this once, too. We were exhausted driving 10 hours for a funeral and I really craved a cold, diet cherry coke…but picked out the real thing instead. I don’t remember at what point I heard myself mutter “this tastes really good”. But I came to, realized what I’d done, and inhaled 2 4-unit Afrezza cartridges.
No big deal, really. It’s the same as when we get distracted, and just eat, forgetting to take the bolus (it happens to me from time to time.)
What’s your insulin:carb ratio? Like MM2 said, figure out how much bolus insulin you would have taken for 74g carb, and then take part of it as a correction to blunt the spike.* Let the CGM help show you if/when you need more insulin: Look at the shape of the graph. Is it starting to bend towards level or is it continuing to race upwards on a straight line? In the first case maybe just watch, in the second case maybe take another correction every hour or so. Taking frequent corrections is called stacking insulin, and you may well end up taking more than you need that way. Before CGM, stacking insulin was discouraged because without CGM any insulin overdose can be dangerous if you aren’t paying attention. But with CGM or if you are paying attention with sufficiently frequent fingersticks (like every half hour if the BG is moving fast) you’ll just steer a falling BG in a good direction before getting into trouble. Watch for the drop and be prepared with some fast carbs; no big deal at all because glucose is a very effective antidote to insulin. In a real crisis, glucagon is a very effective rescue, but you won’t need glucagon if you’re paying attention and can eat the glucose.
*If you are still in the honeymoon phase, i.e., your pancreas is still making some insulin, then your own insulin is already covering some of the spike, so you won’t need to correct with the full amount that you would have used for a prebolus.
My insulin to carb ratio is 1:25, so I took 2 units instead of all 3 because I had already began to climb in BG and it served me well! I went to bed around 140 and woke up at a steady 100. I slept in, so I had a very low carb lunch (fiancé grilled some sausage, chuck steak he shared with me, and veggies: asparagus, scallions, and onion cambay), it was delicious. Post prandial was 120, so my blood sugar levels have been essentially a flat line pumping strong all day. I was worried because of all this yesterday they might’ve been all over the place, but I can rest easy knowing I made the right decision. It was also super reassuring to have my partner aiding and calming me during all of this. Knowing some days will be better than others, it’s nice to see that we’re both growing together to understand my newfound diagnosis better.
This may have been a mistake, but it was a happy accident I could say. Its shown me how much I’ve learned and was able to apply in just a matter of a couple of months, and is yet another reason I’m grateful for all of the time I’ve spent on here.
The hardest thing for me to learn as a new diabetic was:
DON’T PANIC
Accidents happen. For example a restaurant wait person brings you a coke instead of a diet coke. So what? An occasional BG over 200 isn’t going to kill you. It means you are normal.
Oh, friend… I have never been normal.
But I get what you mean 100% and honestly it was nice to know I didn’t have to buckle under that type of pressure. Because fear didn’t take up any space, I was able to use proper judgment and apply it. Made me feel good about my care from hereon in.
