Diabetes Awareness Month is not over so I guess I am allowed to  post a blood and gore photo. The bleeding on my belly was much worse than the tissue shows, so just envision 10x the blood of the photo. Oh let’s just be outrageous and imagine 100x the blood! It is still November and I can b*tch about diabetes and the frustrations of dealing with my D-tech. I can be strong on the outside and be sad inside. It is my 42nd November with diabetes and I can do whatever I darn well please.

Today was a weird day and it ended up being a perfect 12-hour basal test. 

My dog Abby had surgery two months ago for a condition called “larangeal paralysis” for which the poster child is elderly Labrador retrievers. The biggest risk of this surgery is aspiration pneumonia. I knew that Abby was sick yesterday and early this morning her lethargy and 103.3 temperature sent us to the emergency vet. She is currently in doggie intensive care inside an oxygen tent with an IV for fluids and antibiotics. We have chosen to treat this episode of pneumonia knowing that we won’t treat again. 

But I didn’t get breakfast.

Then I had previously promised to take care of the grandchildren today. I’m not quite sure why the older ones didn’t have school, but they didn’t. I could have canceled, but since Abby was in the dog hospital, I picked up the kids and we came to my house for Christmas crafts, game time, and doing our best to keep 18-month year old Natalie off of the stairs. I fed the kids lunch but didn’t get around to eating myself.

No lunch.

I drove the kids home mid-afternoon and then stopped at Costco on the way home. I got home at about 5:00 and my BG was at close to 100 after starting the day at 80-ish. Over the next 2 hours, nothing much happened. So a perfect basal test. A 20-point rise over 12 hours is testament to great basal rates and I was kinda feelin’ okay about that.

But then.

I bolused 32g carbs for the Whole 30 stuffed pepper I was having for dinner. The hubby hates dinners like this but he is out of town. 

Bolus. Tandem pump alarms for an occlusion alarm. Ugh! My TruSteel site was a little sore this afternoon so I changed out the site but not the tubing or cartridge. Tried the bolus again. Nope! Another occlusion alarm. 

Although I am a Tandem “doesn’t follow the rules” girl, I changed out both the cartridge and the infusion set. I tried to pull the 100+ units of insulin from the previous cartridge but it was mostly bubbles and I just tossed it. When I pulled out the TruSteel set, I got gobs of blood. My bathroom countertop shows the riffraff of my diabetes debris.

New infusion set, new cartridge, and new insulin. I bolused again for the stuffed pepper. 

Last time I looked at my CGM, it was 139 with a slanted arrow up. 

Remember my BG was about 100 at 6:23pm. 

So my daytime basals are good as my BG only rose 20 points over 12 hours. But my diabetes tech failed me: both the infusion site and the finicky occlusion alarms of my Tandem pump. I have double-bolused for dinner and my BG is still rising. Well, actually I tripled or quadrupled bolused but the pump alarmed on the first attempts.

It is now after 8:00pm and my BG is still rising. I am hungry for dinner but won’t eat until I am convinced that my infusion site, pump, and insulin are functioning properly.

It is now 9:00pm and the numbers are not going down.

Sometimes the hardest part of diabetes is that when you do it right, it does you wrong. 

A country music ballad of…

Betrayal, Frustration, and Sadness.

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Tuesday morning note: Abby is home and doing well.