Diabetes mistakes you made

[SimonP]

I once gave myself my morning insulin in the evening - back when I was a young teen in the days of 2 injections per day of self-mix S & I. I took ~45U rather than the ~10U I should have. It was a long night, and I was away at school too.

I've made lots of less memorable mistakes over the years, usually related to going low at inopportune moments/not having sufficient food with me to treat hypos, which I guess we've all done in some way shape or form.

One recent-ish instance comes to mind - some years ago, early in my cycling days, before I had some idea about adjusting basal and bolus, I rode to a BBQ, obviously either didn't eat enough and/or took too much bolus for my food, and then proceeded to go low almost as soon as I left to ride home.

Being a man and being low and as this was a self-imposed challenge (being quite a long round-trip ride for me in those days), I decided to crack on and keep going, while munching on the food I had in my framebag which kept me bumping along just above being hypo and which I though would be enough to bring my blood sugar up eventually.... However, I completely ran out of food after about 10 miles and was "hypo" by that point, so the last 4 miles + 100m of elevation (if it had been flat it would have been easy to just freewheel along with an occasional pedal stroke, but no) took me an hour consisting of repeated 10min riding (slowly) followed by 10min standing leaning on my bike and trying to recover while wondering if my blood sugar would magically increase a bit, then realising it wasn't really going anywhere and that it was really quite cold so starting to ride again.

I guess the immediate question is why didn't I call someone, but it was late on a Sunday evening and I didn't want to impose on one of my friends, plus no-one lives very close to me, and I didn't want to admit defeat - clarity of thought not helped by being low. As happens when one is low (so I'm told by those who have been with me when it's happened) I became completely mainlined on the one and only goal which was to get food (at home).

It was a useful learning experience: after that point I've been much more careful to ensure I have more than sufficient food with me, and am more careful about trying to intervene early to head off hypos while riding. That ride and some subsequent longer ones when I did have enough food, but felt really sick trying to eat enough to avoid going low, made me look more carefully at how to adjust basal/bolus doses for exercise.

 

[JJay]

Twice I found myself when away on our narrowboat with insufficient supplies - insulin in one case, test strips the other (pre-Libre). A big shout out for the GP in Audlem who gave me an early appointment, an emergency prescription and a lovely chat about boating! And for the pharmacy in Brewood, who insisted I should try to get a prescription from the local GP for my test strips rather than have me pay for them (unfortunately surgery couldn’t oblige with an appointment that day, but were exceedingly apologetic).
Thereafter I always kept a spare pot of test strips and box of needles on the boat and learned to pack my insulin the night before rather than trying to remember to get it out of the fridge in the hustle and bustle of departure

 

[Tdm]

Treating a hypo based on a low cgm (libre 2) reading only has to be in the top ten

 

[Robin]

Putting my spare insulin in a fridge in my son and daughter's room, in a Lodge at the Grand Canyon, because the one in our room wasn’t working. (If it had been in our room, I’d probably have had reason to open the fridge at some point, and would have discovered the problem sooner), Going in to their room to get the picnic stuff out (and the insulin) the next morning, and realising the packet of ham was stiff as a board…frozen! Mild panic, and fleeting thoughts of expensive American insulin, though we were well insured, but the main problem was that we were moving on every day, and I would need the new cartridges soon. Luckily, the insulin was in the box, protected by the patient information leaflet, and the plastic round it, and had been sufficiently insulated from freezing. Moral of story, always check the fridge setting in a hotel room.

 

[freesia]

Moral of story, always check the fridge setting in a hotel room.

As happened to me last week! We went on holiday and i didn't check the fridge setting as usually theres no need. I put in my spare basal and bolus insulins as i knew i would run out in the week. Got back to the apartment on the next night, opened the fridge to find food frozen and also my insulin! (After i'd took it out of the fridge and left it for a while, it looked ok but i didn't want to risk it.)Cue 2 days of trying to get prescriptions and insulin and panicking because i was running out of bolus fast.

Aldo, a few years ago, i wasn't feeling well and injected bolus instead of basal (i tbink it was that way around). Luckily it was a smaller dose than i'm on now but still needed to monitor levels for a day or so

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

I've injected bolus instead of basal and basal instead of bolus, but at least realised what I'd done and was able to deal with it.

My worst mistake was thinking "I feel a bit hypo but I'm soooo tired, I'll just lie down and have a little rest first and then I'll check my blood sugar when I get up". This was pre-Libre so checking my blood sugar felt a bit more of an effort. It's all a bit jumbled after that but I know I half woke up panicking several times, reassured myself it was just a nightmare and went back to sleep. Three hours after I lay down, R finally succeeded in waking me up, having apparently called me several times without my being aware of it (he had thought it was just my ME and that it was best to let me sleep).

When he woke me up I didn't know who he was or what was going on, and when he told me to test my blood sugar I didn't know what he meant. I think at that point my liver finally kicked in because by the time he'd got me sitting up and gone to fetch my test kit and a flannel to wipe my fingers for me (I insisted on them being cleaned first, it was the one thing I was sure about!) I had worked out how to test, and by then I wasn't that badly hypo. I don't think my brain has been quite the same since though, so moral of the story is NEVER postpone testing if you think you're hypo, and especially NEVER lie down if you think you're hypo - test and treat immediately.

 

[Inka]

Mine was thinking, you took insulin everytime you ate, not realising you needed a 4 hour window to allow insulin to get out of your system.
Suffice to say after suffering some bad hypos, my cf diabetic nurse said - ummm, don't do that. Well then tell novices like me

Except that’s not true. You can eat and inject more frequently than every fours hours. You just need to be aware you have insulin on board (still working). I often have a mid morning snack and/or mid-afternoon snack and inject for it.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Getting distracted during prebolus delays is a common frustration. Even just 5 minutes here or there can lead to Dex warbling away after I’ve eaten, because the insulin has overtaken the carbs. Dex can be annoyingly laggy at times and only updating every 5 minutes is just tooooo sloooooow at times like that.

I also woke once to a clanging hypo (which was rare overnight on fhe MM640G with sensors). I stared through the hypo fog at a significant IOB reading, and couldn’t for the life of me work out how there could be so much. Going back through the history seems I delivered a 6u bolus rather than the 0.6u ‘nudge’ I had meant to earlier in the night. 🙄

 

[RichardsUsername]

If you're not making mistakes, you're not doing much. Make more mistakes.

I clearly consumed too much sugar. Which I have no problem in admitting.

 

[helli]

Going back through the history seems I delivered a 6u bolus rather than the 0.6u ‘nudge’ I had meant to earlier in the night. 🙄

Sadly, that sounds too familiar.
I did it one night in a hotel in London.
Luckily, I realised before I turned out the light and before the hypo but as it was past midnight and my room had no mini-bar, it was a little challenging. I had a tube of GlucoTabs but needed more carbs than that. At least the adrenaline hit kept my levels up for long enough to find a friendly guy at the hotel reception. I tried to buy a bunch of chocolate bars (as I was not hypo, I did not need a quick fix) but, despite not mentioning my mistake, he gave them away.
Since then, I have a very manky looking cereal bar in my bag for such occasions.

 

[Sally71]

My daughter once tried to enter a carb count of 55 but her hand slipped and she actually put in 555
Luckily she noticed, or the pump being its usual paranoid self (good job in that case) asked “are you sure?”. She had a bit of a shock! Luckily no harm done. I don’t think the pump would have allowed it anyway, that’s why they have maximum bolus sizes programmed in and I think that might have gone slightly over…

 

[SimonP]

Since then, I have a very manky looking cereal bar in my bag for such occasions.

It's not great when you finally have to eat said manky and probably out of date bar though!

I've now started throwing them out and replacing once they reach a level of squashed-ness/faded label that I'd not consider eating were I not low 🙂

 

[Inka]

I dialled up 4 units instead of 0.4 once 🙄 I realised as I pressed the button to deliver it and was in such a panic I went for the quickest option of disconnecting my cannula. Of course, I then didn’t know how much if any of the insulin had been delivered. It’s surprisingly easily done. I now repeat my dose to myself at least twice to give the brain cells time to kick in and stop me.

 

[Elenka_HM]

It's not great when you finally have to eat said manky and probably out of date bar though!

I've now started throwing them out and replacing once they reach a level of squashed-ness/faded label that I'd not consider eating were I not low 🙂

That brings an image of a particular 'Skinny crunch" bar with a purple wrapper, when said wrapped became mostly white over time. I think it also happened with an orange wrapper...I think I ate them just because I was bored of seeing them in my bag! I choose them precisely because they are not my favourite and I'm not tempted to eat them if not low, unlike chocolate or biscuits.

 

[Elenka_HM]

I *almost* made a big mistake once, thankfully realised before injecting. As my signature says, I am only on basal for now, but I have Novorapid for the odd occasions where my BG goes high. It tends to happen when I go to Spain to visit my family, I guess is a combo of less exercise, more carbs and potentially me not storing the insulin properly.

Anyway, that time I was at home in Spain and my levels had been higher than usual for a while, so I decided to try a little correction. As I took the Novorapid pen, my hand went into default mode and dialled the dose I used to dial every single day: my basal. It was 8u at the time, which doesn't sound high, but it would be a massive dose of Novorapid for someone who basically never takes it, in the absence of food, and prior to a walk to the shop! As I said, I noticed the number and didn't inject it, but I was terrified thinking what could have happened. I was very careful with my doses after that.

I think I injected 1 unit of NR at the end and even that made me almost go hypo with the walk.

 

[Barbie1]

I once misread the carbo count on the outside package of my lunch and bolused for 32 instead of probably not at all for 3.2. Unfortunate I didn’t even realise at the time that was totally unrealistic for a carton of prawn cocktail, and went mega hypo before I did.
I was also alone in an almost empty house, and sat at the bottom of the stairs eating my way through JBs like mad before going round to my neighbours to ask for help!

 

[Inka]

That’s awful @Barbie1 I hope you were ok and didn’t need any medical input.

 

[Barbie1]

I just asked the neighbours, who I didn’t actually know very well, for some fruit juice (they gave me squash, bless ‘em, so I asked for a couple of biscuits too!) They insisted on driving me home ( new home not too far away - we were in middle of moving and I was cleaning down the old one!) which by then I didn’t need but still gratefully accepted in fact. I’ve renewed my glasses since and now carry a magnifying glass with me everywhere, to make sure I don’t ’not see’ the decimal point.
But some of those figures on the back of packets is awfully small isn’t it……

 

[Inka]

Yes, the figures are small. I wish they prioritised highlighting carb info clearly.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

My daughter once tried to enter a carb count of 55 but her hand slipped and she actually put in 555
Luckily she noticed, or the pump being its usual paranoid self (good job in that case) asked “are you sure?”. She had a bit of a shock! Luckily no harm done. I don’t think the pump would have allowed it anyway, that’s why they have maximum bolus sizes programmed in and I think that might have gone slightly over…

I had a similar EHHHH?! moment after tweaking my tSlim profile a while back.

I’d been making tweaks to basal profile and then wanted to make my afternoon correction factor weaker, but unfortunately my head was still in basal / decimal places mode, so I put in 0.45mmol/L rather than 4.5mmol/L… ie 1u reduces BG by only 0.45mmol/L 😱

Which meant the next auto correction at that time of day was 10x the strength it should have been.

Fortunately I spotted the iOB and worked out what went wrong pretty quickly, but I was a bit surprised it didn‘t say “this section is very different to all your others” like it does with basal tweaks!