Having a nightmare day and in tears

[hyper-Suze]

My pump alarm was going off constantly last night to say my bg's were below 4, didn't respond too much as my sensor was reading as 3.5-3.9's and that is suitable for pregnancy.

I woke at 9am to find my cannula had come out😱 and upon looking at my sensor readings, it looks to have been out for maybe 3hours! My Bg's were around 12's and I loaded up with corrections.
went out shopping and they kept on rising! Was 15 by lunchtime. took another correction.
By 3pm had a mad hypo crashing down to 2!
Had tube of hypostop, 2 bananas and a few rich tea biscuits(3g each)
Within half hour my bg was at 21!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am ready to give up by now...gave more correction, finally at tea got it to a reasonable(in comparision for todays readings!) 8.

Now, 3 hours after my bg is 16!

I dont....seriously dont get this c***!

I have now rung NHS direct for advice as I can't think of who I can ring and who may have pump experience. I have put a temp basal in of an extra 40% but I don't want a horrid hypo nor for these levels to stay high

....I feel soooooooooooo guilty that I maybe doing harm even in this one day of mad readings.

(ps-I have no ketones...phew!)

 

[Smit]

Sorry to hear you're having a horrible day. I had days like that and loads of them as was suffering terrible hypos. It's a vicious cycle, really low blood then high blood. I felt bad too.but try not to stress too much about the highs as long as they don't run high for days/weeks untreated. You are doing a great job! Note everything down and discuss it with diabetes consultant at your next appointment.

 

[sugarfreerach]

Ok breathe. Calm down. I think you may have over corrected for your hypo hence the highs afterwards.

What are you sugars now? I wouldn't have anything to eat for a while so food isn't affecting them, and just see what the rebounds highs and lows do.

Has your pump got a wizard function, so that it can tell you how much insulin your body is processing? Insulin takes 4 hours to be completely used and so sometimes the hypo is because it's still using an earlier correction but slowly.

Hope it calms down, I understand how frustrating it is seeing a high number and not seeing the numbers come down for ages and resulting in a hypo. ESP when pregnant x

 

[RuthieG]

Hi Suze

I really feel for you and especially the constant worry/guilt that you are harming your baby as I felt the same and still do and will until the baby is born, hopefully in good health.

Pump problems I have had (although I know these are not necessarily regular problems):
*Cannula looking in OK but not working. This has happened about 10 times during pregnancy and quite frankly has been the only cause of readings in the teens and the cause of MASSIVE stress for me. One thing I once forgot (very stupidly) is that if you put a new cannula in (done in a panic) you need to refill the tubing and all that - you can't just do a quick swap. This may just be me but worth thinking of!
*Massive hypos mid morning for no reason whatsoever, which sometimes give a false idea that I have over corrected or something. These happen EVERY morning but it took me a while to figure this out. So, for example: on waking 4.5, after brekkie, 6.9, 1 hour later (some time between 10am-12 usually) 1.8, correction of lucozade and snack (huge correction I mean), pre lunch 5.3. The doc said that this is nothing to do with insulin but it is a not unusual for pregnant women's sugar to drop at this time of day (even non diabetic but obviously not to crazy hypo levels). The only thing I can do to counteract this is to eat about 50g of carbs with no insulin. This has made pre lunch readings in the 4s or early 5s but sometimes I am still hypo!

Could it be that your body is doing this and so leading you to think you are over correcting?

Obviously these are just the problems I have had (and still do) but it might help you to try and figure out patterns that are emerging, which will make absolutely no sense to you (as you are used to diabetes following at least some sor of pattern!) Pegnancy really really messes things up and just when you think you have mastered it, it changes again!!

 

[trophywench]

Suze - massive {{{Hug}}}

I know you don't want to (I never want to ever again) but I now carry a pack of syringes. If pump corrections aren't working, give a syringe correction some place else than near the cannula site. Or a pen one if you still have the wherewithal to do that at the moment.

Then you will be sure whether it's the cannula/tubing/pump, or 'just my body being stupid with the insulin'. When you've jabbed, give that site a good old rub/massage to make sure it gets going asap.

Odd highs won't cause mahoosive probs, honest. There are women (God forbid and never to be recommended) who have ridiculous uncontrolled BGs throughout their pregs and still give birth to absolutely perfect babies with NP whatsoever. Drug addicts. Smokers. Boozers - you name anything that can harm a baby and some people still do it. It seems terribly unfair in comparison with the work that you ladies put in.

And I'm a bit dismayed to think you haven't got a mobile number to contact your DSN night or day. Mine keeps a separate mob for pumpers and we all got issued with the number with our pumps. Mine's even come out to me (via the hospital to get them) on a Sunday with a spare meter (well, 2 actually! - and a load of spare strips) when my meter went bananas the night before we left for 3 weeks in France!

Please try to stop panicking; that only makes it worse flower ......

 

[Monkey]

You've had some fab advice already, and I'm not sure I can add more really! Just keep testing, and as others (particularlytrophywench) have said, one day of less than perfect isn't going to cause massive issues.

I don't know much about pumping, but I hope you can get some support this week - seems nuts that I've seen so many more folk than you already, and I've done it all before. Sigh.

 

[Nemchenk]

Hi hyper-Suze,

Hope you are having a better time of it today. Don't know anything about pumps so I'll stay out of it, but crazy blood sugar is very familiar.

Babies seem pretty resilient to our activities - it feels like they take what they need and leave us the left-overs! Which could account for most of the unexplained readings we get 🙂

Try not to worry about the nightmare day, I am sure you are doing your best and that is all anyone can ask of you.

 

[hyper-Suze]

Aww, thanks everyone...I REALLY REALLY appreciate everyone time to give me such amazing advice and support...I feel less alone!

I do have a mobile number to ring at any time of day or night, my pump consultant but he is or was flying out to the USA and he wouldn't really be able to have done much from over there!
I have a combi ante natal clinic tmoz so I will stress my stresses out there about who to contact!

I have now calmed down an awful lot, chillaxing is the way forward!!

I deffo agree that I overcorrected the hi BG with too much insulin and THEN overcorrected the hypo which gave the rollercoaster effect. Since that dreadful day, I have been on a temp basal of extra 40% plus reduced my carb ratio from 10g:1u to 5g:1u so I get a bit more insulin with food.

This seems to be working and has kept things stable, along with early insulin delivery prior to eating(when I remember and dont feel icky!)

Rach - yep my pump has the wizard feature and it does calculate the insulin stacking in my system. I just get frustrated say if I get a 9mmol reading with insulin onboard and the pump doesnt want to give me a correction...I just dont want to trust the insulin onboard will bring me down...its taking too long! (or so it feels so!)

THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE...I may refer back to these replies if I get myself in any future pickles! ...mmm pickles!!

 

[Monkey]

That sounds really positive - pleased you're feeling a bit better about things today. It's incredibly stressful, isn't it?!

 

[RuthieG]

Suze and Monkey

It si the most stressful thing I think I have ever done. I look forward to the arrival of the baby to breath a sigh of relief (amongst all the other stuff of course).

You will no doubt both work hard and do fine though as being on this forum asking loads of questions testifies.

Hyper Suze for info I had an early scan at about 6.5 weeks, more or less as soon as I declared myself pregnant! Thsi happened via the diabetes midwives at the hopsital who I was in touch with very early by phone.

The HCP that I have dealt with have really helped me out and I have felt pretty well supported and looked after. I counted up the number of appointments I had been to at the hospital alone and I think it was 21 as of yesterday. that doesn't include pump, eye or any other appointments so I like to think that in a way we are lucky to be monitored so much.

Stay calm and don't stress (easier said than done) mums to be xx 🙂

 

[Monkey]

Oh, and suze - as Ruthie says - it was my diabetes mw who organised the early scan. Very different to first time!