my Blood sugar was 440 last night!?!HELP

[Bobby T]

I went to bed with my sugar some what high at 240ish.I gave my self insulin and tested 2 hours later expecting it to be normal.It was 440!!!!!I then changed my site amd gave my self 3 units.A hour later I was vomiting,but had no keytones?I finally after 3 hours of this nightmare got my sugar down to 230.Was this the stomach flu or a pump clog!?:mad:

[Bobby T]

Anyone????!!!!!!!!!!!

[sweetlife]

I wish I can chipin here but perhaps you use pump and I am 0 in it,wish you all the best Bobby.

[Ohana]

I am sorry, as I too can only say I WISH I could help...

To me, it sounded like it would at least be worth a call to your Dr. and ask if you should be worried or if you should wait until it happens again to be worried....

I would think that if it were a simple pump clog OR the stomach flu, some one on here could and would empathize with you... the lack of response makes me think this is rare, and no one is sure how to answer your question. Hopefully I am wrong and responses will pick up.

Best of luck...

[Subby]

Bobby,

I can certainly give you my opinion but that's all it is: I'm not at all definite about it.

What it sounds like to me is that your new set was not working correctly, for one reason or other. A "pump clog" sounds unlikely as you mention no alarms. All I can say is that occasionally for me a set will just not work well at all, and I think many pump users get this to a bigger or smaller degree. My opinion is that unless your pump is faulty, it seems it was just the site not absorbing at all. I have had many sites only half absorb. One or two over a year have been disastrous.

So you suddenly had no insulin in your system, and it's not surprising to me you went that high that quickly. If you are used to lower levels, I am not surprised you got sudden physical responses like nausea at all. I found that a "rapid descent into DKA territory" will bring on very extreme symptoms.

Now it's strange you didn't get any ketones. How did you test? When did you test? Bearing in mind how fast you spiraled up, the timing might be very important. Putting this aside for the moment, I'd say your body was suffering from the extreme high (the sort of high that would often bring on DKA prety quickly) but your action in getting a new set going saved the day.

This is something I see as a probable explanation, based on what I've experienced with such fast and dizzy highs resulting from complete lack of insulin (a couple of times). From my experience I'd doubt that a "tummy flu" would cause such a severe BG reaction.

What to do about it. If you are concerned about your pump or clogging, call your pump company and see what they say about it. If you are worried about anything else like how to cope with this kind of thing if it occurs again, keep asking questions and get to your endo to get professional guidance.

[mazea]

I don't know much about pumps but wanted to pop in to say that I'm glad you got your blood sugar down.Does your pump has a helpline you can call? You can feel sick pretty quickly when the blood sugar levels go high. Don't be too hard on yourself as these things happen even when we are doing everything right. You sound like you are trying your best.

[akielpinski]

Bobby,

I had the same problem last night! I ate dinner, bolused, and went to bed soon afterwards. I woke up w/my pump alarming me that my bg was over 400. (I might say that the pump started alarming me at 250 but I kept turning it off thinking I was hitting snooze on my alarm...lol) Yuck. No ketones thankfully. I changed the site and used a new bottle of insulin.

Don't know why this happens. Could be an air bubble in your tube, insulin gone bad, a bad site, etc. Just another joy of being a diabetic.

[sweetlife]

After reading all such notes I somehow feel that injecting is better than pumps.

[Subby]

After reading all such notes I somehow feel that injecting is better than pumps.

Your opinion is yours and you are of course entitled to feel whatever you like.

But - I'm not sure judging the worth of pumping off such problem threads is realistic.

My pump has improved my quality of life substantially over injections. By this I mean life changing, health bringing, quality of life. The hassles I go through with the pump are nothing next to the energy and health it gives back to me. And I have had an episode like this (it was probably worse). Pumping can be a tricky process to troubleshoot sometimes and does involve some extra risk, it also requires extra testing and diligence. But most pumpers won't be tripped up by this kind of occurance too often if they are careful/observant (that's not a statement on you Bobby, it does just "happen" and you dealt with it great).

Pumping also has other pitfalls and downfalls which people may find to a lesser or greater degree.

It also has huge rewards for the control of diabetes for many people who are fortunate to have access to pumping, like myself.

[sweetlife]

Of caurse.
Your opinion is yours and you are of course entitled to feel whatever you like
Sunlight factor is the one which stops me to buy pump for my daughter,how one I stop her not to go in direct sunlight and that when temp here in summer kisses 41*C.

[RobiJo]

Bobby, how long have you been pumping?

[Subby]

Last night in my dreams I must have decided my set was a bandaid because I calmly peeled it off and left it all beside my bed. I woke up with a bare bum and completely confused as to why!

I was 18 (330) and felt quite groggy and really sick in my stomach - those rapid highs sure do that to me. I took a couple of small correction shots around the body adding up to a good correction for me (better chance of action around the body, double insurance the insulin will work), put a new set in, tried to relax and not stress. Ended up sleeping longer a couple of hour (didn't mean to) but I woke up at 7.5 (135), something I'm very happy with and I feel fine and ready for some food!

Point to that is, yes I just had reminder I do get nausea with such highs (it feels like I've drunk something terribly acidic), also that interruption does occur and is a concern, but work towards tactics and you'll overcome. I had a problem with fiddling with sets in sleep before. The answer for me was to put a bit of medical tape over the set when sleeping just to protect and remind a little. I will go back to that for a few nights.

Bobby, your experience might be a one off dead-site or the like, or it might repeat. Be viligant and if it happens again, keep collecting information, you'll crack the reason.

[diabeticballa!]

hey dude sorry your havin trouble i am havin trouble controling my type 1 also and i had a 521 BG a couple weeks and it sucked pretty bad but make sure you dont freek out and give too much insulin cause i went fron that to likme 40 and thats makes everything worse so just be calm and give the right dose.:

[diabeticballa!]

i wear a pump and iff your blood sugar isnt dropping when you give a correction make sure your side that the fusion set is isnt a lumpy or bruised part or the insulin doesnt get absorbed into your body fast enough..... if that helps