{"id":44609,"date":"2016-02-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-21T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/how-taking-care-of-my-diabetes-could-have-killed-me-double-dosing\/"},"modified":"2016-09-24T20:46:44","modified_gmt":"2016-09-25T00:46:44","slug":"how-taking-care-of-my-diabetes-could-have-killed-me-double-dosing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=44609","title":{"rendered":"How Taking Care of my Diabetes Could Have Killed Me: Double-Dosing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The husband above.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I panicked. Just around midnight. Minutes after I took my once nightly injection of my long-acting insulin.<\/span><\/p>\n

Had I taken my once nightly shot, twice?<\/span><\/p>\n

Like others with type 1 diabetes who don\u2019t use an insulin pump, I take what\u2019s called MDI. Multiple Daily Injections. I take an injection of rapid-acting insulin before meals and snacks to lower the rise of my blood sugar produced from carbohydrates.<\/span><\/p>\n

I also take an injection of long-acting insulin once a day for the background metabolic functions that require insulin.<\/span><\/p>\n

For years I took this once daily injection at 9 AM. But when I switched my long-acting insulin, from Lantus to Toujeo recently, taking Toujeo at night seemed to work better for me. Now I take it every evening at 9 PM. Yet, this habit isn\u2019t really fully formed yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was easier to take my once-a-day insulin in the morning. I\u2019d take it at the same time I took my rapid-acting insulin to cover breakfast. But there is nothing to remind me to take my 9 PM injection.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I\u2019ve written it onto my computer calendar. It\u2019s there in the box every day. Well, every night. Of course this does require me to be behind my computer at 9 PM to see the calendar alert. Sadly, I usually am, but that\u2019s another story.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last night, though, from 8 to 10 PM I was watching a movie on my iPad sitting on the couch. Chances are my calendar alert came up on my iPad but, watching the movie and intermittently Facebooking a friend, I likely didn\u2019t see it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, the horrible dopamine of social media and multi-tasking had kidnapped my diabetes-tasking-mind. But I was trying to do a good deed. My \u201cfriend\u201d had asked, \u201cHow do I adjust my long-acting insulin for flying to Germany?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course this should have reminded me to take my own insulin injection. And, maybe I had. That was the problem, now at midnight. I couldn\u2019t remember if I had. Please, no sneers, life with diabetes is tough enough.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reviving myself from my near slumber, I ambled into the kitchen where I keep my long-acting insulin pen. I stared at the pen begging it to answer my unspoken question, \u201cDid I stick you in my body just a few hours ago?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When I\u2019m not certain I can usually answer that question by remembering where on my body I injected. If that doesn\u2019t work, I try to remember where in my apartment \u2013 in the kitchen, in the bathroom, on the couch? I was coming up blank.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I was using Lantus, I relied on a Timesulin<\/span><\/a> cap to keep track for me whether or not I had taken my shot. Timesulin is a pen cap with a counter in it. I always knew how long it had been since my last shot. Simple, yet fantastically effective.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Timesulin doesn\u2019t make a cap for Toujeo. And while I was using my Timesulin cap on an old Lantus pen, \u201cshadowing\u201d my Toujeo injections, the cap\u2019s battery had run out just three days ago. I was in the process of getting a replacement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Standing right at the fork of do I or don\u2019t I, I dialed up my dose and injected. If this was my second long-acting shot of the night, I would have double my dose of insulin in my body for the next 24 plus hours.<\/span><\/p>\n

This month I\u2019ll have lived with type 1 diabetes forty-four years. Yet, for anyone who has it, we know every day is a new day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Years in don\u2019t prevent making a mistake. Or being at risk every day and every night for taking too much insulin. Leaving you wondering, as I was now, if I was about to overdose in a few hours and not wake up. Trust me, that\u2019s a terrifying feeling.<\/span><\/p>\n

Immediately after I took the shot, I googled, \u201cWho has double dosed their basal insulin?\u201d \u201cWhat do you do if you take two long-acting shots by mistake?\u201d I read the stream of comments and then followed the strategy many well-wishers suggested. Set your alarm and wake up every two hours to check your blood sugar.<\/span><\/p>\n

I read for another hour til 1 AM and set my alarm for 3 AM. Laying there, I wondered how long it would take my husband, who was in Holland on business, to discover tomorrow that I hadn\u2019t woken up, but had died.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next thing I knew I heard music. It was my alarm. Instinctively I scanned my body for signs of low blood sugar: Was I convulsing? Was my heart beating frantically? Was I sweating? Were my thoughts muddled? No, no, no, no, a very good sign.<\/span><\/p>\n

I walked to my bureau where I had laid out my glucose meter ready for the check. Before going to sleep my blood sugar was 135 mg\/dl (7.5 mmol\/l). Voila, a lovely 120 mg\/dl (6.6 mmol\/l)! I had not taken two shots. This small overnight drop in my blood sugar is my normal.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the morning my blood sugar was 105 mg\/dl (5.8 mmol\/l). Fantastic, no worries. But I do worry.<\/span><\/p>\n

It can happen again. It can happen anytime. And I wonder if the chances will grow greater that I forget if I took a shot or not as I get older.<\/span><\/p>\n

Type 1 diabetes is not just arduous to take care of. It is a scary disease. Frightening for the almost inevitable miscalculations that will occur in a lifetime of every days.<\/span><\/p>\n

I, like many people, have mixed up <\/span><\/a>my rapid-acting and long-acting insulin. Once, exactly a year ago. Drinking a quarter cup of maple syrup prevented a near death experience then.<\/span><\/p>\n

Insulin is a dangerous drug yet we must rely on it to live.<\/span><\/p>\n

But please don\u2019t forget, those of us who live with type 1 diabetes, and to a lesser degree those with type 2 diabetes who take insulin, are making daily decisions for their health \u2013 that can just as easily snatch their lives away any day, or any night.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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