The Diabetes Terms of Endearment e-book (real thing, compiled by Kerri Sparling who blogs at sixuntilme.com) defines a "rage bolus" as "the act of suffering from a high blood sugar for an extended period of time or for an unknown reason and the retaliatory insulin dose. Oftentimes results in a low blood sugar."
It started last weekend at our local pub (I wanted to get the Big Collection post up before this one!) I ate dinner before we went out and dosed accordingly with my standard 1:7 ratio that my body seems to need around dinner time. Okay, so I was drinking beer, but I accounted for this with my dinner time insulin. It got to about 10pm and I checked my blood sugar, as it was about two hours after eating.
5...4...3...2...1...
18.0 mmol/l!
What the eff?!
That was not a number I was expecting to appear on my meter. After double-checking, I took a correction dose, checked for ketones (negative), and sent a quick text to my housemate to inform her of the situation, just in case.
An hour later, I did another test to make sure I my levels were coming down.
Nope.
19.7 mmol/l.
Cue rage bolus. I knew that it would likely result in a hypo, but I was beginning to feel the effects of that 19.3. The dry mouth, the constant need to pee, the heavy tiredness that came over me. I checked for ketones again. Still negative, thankfully!
Once home, all I wanted to do was sleep. I checked my blood again to make sure I was coming down, and I was at 16 mmol/l. I set an alarm for 4am as I knew I'd rage bolused the hell out of that 19!
4am came round far too quickly for my liking. And with it came the hypo I'd anticipated. A full-blown 2.3 hypo too. I sat up in that all too familiar hypo state - shaking, sweating and struggling to get my brain to work to make eating the Skittles on my bedside table actually happen.
Eventually, the hypo symptoms began to wear off, and I finally drifted back to sleep, regretting a little the decision to rage bolus with Brownie church parade the next morning followed by my DUK Big Collection shift.
Note to self: consider next day's activities before administering a rage bolus. That swing from high to low doesn't leave you feeling all too great the next day!
That was not a number I was expecting to appear on my meter. After double-checking, I took a correction dose, checked for ketones (negative), and sent a quick text to my housemate to inform her of the situation, just in case.
An hour later, I did another test to make sure I my levels were coming down.
Nope.
19.7 mmol/l.
Cue rage bolus. I knew that it would likely result in a hypo, but I was beginning to feel the effects of that 19.3. The dry mouth, the constant need to pee, the heavy tiredness that came over me. I checked for ketones again. Still negative, thankfully!
Once home, all I wanted to do was sleep. I checked my blood again to make sure I was coming down, and I was at 16 mmol/l. I set an alarm for 4am as I knew I'd rage bolused the hell out of that 19!
 |
| Image taken from Google Images. |
Eventually, the hypo symptoms began to wear off, and I finally drifted back to sleep, regretting a little the decision to rage bolus with Brownie church parade the next morning followed by my DUK Big Collection shift.
Note to self: consider next day's activities before administering a rage bolus. That swing from high to low doesn't leave you feeling all too great the next day!
No comments:
Post a Comment