Sunday, September 9, 2012

Choices

Life is a series of choices. What shoes to wear, what to eat for lunch, what book to read next, what job to take, what to study in school, what extra curricular activity to pursue, and the list goes on. Some are minor decisions. Some are major. And some seem minor and turn out to be major.

For the past couple of weeks, I've been sticking close home. After traveling so much in the past couple of months, I like sticking close to home. But with that I've gotten lax about carrying around my "emergency d supplies" with me in my purse. It's the little case that has a complete site change, extra batteries, iv-3000 tape, insulin, and a variety of other things. I work 5 minutes from my house, and if I need to leave, it's never a big issue to run out and make it back to work in my 15 minutes I get for break. So lately, I've been leaving it at home.

This morning I got up to get ready for church and it was a complete site change day. Meaning: new CGM sensor site AND new insulin pump infusion site. I was running a little behind this morning because I knew I had to be a church early and I didn't get up early enough. It was my week to teach Sunday School. I put my new pump site and new CGMS, grabbed breakfast and took off for church. I bolused in the car (don't ask) and there was no problem.

My emergency d supply bag
When I got to church it was around 9:30. At 9:40 I got the dreaded "NO DELIVERY" alarm. My kids were coming into the classroom already and there was no way I could leave. I knew I'd had my bolus insulin...at least I thought I had. And I made a choice. I stayed at church. Even with no insulin being delivered, I stuck it out. I knew what would happen. By 11:00, my blood sugar was 273. When I got home at 12:30 it was 370.

I could have left, I'm sure. Tried to find someone to take my class for a while so I could sneak out. But I HATE when diabetes stops me from doing something. I hate having to say "diabetes is making life difficult." So I made the choice to stay. I felt it was easier to deal with the crappy feeling from the high blood sugars than it was to have to get help from someone to take my class while I went home to take care of my insulin pump.
The result of my decision

I know it probably wasn't the best decision that I could have made, but it would have been even better to have had my emergency set change with me. Sometimes we make choices that don't work out so well. I made the choice not to carry my emergency d supplies. I then made the choice to stay at church, and essentially go without insulin for nearly 3 hours.


This experience did teach me a lesson though... don't go without your emergency site change!!! Take it with you!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Excellent reminders. After 6 years of having D in our lives I recently realized how complacent Ive become. I used to carry glucagon, an infusion set, extra meter, batteries, and cartridge and insulin with me where ever we went. I carried it all in my extra large Dmamma purse. In the last year or so Ive not had it with me. (maybe two years). I had switched purses and didn't put it in. It hasn't been an issue. Until yesterday - an hour into a 1.5 hour drive my daughter got a low cartridge alert. I didn't have insulin. we decided to continue on - it was an important drive. We knew we would be gone for a number of hours. She had enough insulin for basals and a small meal. BUT - what if - what if there was a traffic jam. What if my car broke down. Maybe we should have turned around. If it were any other thing we were heading to than what it was I would have. It was just too important to be late. Prior to commenting I repacked my emergency kit and safely secured it in my purse. Thanks for the reminders. Hope your high didn't leave you feeling too cruddy the rest of the day.

Anonymous said...

Cara-

I get a little too relaxed myself. Today, I couldn't find my vial of insulin, and I went to dinner without carrying glucose tabs. I understand. I bet your students were happy you stayed.

Karen said...

It's so hard to be perfect all of the time and do everything 100% right. But I think as long as we learn from our mistakes, no harm done. :)

Scott K. Johnson said...

You know what, life is all about choices and compromises. We do the best we can with the circumstances for each situation.