The "HI" Message

My sister had her first child on Monday and I could not be more excited. I only work a half-day on Tuesdays and planned on going to the hospital to help her after I got off of work. On my way to work I changed my insulin pump setting. I inserted the new cannula completely pain free. I gave myself 1 unit of insulin like I always do to make sure I was receiving insulin. Then grabbed my things and left for work. When I sat at my desk I realized that the insertion site was stinging. I decided it was had to be because I just changed it and continued with my morning. As the morning progressed I noticed the stinging increased. I checked my sugars and they were high (277mg/dl). I did a correction bolus to see if my numbers would come down or not. If they didn’t go down I would run home before heading to the hospital to visit my sister and my new niece.

After an hour I decided to check my blood sugar again. My numbers were back to normal, so I decided I would head straight to the hospital. The site was still stinging, but because my numbers were normal I ignored it. When I got to my sisters room she was ready for a nap so my mom and I ran down to the cafeteria to grab some lunch. I bolused for lunch, waited about 20 min and then dug in. After we finished eating we ran back up to my sisters room and helped her with her new bundle of joy.

While I was holding my niece I noticed that my stomach was bothering me a little and all I wanted was water. I quickly checked my blood sugars and got the horrible message that I rarely ever see HI. That little message indicated you are in a zone so high we refuse to give you a number. I handed my niece to my mom and decided to give myself a shot. I waited 30 minutes to check my numbers again and again, that horrifying message flashed across the screen. I gave myself one more shot and hoped for the best. I didn’t want to leave to take care of the issue, It’s just too hard to be away from my sister knowing how tired she is and too hard to leave my niece because she is just wonderful.

I waited another 30 minutes and checked again, same message. When my sisters husband came back, I realized I should probably go and take care of my blood sugars even though I really wanted to stay, but my sister would be in good hands with my mom and her hubs. I said my goodbyes and headed back to my house, checked one more time and finally saw numbers on the screen. Sure they weren’t the best, but at least I had a number on the screen. I reset my pump gave myself a small shot drank what felt like a gallon of water and played the waiting game.

After about two hours I was below 200mg/dl and feeling back to normal. I can’t believe that I could love my niece so much that I would be willing to risk a diabetic coma, but I do and did.