When the "Blue Screen of Death" actually means... DEATH
While diabetes technology is great and all, it does have its drawbacks. Unfortunately, I had a meter give me an incorrect reading of 210 when I went to bed. 210 is not unreasonable for an after dinner reading in a patient with gastroparesis. I gave a correction and turned in for the night.
I was extremely thirsty, but I thought it was because I was coming down with a cold. Often, just before I get sick, I turn into the sahara desert, being very very dry. In hindsight, I should have tested again.
I woke up the next morning, presumably still at 210 given the meter's reading. I got dressed to take Kaylee for a walk. I made it about three blocks. Every muscle ached, so much pain. I turned around... Didn't quite make it home before I started dry heaving in the bushes.
Well... a different meter told me what I knew already by that point, I was over 400! And probably had large ketones (I peed before I realized how bad of shape I was in, so I didn't test that first drop).
I gave a large injection, which barely made a difference. I drank a couple of sips of water and took an anti-nausea pill. Both came back up shortly thereafter.
In the end, I was able to self treat, get myself back under control, rehydrate using gatorade and water, so it has a happy ending.
So what was the fatal mistake? Trusting the machine! Sometimes intuition (hmm, I feel higher than that) is worth more than numbers. This is why when I hear about closed loop insulin pumps, I cringe. Letting a machine do it? Too scary!
Posted by sfisher at January 23, 2007 10:42 AM