Don’t you just love when life throws a good lesson in your face? I had that happen last night. I was talking to a patient on Friday about checking blood glucose. He was going on a pump for the first time, and I gave him the usual spiel about not eating without taking insulin and not taking insulin without checking blood glucose.
It’s kind of like driving a car: we don’t drive without gas in the car, and we don’t put gas in the car unless there’s money in the bank/wallet.
At any rate, the point is not to blindly eat or take insulin, because having all that information keeps us safe and healthy. And then last night I took insulin for supper without checking my blood glucose first. I had checked about an hour earlier (too long – my “window” is usually 30 minutes), and so I assumed (we all know that mistake) I was a little on the high side, and I took insulin accordingly.
Long story short, I ended up being low for about two hours. Not a crazy low that I couldn’t deal with, but a huge hassle. And to top it all off, because of miscalculating the treatment for being low, I ended up higher than I like to be this morning. All this because I didn’t check my blood glucose before supper – definitely not worth it. Next time I’ll practice what I preach.