Warning: Angry Post

Gaaaaahhh!!!!

I haven't had a reason to write an angry post in awhile, so it's fitting that when the opportunity arises, I write about it in full detail.

The people who own the house I live in (it's a converted sorority house- lots of girls and the landlords live on the second floor) are a part of the Christians at UO. Every year they have a Welcome Dinner for new students. Since I'm a Christian (though not a part of this particular ministry), they let me eat their food. Yay! Free food! And it's good food that I don't have to cook. Well, they also bring a lot of desserts because there are a lot of people. I, of course, underbolus for the food because I'm a terrible counter when it comes to sweets because I tend to not admit that I eat more than I really do. It's a curse, really. So later that night, I check and I'm in the high 300s. Well, crap. Of course, since I'm on Symlin, my pump doesn't want me to high bolus because my "active insulin" is more than my "correction bolus". So I think, well, I'll wait and then if I don't come down, I'll just ignore the pump and manual bolus.

Two hours later and I'm 439. Crap crap. High bolus but *then* my roommate Carmen and I decide to watch X2 and eat licorice. I totally bolus for it but of course, probably didn't bolus enough. Okay, okay, I know I totally suck and should be fired from being a diabetic because I don't make the cut. Well, at 1:45AM I finally go to bed and I check and I'm 303. Yay. I'm comin' down. I think "Woot, crisis averted and I can go to bed without doing anything because I'm coming down." Ha. I need to stop thinking.

Totally sleep in. Wake up at noon. Guess what I am: 484. Ok- this is a lesson in "do what I say, not as I do" because did I think I should changed my set? No, of course not. I came down last night so this must be another underbolusing related high and not a bad-set high. But I *do* take an injection (I should get some points for that right?). 10 units. Wonderful. Go eat lunch, bolus regularly. Go to the grocery store. Buy new insulin (I was half-way through my old bottle), some water, milk, veggie nuggets. Drive home. Maybe I should test and see how I'm doing: 432.

Okay, when I do something stupid and I go high, I'm okay with it. I did something stupid and this is what happens. But when I actually take insulin using a freaking syringe- IT'S SUPPOSED TO WORK. This is what the manual *says* to do. Everybody knows taking insulin via syringe is supposed to be the thing to do.

So at this point, I decide to be "mature, responsible diabetic" instead "silly, I-think-I'm-immortal teenager" and: change the freaking set using my brand-spanking new insulin, check my ketones (medium- eesh), take an correction bolus using a syringe, and drink a bottle of water.

It only takes me like 24 hours but I eventually wisen up.

Mostly I'm just a silly "teenager" who likes to try to get away with the least amount of work. Well, not really, but I guess I like to wait as long as possible before actually taking appropriate action.

Now I'm 261. I'm going to go check my ketones in about an hour to see where they are.

I kind of hate writing these kinds of posts because it makes me scared that you (the neurotically paranoid parental units- with good reason of course) will freak out and tell your children that they are not allowed to move out of the house and are sentenced to life at a community college or (for the brave few) will actually let them go to a regular live-in university (within driving distance of course) and will call them up hourly to see if they are still alive. Please don't do this.

If anything, just make sure they know what to do when something like this happens. Give them books or notes or something to walk them through, step-by-step, what do if something like this happens. Make sure they know where the health center or nearby hospital is so they have someone they can call if they really do have a question and can't get an answer. Make sure they have the ability to get help for themselves, and not just from you. Although parents are a wonderful resource, don't get me wrong. But your kids are probably not going to want to call you everytime they forget an insulin injection and have skyrocketed to the 400s. It's embarrassing to say the least.

CWD has a list of books for parents, adults and older kids with diabetes. I personally use this one.

Feel free to comment with books that you recommend! Hmmm, maybe I should make a list.

OK- done with my rant. Now I'm off to do homework, which is a rant all on it's own!