My First Oops

Well, technically this is probably my 55,670th oops when it comes to diabetes, but on this new "Unthethered Regime" (see post below), this is the first.

For the most part, things have been going smoothly (in the three days total I've been doing this...). Monday was rough with that 372 mg/dl, but on Tuesday and Wednesday, my numbers were actually normal, except for two bounces into the low 200s right at lunchtime.

On Wednesday, my flight was supposed to leave at 3:23 and didn't leave until an hour later, leaving me to kill a whole hour at the airport. Luckily, I am from Portland. Which means we have a Powell's bookstore *inside* the airport. After picking up a copy of Devil Wears Prada (I'd always wanted to read it and now seemed as good a time as any), I tested to see if I should have a diet soda or a smoothie - 83 mg/dl. Nice. I opted for the soda and chicken nuggets from Wendy's because the smoothie was a little too expensive (frickin' airport) for my wallowing wallet. Didn't bother reconnecting to bolus because I didn't think the nugget would do more than maybe a 20-30 point damage.

When I got on the airplane, I tested again to see if a temp basal was in order - 81 mg/dl. Huh. Okay, probably should leave the pump off. Two hours later when we landed in dirty smoggy disgusting sunny and beautiful Los Angeles, I tested to see how much damage a 2-hour flight and a mini-package of pretzels (seriously, why must they mock us with such small portions? They might as well just hand us a frickin' picture!) had done to my system - 230 mg/dl. Not bad. I've seen worse numbers coming off of a flight.

I met up with my friend, Christina, a fellow diabetic and journalist living right near the beach in LA county. We've known each other since my CureNow days, but this is actually the first time we've met. I'm all about meeting the imaginary internet weirdos. ;-) We drove to Barney's Beanery on the Santa Monica Third Steet Promenade for dinner and I tested at 144 mg/dl. Huge turkey burger with guac and bacon (mmmm) and onion rings (mmmmm) and bolused for 80 carbs. Possibly too conservative, but I didn't think I was that far out of the ballpark.

That's when things went downhill.

After dinner, we headed over to meet a friend of mine from high school at the Starbucks near the University of Southern California campus.

I hadn't seen her since last fall when she was up in Portland, so we chatted in line.

I ordered a Mocha Light Frappaccino (half the carbs! Only like 45 instead of 78 - yes, 78. I looked it up once).

We talked about agency work, interviews, finishing up school, Santa Monica, and the breakthrough stem cell research in Brazil.

And I forgot to take my Lantus.

When I tested at 10:30, my blood sugar was 353 mg/dl but when I tried to bolus, my pump said I had to much active insulin in me from bolusing for the frappaccino. It never even occurred to me that it had been an hour and a half since I was supposed to take my shot of Lantus.

On our way home, Christina and I stopped at McDonalds to get a couple of diet sodas -me thinking I was thirsty because I had been talking so much. When we got to her house, I finally realized the missing item to my evening.

I rang in at 453 mg/dl. Lovely.

Of course, not knowing quite what to do, I just took a shot of Lantus and went to bed. Hopefully the three-hour difference tonight won't be that big of a deal, though if anyone has any idea how to mitigate a possible low, that would be appreciated.

Woke up at 8:00 to a 198. Correction bolus.

Woke up at 11:00 to an 86. Off to make a quick (ha!) post, and now... breakfast!