Seizure!?
I decided to fuck around with a glass of wine about 2 weeks ago, and pancreatitis all last week into the weekend was me finding out.
The problem I have with pancreatitis as a type 1 diabetic, actually isn’t the pain, it’s that if I can’t keep anything down, I can’t keep my blood sugar *up*. If my blood sugar gets too low, I get shaky, sweaty, dizzy and confused. So far I’ve never lost consciousness, but on Sunday night, it got really low, for a really long time & I think I may have had a seizure. Something happened.
I was going to eat some Jell-O, so I told my insulin pump how many carbs it was, it gave me the appropriate amount of insulin, I ate the Jell-O, then almost immediately I threw it up. I now had more insulin in my system, than the amount of sugar in my body. I tried drinking ginger ale to try to settle my stomach and compensate, but I threw that up too.
I was already feeling the usual low blood sugar symptoms, but suddenly the shaking got really severe and violent, and I was actually afraid I was going to hurt my neck or back while it was happening. I was laying on my back on the daybed playing Sims when it happened, not standing thankfully, so the hurt afterwards was there, but minimal considering what it could have been.
The next thing I know, I’m in the bathroom violently throwing up. I have no recollection between the shaking and realizing I was in the bathroom throwing up. That time is just gone from my brain, which is really unsettling. Harold wasn’t in the room when it happened but stayed with me until my blood sugar was stable afterwards. (I think I ended up eating candy, I forget.)
After it happened, I suspended insulin on my pump indefinitely so hopefully I wouldn’t go low anymor. I felt like crap, so I went to bed, but barely slept because the pump was beeping all night.
Pancreatitis was over and blood sugar was stable in the morning but I was too exhausted and scared to try food/resume insulin after vomiting and being low for a week straight. I left a message with my endocrinologist’s office just to tell him what happened but the receptionist called back and said to go to the ER. Not sure why tbh, technically I was “fine”, but we went.
The ER doc couldn’t verify if I had a seizure or not, but PULLED MY LICENCE JUST IN CASE it happens again while driving. It happened because my blood sugar was like 2-4 for a week, but okay asshole. 😓 It also may have been a severe “hypoglycemic tremor” that just kicked my ass. Likely won’t happen again unless under the same conditions where I’d be too sick to drive in the first place! So dumb & punitive for no reason. Hopefully my endo will quickly use his whole brain to reverse this action.
In other diabetic news, my doctor asked me when I saw him last, if I wanted to switch from the OmniPod Dash insulin pump, to the newer OmniPod 5, which was just approved for use in Canada (or maybe just approved for the government to help me pay for them, I’m not sure.) The difference is that the one I use now does NOT talk to my continuous blood glucose monitor, which is made by a different company. The new pump will also mean a new brand of glucose monitors (CGMs), made by the same company as the pump, so they WILL talk to each other!
For example, if my blood sugar is low, the pump will automatically suspend insulin until I level out. Or, if I misjudge my carbs and take too little insulin for what I ate, the pump will automatically adjust and give me more to bring my blood sugar down. Sounds like magic!! I’m so excited!!
