Swimming, breakfast, shopping: a typical Saturday morning.

A waking BGL only slightly higher than usual reminded me it was time to change my pump line, so after my shower, a shiny new line went in and the day started. Diabetes task one done for the day and in the frantic manner of Saturday mornings, I didn’t think about it again.

When I finally stopped to get something to eat, I didn’t check my BGL. Rookie mistake number one, except I’m not a rookie – just a busy person who, in all honesty, couldn’t be bothered seeing a number on a machine. I bolused for the carbs in the milky coffee and toast and ticked off another diabetes task for the day. Off I went.

I was standing at the register of a store in the city when the nausea hit. It wasn’t a wave so much as a tsunami. I knew I had to get out into the fresh air as quickly as I could.

I got into the car, found my meter and checked my BGL to see a lovely number in the mid-twenties staring at me. Still thinking clearly at this point, I grabbed the emergency syringe I keep in my diabetes kit and drew up some insulin and jabbed it into my stomach.

I got home before the vomiting started.

And then, I attended to the cause and went through the mental checklist trying to find something – anything – to make sense of the sudden spike. I was sure I’d bolused for the food I’d eaten which my pump bolus history confirmed; I was coming down with a cold, but surely there was no way that could have sent my BGLs so high so quickly; I checked for ketones and saw a number that didn’t startle me too much; I looked down at new line….and there it was. The tell-tale red at the top of the where the canula entered my skin. I ripped it out and blood gushed everywhere. Blood in the line, I thought to myself, as I tried to stem the flow. I thought about how dramatic it sounded.

New line in; a temp basal rate set; glasses of water; an hour of sleep; extra BGL checks through the rest of the day to avoid the plummet. And the feeling of being hit by a bus.

It was a typical Saturday morning. With diabetes in the mix.