There is one word – actually an abbreviation of a word – that strikes particular fear through every fibre of my body: ‘Gastro.’ I hate even talking about it. Just typing the word sent a shudder down my spine. (I am nothing if not dramatic…)

A work friend and colleague was telling me about how she had been struck down with gastro a couple of weeks ago – a lovely gift from her kinder-aged daughter. Just the mention of the nausea and vomiting was enough to have me sweating and getting nervous. For the record – and so you understand my irrational fear of the topic – we weren’t sitting next to each other in an office while she was telling me. She was on the other end of the phone. Two states away in Queensland. I was in Melbourne. And yet I was still looking around me wondering what I should disinfect.

A couple of weeks ago, on a Tuesday night I went to bed with my plans for the next couple of days clearly organised and sorted in my head. I had a most-civilised mid-morning flight the next day, and then a couple of days of meetings in Adelaide. I’d booked a cab, checked in online for my flight, half-packed my overnight case and mentally gone through the check list of what needed doing in the morning before I needed to head to the airport.

And then, a couple of hours later I woke up startled, with a very unsettled feeling in my stomach. ‘That doesn’t feel good,’ I said to myself. I lay there for about thirty seconds trying to convince myself that it was all in my head and I was fine and that it would be best to close my eyes and go back to sleep. Before I jumped up and ran to the bathroom, making it there just in time before vomiting. For the first time.

I spent the next few hours alternating between throwing up and being flaked out on the sofa willing myself to not throw up. I was cold and sweaty and hot and clammy all at the same time. My heart rate was racing, and every time I stood up I was dizzy. I gripped onto the walls as I stumbled down the corridor to the bathroom, tripping over nothing but my own two feet.

At about 6am, I sent an email out saying I wouldn’t be getting to Adelaide and cancelled my flight. I crawled back into bed, still nauseous, thinking the worst was behind me. For the most part, it was. I threw up a couple more times before my official alarm went off at 7am.

‘I feel like death,’ I told Aaron. ‘And I bet I wind up in A&E.’ I used some choice words, mostly words beginning with ‘f’ and ending in ‘uck’, and started to work out how much time I’d lose in an emergency bed having to deal with HCPs wanting to remove my devices from me and ‘look after’ me.

‘Should I stay home?’ asked Aaron. ‘I can take you in that way.’ I told him it wasn’t necessary and that if I really needed to get to hospital my dad could take me. He got ready for work and the kid got ready for school and the two of them left, leaving me in bed, switching between dozing, holding my tender stomach and glaring at my iPhone and my Dex trace. I was hoping if I stared daggers at the trace hard enough it would stay in range.

My Loop was working overtime. I spent most of the morning between 3.5 and 4mmol/l thanks to my Loop cutting off all basal insulin. By about 11am, I could see my CGM trace starting to inch up closer to 5 and then 6, and Loop was making tiny micro adjustments to my basal rates.

I was able to keep water and some dry ginger down, and chewed on small blocks of ice. I didn’t feel dehydrated; I wasn’t going high. I didn’t have ketones. Things were looking good!

By 1pm, I was feeling comfortable enough to call into the meeting I should have been at in Adelaide. My nausea was less pronounced. I felt washed out, achy and tired, but I hoped I was out of woods, and needing to go to A&E was becoming less and less likely. Thankfully.

I have generally been pretty lousy at managing gastro and diabetes. I usually do end up in A&E, needing to be rehydrated and given some anti-nausea meds though an IV as I’m unable to keep them down after taking them orally.

But of course, it ends up being far more of an ordeal than simply lying on a bed with fluids being pumped into me. There is the inevitable request for my insulin pump to be removed so that insulin can be administered via IV – even if it’s clear my pump is working just fine.

Nurses insist on checking my glucose levels, refusing to pay any attention to the CGM spitting out readings every five minutes. My requests (demands?) to self-manage my own glucose levels – and diabetes generally – are ignored. I’ve no idea what would happen if I tried to explain the DIY APS thing I have going on these days, but suspect that wouldn’t go too well.

Usually, it takes me making an emergency call to my endo for things to go the way I really want them to – fluids, dark room, anti-nausea meds and home in about 4 hours (at the most).

By the time I leave I often feel worse for wear – and certainly more battle scarred – than I did when I first walked in there, doubled over and trying to not throw up on anyone.

But I avoided all that the other week. I managed to spend the day in the comfort of my own home, breathing in fresh air from the open windows and generally feeling comfortable and content. The only gastro hangover I had was a little exhaustion and abdomen discomfort. All in all, it was a good outcome. (But I’m still terrified of the word ‘gastro’…)

A much preferred view to a cubicle in A&E!