Wednesday was one of the hardest days with diabetes I’ve had in awhile. Well, at least since this day, which actually wasn’t that long ago. But anywho…

This episode began on Tuesday night, when I noticed that my blood sugar was stubbornly high after having dosed enough insulin to take down a small rhino. I thought I had dosed correctly for the sweet potato that I had for dinner, but apparently sweet potatoes put on a good show, with their sweet and seductive scent, but they are actually full of lies and half-truths when it comes to their nutritional info.

I woke up with a BG of 235 mg/dl on Wednesday morning, which I attributed to the fact that I probably didn’t dose enough before bed. Not a huge deal, go-go-gadget correction bolus, and it was off to work I went.

The correction bolus should have done the trick. Instead, my BG wavered a little, but mostly it just hovered in the mid 200’s all morning. For some, that isn’t that high and they can go all day long in that range and not be out of sorts. For me, it made me want to dig a hole and throw myself into it. I’m accustomed to numbers closer to the 90-100 range. I had a headache, I was nauseous, I felt like someone had replaced my blood with syrup, my insides ached, I had no energy, I wanted to go lay down, and all I could focus on was how awful I physically felt.

After giving the insulin plenty of time to work, and still being high, I corrected again. I wondered if maybe the morning BG spike had also included the dawn phenomenon, along with the errant sweet potato bolus, so maybe that was why my BG was being stubborn and not dropping down to normal.

I tried to get into working and distract myself from the awfulness I was feeling, and give the whole situation a little time to work itself out. Apparently it worked too well, because by lunch I had dropped down to 45, after ignoring my CGM alarm and then getting busy and forgetting about it. For future reference to you CGM-ers out there, don’t do that.

Lately I’ve been working through lunch, only to look up at the clock and realize it is mid-afternoon and I haven’t stopped to eat yet. Since I was at 45 and low brain had kicked in with full force, I quickly grabbed some chicken nachos for lunch. I figured there would be enough carbs in that to cover the 45, but not so many that I couldn’t easily manage a proper insulin dose for it.

I thought I dosed properly for it. I even looked up the nutritional info online. Still, I was back up to 245 by the end of the workday, and also back to feeling like someone had replaced my insides and physical well-being with frustration flavored Jell-O.

I remained sky high for the rest of the afternoon and well into the evening. By 8 o’clock that evening, I was physically ill. I thought I was dropping at one point, and that it was safe to eat and dose for dinner, so I had one serving of eggplant parmesan so I didn’t skip a meal and end up low again. Unfortunately, the eggplant parmesan had much more of an effect on my blood sugar than the insulin I had dosed to cover it.

I can’t say for sure, but I really think I spent all night and day dealing with insulin that had lost its mojo, its libido, its life force, its essence, its right stuff. What the French call a certain… I don’t know what.

Once I got home, I cracked open a cold one (a new vial of insulin, that is), refilled my pump, and my BG’s since then have been rock solid and right where they are supposed to be.

Moral of the story: Beware of skunky insulin. And never trust a sweet potato.