Last week I started using Apidra again, at least for a little while. I sort of have a mix and match bag of insulin right now. A little Apidra, a bit of Novolog and some Humalog sprinkled here and there. I am not switching back and forth, but once I’m out of Apidra, I will move to Novolog until that is gone and so on and so forth. Thanks to an angel of insulin, I have some extra insulin for about a 1-2 month supply. Let’s get back on topic.
Since, I was using Apidra again, my bg was going low in the morning time because I needed to adjust my basals again. As I have written about before, I use less insulin, smaller basal rates, when I am using Apidra, which is why I want to use it. I went through a whole bag of the super-sized Skittles within 3 days because of the lows that I was getting. Now, if you haven’t eaten about 4 handfulls of Skittles in a while, then you may not know, but your jaw completely locks up and it’s nearly impossible to continue to chew. I knew that I needed a different form of sugar, so I decided that I would go buy some more orange juice. The problem with the orange juice though is that I drink it even when my bg isn’t low because I just love orange juice.
When I went to the store, I decided that I wanted to buy some juice boxes. Now, I have had diabetes for almost 10 years and I have never once used a juice box to fix a low. I hear a lot of people talk about them, especially parents with a child with diabetes, but I have never purchased them to have around the house. What a mistake! After I bought a tropical punch flavor from the HI-C brand, they were put into action later that night. I woke up in the middle of the night with a bg of 55. Time to drink a juicebox. Actually, two juice boxes, this low was a bad one.
Moral of the story? Drink juice boxes for low blood sugars. It looked a bit funny that a big ass dude like myself was drinking this tiny, small little juice box, but hey, when it works, it works.
How many of y’all use juice boxes to fix lows, and if so, are you loyal to a certain brand?
I used to use soda to treat lows for the longest time. But realizing that it’s not good for you, I decided to switch to juice boxes. I never use food because for me it just takes too long. Using the juice boxes is quick & helps me not over treat. I’m a Juicy Juice girl 🙂
When I read this post, I had to reply. Juice boxes are my all time favorite low fix. I love that Juicy Juice makes small boxes of 14-16 g carb each. Most others are more than 20. I have them in my purse to carry around, in my night stand drawer, and in the driver’s side compartment of the door. Juice is by far the fastest fix for lows for me. If I fix a low with juice in a box, I never over treat. No more eating a pound of grapes or candy because my low made me confused, and I couldn’t stop myself. I use one for bg 50-70 and two for less than 50. I use so many of these things, I began to think that the store keeps them in stock just for me! Luckily, with a lot of hard work, I’ve gotten up to better levels and not so many lows from exercise. As for the Apidra, a rep for the company told me they were giving it out free because they are trying to promote that insulin. I’m in NC so it may be different for you. You should talk directly to a drug rep of the company before getting more. Feel free to email me… I don’t check the comments sections again once I read a post. Take care of yourself!
I’m not a big juice-box fan. It’s basically a treatment of last resort for me, like if I’m at a kid’s birthday party and I suddenly go low. They’re bulky and are prone to leaks. Come to think of it, I keep a juice box and a jar of glucose tabs in my car glove compartment. The juice box must be two years old. I’ve replaced the glucose tabs probably six times in that time. (By the way, I blogged about this same topic a couple of months ago. I call it “The Juice Box Conundrum”).