Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The downside of diabetes....


Wow I know I should be writing at least a little post everyday, but I think I have a good reason for not being able to do this all the time.. I have 5 kids!! I have twins who are teething, and I have to be a pancreas 24/7 for my son when he's home.. I think those reasons qualify. Perhaps it's just because I'm lazy and cannot find the time. A lot of the time it's because I'm at a block and have no idea what to write about.

Let's see updates..... Diabetes is kicking my hiney this week. Not so much that it's being bad, just that it's just in the way. Clifford likes chili but isn't a huge fan of it, and last night he was having a particularly crabby night. He was high at dinner time and this was a result of him overtreating himself on the bus. He carries on him a stash of emergency "treats". 2 packs of smarties, and sometimes a juice box. And all year he has not had to use any of them himself until recently. Now he carries these emergency treats in case he would feel low on the bus ride to or from school. Well he came through the door yesterday and informed me he had to use his emergency stash. Okay good he recognized his low and treated it. However there was another bag in his bookbag for the nurse, one with a very important note for her. You see his nurse recently retired and he now has a new nurse. One who has used chocolate on two occasions to treat him, and I wanted to give her a break down on how to treat him when he is low. But with this very important note was a bag of 6 packs of smarties. This was for her since she insists on using Chocolate, I wanted her to have the correct stuff. The last time she treated him she used all his glucose tabs, and glucose gel. So fast forward, Clifford says "You know that bag that was for the nurse". Me, "Yes", Cliffy: "Well I was very very very dizzy on the bus and had to use them." Me: "Okay, well how many did you eat". Cliffy, "All of them". My mouth I think instantly dropped. I then explained to him that normally I only use 1 or 2 packs at most to treat a low, that is why he had 2 emergency packs. So we tested him and he was 212, not too horrible, but I expected a high here shortly. Low and behold dinner time rolled around and he was 353. Now he is still on a sliding scale with his insulin and this means he gets the full 3.5 units, but seeing as I know he is not the biggest fan of chili, he will eat it but was more in a complaining mood last night, I decided to let him have some apple sauce. That is a big deal to him because even though I know kids with diabetes can eat pretty much whatever they want, I prefer to have him on a reduced sugar diet. Helps with unexplained highs and crashes, since we are still on MDI's and the sliding scale. Once he is on the pump and a CGM I will be a bit more flexible. So without straying too far from where I was going, this applesauce had 12 grams of sugar. To you or I that may not seem like much, but it is a lot when I try to keep him limited to foods with 6 or less grams. My point to this story is I gave him extra insulin to cover the sugar and extra carbs. He wanted to quit eating part way through his meal, he was just very crabby. And well I'm sorry he had all that insulin on board and needed to finish his meal pronto. After a battle of wits, I won, and thankfully D did not, he was 125 at bedtime, and a nice steady line of 131 and 145 through the night. That is what I refer to as one of the downsides of diabetes, when even though you try your hardest to let them feel like a normal kid, it kicks you. He can't just walk away from a meal when he's having a crabby day and not feeling like eating, he has to eat all the carbs that the insulin was used to cover, otherwise we could be dealing with a horrible low in the near future.......